USA - Community Professional has announced the appointment of Ouzunoff and Associates as the company's new sales representatives for upstate New York. Based in Granite Springs, the staff of Greg and Carla Ouzunoff, Mike Gross and Faye Grazioso will represent Community in the state of New York, excluding New York City and the NYC metropolitan area of Westchester, Rockland, Nassau and Suffolk counties.

"We're pleased to welcome Ouzunoff and Associates to the Community family," says Mike Marr, Community's eastern regional sales manager. "Their proven track record makes them an excellent choice in a region that has traditionally been very strong for Community, and we look forward to a long and mutually successful relationship."

"Community is one of the audio

Russia - L-Acoustics Rental Network agent Spin Music, based in Moscow, has supplied a Kudo line source system for a largeopen air festival, Rock over the Volga. No less than 18 bands performed during the 12-hour event, including Aquarium, Aria, Chaif, DDT, Agatha Christie and Alisa.

The system comprised a total of 86 Kudo cabinets: 20 per side for the main system and 11 per side for side-fills, with two delay towers of 12 Kudo cabinets each set up 70m from the stage. Two Arcs constant curvature line source speakers and eight SB118 subwoofers took care of front-fill applications.

Further sub bass reinforcement was provided by 36 SB218 subs in cardioid configuration. Additionally, 22 115XT HiQs were used as floor monitors. The whole system was powered by L-Acoustics LA-RAK amplified controllers.

"The crowd was huge and in high spirits, with about 120,000 visitors,&

Sweden - Lab.gruppen reports that its recently redesigned website www.labgruppen.com has been honoured with an Outstanding Achievement Interactive Media Award from the Interactive Media Council (IMC). IMC is a non-profit organisation of web designers, developers, programmers, advertisers and other web-related professionals. Their annual competition rewards excellence in website design and development, providing winners with a boost in marketing and exposure.

Stephen Lewis of Experience Internet who designed, built and continues to maintain the site, comments: "The Lab.gruppen site had been live for nearly a year by the time the IMA judges paid it a visit, and as anyone who has developed a large content-managed website knows, a lot can go wrong in a year - especially on a site with thousands of members, and multiple administrators. The fact that Labgruppen.com still s

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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

USA - LEDtronics has introduced the EXL-TPW Series Pure White LED Exit Light Bulbs. The flame-retardant and impact-resistant polycarbonate resin construction of the LEDtronics EXL-TPW Series LED bulbs allows for greater durability as well as visibility in bright light when it may be too light to see your typical incandescent bulb light up, says the company.

Complying with UL924 light output requirements, the EXL-TPW series exit LED bulbs provide the assurance of reliability when it comes to brightly guiding the way out of emergency situations such as heavy smoke. They are suitable for a wide variety of applications ranging from above doorways in offices, emergency exits in hospitals, stairways in parking structures to theatre fire exits, in addition to architectural décor.

Designed on standard bases, the LEDtronics replacements can be directly installed, requiring no mo

Czech Republic - Ivo Dankovi?, chief electrician of Narodni Divadlo, the Czech National Theatre, has specified ADB WARP Zoom Profile spotlights to help accommodate a large production that extended over the orchestra pit at Prague's Estates Theatre.

A different solution was required because this production of Mozart's opera La Finta Giardiniera, by director Karl-Ernst Hermann, was originally designed for the larger Theatre de la Monnaie in Brussels.

There, the opera was performed on a raked stage. To make this design work in the Estates Theatre, the 'downhill' portion of the stage was extended to the orchestra pit, itself surrounded by a narrow footbridge.

This move, however, created problems, as the central front of house lighting position in the Estates, Prague's oldest theatre, is limited to just a few lights. Ivo Dankovi? explained: "The central lighting posit

UK - i-Pix LED fixtures continue their run on the high profile tours of 2009, with lighting designer Paul Normandale specifying both BB4 LED wash lights and the original i-Pix Satellite 'brick' LED light-sources as part of his Depeche Mode Sounds of the Universe design.

Normandale worked closely with the band's long time creative director Anton Corbijn on developing appropriate lighting and a clean look and feel for the show to compliment Corbijn's set and stage concept.

In keeping with the desire to keep the stage space looking sparse and uncluttered, a substantial part of the lighting rig is concealed behind a MiTrix video wall at the back - including the 24 BB4s. These, together with 24 MAC 2K Wash moving lights are mounted on custom built frames, presenting a powerful barrage of lights that can blast through the semi-transparent MiTrix screens at appropriate moments

Norway - Kristiansand based Stage Concept supplied Robe DigitalSpots and moving lights for the Club Salamander stage at the town's 2009 Quart Festival. The venue was a temporary structure built partially over water in the middle of a forested area within the leading Norwegian festival's island site.

With a capacity of 3000 and packed every night for the five-day event, Club Salamander's line-up featured international DJs including Guru Josh, Bob Sinclar featuring Big Ali, DJ K-Mixx, Inkfish and many more.

The design was a collaboration between Spantax from Robe's Norwegian distributors Live Technic, Rudi Andreas Åvitsland from Stage Concept and Kristoffer Engen from Bærum Lyd, who also supplied LED lighting and the Jands Vista T4 lighting console plus all the audio and DJ kit.

As the exclusive distributor for both Robe and Jands Vista in Norway, Live Technic was ask

UK - MTFX recently opened their new office, based at The Television Centre at Culverhouse Cross in Cardiff, in order to be in a better position to look after their Welsh clients.

With an increasing customer base in Wales, managing director Mark Turner realised that this was a great opportunity to ensure that these customers had easier access to the MTFX group, with its wide range of equipment and services.

The contact details for the office are: MTFX Ltd (Cardiff), The Television centre, Culverhouse Cross, Cardiff, CF5 6XJ

Or you can still reach MTFX through their head office in Gloucester.

(Claire Beeson)

Italy - Tracy Chapman's performance at Piazza della Loggia was reinforced via an Outline Butterfly system comprising just 14+14 Hi-Pack units per side, each equipped with four 8" woofers and a 3" compression driver.

The bottom end was reproduced by 7+7 Outline Victor Live subs and LAB 21 infra-subs (just two units positioned in the centre). All the cabinets were laid out in a cardioid configuration, to keep the stage clear of excessive low frequencies. Four Outline Micra II enclosures, installed on the edge of the stage, were used as front-fill systems, for the benefit of the front rows of the audience.

The amplification of the signals - fed from a Digidesign console - was entrusted to Outline T7 units.

Cipiesse Produzioni per lo Spettacolo, the owner of the Outline array system, was the Brescia rental firm handling the entire operation. Marco Riva, head of Cipiess

Stage Tragedy - Prosecutors have apparently opened a manslaughter investigation after a stage being built for a Madonna concert collapsed killing two people, a French official has said. Eight other people were seriously injured in last Thursday's accident at the Velodrome stadium in Marseille. Assistant prosecutor Marc Cimamonti said an investigation for manslaughter and involuntary injuries in a work-related accident has been opened. Madonna has said she is "devastated" by the news of the deaths.

Charles Criscenzo, a 53-year-old French worker, was killed outright in the accident and Charles Prow, a 23-year-old from Headingley in Leeds, died in hospital. Technicians had been setting up the stage at the city's Velodrome stadium when the partially-built roof fell in on Thursday, bringing down a crane.

Madonna paid tribute to the technicians at her concert in Italy on T

France - The French racecourse group, France Galop, has selected an Allen & Heath iLive digital system to manage audio distribution in its Deauville Touques venue in Normandy. The company owns several famous racecourses across the country, including Longchamp, Auteuil, Chantilly, Deauville, Maisons-Laffitte and Saint-Cloud.

Installed by EV Corporate, the iLive system comprises an iDR10 MixRack and iLive-112 Control Surface, and manages the live PA during races, VIP events, broadcast feeds, and horse auctions. France Galop also needed a system that can provide high quality sound to the OB van, as sometimes the broadcast feeds last for more than nine hours for live TV shows.

"The racecourse team, managed by Thierry Migeon, chose iLive because of its rapid, easy and flexible design, which enable the system to adapt to the venue's many different activities," says Yann Ma

UK - ETC's high intensity discharge Source Four PARs are among the lighting rig being used by Firefly Solar, the company behind the UK's first fully mobile solar power solution for the events industry. The luminaires are being used by Firefly at festivals across Britain throughout the summer, with their first outing at the Glastonbury Festival at the end of June, where they were used to power the Sensation Seekers and Snakepit areas. The solar power system was also used for a backstage area operated by Greenpeace located behind the pyramid stage.

Andy Mead, Firefly's managing director reports: "This year, we've already done the UK's first ever solar powered film premiere, when we lit the green carpet for the Age of Stupid in London's Leicester Square. But we realised that in order to get the quality of light we needed, we were going to have to get some non-LED fixtur

USA - The Saturdays turned to lighting designer Vince Foster for their The Work Tour. He delivered a very high tech, up-beat look with a maze of Versa Tubes at odd angles and height as a background. MAC 2000 spots and washes, Atomic strobes, F 100's, DF 50's and piles of truss are the brief for the tour. Everything is controlled by a Hog IPC and Catalyst System.

The Bandit board operator is Matthew Jensen and he is assisted on tour by crew chief Nigel Julian and lighting technician Dan Oswald. The tour manager is John Pryer, while the production manager is Andrew Thornton.

Bandit's CE Lester Cobrin has been handling the office side of things and said, "Vince is a true magician and we are grateful for the opportunity to work with him and the girls. It is a stunning show and Bandit is proud to be a part of such a spectacular."

(Jim Evans)

Iran/UK - It's been nine years in the making but now construction is finished, the Milad Tower complex in Tehran is fast becoming a source of immense Iranian national pride and Oldham-based British firm, Delta Obstruction Lighting (DOL) is playing a key role in making that possible.

When DOL finishes supervising installation of the tower's aircraft warning lighting system, it will be the final piece in the jigsaw for the awe-inspiring structure, which at 435m is the fourth largest tower in the world behind the CN Tower in Toronto, the Ostankino Tower in Moscow, and the Oriental Pearl Tower in Shanghai.

As with any large structure it is a major obstruction to aircraft and with Tehran's Imam Khomeini International Airport located in close vicinity it was imperative that the tower be fitted with an aircraft warning system that not only met International Civil Aviation Regulations

UK - Academy Music Group (AMG), whose shareholders include Live Nation, SJM Concerts and Metropolis Music has completed the acquisition of the Opera House in Bournemouth , following the successful grant of a new lease with Arnewood Estates Limited.

A Grade II listed building, the Opera House has been an entertainment venue for over 100 years, has a capacity of 1,925 and will host in the region of 150 events per annum.

"The venue is beautiful," says AMG's chief executive officer John Northcote. "It fits perfectly within our estate in both look and feel and capacity. It's in great condition and we're looking forward to making some minor operational improvements, but primarily bringing the same vibrant diary of live acts and club events that people expect from AMG venues, filling a significant gap in the market."

The venue will be renamed O2 Academy Bournemo

UK - In West London, a pioneering project is reaching completion as system integrator Sysco puts the finishing touches to a substantial AV/IT installation in the new Darwin Centre at London's Natural History Museum, which opens to the public on 15 September 2009.

The Darwin Centre, a giant eight-storey-high concrete Cocoon suspended within a glass outer box, will allow museum visitors and scientists to share the excitement of exploring, studying and preserving the natural world.

A pioneering research and collections facility, it will be used by the world's leading scientists to examine the Darwin Centre's collection of 20m plant and insect specimens. Visitors will be able to look in on the scientists at work in their modern laboratories and witness the latest research.

Sysco is lead AV contractor on the project, which will feature an array of exhibits that make full use of s

Belgium - At the heart of U2's current show, first viewed by 90,000 fans at Barcelona's Camp Nou stadium on 30 June 30, is the giant in-the-round stage, built by Belgian staging specialists Stageco, supporting 170 tons of giant screens, audio and lighting.

The stage's four legs arch out to embrace the audience, giving fans unprecedented and extensive access to the superstars on the pitch, while its gargantuan proportions carry the band's performance to every seat in the house.

This is one of the largest stages ever toured in any field of entertainment. The structure's central grid is raised 28m high, with legs traversing the width of the famous soccer pitch and a central antenna reaching as high as 5m.

The Stageco steel structure weighs 220 tons, excluding both the 90 tons of steel ballast that travels with each system and the rigging loads. Stageco has produced three identi

Taiwan - When Kaohsiung, the second largest town in Taiwan, won the hosting of the World Games 2009, work started immediately and two years later, in January 2009, the first tests were conducted to open the new Kaohsiung Stadium.

Once testing was completed, planning for the stadium's opening ceremony started, and in May everything was ready. The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and the Vienna State Opera Chorus together with four top soloists were among the performers for this event.

Two grandMA full-size consoles were used by Henry Wu, Rom Zhau and MG Kao who completed the lighting design for the show and operated the consoles.

Rom Zhau comments: "The grandMA is fast, stable and intuitive - that's exactly what I needed. Running two desks gave us the comfort of splitting the programming work and having a reliable backup. Nothing could go wrong on a show that was this high-

USA - Shure Incorporated has announced that Audio Biz Michigan is the company's Representative of the Year for fiscal year 2008/2009. President Randy Stenson, vice-president Rick Brown, and Steve Meyers, sales representative, received the award at the recent InfoComm Show in Orlando, Florida.

"We are very excited to present Audio Biz Michigan with our 2009 Rep of the Year award," said Jim Schanz, Shure's director of US and Canada field sales. "One cannot talk about the state of Michigan without acknowledging the tough economy the state has faced for years. The fact that Audio Biz Michigan has been able to grow our business in this region and continue to offer great support to our customers during these challenging economic times, is a testament to the tenacity of this organisation."

Representing Shure throughout the state of Michigan, Audio Biz Michi

UK - XL Video's history with Take That dates right back to their first touring days in the 1990's, when Des Fallon (now a director of XL Video) worked as the video crew chief. Since then, XL has enthusiastically supported Take That and Chris Vaughan at The Production Office, and has invested substantially in new video technology each time they have hit the road, and in particular since their comeback in 2006.

Fallon says: "Take That and their production team have always been prepared to push technical and imaginative boundaries to help deliver the very best in live performance. It's refreshing and inspiring working with those embracing the spirit of creative audacity and adventure."

For the Circus stadium tour, XL Video sourced and purchased 140sq.m of 15mm pitch high resolution PIX LED F - 15 LED screen - a new lightweight bright 6000 NITS product. This was f

UK - An interactive music experience has opened in London featuring instruments and professional video and audio technology from across the group of Roland companies, the first time that Roland's consumer and professional subsidiaries have collaborated on a single project in the UK.

Research commissioned by the charity Youth Music found that up to 2.5m young people in the UK - or 1m aged between 12 and 18 - have been inspired to progress into 'real' music-making because they have played music-based console games. In response to these findings, the Youth Music charity, which celebrates its 10th birthday this year, has launched Youth Music Box at London's Southbank Centre.

A free interactive music experience, the Youth Music Box is a cubed structure that visitors can enter, providing an easily accessible musical experience through a mix of real instruments and a 'w

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