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UK - OPTI, the UK manufacturer of Trilite structural systems and gobo + effects projection equipment has launched an adjustable height lectern - the OPTI HiLo.

For standing or seated speakers and presenters, the electrically operated height adjustment enables conference venues, lecture theatres, educational establishments and places of worship to comply with current European Union DDA (Disability Discrimination Act) regulations on access to, and facilities within buildings for the disabled.

Features include a gooseneck light and two 3-pin XLR shock-mounted microphone sockets, wired through to corresponding sockets in the base. The OPTI HiLo is supplied as standard in silver with other colour paint finishes to special order.

The HiLo is suitable for any application or event in

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UK - Adlib Audio sent out two Soundcraft Vi6 digital mixing consoles - and two sound technicians to babysit the systems - when they took over the production of feature stages at this month's Latitude Festival.

In charge of the Uncut Arena was the experienced Walter Jaquiss, while simultaneously the same furious schedule, with back-to-back changeovers, was taking place in the Sunrise Arena, where Otto Kroymann was based.

While bands were turning round within 15 minutes at the stage end, sound engineers were setting up their patches with equal alacrity at front of house. In each case a Soundcraft Vi6 digital mixing console awaited them alongside their two mentors.

"Adlib were conscious of having to put out a desk that everyone could mix on easily," stated Walter Jaquiss. He set up a regime in the Uncut Arena where all show files were created off-line. "Fo

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UK - Hawthorn has recently increased its stock of the i-pix BB range to meet customer demand. Hawthorn has bought over 40 i-pix BB-4s, a powerful fixture featuring the new generation of combined RGB high power LEDs with blended output.

Hawthorns MD Martin Hawthorn commented, "We bought the larger BB16s a while ago and have been very impressed with the units. Therefore it was a natural progression to increase our i-pix stock and the BB4s have been a popular choice, both with our own in-house technicians and also our dry hire customers."

(Jim Evans)

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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 - Prolific Music Producer Tony Platt was among seven entertainment professionals to be conferred the title of LIPA Companion as the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts celebrated graduation day on Friday 24 July.

Platt, whose career has spanned 35 years and almost as many musical genres, joined musician and actor Will Young, casting director Pippa Ailion, choreographer Natricia Bernard, artistic director John Fox, set and costume designer Richard Hudson, actor Joe McGann, to be honoured at the ceremony.

LIPA Companionships are awarded in recognition of contributions to the world of arts and entertainment. All Companions are also committed to sharing their expertise with LIPA students and most have provided masterclasses at the Institute.

Founding principal and CEO Mark Featherstone-Witty said: "When Paul and I created LIPA, there was no substitute for learning fr

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UK - Pearce Hire successfully completed the first of a four year contract this July, supplying the lighting and power to all 23 shows across seven stunning forest sites. Artists including Paul Weller, The Doves and Simply Red were among the sold out headliners.

The Forestry Tour requested standardised production at each of the sites to make it easier and more effective for the artists touring between them over a six week period. To achieve this the company added to its ever growing stock of lighting equipment by investing in Avolites 24-channel ART 2000 dimmer racks and expanded its already large rental stock of Adam Hall cable ramp. All generators were well maintained to deliver constant event power and all power circuits were tested to give the highest level of safety and reliability.

They deployed two dedicated Forestry Tour teams, one led by Pearce Hire's pro

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Once in a Lifetime - Acts including U2 and Aretha Franklin are to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the US Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at two concerts. The gigs, set to take place in New York in October, will also feature inductees including Bruce Springsteen, Eric Clapton and Metallica. Both Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel and rock trio Crosby, Stills and Nash are lined up to perform together. The concerts have been billed as "once in a lifetime" events. Jan Wenner, chairman of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation, said they are "designed to celebrate the artists and their music".

The proceeds from the concerts will go towards permanent funding for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation and Museum, established in 1984 by Atlantic Records founder Ahmet Ertegun who died in 2006.

Dublin Protest - People who live close to the Croke Park stadium in D

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Germany - Opus 600 is the latest in a long line of wireless microphone systems from beyerdynamic which began with the invention of the very first wireless system, Transistophone, in 1962.

The Opus 600's key features include interchangeable capsules, more than 20 hours battery life, "true diversity" reception, up to 16 compatible channels and switching power-supply. This system is available in five pre-configured sets, Lavaliere, Neckworn, Dynamic vocal, Dynamic vocal & speech and condenser vocal & speech versions. beyerdynamic is distributed in the UK by Polar Audio.

(Jim Evans)

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USA - For U2's current tour, designer Mark Fisher created a gigantic claw shaped truss, lighting designer Willie Williams specified nearly 200 PRG Bad Boys for one of the largest sets ever built for a touring rock show, and City Theatrical's SHoW DMX helped it all happen by transmitting wireless DMX to the far corners of the stadium.

The show's central claw shaped truss has a centre spire that rises over 50m above the show deck. Around the stadium are truss towers that contain follow spots and PRG Bad Boy moving lights.

One of the many challenges the tour faced was to reliably get data to the towers without having to run kilometres of cable around the stadium. Wireless DMX with a proven track record of high data fidelity, minimum radio footprint, and system reliability was needed, and since the tour travels across the globe in outdoor arenas and stadiums it needed to be intern

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Germany - The theatre performances of the Vorpommersche Landesbühne Anklam on the Ostsee-Bühne (Baltic Sea Stage) Zinnowitz have become a popular tradition during the holiday season. The content of the plays is the history of the town Vineta which is, according to the legend, sunken into the sea of the island Usedom. The performances, a mixture of acting, dancing and music, are strikingly supported by light, pyrotechnics and laser effects.

As a part of the reconstruction the sound system has been renewed as well. audioone gmbh based in Berlin undertook the planning and installation of the new reinforcement system. After an on-site meeting to analyse the spacial and acoustical conditions and a detailed planning and simulation the decision went to the K.M.E. line array system PANO with Line Source Units QL 906 and QL 1215 on the left and right side of the stage as well as VL 10

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Australia - ARX Systems has announced the appointment of Tallinn based Eventech OÜ as their new Distributor for Estonia.

ARX Managing Director Colin Park commented:" Eventech's Tõnu Susi and I have been discussing the possibilities of working together in Estonia for some time, Tõnu thought with the release of new additions to our USB DI product range the time was right to expand ARX's presence in the Estonian market.

"Tõnu and his sales team also felt our range of Interface and Signal Processing Products was a very complementary fit with the other lines they currently represent, they were especially excited by the new Products we released at the recent Frankfurt Pro Light and Sound Exhibition."

Along side ARX, Eventech represents companies including Meyer Sound, XTA, Lab Gruppen, Formula Sound and Robert Juliat.

(Jim Evans)

Details
UK - Entertainment lighting supplier White Light has announced the latest addition to its diverse rental stock - Martin's new Mac III Profile moving spotlight.

Designed to offer a high output from a 1500W lamp, and a very 'fat' beam from its large front lens, the Martin Mac III builds on the feature set and reliability of the long-established Mac 2000 range. The fixture offers CMY plus CTO colour mixing, a seven position colour wheel, twin five-position rotating gobo wheels, Martin's gobo animation wheel, a four-facet rotating/indexing prism, and an iris together with a wide-range zoom that can take the beam from 11.5degrees up to 55degrees; zoom and focus are also linked for the first time in a Martin fixture.

For set-up convenience, the Martin Mac III has a battery-powered setup display/keyboard, allowing units to be addressed and configured on the ground without needing to

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Germany - Since the beginning of this year, Monty Python's Spamalot has been staged in Cologne, having previously played New York, London and Las Vegas.

Hugh Vanstone, who was responsible for the lighting design in London, also delivered the design for the show playing at the Musical Dome in Cologne, which was programmed by associate lighting designer Stuart Porter. For this task Porter relied on a grandMA system solution.

During production two grandMA full-size and a grandMA ultra-light were used, with one grandMA full-size left in control of the show. "Working with the grandMA was a breeze, especially because of its networking capabilities," reported programmer Marcus Krömer. "This also enabled the in-house programmer to learn the desk while I was programming."

15 x Vari*Lite VL3000 Spots, 10 VL2500 Spots, 14 VL2500 Washes and 18 VL500 TP (Paste

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UK - For the fourth consecutive year, Adlib Audio supplied a sound system and crew to the King Tut's Wah Wah Tent at T in The Park Festival at Balado, Kinross-shire, Scotland.

The line-up included Daniel Merriweather, Jason Mraz, The Pet Shop Boys, the Noisettes, Friendly Fires, Jamie T, The Saturdays and many more over the three days.

James Neale led the Adlib team of five and also oversaw the FOH operation. With Ben Booker keeping monitor world in check, the omnipresent Richy Nicholson looked after the stage & patch, assisted by Otto Kroyman and Michael Flaherty. The operation was project managed in the Adlib offices by Dave Jones.

This year, the length of the King Tut's Wah Wah tent was extended by about 30m, making the tent approximately 120m long, which needed additional PA and delay stacks to ensure an even sound all around.

The main left and right hangs consi

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UK - For the third year running, ETC is supplying lighting control systems to Universal Arts in three of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe's leading venues.

In previous years, Universal Arts has used ETC's Congo lighting control desks. However, at PLASA Focus in April, ETC launched Element. This new desk caught the attention of Universal Arts production manager, Anthony Newton, who approached ETC's Jeremy Roberts to explore the possibility of using Element to light all the shows in the Universal Arts Festival of international theatre.

Newton says: "Element seemed like the perfect desk for Fringe venue application. It has the software of the successful Eos and Ion range with simplified features to ease user control, making the basic functions easier to navigate with greater hands on fader control. It's a much friendlier looking desk to the inexperienced or unfamiliar operator.

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UK Nearly 600 drummers got their chance to be in the global spotlight on 13 July 2009, as they raised funds for a leading UK multiple sclerosis charity, setting a new world record into the bargain. And helping to keep them all in time was a Yamaha M7CL console.

Part of the National Rock and Pop festival, which also incorporated the Guitarfestand Drumfest trade shows, the Stick It To MS world record attempt was hosted by comedian and actor John 'Jazz Club' Thomson - himself a drummer - and saw a total of 582 drummers in Birmingham's National Indoor Arena attempt to achieve a new world record of tub-thumpers playing in the same place at the same time.

The record required that all the drummers played together for at least five minutes, producing an average sound level of 105dB, peaking at 130db. "It was quite an experience," says front of hou

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UK - The iTunes Festival relocated to The Roundhouse in North London this year, with over 60 artists playing live at this free event, which runs throughout July.

With bands ranging from Oasis, Kasabian, Franz Ferdinand and Snow Patrol at the commercial end to acoustic performers like Newton Faulkner, quirky performance artists with wide dynamic ranges (like Bat for Lashes' Natasha Khan), leavened with some good old fashioned hard house and R&B it was important that the event's experienced sound engineers, Dave Roden at FOH (here deployed as system tech) and Will King down at the stage had digital mixing environments on which incoming engineers could hit the ground running.

Last year, when the event was held at Koko, iTunes production manager Stuart Turvill took advantage of a pair of Soundcraft Vi6's, with the Studer Vistonics II interface, and it proved so popul

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Canada - Now celebrating its 30th year, the Royal Nova Scotia International Tattoo (RNSIT) is the largest annual indoor show in the world. Each year, literally thousands of performers amass from around the world in what might best be described as a Vaudeville show of truly epic proportions. Everything from operatic performances to motorcycle stunts keep the thousands of spectators at the Halifax Metro Centre at the edge of their seats for 10 days.

For those who can appreciate such things, the logistics of sound reinforcement for the RNSIT would be an act in itself, analogous to watching a fire-eating contortionist spin plates while singing O Canada on the back of a dune buggy. To make that task slightly less convoluted, the RNSIT recently purchased a phalanx of Kling & Freitag self-powered loudspeakers and subwoofers, a high fidelity output to complement the huge collecti

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USA - Loud Technologies has announced the appointment of veteran salesman Kurt Metzler to the position of North American sales manager, EAW.

"EAW is on a roll," commented Ernie Lansford, Loud's director of North American sales. "The combination of EAW's innovative product line - including the new JFL, NTL, MicroWedge and MicroSub - and Kurt's rock-solid reputation will make EAW the most preferred vendor to our consultant customers."

In his new role, Metzler will lead the existing EAW internal sales support team, North American rep force and distributor network to build EAW and EAW Commercial's market position, and share, among contractors and consultants. Metzler will report to Ernie Lansford.

Metzler joins Loud from Meyer Sound where he managed Meyer's A/V consultant relationships. This is his second stint at Loud -- prior to joining Meyer, Metzler spent

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UK - XL Video supplied an HD camera and playback system plus assorted video extras for several acts appearing at Live Nation's three Hyde Park summer festival events - Hard Rock Calling, Blur and Wireless - which all ran consecutively in London's most central greenfield location.

This was project managed by Chris Saunders for XL, assisted by Zoe Minter. The artist line up included the Killers, Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen (Hard Rock Calling) and Basement Jaxx and Kanye West, who headlined the two Wireless shows concluding the run.

Saunders has worked on the event for the last five years, ever since it was launched by Live Nation. "It was great to be working with the Live Nation team again," he says. "The setting and the variety of the music makes it very special, everything went smoothly for us and we all relished the chance to en

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UK - Kave Theatre Services sponsored The University of Warwick's SPLAT festival, the largest student run drama festival in the World.

Kave supplied a comprehensive package to multiple stages of both generic and moving lights, scalable sound systems, all necessary rigging and staging and a quantity of the site power infrastructure.

SPLAT Fest, celebrating Student Performance Literature Art & Theatre at the University of Warwick, is dedicated to creating opportunities for all students to pursue their creative talents. The Festival is now in its sixth year and proved to be the most successful to date.

For the first time, this year the event moved into an A&J Bigtop dubbed "The BigSPLAT". This provided the organisers some much needed space to expand the festival, allowing two stages to work back to back in the same venue. With a packed schedule this was e

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UK - RG Jones continued its long relationship with one of the high society events of the English summer season, the Henley Festival. The company's involvement with the black tie event, which takes place on the banks of the Thames, dates back to 1986, and once again they fielded a full Synco Martin Audio production rig - that took care of the very different requirements of the three prime stages - as well as a zonal, site-wide paging infrastructure, incorporated into the artistic lighting structures, to safeguard security and evacuation.

Synco Martin Audio W8LC's and W8LM's formed the principal sound reinforcement in the Floating Stage and Club Marquee, while in the third area, for the more strident, rock and roll vibe of the Dome, a vintage Martin Audio Wavefront 8 system delivered the goods.

On the Floating Stage RGJ rigged two stacks of six Synco Martin Audio W8LC enc

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