Norway - The Norwegian parliament in Oslo is using a large number of BSS Audio Soundweb devices for different applications, covering meeting rooms, hearing rooms and the main parliament assembly auditorium.

The plenary chamber recently saw a major upgrade to a Soundweb London system, relieving the older Soundweb Original system from its duties, which it has been performing since 2002.

The new system, installed during the Easter recess by Norwegian BSS Audio distributor, LydRommet AS, includes four BLU-320 break-in / out devices in an 8 x 8 configuration, and eight BLU-160 devices, all configured with four analogue inputs, four digital outputs and eight analogue outputs. Two BLU-10 touch screen remotes control the system locally, and the package includes a BLU-80 device located i

UK - Chroma-Q LED fixtures brought the Clubhouse of the British Racing Drivers' Club (BRDC) at Silverstone racing circuit to life with a temporary lighting installation for their annual British Grand Prix Ball.

The BRDC Ball is held in a luxury marquee erected adjacent to the Members' Clubhouse on the Saturday evening of the 2009 Formula 1 Santander British Grand Prix weekend.

Personalities from the motor racing fraternity, including Jenson Button, Jodie Scheckter and David Coulthard appeared on stage to talk about their experiences to the BBC's and ex-Radio Caroline's Jonny Walker.

A.C. Special Projects., a sister company of BRDC Rising Stars Programme Patron, A.C. Entertainment Technologies, provided the Clubhouse's temporary architectural lighting installation for a second year. The scheme carried a similar theme to last year, with vivid colour washes onto the roof level

USA - In Texas, the new Dallas Cowboys stadium has opened its doors with an audio system that includes Community Professional's weather-resistant R-Series loudspeakers, along with iBOX and Cloud in-ceiling speakers.

Systems consultants WJHW designed the system, which includes a selection of powerful R.5 loudspeakers on the exterior lighting poles. Community i2W8 full-range two-way boxes ring the main seating bowl, providing under-balcony fill, with Cloud12 compact coaxial loudspeakers installed in the Club Lounge ceiling of the main concourse. Bay Area-based ProMedia / UltraSound provided the system's installation.

As WJHW's Kevin Day explains, the R.5s are mounted on the lighting poles that illuminate the building's exterior. "We selected the R.5s for their weather-resistant design," says Day, "and the architect was pleased at how well they match the lighting e

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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

Finland - Alpha Beam 300 fixtures featured at Pacifique Lumière, held 7 March 2009 at Serena Waterpark in Espoo, Finland, presented by Red Bull. The creators, artists and crew delivered a combination of performance, passion and technical innovation. Pacifique Lumière, an annual event since 2004, gathers a few thousand clubbers for "one night in paradise after a long, dark winter". The sold out event features five different, showcasing over 40 of Finland's top DJs and artists.

Serena Water Park is the largest indoor water park in Europe with approximately 18,000sq.m in total space. The conditions are very extreme. The temperature is around 34°-35° Celsius without a crowd and can climb as high as 40°C with a full audience. The humidity is tropical, around 90%.

38 Clay Paky Alpha Beam 300 fixtures, plus eight Clay Paky Alpha Spot HPE 300s, su

USA - Pacific Coast Entertainment (PCE) invited clients and prospective customers to attend an open house to view the new EVLED 1024SMD 20mm LED Video Panels from Elation Professional.

A full-service lighting, audio and video production and rental company, PCE had purchased 48 of the Elation panels, which are modular in design and can be used to create vibrant video pixel screens, curtains and backdrops. Measuring 2'1" x 2'1" x 3", the transparent tiles are compact and lightweight, and with an IP65 rating, can be used indoors or outdoors.

PCE decided to host the open house to demo the product - which it refers to simply as The Wall. "We wanted to get the word out about The Wall, because it creates new possibilities for our existing clients, as well as opens opportunities for us to sell new markets," said Ryan Steidinger, PCE's director of operations.

Serbia - In preparation for one of the world's most famous sporting events, systems integration firm Studio Berar outfitted 13 sports venues in Serbia with JBL loudspeakers and Crown amplifiers for the 2009 Summer Universiade games.

The Universiade is an international event that hosts university athletes from around the world. This year's Summer Universiade took place from 1-12 July in Belgrade. It hosted more than 9,000 athletes from over 140 countries, all of who competed in 15 different sports and 203 disciplines at more than 50 sport venues. This year's games celebrated three anniversaries for what some consider to be the largest and most important sporting event next to the Olympic Games: the 25th Summer Universiade, the 50th anniversary of Universiade, and the 60th anniversary of the International University Sports Federation.

For the largest sports venues, including so

Germany - Following the success of the Neumann KMS 104 hand held stage microphone, Neumann has announced the arrival of the KMS 104 plus.

The KMS 104 plus is tailored to have an extended bass response, so it's especially suitable when extra weight is needed in the bottom end. For example, to enhance low end growl for female vocals and for any voices that need low-end enhancement. Having been developed with a wide range of professional vocalists, the KMS 104 plus delivers natural warmth, but without any loss in transparency, says the company.

In comparison with other handheld microphones, most of which use dynamic capsules, the KMS series, with its condenser capsules, has a high acoustic transparency, a wide frequency range and "excellent" feedback rejection.

All Neumann KMS microphones have a robust housing, tough enough for the rigorous demands of touring, and com

UK - Reliability is a word Green Hippo like. It isn't a word used quite so often in relation to the British weather! So when Green Hippo's Nigel Sadler visited the setup at Channel 4's T4 On The Beach event in July of this year, he encountered 4 seasons in one day!

The live TV show caters for the current pop market and had an impressive line-up of chart-topping artists including Basement Jaxx, Florence and The Machine, Tinchy Strider, Calvin Harris and Dizzy Rascal and not surprisingly takes place on the beach at Weston Super-Mare on England's west coast. Although live transmission began at midday, there were many other acts running prior to this time to warm up the huge crowds.

As has been the case for several years now, all stage media was handled by Green Hippo's oldest friends Digital Insanity. Richard 'RB' Bagshaw and Kate Perring were already knee deep in media when Nige

Germany - The Comet Awards were recently held at König-Pilsener-Arena in Oberhausen, with sound reinforcement coming from more than 190 Meyer Sound self-powered loudspeakers, which stayed out of TV sightlines for the live broadcast pop music event. The TM Array configuration of subwoofers was deployed to provide even low-frequency coverage.

Appealing to a large teenage audience, the Comet Awards was presented by Viva TV, a German subsidiary of MTV Networks. System design for the show's dual stages required special care from project manager sound David Bergmann, system tech Thorsten Maier, FOH engineer Kai Reiss, and monitor engineer Mathias Hentschel, using Meyer Sound MAPP Online Pro acoustical prediction programme and loudspeakers supplied by Hamburg-based Procon Event Engineering.

The first stage was mostly used by performing artists including Sportfreunde Stiller,

USA - Installation has begun on the first 1080x1920 high definition video screen in an NBA or NHL facility. The Lighthouse LED screens are part of a large scale technological renovation project at the American Airlines Centre in Dallas. The new digital screens will increase video throughout the facility by 300 percent. Working with long time partner, TS Sports, 25 Lighthouse LED screens, including four 1080p full HD screens on the centre hung display, will be installed at the facility. The upgrade will be completed over the summer for the 2009-2010 Dallas Mavericks' and Dallas Stars' seasons.

To bring Dallas sports fans the most intense excitement at every game, the centre-hung display will comprise four Lighthouse P4 4mm screens, each producing 1080p Full HD images. The display also will include four P10 10mm scoring screens and two P16 16mm screens, an octagonal and a round-sh

USA - Litepanels, Inc will be awarded a Technology & Engineering Emmy Award from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences for its proprietary lighting systems. Litepanels fixtures are used on a variety of network television productions including such high profile programmes as Desperate Housewives, Fox's 24, and Without a Trace.

The Emmy statue is the first in the Academy's 61 year history to be awarded for television lighting technology, and will be presented on Saturday 22 August, at the Renaissance Hotel in Los Angeles.

Litepanels list of customers extends beyond television and feature production, and includes the Whitehouse and Pentagon Briefing Rooms, the International Space Station, CNN's Election Bus, news helicopters, and numerous TV news studios and ENG crews.

(Jim Evans)

Spain - Desfase Sonido e Illuminicatión is a pro audio rental company located in Albendín, Cordoba in Andalusia, Spain. Desfase's's main business is made up of rock, pop and flamenco shows. The company has provided sound reinforcement for the Festival Fiestas del Vino in Valdepeñas, Cuidad Real, which was attended by an audience of 20,000, as well as for the Layenda Tour 2007, La Madre Que Los Parió Tour 2008, and the Córdoba Blues Festival and many other events and tours.

Last year, Desfase owners Francisco José Morales Martín and Julio Santiago García attended a Cohedra training seminar at HK Audio company headquarters in St. Wendel, at which they were so impressed with the system that shortly thereafter they invested in a 2x8 HK Cohedra Line Array made up of 16 CDR 208 mid/high units and an equal number of CDR 210 2x10" subs as w

Germany - Last month, the latest product of the Meyer Werft shipyard, the Celebrity Equinox, sailed down the river Ems and into the open sea. It was a feat of navigation calling for millimetre precision, because the cruise liner, which cost more than €500 million, is 317m long, 36m wide, and boasts 13 decks.

The Celebrity Cruises' vessel boasts a casino, library, theatre, golf course, and several swimming pools. Equally lavish are the sound systems on board. Like its sister ship the Celebrity Solstice, which launched in the fall of 2008, the Equinox relies on Dynacord Promatrix 4000 systems. FUNA Nachrichtentechnik of Emden installed and networked no fewer than four of these reference electro-acoustic systems on board the cruise ship.

FUNA Nachrichtentechnik's senior manager Andreas Köhler comments: "The Promatrix 4000 has already proved itself to us one hundred percent

USA - Viewers of the 2009 Tour de France saw hundreds of racers cover over 2,200 miles during July, each vying for the finish line on Paris' Avenue des Champs-Elysées. Audio-Technica AT835ST M-S stereo shotgun microphones were mounted to the cameras on five motorcycles that covered the miles-long pack of racers.

The AT835ST microphones were provided by the Societé Française de Production (SFP), a division of the Euro Media Group, which has been a longtime supplier of broadcast technology and services to the Tour de France and other major sporting events.

Throughout the race, the motorbike crews covered the action from top to bottom, pacing the riders and collecting crowd reaction effects. The audio, embedded with the video signal, was sent via low-power broadcast to a pair of helicopters and two circling airplanes. They, in turn, relayed the signals to three gro

UK - Stage One was approached by Mel Chantry of property development company Milligan, to undertake the manufacture and installation of an unusual light sculpture at Manchester Airport. Working for main contractors ISG, this 47m long River of Light sculpture forms a flowing pathway above the refurbished retail and restaurant areas in Terminal One.

"We've previously worked with Milligan on several projects within the prestigious MetQuarter Shopping Centre in Liverpool and were therefore delighted when they brought us on board for this project at Manchester Airport," said Tony Rhodes, project manager, Stage One.

The sculpture consisted of a series of 'mother ship' tubes suspended from the ceiling, from which thin steel arms were cantilevered out in a 'random' fashion. Attaching 71 blue EncapSulite fittings to these over the 47m length of the sculpture then creat

UK - White Light supplied the principal productions at this year's Manchester International Festival, which ran from 2-19 July.

A biennial event, the event describes itself as "the world's first festival of original, new work and special events". The Festival was established in 2007 and White Light supplied the lighting to many of the shows at that year's event, including the opera Monkey: Journey To The Westsubsequently seen in London again using equipment from White Light.

At this year's festival, White Light supplied lighting rigs to two headline events - the new opera Prima Donna, composed by Rufus Wainwright, and It Felt Like a Kiss, created by Punchdrunk with Adam Curtis and Damon Albarn.

Prima Donna, at the Palace Theatre, tells the story of soprano Regine Saint Laurent confronting the ghosts of her past as she prepares to

UK - HSL designed and built two special stage sets including DJ booths - complete with inbuilt digital and conventional lighting - for DJs Steve Angello (from the Swedish House Mafia) and Eric Prydz, who played the main stage at the 2009 Global Gathering event on 25 July.

HSL was approached by Duncan Holmes from BPM Special Effects just 10 days before the event staged at Long Marsden Airfield in Warwickshire, and asked if they could create and build a special visual concept for both artists. They wanted something to add impact, excitement and atmosphere to both their performances - which took place in bright daylight and touching dusk.

HSL's Mike Docksey project managed the mission. Overnight, he came up with a design for Angello, whilst HSL's Mike Oates produced one for Prydz. These were drawn up, presented to the artists and given the green light - with now just a week to go

Eire - Dublin-based lighting EQL has supplied a ChamSys MagicQMaxi Wing to LD Kris Berzins for Rodrigo y Gabriela's European festival tour. Berzins chose the console for a number of reasons, one being its compact size, as they are flying to most venues.

This is the second time Berzins has used a MagicQ Maxi Wing for Rodrigo yGabriela, as he also used it on a short American tour. One of the functions that Berzins is using the most is the built in pixel mapper which allows you to make visually stunning effects in seconds.

Mathew Killmurray is deputising for Berzins on some shows and as a new user of ChamSys was given full training at EQL Dublin. After the day's training he felt totally comfortable taking the desk out.

EQL stocks the ChamSys range of MagicQ products for hire and sale in Ireland and are available to demo or train anyone wishing to learn more about their products

Europe - Depeche Mode continue their busy live performance career, touring their 12th studio album Sounds of The Universe. Once again, XL Video is supplying video equipment - Custom built screen, cameras/PPU, Catalyst media servers - and crew to the production.

Jon Shrimpton is directing the live camera mix, lighting is designed by Paul Normandale and the stage, set and overall visual vibe has been created by the band's long time artistic director, Anton Corbijn. Filmmaker Corbijn also produced 10 bespoke films for the tour. The project is being co-ordinated from the XL Video UK office by Des Fallon.

It's Shrimpton's first DM tour as director. He says: "The chance of working with someone as imaginative and influential as Anton is truly inspiring. Initially, I was a bit like a teenager meeting my pop idol for the first time, but I soon relaxed because Anton's whole

USA - The planning and construction of Northwood Baptist Church's new worship centre in North Charleston, South Carolina, took nearly four years. "It took a little longer than we had originally hoped, but the patience paid off," admits worship pastor Michael Bell. "But by taking the time to get it right, we got way more than we ever thought we could have. Our new Allen &Heath iLive-T console is a perfect example."

Design-build integrator Signature Sight and Sound handled the audio, video and lighting for the new facility. "When the T Series was announced," says Mark Gladden, president and chief systems designer for Signature, "it had everything we had hoped for. It's got that Allen & Heath sound quality, with great EQ and mic preamps, plus virtually all the capabilities and ease of use of the full iLive, but at a very comfortable price point. W

Germany - Not so long ago OHM were linked with Ferrari to supply audio to their home town store in Milan, the company report that it has happened again, but this time for Maybach.

Maybach is a brand name that stands for elegance, luxury and the sense of prestige. They have been producing motor vehicles since 1909 but Wilhelm Maybach himself revolutionised the industry with the first combustion engine for a personal vehicle in 1885.

At the beginning of the year in the town of Neumarkt (near Nuremberg) Germany, the Maybach museum is home to some of the world's rarest models, cars which had limited product runs and lucky survivors of the Second World War. The museum houses the timeline of the Maybach developments dating back to works by Wilhelm and Karl, his son.

To keep Maybach's image of excellence, the museum was created in exactly the same manner. To go with the modern buil

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