Details
The Netherlands - Mojo Barriers has made a rounded contribution to the 2009 U2 360º tour as the Dutch company underlines its international capabilities by supplying 700m of curved aluminium barrier system for the world tour.

Having been contracted to supply the touring crowd barrier system in late 2008, Mojo Barriers' project team was thorough in preparing the largest, most complex touring barrier system the company has ever designed. As the footprint of the gigantic stage spans the width of the stadium pitches, both the central stage and concentric 'B-stage' are closely surrounded by live audiences.

Safety was at the top of all concerned parties' priorities list in designing the barrier configuration, which used all elements of the Mojo Barriers system plus some custom-built e

Details
Australia - Australian Concert Productions Pty (ACP) is one of the largest suppliers of audio and lighting equipment in Australia. Their thriving rental division has just invested in a significant Turbosound FlexArray rig powered exclusively by Lab.gruppen's new PLM Powered Loudspeaker Management systems with on-board Lake Processing.

The new Turbo/Lab.gruppen system was put through its paces at a number of shows, and "ticked all the boxes" with the ACP team as well as receiving very favourable comments from several FoH engineers. "The guys were impressed by stunning audio quality as well as the coverage we achieved with the system," remarked ACP's director, Mick Privitera. "They also really appreciated how easy and straightforward it was to rig and configure." The first show was an outdoor festival for 6000 people featuring a number of top acts inc

Details
UK - Catalyst distributor SNP Productions has supplied three top spec Catalyst v4 PRO media servers in custom SNP designed Catalyst system flightcases to the Mariinsky Theatre from St Petersburg for their production of Wagner's Ring Cycle.

The company - under the artistic direction of Valery Gergiev - performs all four operas in Das ring des Nibelungen on consecutive evenings at the Royal Opera House in London this week. In this latest staging of the production (first seen complete in 2003) projection has been added as a key visual element.

SNP's Simon Pugsley built and supplied the fully configured Catalyst system complete with a remote KVM (keyboard-video-mouse) monitoring solution which was a crucial requirement in projection designer Sven Ortel from Mesmer's specification. Ortel - who has used Catalyst on many previous projects, wanted a flexible 'plug & play

featured content

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

Details
China - The Bird's Nest Summer Concert was held at the Beijing National Stadium last month, the first major event at the venue since the 2008 Summer Olympics. The visual spectacular featured performers from China, Taiwan and Spain and a massive stage set including six 80ft. columns wrapped in low-res LEDs, plus 19 large LED screens.

Production companies Kingsmark Enterprises of Hong Kong and ETG Staging Connections China installed the equipment, including eight Hippotizer HD media servers, routed through Barco Encore processors and controlled by two GrandMA full-size consoles.

"This was a very large production with many elements," says Loren Barton, TMB product specialist. "Hippotizer's control interface allows for easy live blind programming which made last minute changes easy to implement, even during the show. Hippotizer's Zookeeper software enabled th

Details
UK - Specialist UK LED manufacturer i-Pix has launched a new version of its successful BB7 LED luminaire - with wider angles than the original 10 degree BB7 Beam Light fixture developed last year.

The new BB7 optics offer a 10 (spot), a 20 degree and a 35 degree (flood) angle - in one fixture. i-Pix has once again listened to the requests of lighting designers and operators to deliver a robustly built, highly tourable, environmentally conscious design-led product.

The three different BB7 beam angles now available are all homogenized without any colour striation within the beam. This eliminates the 'pixelation' and blocky effects associated with more 'standard' LED products, and is a feature that is central to the whole i-Pix BB range, says the company.

A new 'fast changeover' arrangement enables users and technicians to swap between BB7 optics in approximately a minute.

Fo

Details
UK - PLASA 2008 saw the successful launch of Litestructures LiteConsole. DJ, Paul Oakenfold, commissioned Litestructures, in association with partners Pioneer and Anolis, to design and manufacture a special touring console to highlight Oakenfold's stage presence.

The system (3m wide, 1.5m high and 1.2m deep) is lightweight, modular, easy to assemble, accommodates two 50' plasma screens at the front and has Oakenfold's name laser cut on the front fascia along with the Perfecto label branding on side panels.

Oakenfold's LiteConsole has toured the globe, supporting Madonna's Sticky and Sweet tour and Lenny Kravitz.

The DJ comments: "I have been very impressed with the level of professional support and advice received from the Litestructures team, I am delighted with the beautiful piece of staging technology that has been produced. It made sense to custom design my o

Details
Ireland - Dublin-based lighting firm EQL has supplied a ChamSys MagicQ Maxi Wing to LD Kris Berzins for Rodrigo y Gabriela's European festival tour. Kris choose the console for a number of reasons, one being its compact size, as they are flying to most venues. An essential feature was its powerful morphing and editing functions with different lighting equipment for each festival. This is thesecond time Kris has used a MagicQ Maxi Wing for Rodrigo y Gabriela, as he also used it on a short American tour. One of the functions that Kris is using the most is the built in pixel mapper which allows you to make visually stunning effects in seconds, says the company.

Mathew Killmurray is deputizing for Kris on some shows and as a new user of ChamSys was given full training at EQL Dublin. After the days training he felt very comfortable taking the desk out.

EQL stocks the ChamSys range

Details
Jazz at The Palace - Buckingham Palace has been included on a shortlist of the UK's most important jazz venues. To mark the 50th anniversary of Miles Davis' celebrated Kind of Blue album, Brecon Jazz Festival asked people to nominate unsung British live venues. The winning venue will receive a plaque as part of the scheme. Jazz legends Louis Armstrong and Sidney Bechet played at Buckingham Palace during royal command performances for George V between 1919 and 1932. The Queen's residence joined the likes of Ronnie Scott's and the infamous Club Eleven on the shortlist for the inaugural (Kind Of) blue plaque scheme.

Security Matters - A number of London's West End theatres are to boost their security to counter worsening audience behaviour, owners have said. It comes after reports of drunkenness and even fights during performances. The owners of several venues, includ

Details
UK - For the eighth year running Hawthorns has supplied Walk the Walk's MoonWalk and SunWalk power walk challenges in aid of Breast Cancer charities.

As well as supplying the London MoonWalk held in Hyde Park, Hawthorns has also supplied the Edinburgh MoonWalk, and also the Bristol and Newcastle SunWalks.For the two MoonWalks and over 27,000 walkers, Hawthorns provided lighting, sound, staging, rigging and power distribution which was installed into De Boer's massive 'pink palace', a 150m x 60m Galaxy structure.

Three artics of lighting, sound, rigging, power distro and site services made their way to Hyde Park for the main structure and nine smaller ancillary marquees. Hawthorns used six main generators and over 10 miles of cable to supply the marquees, 280 toilets and numerous catering wagons with power.

Hawthorns also introduced t

Details
UK - Northern Light has teamed up with key industry suppliers and manufacturers to showcase a range of audio and lighting products during the Edinburgh Festivals.

Running over two days - 19 and 20 August - the events will take place in Edinburgh University's Old College Quad, which lies in the heart of the city centre. Demonstrations of equipment from a host of industry suppliers will run on both days between 3 and 6pm.

Barclay Dakers, head of retail at Northern Light, said: "We've been working with festival productions in Edinburgh since the company was set up almost forty years ago and we're well aware of how busy everyone is. Nonetheless, we felt we could provide some value for industry professionals by offering product showcases on dates where most people are mid-run. We've also tried to choose a time of day where people will be free or between shows."

Products

Details
Italy - An extensive Anolis architectural lighting scheme has been installed at the Millionaire Lounge Cafe, a new venue in the popular seaside town of Cattolica, Rimini.

The scheme was designed and specified by interior designer Pierpaolo Saioni who was working for independent owners, Magi, Gucciardi & Pipitone, and was supplied direct to the venue by Robe Multimedia, Anolis's Italian distributor.

The double-decked building stands right on the marina waterfront. It is styled with a contemporary deco twist and a distinct oceanic feel - almost like a liner - referencing a strong relationship to the Adriatic Sea. It features indoor dining and lounge rooms surrounded by airy outdoor terraces on both levels. It's open from 7 a.m. until late.

With many changing moods throughout the day Saioni wanted the environment to be able to shift along with the vibes, and good lighting is on

Details
Australia/UK - LSC Lighting Systems has been manufacturing lighting control consoles for just on 30 years. Continuing on with this tradition, the company is poised to release its latest offering Clarity - a powerful PC/MAC based lighting control package.

Clarity is feature packed and offers "seamless integrated control of intelligent lights, LED pixel mapping and Media servers, the likes of which has not been seen before".

Scheduled for release at PLASA 09 in London, the company has started releasing small snapshot videos revealing the power of Clarity to spark people's interest.

Having previewed at the InfoComm show in Orlando in June and also at Integrate in Sydney last month, the product has already drawn much interest from many respected operators and reviewers alike, says the company.

The first of the Clarity videos can be seen by visiting the company's webs

Details
UK - Cadac desks and the Ronnie Lane Mobile Studio in the 70s and 80s between them recorded some of Rock music's most iconic recordings. Just for the PLASA show, Cadac have put the S-Digital desk next to the old classic analogue Cadac so visitors can listen to the past and see and hear the future.

The S-Digital Live production desk is the culmination of 40+ years of audio design excellence brought into the digital age while retaining the looks, the feel, the sound and the mix of analogue, says the company.

The new Cadac Live1 series of desks priced under £8,000 bring Cadac audio quality to a whole new market for the first time. Designed and manufactured in the UK and packed with features, they include an innovative digital interface IO and networking capability, a unique feature on a desk at this level.

The digital interface and networking also makes an appearance on t

Details
UK - Organisers praised Showsec following a successful Camp Bestival this July. In the event's second year, audience numbers increased by 50% from 10,000 to 15,000.

Loud Sound's event director Jim King commented: "We were very happy with the operation undertaken by Showsec at Camp Bestival. They had the right staff with the right attitude for the show and helped make it a pleasant and relaxed experience for all concerned."

Showsec supplied over 250 SIA licensed event security professionals to Camp Bestival, a new style of family oriented festival sited at Lulworth Castle on the Dorset coastline. The festival is the brainchild of promoter Rob da Bank, produced in collaboration with Loud Sound, and its standing results from it setting out from the start to cater for families, rather than adding feature areas for children as an afterthought. The sit

Details
UK - Lighting and video designer for Maximo Park's latest sold-out UK tour is Stevie Marr who uses Martin MAC III Profiles, MAC 250 Washes and Atomic 3000 strobes in his design. Lighting supply is by Lite Alternative.

"I needed a quality laser effect without an actual laser because regulations prevent the crowd scanning effect that I really wanted," Marr says of his decision to eventually turn to the MAC III Profile for the look. Glen Johnson, who ran the show, recommended the MAC III for the job. They did that job and more."

Martin's 1500W MAC III Profile is being used extensively throughout the 2009 summer touring season (Elton John, Billy Joel, Beyonce, the Jonas Brothers to name a few).

"I have never used gobos with Maximo Park and have shied away from gobo looks for quite a few years now," explains Marr. "I'd never really seen a light that

Details
UK - White Light supported HaHaHammersmith, a fund-raising evening of comedy and music held by the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith in aid of the Lyric's creative learning department.

Those giving their time and talent to the evening included comedians Lee Mack, Jan Ravens, Shazia Mirza, Tom Basden and Ed Aczel, with music from the electric string quartet Stringfever and the BRIT-nominated band The Feeling.

To light the wide variety of performers, the Lyric's chief electrician Chris Harris turned to White Light for help. The company immediately offered support, supplying a rig of five Martin Mac250 Spots, five Martin Mac300 Wash, four ColorKinetics ColorBlaze 48 LED battens, and four GLP Impression moving LED washlights.

Harris was delighted by the performance of the lights, particularly when coupled with the theatre's recently-purchased ETC Eos console also supplied by Whi

Details
UK - 5 Star Cases will once again be displaying a selection of its 'standard' flightcase ranges available from the wide range of case styles and specifications, as well as highlighting its custom design and build capabilities.

A recent addition is the Touring Production Rack. Aimed at lighting, sound and theatre technicians, this foam-suspended rack system features a fold away TFT monitor and a keyboard drawer plus various 19" rack-bays. Primarily designed to house a Mac Pro, it can also be built to accommodate a range of PC system cabinets.

Also on display will be 5 Star's newly launched Arena range of general purpose road trunks. Arena trunks are available in three sizes, the Arena 600, 900 and 1200 from stock (black only) or to order in 5 Star's standard range of colours. All are finished with the standard Penn-Elcom hardware.

5 Star's Tour Grade is another popular p

Details
USA - In a fixed installation where high performing sound systems are critical, North Shore Cinemas, a Marcus Theatres Cinema in Mequon, Wisconsin has chosen Crown I-Tech HD amplifiers to power its UltraScreen theatres. The theatre is the first to deploy I-Tech HD to power its audio systems.

Mark Collins, director of projection technology for Marcus Theatres comments: "I know that a lot of the technology in the amplifier was built with the tour sound market in mind. However, I think this type of application is even more demanding than having the equipment on the road because the amplifiers are constantly running. For cinemas you need power and reliability. These amps give us a ton of headroom and with Crown you know you are getting a great product,"

The move to I-Tech HD also proved to be cost-effective because the additional power means each theatre needs fewer ampl

Details
UK - Cooper Controls has announced that MDG Fog Generators has been appointed as the exclusive distributor for the Zero 88 brand of performance theatrical dimmers and consoles in Canada. MDG is known within the entertainment industry as a leading manufacturer of fog and haze generators. MDG also has a distribution division that represents several well established performance lighting brands including Robert Juliat, Ayrton, and Rainbow.

"We are delighted to now have a brand of lighting consoles to offer to the Canadian market that complements our other brands, says Martin Michaud, president of MDG. "We approached Zero 88 a long time ago about becoming its distributor and are delighted that the product line has become available for us to represent. We are looking forward to presenting the range of exciting new consoles like the Orb and Jester TLXtra to Canada's lighting

Details
UK/The Netherlands - The HHB stand at IBC in Amsterdam will be the venue for a number of new product announcements.

Receiving their European debuts on the HHB stand are the new Wohler AMP1-16-3G AMP1-E16-3G compact audio monitoring systems. Occupying just a single unit of rack space and therefore ideal for use in applications where space is at a premium, both devices offer 16 channel, multi-rate HD/SD-SDI and AES audio monitoring, plus the facility to handle next generation 3G sources. The AMP1-E16-3G adds Dolby E and Dolby D capability.

Also new from Wohler is the RMT-170-HD, a 17" high-definition desktop/ rackmount LCD monitor featuring dual HD-SD/SDI inputs with loop through.

Another important new development being shown for the first time on the HHB stand is the M-48/S-4000D personal monitoring system from Roland. Using the REAC pipe and further expanding a range of

Details
UK - Richmond Theatre was built in 1899 as the Theatre Royal and Opera House. In June 2008 Maltbury were invited by Tim Foster architects to submit a proposal for the orchestra pit in-fill. This was part of a bigger project at the theatre and the deadline was very tight.

To simplify the changeover Maltbury strengthened the walls of the pit and created a load-bearing 'shelf' around the inside face. Decks were kept to a maximum of 2ft wide so they were easy to handle as they dropped into place on the ledge. No legs were needed. Maltbury also took on other specialist carpentry work on the site at short notice.

(Jim Evans)

Page 2370 of 3465

Latest Issue. . .