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UK - Raoul Simpson was recently commissioned to create two site specific light installations by curator Carl Slater for an exhibition entitled SITU, held from 18 August to 3 September at the Holy Trinity Church Tattershall, Lincolnshire.

The commissions are made up of two pieces, Moondial, a time-based light installation to the exterior of the bell tower and Kinetic Pixels, an interactive light installation sited either side of the main aisle in the church. Support for the projects was given by Richard Martin Lighting (IP65 Thomas Pixelline 1044, Ether-Lynx ArtNET), PRG Lighting (cabling) and ChamSys (control for Moondial).

(Jim Evans)

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USA - Advanced Media Design (AMD) has announced an "exclusive value added distribution relationship" with Aethra.

Advanced Media Design now distributes the entire Aethra video communication suite of products, including the high definition range.

"Although not as well known in the United States as it is in other parts of the world, Aethra is a world leader in our business, and we're excited to team with them and contribute to their outstanding success story by leveraging our own extensive value added distribution experience in the North American market," said Gareth Wade, vice-president of sales and marketing, AMD/MediaPOINTE. "Our new partnership supports Aethra's global goals and proves our commitment of bringing the best available products in the market to our dealers."

Marco Viezzoli, chief executive officer of Aethra said: "This is a ve

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UK - As most of the industry is aware by now, in Spring next year, Ofcom will be holding a 'beauty contest' for a band manager to manage the radio spectrum used by PMSE (Programme Making & Special Events) users. PLASA - the Professional Lighting and Sound Association - has recently announced its intention to apply for the role.

The best applicant will be awarded a package of radio frequencies or 'spectrum bands' that content producers depend on for the use of essential wireless equipment, including radio microphones, in-ear monitoring and wireless cameras.

For Ofcom, these 'beauty contests' are an unusual way of releasing spectrum. Generally speaking, bands that are 'freed up' for whatever reason are auctioned and awarded to the highest bidder. However, Ofcom has recognised that this would not work in the case of the Programme Making and Special Events (PMSE) sector, which wou

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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 - Trumpet player Randy Brecker has adopted the DPA 4099 clip mic for his international tours. Brecker put the mic through its paces during a two-week tour which took place in Lisbon, Singapore and Finland.

"It's the first time I've ever had a so-called 'clip on' that not only covers the full sonic range of the horn but, due to the ingenious bell-clip, has virtually no valve noise whatsoever," he says. "I think it actually improves my playing. This tour was acoustic, and in that kind of situation I would never have used clip-ons in the past."

(Jim Evans)

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France - Musique Et Son, Martinique's APG distributor, was in charge of the sound system for President Sarkozy's visit on 26 June at Fort de France. APG4000, DS15S and DS12S loudspeaker systems were employed for this presidential visit.

(Jim Evans)

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The Netherlands - There were two significant but very different firsts for Mojo Barriers at this year's Lowlands Festival. It was the first time the Gatekeeper, Mojo's new intelligent turnstile system had been integrated into the festival's barrier system, and the first Lowlands Festival for Cees Muurling since being appointed managing director of the company.

The three day festival in Holland brought together 55,000 people to enjoy the festival experience with music from the likes of Arctic Monkeys, The Prodigy, Kaiser Chiefs and Snoop Dogg.

This year, Mojo Barriers' Gatekeeper was used for the first time at the festival as part of the entry and exit system for the main stage front audience pens. The Gatekeeper's turnstile system counted the number of people entering and leaving the enclosed pens immediately in front of the stage throughout the day to ensure the

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UK - Lighting rental company Lite Alternative has invested in a new Kinesys K2 automation control system which has gone out on Depeche Mode's Touring The Universe world tour and the stadium leg of the Coldplay Viva La Vida world tour - both with lighting designs by Paul Normandale.

This reflects the growing trend for designers to incorporate movement as another visual dynamic into their shows, requiring accurate and often subtle control to change the nature and feel of the performance space.

The first Lite Alt Kinesys purchase was a fixed speed Elevation system with a Smart 8 8-channel hoist controller and Vector PC-based automation control. This was utilised for Keane's autumn 2008 tour, to facilitate Rob Sinclair's design. It then went straight out on the Kings of Leon, a co-design between Ali Bale and Paul Normandale.

(Jim Evans)

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UK - Loudspeaker manufacturer Funktion One has announced that it will introduce three new products at this year's PLASA Show (13-16 September, Earls Court, London).

The F101 loudspeaker enclosure comprising 1 x 10" bass/mid driver and 1" high frequency device is a larger version of the successful F81. It offers exceptional clarity and imaging with a sensitivity of101dB for 1 watt at 1 metre which is unprecedented for this class of loudspeaker. The F101 neatly fills a niche between the F81 and the Resolution 1 being ideal for anything from a Studio reference monitor to AV presentations and theatre.

The Resolution 3 is an all in one 3-way enclosure comprising a special horn loaded 18" bass loudspeaker with 5" voice coil, a new Axhead loaded 10" loudspeaker for midrange and a 1" compression driver for high frequencies. The mid/high section can be rot

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USA - Grammy Award-winning rockers KoRn visited the motorcycle rally in Sturgis, South Dakota on 3 August, 2009 for a concert at the Full Throttle Saloon. Jacksonville, Illinois-based Mason Sound provided sound reinforcement for the event, including their XLC system from Electro-Voice.

Mason Sound's Todd Spangenberg comments: "We do the stage at Full Throttle Saloon every year in Sturgis, South Dakota and have a good working relationship with Mike Ballard, the owner of Full Throttle. This year Mike explained we'd need to bring in a bigger system as he'd booked KoRn to play the outdoor amphitheatre behind the bar. We knew our Tour Grade (TG) powered XLC rig would be perfect for providing the perfect balance of punch and precision."

Mason Sound's original spec for the event included 36 XLC127DVX loudspeakers (18 per side), but height restrictions limited the hangs to 1

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USA - John McKernon and City Theatrical have announced that Lightwright 5, the newest version of the software for managing entertainment lighting paperwork, begins shipping 1 September 2009.

New in Lightwright 5 is Lightwright/Vectorworks Data Exchange, a "new and easy way" to share data with Vectorworks Spotlight 2009. This allows lighting designers, for the first time, to make changes in either programme and to have those changes be automatically updated in the other programme, eliminating importing, exporting, and merging, and saving designers time and trouble.

Some of Lightwright 5's new features include: any number of show files can be open at the same time; worksheet reconciliation compares and synchronizes show files; share files and new fast and flexible work notes via built-in email; a drag and drop color scroll design window, and automatic dimmer load balan

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USA - Tannoy's QFlex digitally steerable, multi-channel speaker arrays have been installed in the Galesburg, Illinois' First Christian Church where they provide a compact and versatile solution for a challenging acoustic environment.

With nearly three seconds of RT, and the option of installing acoustic treatments off the table, owing to both budgetary and aesthetic concerns, First Christian needed a solution that would provide a rock solid fix without calling attention to itself.

"The Tannoy solution was absolutely a perfect fit for this application," says Trent Keeling, VP and co-owner of Peoria based, Advanced Audio and Lighting Systems. "The intelligibility factor was 'off the charts' poor. There was such a huge loss of intelligibility in the room that people were literally walking up to speak into a microphone to talk to one another."

"It took t

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Denmark - Owned by Danish national broadcaster DR and costing over US$300m, the new DR Konserthuset is one of the most expensive live music venues ever built. A state-of-the-art facility which offers four performance halls and a home to the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, it features cutting-edge technical and acoustic specifications.

A major requirement of the venue is hosting a wide variety of productions but, at the same time, addressing that most thorny of issues - amplifying classical and operatic music, while making the audience feel that what they're hearing is purely acoustic. With Yamaha digital mixing engines at the heart of its two main spaces, this has been very successfully achieved.

The two spaces in question are Studio 1 and Studio 2, seating audiences of up to 1,800 and 500 respectively. Both feature Yamaha DME units, a DME64N in Studio 1 and DME24N in Stud

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Switzerland - The fourth St. Gallen Festspiele, including a classical open air opera, has earned its place among the finest of Swiss festivals and this year the production of Saint-Saëns' Samson and Delilah took centre stage in front of the backdrop of the Abbey of St. Gallen.

The monastery of St. Gallen is one of the few concert venues in Switzerland where the orchestra is positioned in an enclosed booth backstage, so sound has to be reinforced one hundred percent towards the audience. To pull off such a feat it is essential to have excellent sound quality, on a par with the carefully controlled acoustics in an auditorium.

M&M Hire AG, together with Habegger AG, the contractor, and Daniel Meyer from 2M Audio, d&b audiotechnik's distributor in Switzerland, provided sound engineering and acoustics expertise at the open-air festival for the fourth time in a row.

Countl

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USA - In one of the highest-profile North American concert events of the season, the 2009 No Doubt Summer Tour culminated 11 August with a show at the Neal S. Blaisdel Arena in Honolulu, Hawaii. Building on its successful working relationship with No Doubt lead singer Gwen Stefani from her solo tours, rental firm Sound Image of Escondido, California supplied a JBL Vertec line array system for the tour, which was produced by Live Nation and featured special-guest Paramore and either The Sounds, Janelle Monae or Bedouin Soundclash as the opening act.

Commencing on 3 May at the Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford, New Jersey, the tour reunited one of the most successful rock groups from the 1990s, whose 1995 release Tragic Kingdom has sold more than 16m copies to date. In recent years, Stefani has enjoyed tremendous success as a solo artist. Sound Image supp

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USA - American Music & Sound has confirmed that Phonic has joined the AM&S distribution network effective 1 September 2009. "Phonic has a fantastic Pro Audio and MI product lineup," says Lynn Martin, president of American Music & Sound. "We are very excited to bring them on board, and we are looking forward to great achievements with Phonic."

"Phonic's success in the US in the past few years outgrew our standalone Tampa office," says Stephen Wang, Phonic's chairman and CEO: "and prompted us to search for a local partner able to provide even greater support and faster fulfillment to users. American Music & Sound was chosen for its track record of brand development and its established distribution network that covers not only musical instruments but also the installed market. Phonic looks forward to expanding our US distribution with a trusted pa

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UK - Products from the AXYS Scope and Source ranges will not only be on display at PLASA09, but Duran Audio will also have a demo room available for potential clients to listen to the products. Demonstrations will take place twice daily in the Westminster Room at 12 noon and 4pm.

AXYS G2 Loudspeakers have been designed with the theatre, places of worship, corporate and live music industries in mind. The full range models have active three-way designs which offer a smooth extended high frequency response. The result is a big 'hi-fi' sound which is achieved without compromising the power or dispersion characteristics required of a product in this class, says the company.

All AXYS G2 Series loudspeakers are self powered with built-in DSP and include eight presets, switchable under software control, over an RS485 network or directly from the rear panel of the loudspeaker.

(Jim E

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UK/Australia - In a prelude to the release of its new lighting and media control software, LSC has been revealing some of the power of its new product LSC Clarity via short videos on the company's website.

The first four videos released over the last few weeks cover Copy and Pasting, LED matrix control, media server integration and also Freesets - a new powerful innovative extension to the humble Preset.

The fifth video in the series released this week shows the power of Fixture Substitution built into LSC Clarity and further video releases are planned prior to the product's formal release.

LSC Clarity will be officially released at PLASA09. The videos can be seen by visiting the company's website at www.lsclighting.com

(Jim Evans)

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UK - On their return to Football's Premier League, Burnley FC have treated supporters at their 22,000-capacity Turf Moor stadium to a fully integrated digital network public address system that is highly-intelligible and PA/VA compliant.

Acoustic consultants AMS Acoustics, had already implemented an earlier first phase upgrade last season to bring three stands into VA compliance. During the course of this exercise the capture of a full range of measurements was required and the resultant data, after analysis, was used as the cornerstone for an entirely new design the following year.

During the short close season AMS returned with ETA Sound to implant a complete Harman Pro solution, using a fibre-based signal network that would extend to the three main stands - the North (James Hargreaves) stand, the East (Jimmy McIlroy) stand and South (Bob Lord) stand.

The West (David Fishw

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UK/The Netherlands - A new and advanced hoist motor control system will be unveiled at PLASA09, where XLNT Advanced Technologies launches its PowerMotion DS8 Pro and Pro Plus Series Solid State Motor Controllers.

The DS8 Pro Series "provides every essential option for controlling standard electrical entertainment chain hoists", with more advanced options and total multi-unit flexibility available in the Pro Plus version, including the separate DSR 8x8 64-motor hand remote. Both types offer a major benefit to professional riggers - maintenance-free reliability thanks to the solid state design, says the company.

Designed primarily for top-flight rental applications but equally suited to fixed installations, the DS8 Series is designed around the practical experience and requirements of leading riggers, to the rigging industry's highest standards of safety, protection an

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Serbia - Just in time for the World Student Games, which were held in Serbia in July, a new sports hall opened in Smederevo. The new 3,500-seat hall meets all the demands of today's major sporting events. Mega Music, Dynacord's partner in Serbia, was responsible for the installation of the sound system. Together with the new hall's management, Mega Music opted for a Promatrix 4000 system, all-in-one solution.

More than 160 Dynacord DL 96A and DL 84 ceiling loudspeakers round off the installation to ensure homogeneous coverage not only in the main hall but also throughout what is now Serbia's top indoor sports complex in areas such as the bowling alley, shooting gallery, passageways, staircases, and changing rooms.

Mega Music's Davor Tomovic comments: "We had meticulously prepared the whole installation in advance and the system worked flawlessly from the start. All we nee

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UK - Arcstream AV was commissioned by music video directors Between the Eyes to create the visual laser effects in the video for Sugababes new single Get Sexy.

The video sees the singers enclosed in a cylinder of mirrors and Arcstream AV had to devise a way of creating the special effects within the cylinder. By installing a 10 watt RGB laser and diffraction mirrors within the cylinder and feeding the lasers and a camera through a small aperture in the side of the cylinder, the action within the enclosed area could be captured without disrupting the laser stream.

Wayne Haxton, director of Arcstream AV explained: "Capturing the images was a challenge due to the tight space restrictions, so we used defraction mirrors to bounce the laser beams within the cylinder allowing them to be directed."

(Jim Evans)

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