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The Netherlands - The audacious, ambitious in-the-round touring spectacle that is Britney Spears' Circus World Tour has been wowing fans in the UK before heading off on its latest international leg in Europe, North America, down under and beyond. Literally at the heart of the giant production is a mammoth circular Stealth LED video curtain, raised and lowered with millimetre precision several times every night by an XLNT Advanced Technologies CyberHoist motion control system.

The complex, three-ring, non-stop show is a cornucopia of aerial action, with acrobatics, nine automated lifts, and a central 5.18m (17ft) diameter rotating device, all contributing to the Circus theme, and with over 100 lift cues there's not a moment to draw breath.

The concept is the work of co-lig

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UK - Electro-Voice line array systems have made their way down to the extreme south-west of England, recently appearing at the annual summer picnic festival for the Plymouth Jazz Club. This concert marked the debut for a new XLD system purchased by Light Years Light and Sound, complete with EV amplifiers, system controllers and microphones.

Light Years Light and Sound, from Tavistock, has been servicing the events of the Plymouth Jazz Club for many years, and chose the annual outdoor festival at National Trust property Saltram House as the first outing for its all-new EV inventory.

"Our old point-source system just ran out of steam," says Anthony Plumridge from Light Years. "The criteria I had for a new system was that it should be compact, quick and easy to set up, with superb sound quality. We went over to Shuttlesound's demo facility in south London and liste

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Benelux - ADB Lighting has unveiled full details of the new products that will add up to a high profile appearance at IBC 2009 at the RAI Centre in Amsterdam this month.

The company will launch six new products for the television studio market. Heading the list is the ALC4 LED Cyclorama fixture, billed as "the first of its kind in the world". With four advanced 40W Philips Lexel RGB+White LED light sources, one ALC4 can deliver the equivalent of 1250W of halogen power for an actual power consumption of just 160W, says the company.

The cool-running DMX-controlled ALC4 - which can be floor mounted or hung - provides over 1m shades of colour, including pure yellow and soft ambers, and for extra ease of use provides seven pre-set white light options from 2,700°K to 6,700°K. A precision optical design ensures smooth, homogenous, even light output with no coloured

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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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USA - Dating back to 1904, the Ravinia Festival is the oldest outdoor music venue in the US, hosting a series of marquee performances every summer from June to September. Ravinia offers open-air concert experiences within its park-like 36-acre site near the shores of Lake Michigan, including the summer residency of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Ravinia Music Director James Conlon.

While the site's 3,200 seat main pavilion could well be called the centerpiece of its lush, tree-lined setting, Ravinia's lawn is a place where concert-goers are encouraged to claim a space with an outspread blanket and have a picnic. One of the few venues in the country that permit full meals and alcohol to be brought in and consumed at its concerts, Ravinia is accordingly visited by patrons toting lawn chairs, coolers packed with food, lawn accessories of all descriptio

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Germany - To commemorate its 15th anniversary, Meyer Sound Germany will host an industry-wide open house event at its headquarters in Montabaur on 9 and 10 October.

The audio-focused programme will bring together touring, installation, and event production professionals, and will highlight a range of technical presentations and discussion panels on "the hottest topics in the professional audio business, such as the emerging IEEE 802.1 Audio/Video Bridging (AVB) networking standard".

A highlight will be a demonstration of the self-powered JM-1P arrayable loudspeaker, a system designed to provide precise and seamless coverage in tight-packed arrays.

In addition to exchanging industry information, attendees are invited to take a close look at the latest developments from Meyer Sound's active R&D department at the Berkeley, Calif. headquarters, and join a behind-the-sc

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The Netherlands/UK - Duran Audio has significantly strengthened its Sales and Marketing team with several new appointments.

Max Lindsay-Johnson has been appointed as international sales and marketing manager. He will be based at the company's new R&D and production facility in Zaltbommel (Netherlands). "Its an exciting time for Duran Audio, with everything that has been put in place over the past few years, and I feel it's a real opportunity to now capitalise on these foundations," says Lindsay-Johnson. "Seldom do you get an opportunity to be involved in something so technologically far reaching, with such an inspirational team of people."

Lindsay-Johnson was the former managing director of Harman Pro UK. In his new post he will endeavour to further develop the worldwide distribution network for the AXYS brand, whilst offering support to Duiran's current pa

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Australia - ARX Systems has announced the appointment of Rio de Janeiro based Sterling Do Brasil as its distributor for Brazil.

ARX managing director Colin Park comments: "Nestor Almeida, director of Sterling Do Brasil told me he is especially excited by the prospects of introducing our USB DI Series products and the new USB I/O Universal Transformer Isolated USB Interface to the Brazilian market, as well as the MSX series of Signal Distribution products, the AudiBox series of audio toolbox essentials, and the rest of the ARX signal processing range."

Alongside ARX, Sterling Do Brasil currently represents BARIX, Gefen, AVT Audio Video Technologies and BEL Digital Audio.

(Jim Evans)

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USA - When the University of North Carolina School of the Arts' (UNCSA) School of Design and Production ran into a unique challenge for its recent performance of Sunday in the Park with George, it turned to Aviom's 6416Y2 A-Net Interface Cards for a solution.

The School of Design and Production teaches students to manage all aspects of a theater production by giving them hands-on experience. The school's five theaters do not have permanent sound systems. Students design and install a custom system from the ground up for each production.

To complete these builds, students rent items from the school's equipment shop, a process that mirrors that of professional audio rental shops. What made this production different from other musicals produced at UNCSA, however, was the unusual set design made up entirely of various-sized, rear projection screens. These screens, positione

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Czech republic / UK - Robe will launch several exciting new products at PLASA 2009, in anticipation of a busy year ahead. The company's R&D department has been focused on developing the new generation of ROBIN (Robe Innovative Technology) products - the first in the world to utilise the new plasma lamp technology. The Robin range consists of the ROBIN 300 Plasma Spot and Plasma Wash, the ROBIN 300E Spot, ROBIN 300E Wash and the ROBIN 300E Beam.

The ROBIN 300 Plasma Spot - the first of the plasma lamp based fixtures from Robe - offers a colour rendering index (CRI) of 94, an extremely flat and even light beam (1.3 : 1) and a lifespan of 10,000 hours, say Robe. The new plasma lamp source offers an electronic dimming capacity from 100 - 20% and a semi-hot restrike function (of less than 120th of a second for full lamp brightness to return after shutting off). Other features include

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UK - Delta Sound has invested in Navigator Systems HireTAG automatic equipment tracking system, an integrated RFID solution specifically designed for the events rental industry.

"We've been looking for a quick and easy way to track our ever increasing stock of equipment," says Delta managing director Paul Keating. "We believe that HireTAG is the ideal solution for us."

Each item of stock is individually tagged with easily fitted, specially designed components that have a unique ID, with a HireTAG Arch placed in a convenient location within Delta's warehouse.

Items are walked through the Arch, either singly or in a flight case, unique radio signals are read by the Arch's structure, processed and recorded on easy-to-use Rental Management Software.

"Although RFID tags have been around for some time, not only was the cost prohibitive, but the high meta

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South Africa - System Solutions, part of the Gearhouse South Africa Group of Companies, has been awarded a 39 million South African Rand contract by the City of Johannesburg to supply and install a High Definition IPTV, digital signage video distribution system as well as two large format, high resolution outdoor LED screens at the brand new flagship Soccer City Stadium venue.

Offering a 95,000 capacity, Soccer City is located near Soweto, and will see a major part of the 2010 FIFA World Cup action, including the Final and the tournament's Opening and Closing Ceremonies.

The two 86sq.m Lighthouse R16i/o-II screens will comprise 224 lightweight LED panels, fed by a Vista Spyder video control system, running in conjunction with Christie Digital's newly released Vista Universal Routing Switcher (URS-1608). The control system has been designed for maximum flexibility, with all com

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Rwanda - With the help of Brighton-based studio manager Dicken Marshall, a Rwandan charity has built a recording studio to help improve the lives of genocide survivors, choosing to install two Allen & Heath ZED-R16 Firewire recording mixers in the new facilities.

Solace Ministries was established in 1996 to help provide comfort to widows and orphans of the 1994 atrocities through counselling, childcare and development support, healthcare, farming associations and supportive programmes.

"Music is a fundamental part of Rwandan life, and for many people it is one of the few comforts they have left," explains Marshall.

Marshall decided to offer his expertise to provide a recording space for the charity's music development programme, which includes a full choir. He raised funds in the UK to buy all the necessary equipment, personally installed it, and trained the venue'

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Germany - German rental company and L-Acoustics Rental Network Agent Sirius Showequipment AG provided an L-Acoustics K1/Kudo system for Pyromusikale 2009, three firework displays with musical accompaniment at the Tempelhof Airport, Berlin. Sirius is one of several international companies participating in the L-Acoustics K1/Kudo pilot program.

The total system provided by Sirius comprised 48 K1 line source cabinets, 12 K1 SB subs, 72 Kudo units, 24 SB28 subs and six ARCs, all driven by 78 LA8 amplified controllers in LA-RAK touring racks.

The challenge of this unique event was to synchronise the three firework displays with live jazz, pop, rock and classical music across the large area of the former Berlin airport. "The four K1 towers were very far away from each other," says Wolfgang "Schabbach" Neumann, CEO of Sirius Showequipment. "The K1/Kudo system

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Spain - Renovation of an early 20th century building which was once the main slaughterhouse in Valencia recently transformed the building into a point of reference for cultural and athletic facilities in Valencia's capital city. In keeping with current demands and needs, the complex's nearly 13,000sq.m have been appropriately refurbished to adapt to a variety of athletic and cultural activities.

Among many attributes the complex boasts a magnificent multi-purpose hall with room for more than 300 people and an integral professional sound system provided by D.A.S. The system was installed by Megafonía Torres, S.L., industry pioneers with over 60 years' of professional experience in the sector.

Like many auditoriums or halls with a similar layout and acoustic profile, the use of compact array speakers was an ideal set-up in order to achieve optimal levels of sound pressure and c

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UK - Allen & Heath is now shipping a host of new interface cards for the iLive and iLive-T series digital consoles including the RAB2 remote audio interface card host; the Mini Multi-Out Card for ADAT, Aviom, iDR 8-bus and Hearbus; the EtherSound Network Card; Allen & Heath's proprietary ACE (Audio and Control over Ethernet) Card for 64-channel bi-directional link; and the new MADI 64 Channel Multi-link Card.

RAB2 is a remote audio card enabling iLive digital mixing systems to work with a variety of common audio interface and networking standards. The new module has two front-loading, easy fit slots for plug-in options, which are auto-detected by the system firmware. The first port allows alternative standards to connect the iLive MixRacks and Control Surfaces, while the second port is used for system expansion, such as linking to secondary FOH/monitors consoles, feeding broadca

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UK - Working at height on trussing grids has always been a slow and potentially risky business - and show technicians are often impeded by the use of harnesses and dual lanyards.

Hall Stage is pleased to announce the arrival of IAStage's new product line -Truss-Mounted Wire Tension Grid systems.

This innovative system is a modified, near standard lighting grid consisting of truss and SkyDeck TWG panels. The standard grid is actually transformed into a flexible working platform that provides access to lighting and sound equipment as well as a perfect floor for riggers to work from, complete with handrails and safety gates.

SkyDeck panels are modular which makes them ideal for touring shows, as the panels are easily adaptable to fit any type of truss system. Focusing a show will be more efficient and trouble free since the electrician can simply walk across the whole rig, says

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UK - Following its initial preview at InfoComm 2009, Stardraw.com has announced the official release on 1 September of its latest system control application, Stardraw Control 2010. Control 2010 is a significant step up from the previous 2007 version, the company says, offering users greater flexibility, improved User Interfaces (UIs) and the ability to exploit the ever-increasing processing power of modern hardware.

Control 2010 is also fully compatible with 2007, so all current projects can easily be transferred to the new platform and benefit from its improved features and capabilities.

The Control 2010 platform includes a generic HTTP, or WebServices driver. This means that anything that talks HTTP can talk to any system controlled by Stardraw Control, anywhere. For example, you can use any browser on any device anywhere on the planet as a UI - that includes Smartphones of

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Italy / USA - With industry attention focused on finding green alternatives for installations, Powersoft, the Italian manufacturer of digital power amplifiers, is leading the way through its green approach to the design and manufacturing of its amplifiers. In the USA, the company reports that its ecology consciousness effort, high-quality manufacturing and high quality sound, is appealing to LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified design engineers and consultants looking to specify equipment that not only reduces the carbon footprint of an installation while providing excellent performance, but positively affects the long-term bottom line.

"More and more of the projects we are working on are requesting that we meet requirements for LEED-credit for facilities that are being built," says Vance Breshears, LEED accredited design consultant for Acoust

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Europe - Biamp Systems has named Matthias "Mex" Exner the Western European Regional Manager as part of the International Sales team. In his role, Exner will oversee Belgium, Finland, France, Gibraltar, Greenland, Holland, Iceland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Monaco, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Svalbard and Jan Mayen Islands, Scandinavia and the United Kingdom.

"We are pleased to have Mex join the Biamp team," said Graeme Harrison, VP of International Sales, Biamp Systems. "His experience in audio engineering will be a major asset to our sales force. He also carries a great wealth of knowledge and experience about DSPs, which will prove both helpful and beneficial to our customer base worldwide."

Exner joins the Biamp team from Tannoy Ltd, where he held various positions, including international sales manager, export manager for Western Europe commercia

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USA - Loud Technologies Inc today announced the promotion of Adrian Bell to the position of vice-president, Corporate and Marketing Communications. In this expanded role, Adrian will lead integrated marketing across all Loud brands, as well as manage the Company's corporate communications function.

"Loud's brands are revered for their market-leading positions, and we are committed to delivering even stronger marketing support to our dealers and distributors in the future," commented Rodney Olson, Loud CEO. "What's more, under Adrian's leadership our partners will see tighter integration of our marketing efforts with overall product development and sales efforts."

Bell reports to Rodney Olson and is based in the Company's Woodinville, Washington headquarters.

(Lee Baldock)

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UK - Defying the economic gloom mongers and with more than a week still to go, PLASA09 pre-show registrations currently match last year's record-breaking total of 15,000, the organisers report.

There will be more for visitors to see, too, as a further 10 new exhibitors have signed up for the show at Earls Court on September 13-16, bringing the total of new and returning exhibitors to 50. The seminar program has also been expanded, with two new audio-related sessions on Tuesday, 15 September.

Another major new addition to the show is the Supply2.gov.uk Lounge, a central feature area giving exhibitors and visitors the chance to get advice from Supply2.gov.uk - the portal that helps SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) gain access to public sector contract opportunities, typically worth up to £100,000.

PLASA is investing in this new feature area to raise awareness am

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