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UK - The newest addition to the Audient console family, the Zen is the focus of a UK tour organised by distributor SCV London, where the next stop will be music technology retailer Digital Village in Clapham, SW London.

At the 23 September event at Digital Village, visitors will have chance to pick the brains of Audient's product specialist, Steve Flower.

Starting at 2pm and running through till early evening, Zen will be on show alongside other products from the Audient range. Flower says: "Zen is such a great console, it's important to get as many people in front of it as possible. We're looking forward to getting users excited about using Zen to lift their whole experience of recording up to a new level."

Launched at this year's Pro Light & Sound exhibition in Fra

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Denmark - The MAC 250 Beam is a new member of Martin Professional's popular 250 watt series, a punchy and compact beam fixture that generates variably sized pencil beams as well as wash effects via a motorised frost filter. It is available as an easy and inexpensive upgrade that installs in only five minutes on any existing MAC 250 Wash fixture.

The MAC 250 Beam upgrade kit consists of a new front module with micro Fresnel lens and a set of six beam effect gobos/apertures. It converts any standard Martin Professional MAC 250 Wash into a MAC 250 Beam in a matter of minutes, bringing new life and value to existing MAC 250 Wash fixtures for very little cost, says the company.

The MAC 250 Beam's intense light output and tight beam make for a powerful mid air effect. The output is optimised via a glass cold light reflector.

A large diameter micro Fresnel lens produces a distincti

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UK - D.L. Electronics, Northern Ireland, has recently installed a Duran Audio AXYS Intellivox system in St Patrick's Church, Dungannon.

St Patrick's was designed by J.J.McCarthy, one of the most notable Irish architects in the 19th century, and the building was dedicated on Trinity Sunday, 11 June 1876. The church is 130ft long, 65ft wide and 60ft high and the new sound system, installed by D.L Electronics, was part of a £5 million refurbishment of the church which started in 2007. The project was not only about refurbishment and repair, but also a work of restoration and conservation.

David Dalzell, owner of D.L.Electronics reports: "We have been installing Intellivox products in highly reverberant spaces now since 2002, in my opinion it's the only choice when you're faced with a difficult acoustic. Their ability to steer the beam onto the audience and reduce the r

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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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The Netherlands - Madonna's Sticky and Sweet tour was a dazzling show even by the usual technically pace-setting standards of Madonna's live productions. A large XLNT CyberHoist intelligent motor system was responsible both for animating the opening seconds of the show and a multitude of complex screen and lighting movements throughout the evening.

Showcasing mostly the same material as the 2008 tour, Madonna added some new numbers, a standout moment being a tribute to Michael Jackson, with one of her dancers performing the Moonwalk in full Jacko regalia.

The largest screens were controlled by XLNT's InMotion3D software running on a CyberHoist FPS Full Production System with dual Apple MacPros, in the hands of senior programmer and project manager Martin Hoop or his deputy Erik Gielen. The action began with a giant video cube that opened the show displaying a replica of

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Europe - Lighting Designer Paul Normandale has upped the lighting fixture quantities for a series of European stadium shows for Coldplay's ongoing Viva La Vida tour, including a conversion of eight MAC 250 Washes into new MAC 250 Beams.

Martin Professional's new MAC 250 Beam upgrade kit converts any standard Martin MAC 250 Wash into a punchy beam fixture that projects powerful variably sized pencil beams.

Normandale, who serves as production designer handling lights, set and video on the tour, chose to use the MAC 250 Beam because of the outdoor set's 180ft wide span, which allows the 250 Beams to do aerial work as well as cross light.

Located on the stage floor on side wings, the 250 Beams provide an intense light output and tight beam for a powerful mid air effect. The upgrade kit includes a micro Fresnel lens and set of six beam effect gobos/apertures and only tak

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Czech Republic - Robe Lighting has just completed the latest phase of a substantial ongoing expansion project. This includes the acquisition of PCB production company Dioflex, its long term electronic parts supplier, based in Roznov near to Robe's factory facility in Valasske Mezirici.

Robe's has also invested 3.5m Euros in building a completely new logistics centre and in doubling its warehouse space to nearly 4000sq.m.

The latest factory expansion project houses a purpose-built plastics moulding centre which covers about 1000sq.m, equipped with all necessary machinery involved in this process.

This has all been achieved by reinvesting the company's profits, supported by a strong operating cashflow, says the company.

Dioflex comes complete with 30 skilled employees, approximately 2000sq.m of premises and all the modern technology and fully automated machining processes ne

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USA - American DJ has turned up the juice on LED par cans with the introduction of two new ultra-bright models, the PROPAR 56RGB and PROPAR 56CWWW, an RGB colour-mixing and warm/cool white unit respectively. The brightest - and flagship - members of the company's Pro series of professional LED par cans, the PROPAR 56RGB and PROPAR 56CWWW are each powered by a massive arsenal of 36 super-high-output 1-watt LEDs.

Combining this output with professional features and a sleek black finish, the PROPAR 56 units are designed for theatres, music concerts and stage performances of all types.

The PROPAR 56RGB will "bring a rainbow to any stage with its ability to create thousands of colours through smooth RGB mixing". Equipped with 12 red, 12 green and 12 blue 1-watt LEDs, it can change colours fast or slow, strobe in any colour, and perform gradual fades via 0-100% electronic

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China - Located in Jiangbei City, the Chongqing Grand Theatre is home to a 1850-capacity (Grand) and a 930-capacity (Medium) theatre. L-Acoustics loudspeaker systems have been installed as part of an upgrade, supplied by Chinese distributor Rightway Audio.

The larger of the two spaces has been designed as a leading world-class venue capable of hosting opera, dance drama, ballet, symphony and other large-scale variety shows, while the smaller theatre focuses on small and medium-size performances, such as dance, drama, modern drama, vocal performances, orchestral music, chamber music, folk music and so on.

In the Grand Theatre, left and right arrays each encompassing 14 Kiva ultra compact line source array cabinets with four Kilo low frequency extensions have been flown on either side of the proscenium arch. An additional two L-Acoustics full-frequency 115XHiQ cabinets have also

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UK - Sennheiser's charity golf days have become an annual highlight with the company, its customers and suppliers alike. As well as providing an excellent way to informally discuss both business and pleasure, they also have the very serious purpose of raising significant amounts of money for good causes.

10 July this year saw around 100 Sennheiser customers and staff take part in the 14th charity golf day held at Mill Ride Golf Course, Ascot, with a remarkable £17,000 being raised for the Caron Keating Foundation.

Set up in memory of late television presenter Caron Keating, the Foundation raises money to offer financial support to carers, complementary healing practitioners and support groups dealing with cancer patients, as well as individuals and families who are affected by the disease and to cancer charities in the ongoing quest for early diagnosis and effective trea

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South Africa - The third grandMA2 introduction training session within the past two months was hosted at DWR Distribution in Strijdom Park, Johannesburg.

The companies Congo Blue, Black Coffee, Selbys and the AV Alliance were represented at the most recent course and experienced first-hand the functionalities of the grandMA2 console, which had recently landed in South Africa.

"Some guys who attended commented how it opened their eyes," said Nick Britz from DWR who ran the sessions. "They were initially scared thinking it was too involved. Soon they saw just how easy it was once they knew their way around it."

Brandon Bunyan from Black Coffee was accompanied by colleagues Michael Swart and Grant Leonard. "The course was great and very inspirational," said Bunyan. "My guys are psyched, but as we've not taken ownership of our newly purchased g

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UK - When the owners of London's Regent Street, The Crown Estate, decided to open a pedestrianised food quarter in adjoining Heddon Street, a quality background music system was high on the list of items needed to create an ambient atmosphere, and first stop was the Bose store on Regent Street for advice.

Bose store manager, Alex Richardson, referred The Crown Estate and its partner the Regent Street Association on to his colleagues in the professional systems division and it wasn't long before a full design and specification was drawn up to meet the very specific requirements for the area. Not only did the system have to meet the creative and operational requirements of the members of the Regent Street Association in Heddon Street, but Westminster City Council's stringent planning guidelines and the aesthetic requirements of the Regent Street brand, also needed to be accommodat

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Lebanon - The Baalbeck International Festival is one of the oldest and most prestigious festival in the Middle East. It has been taking place annually during July and August since 1956 within the Roman Acropolis in the ruins of the Baalbek Temples in Lebanon. The temples in Baalbek are not only the largest Roman temples ever built, but also among the best preserved and considered as one of the wonders of the ancient world.

Dramatic lighting and the historic setting provide the background for the variety of performances at the festival, entertaining over 40,000 visitors each summer. The 2009 festival highlight was a performance by Deep Purple on the steps of the ancient Courtyard of the Two Temples to an audience of 7000. Roger Bakhos of Lumen Art in Beirut designed the lighting for the 'stage' using an arsenal of Clay Paky fixtures.

32 Alpha Beam 300, 16 Alpha Beam 700,

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UK - Martin Professional heads to PLASA09 armed with a new and rapidly expanding range of LED lighting solutions. On display will be Martin's first LED moving heads, new LED video solutions, and new LED luminaires for indoor and outdoor use. A new compact beam fixture in the MAC family will also feature. Also on display will be a host of lighting and video control solutions, as well as updates in the Jem and Magnum line of fog and haze machines.

The MAC 401 Dual is a versatile LED moving head washlight with an innovative double-sided design that gives it flexible dual functionality, for example as a double washlight or beam reflective mirror. The 401 Dual's colour mixing system fully blends colours at the source before they leave each lens, eliminating the problem of rainbow shadows and the messy multi-colour lens looks of traditional LED fixtures.

The MAC 301 Wash is an LED

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USA - Phil Mercer has been appointed as the new MD of XL Video's Los Angeles office.

After five years on the project management team at XL Video UK, Mercer is looking forward to taking up the new challenges and "Exciting opportunity" of heading up the LA operation.

"My role is to ensure that the rigorous quality standards for which XL Video has become known in Europe for providing the best equipment, personnel and service are also operational in the US," he says, "This will enable us to offer all our clients - particularly those touring across both continents - an international continuity second to none."

The LA facility based in North Hollywood is currently working on touring shows with U2, Kings of Leon, Jay-Z, Pink, Blink 182, Staind and The Killers. Other recent work includes Seal, Coldplay, Depeche Mode, Lady Gaga, Sunday in the Park with G

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UK - Flashlight of Heywood, Greater Manchester, suppliers of TV and film lighting equipment and consumables, has announced that Guy Merchant has joined its team of expert sales staff with effect from 1 September.

Working from his base in Cobham, Surrey, Merchant will continue to bring his vast experience of the lamp industry to customers across the country.

A fully qualified lighting engineer, he started his career in the industry with Thorn Lighting back in 1977 and since then has worked across the world specifying lighting equipment on some prestigious projects.

Specialising in supplying lamps to the entertainment industry, Merchant has become a well-known name in the business, with many customers in professional broadcast and theatre, as well as some specialist private sector customers.

(Jim Evans)

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UK - By popular request UK lighting control manufacturer Cooper Controls - represented by LightProcessor - has introduced an RJ45 output version of its DMX Buffer data distribution device. This is launched at PLASA09.

The RJ45 Buffer is an RJ 45/DMX serial data distributor. DMX in and through can now be via 5-pin or 3-pin XLR or RJ45 - if this option is chosen at the time of order.

The device offers full 1KV galvanic isolation between input and each of its eight outputs. Each output is fitted with an RJ45 connector, and all 8 output lines have DMX status indicators and are amplified to USITT standards. This product is available in 19" rack and truss mountable formats.

(Jim Evans)

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UK - BEIRG, the British Entertainment Industry Radio Group, which is busy campaigning for the performance and event industry's continued access to the radio spectrum following the digital switchover, has made an appeal to all users of wireless equipment to give their input to the campaign. BEIRG's statement reads as follows:

On 30 June 2009, Ofcom published a statement setting out its decision to clear the entire 800MHz band. This means that if you have wireless equipment such as radio microphones and/or in-ear monitors which operate in channels 61-69, they will be rendered obsolete by 2012/2013. Enforced eviction from the 800MHz band will mean major cost implications for everyone who owns affected equipment.

Ofcom and the Government agreed to the principle of putting a funding mechanism to replace affected equipment. Last week, Ofcom published a consultation - Clearing the 80

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UK - System integrator Sysco saw its extensive audio-visual interactive work in the new Darwin Centre at London's Natural History Museum unveiled to the world's press this week, ahead of the public opening on 15 September 2009.

The £78 million Darwin Centre, a new extension to the museum, occupies a spectacular eight-storey-high concrete Cocoon suspended within a glass outer box. It allows museum visitors and scientists to share for the first time the excitement of exploring, studying and preserving the natural world.

Sysco is lead AV contractor on the project, on behalf of project managers Cultural Innovations. Cocoon features an array of exhibits in a curved walkway that spirals through several of its floors. The exhibits make full use of state of the art technology to enhance the visitor experience and provide easy access to multiple layers of information.

Sysco's w

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UK - This year's CIBSE Annual Lecture, presented by the SLL at the Royal Institution of Great Britain, will consist of two talks that explore lighting as a combination of art and science, beginning with the historical perspective and then looking towards the future.

The Scientists Dr. Bryson Gore and Dr. Frank James will begin the lecture with a talk on the work of the Royal Institution from the times of Faraday, painting a picture of the scientific fervour that led up to the formation of SLL's original incarnation as the Illuminating Engineering Society in 1909. In addition to anecdotes about the pioneers of the past, the talk will include artefacts and demonstrations from the Royal Institution's marvellous collection.

Multiple award-winning designer Jonathan Speirs will postulate in the second talk that architectural lighting design is primarily about creativity, inspiration

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UK - Soundcraft has added the Si1 digital live sound console to its Si Series. In just nine months, Soundcraft has now launched three models in this range, picking up five industry awards in that time, commending the Si console on its ease of use and simplifying the transition from analogue to digital.

The new Si1 has a compact footprint of just 1200mm width, meaning it fits nicely into space-restricted areas such as theatres, small venues and Houses of Worship.

As standard the Si1 has 32 mic inputs mapped on 16 faders, and with four dedicated Stereo Line channels, four dedicated FX Returns from the four stereo Lexicon FX processors can mix up to 48 inputs. Eight balanced insert sends and returns are provided, along with the same bus structure as the Si2 and Si3 of 24 Group/Aux busses, eight matrix busses and a full complement of monitor talkback and main bus outputs. These bu

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UK - Glasgow's exquisite and historic King's Theatre is enjoying a phased refurbishment that is intended to return the theatre to its former grandeur. Completed in 1904, it represents one of the most inspired designs by Frank Matcham, and considered one of Scotland's most significant theatres.

Restoration planning started just two years ago, and the first phase - the replacement of audience seating - was successfully completed on time at the end of August. Working with local architects Simpson and Brown as well as with Tim Foster Architects and John Muir, Theatreplan's Clive Odom explained that the first phase of the work has focused on the auditorium and orchestra pit: "The seating in the stalls, and the Grand Tier, has been replaced with a design that is authentic to the period of the auditorium and most importantly, is comfortable. The theatre has been running a scheme f

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