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UK - During the summer recess, Digital Village put the finishing touches to a complex recording and broadcast studio (with editing facilities) for South Thames College, completing the first stage of a major project.

The company had already provided a JBL/Crown sound reinforcement infrastructure, for many of the College's other suites and studios in the building's new ultra-modern wing earlier this summer. This had sensitively been tied in to the College's original 1926 Grade II-listed building in Wandsworth by main building contractors BAM Construction.

JBL in-ceiling speakers and Crown amplification have been used throughout - but it is the complex switching and routing requirements of the 12 studios that have made the College a suitable environment for BSS Audio's new generati

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UK - Despite the ongoing global recession, specialist audio visual and project management provider PSP has continued to make substantial investments in its inventories of both skilled staff and equipment.

Fluent in English, Spanish, Russian and Portuguese, Oksana Koval has joined the company along with Steve Davis, previously head of production at Olive 360º.

"It is vital that we are always improving our service delivery and both Oksana and Steve bring excellent skill sets to our operation," says PSP's David Woodcock. "Their appointments are complemented by our continuing investment programme in new equipment, which means we can offer the very best event delivery, whatever the location and client budget."

These significant additional investments in the company's inventory of audio, lighting and video equipment include a Yamaha LS9-32 digital mixing conso

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Denmark - The Martin Professional MAC 401 Dual is a versatile LED moving head washlight with a double-sided design that gives it flexible dual functionality, for example as a double washlight or beam reflective mirror.

The MAC 401 Dual's advanced wash characteristics combine with a host of other useful features like fast zoom and individual LED segment control to add a new and inventive element to touring and rental applications, TV shows, corporate events, night-time venues and leisure environments, says the company.

36 new, multi-colour, single-point source LEDs produce "an outstanding colour quality". The 401 Dual's innovative colour mixing system fully blends colours at the source before they leave each lens so that individual source colours are not seen. This eliminates the problem of rainbow shadows and the messy multi-colour lens looks of traditional LED fixtu

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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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Spain - Optocore has appointed Barcelona-based SeeSound as its new exclusive Spanish distributor. The agreement was confirmed at this year's PLASA Show in London, where Optocore launched its new SANE (Synchronous Audio Networking plus Ethernet) protocol to the world's professional audio market.

SeeSound's CEO Nacho Alberdi, not only has extensive knowledge of the Optocore system, having distributed their fibre products back in 2001 as part of AlberdiPro, but has also worked closely with Optocore's recently appointed international sales manager, Mike Case, over the years.

"Having proved to be the industry leader in audio transport through fibre, with the upgrade of the Optocore system, and the ability to be linked to the new SANE system, we are delighted to be working with the brand again," said Nacho Alberdi.

"Optocore is well known in Spain, and SANE is clear

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Canada - CAST Software has announced that Ubisense, with offices worldwide, is the latest partner to BlackBox, providing rapid response real time location detection to the product. Ubisense specialises in precise realtime location systems, tracking people and assets.

Ubisense provides BlackBox the live precise location of moving objects and people needed to automatically direct lighting and sound equipment with zero latency. The technology of Ubisense begins with antenna sensors, which 'hear' the active tag and compute its exact location through a combination of time difference of arrival (TDOA or triangulation) and angle of arrival (AOA). This object can be anything from a live performer to a scenery piece.

Through Ubisense, BlackBox processes a constant stream of exact 3D locations needed to control movement of sound and lighting equipment automatically. This Ubisense system

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Puerto Rico - Ricky's Audio Corporation provided the sound equipment and services for World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) professional wrestling events in Arecibo and Ponce, Puerto Rico on 5 and 6 September 2009, respectively. The audio system for the events included powered VRX line arrays and dbx signal processing for system control.

Both WWE events featured matches with such WWE stars as the Undertaker, current WWE World Heavyweight Champion CM Punk, and WWE Unified Tag Team Champions Chris Jericho and Big Show. The 5 September 5 event in Arecibo took place at the Manuel Petaca Iguina Coliseum, while the 6 September event in Ponce was held in the Juan Pachin Vicens Auditorium. Both venues have seating capacities of more than 12,000 people.

The sound reinforcement system included a total of 24 JBL VRX932LAP Crown-powered Constant Curvature line array speakers, each equipped

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Belgium - The stadium leg of Coldplay's Viva La Vida world tour called on the expertise of international staging experts Stageco to create a bespoke stage with vision. The band's increasing popularity created high demand for the 2009 17- date stadium tour across Europe, including shows in Barcelona, Stockholm and Wembley.

They were keen to create "a unique live experience for their fans" and, for the first time, contracted Stageco to design, manufacture and install the Viva La Vida touring stage.

Development began at the end of 2008. Project director Hedwig de Meyer led in-depth consultation between Stageco's in-house design and CAD engineers and the band's management and production teams. An extensive creative process followed to finalise a design led staging solution, following the concept of a giant eyelid, which was practical and safe to tour.

The

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UK - Royal Philips Electronics' LED based lighting solutions have contributed to the overall reduction in energy consumption on Radiohead's latest tour. Value added reseller, Architainment, supplied a variety of LED systems advocating Radiohead's keen commitment to environmental responsibility.

Andi Watson, creative director for the In Rainbowstour, explains: "Doing away with conventional lighting on set was a massive leap of faith for us. Of course our concerts are all about delivering the music but the fans expect a visual spectacle as well. At the same time, we can't just pollute the atmosphere merely for effect."

Watson continues: "Having put the LED equipment through its paces we were convinced it was the right way to go. To be honest, not having a single discharge or incandescent lamp in the design has set a new benchmark for us."

Always open

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USA - Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn are two of country music's most successful artists and together, Brooks & Dunn have recorded 23 No.1 hits, sold over 30 million records and have won more than 80 major industry awards. Brooks & Dunn are currently on tour celebrating their 10th studio album titled Cowboy Town and their monitor engineer, Kurt Springer, has selected a complete AKG wireless system that encompasses over 30 AKG products for the tour.

Brooks & Dunn have relied on AKG products for a number of years and are currently using a diverse collection of wireless products, including an AKG WMS4500 wireless system, AKG 520 headset microphone, AKG D7 handheld microphone, AKG IVM4 in-ear monitoring system as well as the vintage AKG C12 tube microphone.

"Brooks & Dunn are loyal AKG users and have used vintage C12 microphones for vocal recordings in the past, so when the

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UK - Martin Professional had on display at PLASA09 show a full Maxxyz Modules concept, the company's modular lighting control solution that is creating a buzz among lighting designers and installers.

Martin Professional product manager Paul Pelletier explains: "Today's lighting control needs cannot be satisfied by a single surface that works for everyone and every application.

"The Maxxyz Modules concept allows for full customization of a lighting control system while keeping it simple and easy to manage for rental houses. As an example, a set of four Maxxyz Modules can be used on a single rental event or split over four different rental applications, something simply not possible with typical large moving light desks. Flexibility is the key word here. The modules concept is certainly the way forward for controllers."

Maxxyz Modules can be as simple as a singl

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UK - When Coldplay's Viva La Vida world touring production moved out of arenas and into the larger stadiums this summer, rental company Wigwam Acoustics were eager to extend the production's Optocore optical fibre network.

With a long history of using Optocore systems in their digital desks, they contacted the German company's international sales manager Mike Case - and soon an Optocore DD32E/DD6NE network had been added to the LX4 Optical Digital Multicore (and FOH I/O) already in use.

Wigwam's digital specialist, Alex Hadjigeorgiou comments, "Huge distances weren't really an issue until the band started playing stadiums - prior to that everything was daisy chained via the FOH position. However, it quickly became obvious that in the big American arenas / stadia the distances would be too great to run the system in its existing format - hence the introduction of fi

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UK - Llanelli-based Vaughan Sound Installations recently installed public address and voice alarm systems in the new hospitality areas at Glamorgan Cricket Club's new SWALEC stadium in Cardiff. This latest work was completed in readiness for the first Ashes test to be staged in the city.

VSI was working with electrical contractor AMSER and main contractor Paramount, following their highly successful completion of the first phase of audio installation earlier in the year, during the ground's initial refurbishment programme. For this, VSI provided a house audio/voice evacuation system for the stadium itself.

This second phase saw the original TOA VX2000 stadium system extended to over 300 speakers in order to incorporate the newly constructed lounge and hospitality boxes, plus the revamped offices.

The main technical requirement was that it met .5 of the STIPA speech transmiss

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UK - Amidst the challenges of a worldwide recession, theatre consultancy Charcoalblue is bucking prevailing economic trends and expanding. The company has complemented its already diverse repertoire of employees with the welcome addition of four new consultants - James Thomas, Sonya Flynn, Chris Daniel and Ben Hanson.

Each brings their own unique specialist skills to the design table. James Thomas specialises in auditorium design and theatre planning, with emphasis on feasibility studies, concept and detail design. He brings 13 years experience as a qualified Architect and has worked at Fosters, Make and Thomas Heatherwick. Whilst at Foster and Partners he was part of the winning team for the Lincoln Centre New York.

Sonya Flynn's focus is on the planning aspects of theatre design. She brings nine years experience in architecture having worked with Hawkins Brown; Foster and Pa

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Germany - The RTS VoIP virtual keypanel (VKP) is a Windows-based application that allows any user to have a fully functioning RTS Digital Matrix Intercom user station on their PC. The Virtual Keypanel application connects via the PC's Ethernet connection to any path that can support standard IP protocols, including LAN, WAN, and VPN.

"This really is a new way to look at using the intercom system," explains Christian Latzelsberger, senior product manager for RTS Intercoms Worldwide.

"The VKP looks and behaves just like our best-selling RTS keypanels, but it is just an application on your computer. This frees up physical real estate on your desk, and allows any PC user on the network to connect the intercom system via Ethernet."

The RTS virtual keypanel application is compatible with any RTS Digital Matrix Intercom equipped with the RVON interface.

(Jim E

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UK - Following on from an exceptional PLASA09 exhibition for Cadac, the company has reported a significant increase in distribution and sales enquiries worldwide for both analogue and digital products.

The iconic silver Airstream Ronnie Lane Mobile Studio (LMS) parked on the booth (the concept was designed around Ronnie Lane's "One for the Road" album cover), was a major visual attraction at the show, and gave engineers the chance to listen to Cadac's classic analogue audio quality in one of the world's most famous acoustic environments, and perform a direct comparison with the audio performance of the new S-Digital console. Reports from live and recording engineers were impressive, say Cadac.

"Live musical entertainment on the booth from Stephen Dale Petit, The Pretty Things, The Malchicks and Sacha Morgan reinforced the message that despite the technology, it'

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USA - Austin, Texas-based chipmaker Cirrus Logic Inc is celebrating its 25th anniversary this September. Originally founded in 1984 to provide integrated circuits (ICs) for the growing PC components market, Cirrus Logic has since evolved as a leading supplier of signal processing components for audio and energy applications.

Among its many achievements, Cirrus Logic is recognised as the pioneer of the fabless model for the semiconductor industry, going against industry conventions at the time when most chip companies required their own manufacturing resources. Today, hundreds of semiconductor companies globally have adopted the fabless model. In product innovation, the company is recognised as a leading-edge designer of the audio converter, which converts analogue signals into digital signals and vice versa. Cirrus Logic audio chips can be found inside the latest cutting-edge el

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UK - When satellite television company Sky realised that their ever-growing staff numbers and hectic production schedules were making it harder and harder to host a traditional staff Christmas party, they invented a completely different alternative: Skyfest, a mid-summer outdoor festival exclusively for Sky's staff and their guests. Running over two days in London in July for the London-based staff, then two days in Edinburgh in September for those working for Sky in Scotland, Skyfest this year featured lighting from White Light.

Brought in to the project by event organisers The Rouge Partnership, White Light provided a complete lighting service to both the London and Edinburgh Skyfests, including equipment rental, installation, show operation and load-out. The company was responsible for lighting the main arena, the main outdoor stage, viewing tents, the drinks te

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UK - Immediately following their headline appearance at Bestival on the Isle of Wight, Massive Attack undertook a late summer tour of the UK - ranging from Academy rock venues to multipurpose halls in the 3,000-capacity area.

Carrying sound production provided by Wigwam Hire - with their visual set again dominated by the creative work of UVA - Robert '3D' Del Naja, Grant 'Daddy G' Mitchell and their tribe (including guest singer Martina Topley Bird, Debbie Miller and long-time collaborator Horace Andy) have shown they have lost none of the experimental flair and challenging production values that characterized their early work, featuring singers such as Cocteau Twins' Liz Fraser.

Common to both Bestival and their latest tour was the provision of a Martin Audio PA rig - a full W8L Longbow system on the Isle of Wight and Wigwam Hire's W8LC Compact line array on tou

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Liechtenstein - NTi Audio has revealed its new handheld flagship product - the XL2 audio and acoustic analyzer, which the company says offers the combination of a state-of-the-art sound level meter, a comprehensive acoustical analyzer and a powerful audio analyzer. The wide range of functionalities is tailored for Live Sound, Installed Sound, Studios, Service and Environmental Noise measurements, say NTi.

The XL2 provides, together with the measurement microphones M4260 (Class 2) or M2210 (Class 1 frequency response), a precise sound level meter for monitoring of live sound events and environmental noise. The instrument generates the 48V phantom power supply for the microphones and reads the included electronic data sheet of the M4260 and M2210 automatically. This enables faster set-up and ensures accurate measurements, the company says. Additionally the XL2 logs the calibration

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South Africa - The Joburg Theatre (the re-branded Johannesburg Civic Theatre) has just received training for its new grandMA2 full-size console.

Enos Ramoroko, stage officer at the Joburg Theatre comments: "We have to cater for many international companies and the grandMA platform is the most specified console on any technical riders. That's the main reason we bought it. Our team are very happy to have a new desk." The training from DWR Distribution was presented by Nick Britz.

Duncan Riley from DWR Distribution says: "A grandMA2 full-size is what they wanted. There was no demo either, and it was just to cope with their international shows." On a personal level, Riley adds, "I have had a relationship with the Joburg Theatre since 1994 and it has always been a pleasure to deal with everyone there. I would personally like to thank Bernard Jaye and his am

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Spain - The Teatros del Canal, a new multipurpose performing arts complex in downtown Madrid, marks another triumph for renowned Spanish architect Juan Navarro Baldeweg. The bold exterior statement of angular glass and stone carries over into the interior, where visual aesthetics are complemented in the aural domain by the performance of Meyer Sound's self-powered M1D and M'elodie line array loudspeaker systems in the Main Theatre and the black-box Theatre Configurable.

According to Ramon Pérez of RPS Broadcasting, the consultant on audiovisual technologies for the project, initial plans for all-Meyer Sound systems had been sketched before he was contracted as the audiovisual consultant, and he quickly concurred. "I've worked with Meyer systems in the past, and I've been impressed by the excellent size/weight-to-power ratio, the precise directivity, and the phase coh

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