USA - Upstage Video has created a 60ft x10ft (18m x 3m) LED floor for premier Canadian event producers The Aileron Group, using the next generation LED display developed by Element Labs. Making its debut with Upstage Video is the Cobra V8 LED display, which forms a 'video carpet': the LED floor design had 315 Cobra V8 panels with a total of over 725,000 virtual pixels.

Doug Murray of Upstage Video says: "We had been considering an investment in Element Labs' new Cobra products given their light weight, slim design and fabulous video capabilities. The timing anddesign of the Aileron Group event made it a perfect opportunity to invest. We approached Element Labs with the concept drawings as we knew they would cooperate with us in providing their engineering capabilities. All in

Sweden - LumenRadio has announced CRMX Outdoor with wireless DMX & RDM. CRMX Outdoor is an adaptation of PLASA Award winning CRMX Nova for outdoor use and is compatible with all other CRMX DMX/RDM products. CRMX Outdoor is the first RDM enabled wireless light control product both waterproof and vandal proof making it suitable for any outdoor installation, says the company.

CRMX Outdoor will be demonstrated for the first time at LDI 2009. LumenRadio will also demonstrate how CRMX SuperNova manages and receives feedback from an RDM-enabled wireless light control system.

"In designing CRMX Outdoor we met with lighting designers of outdoor wireless installations to get useful input for the development. They explained how the biggest problem was that many wireless outdoor installations stopped working overtime - the wireless outdoor products had not been built to last. So when

Denmark / Spain - The Barcelona-based loudspeaker manufacturer Vieta has boosted its international network with the appointment of SC Sound to handle its market in Denmark.

Lars Bruun Jensen explains that long-established distribution company SC Sound has been making a lot of changes in the last year. "We've been establishing our own technical workshop and IT systems, launching a new website and reviewing our product range. There have been a lot of client requests for installation loudspeakers, so we are delighted to be able to include Vieta in our portfolio now. It fits in very well with the Danish market because it is high-quality equipment with a stylish design."

SC Sound's Jensen reports that his customers are showing considerable interest in Vieta products that have already been installed in dance schools, community centres and churches. "The Do Line high-p

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

USA - The A.C. Lighting Inc. booth at the LDI 2009 show will feature next generation technologies from the Chroma-Q, Jands and Artistic Licence product ranges exclusively distributed by the company in North America.

Showcasing the complete Chroma-Q LED line-up, the new generation of Color Block 2, Color Force and Color Charge models feature advanced RGBA colour mixing and control management technologies. Together these provide a radically increased colour palette, a high CRI of at least 90 and theatrical grade dimming, all in the same fixture.

As well as showing the full range of Vista consoles, Jands will be previewing Vista 2 Byron, a major upgrade of their revolutionary Vista lighting system.

As networking requirements for entertainment technology applications continue to increase, many of the leading control companies, such as Jands, are supporting the Art-Net product r

Ireland - When eircom, Ireland's largest telecommunications company, decided to build its new state-of-the-art international headquarters at the €750m Heuston South Quarter (HSQ) development in South Central Dublin, they turned to Ascough Consulting Engineers (working with architects Anthony Reddy Associates) to act as the project's building services consultants, and the consultants, in turn, hired Meritec to meet the complex AV routing, interactivity and control systems.

The 1HSQ development is an eco-friendly environment designed to the highest level of energy efficiency, and an advanced multimedia infrastructure assumed top priority.

The audio visual sub-contract was worth around €1 million, and incorporated a wide range of multi-room and multi-purpose A/V systems.

Meritec, who were chosen from the six companies tendering, sourced most of their audio requirements from t

UK - Earlier this year, Manchester-based rental staging company, A to V became one of the first customers for the new Christie Roadster HD10K-M 3-chip DLP projectors, which were immediately pressed into service on a major product launch for Bosch.

The company originally purchased six projectors but have now doubled that quantity - principally to service a corporate awards spectacular for another household name, Co-operative Retail. Nine of the Christie units formed a pivotal part of the production, which took place in an unusual format at Manchester's G-MEX Centre in late October, and at the same time A to V debuted the new Spyder X20 processor from Vista Systems (a Christie company).

The client's event organiser had wanted an 'in-the-round' presentation rather than traditional style and had already looked at placing screens around the periphery. They also wanted to create an

Switzerland - Visual Productions has announced the appointment of a new distributor for Switzerland - ASL Electronic AG. Based in Basel the company has a 27-year long history working with many of the major brands as exclusive distributer working in German, French and Italian language areas of Switzerland.

"During the recent PLASA show we were fortunate enough to be introduced to CEO David Scherz and his sales director, Sébastien Wira," says Visual Productions. "Wira found the versatility of Cuelux being made cross platform a very interesting contender and with the addition of VisualDMX and the stand alone units the Visual Productions range satisfies their customers' demands."

The Cuelux Cable and VisualDMX and Canvix hardware collection are all available from stock at ASL.

(Jim Evans)

Switzerland - Barix AG reports that the Iowa Department of Transportation (Iowa DOT) is using a Barix Audio over IP solution to monitor its highway traffic updates now being broadcast to interstate commuters around Iowa.

Iowa DOT operates Highway Advisor Radio, an information channel transmitted with eight low-power AM and FM transmitters distributed around the state. A Barix Instreamer 100 encoder is connected to a radio receiver at each remote broadcast location to capture the on-air signal and stream it over the DOT's internal network. Iowa DOT employees can access the streams using their PCs to confirm that the broadcasts are going out over the air and commuters are receiving the broadcasts with clarity.

DataNab, an IP systems programmer and Barix reseller, provided concept, configuration services and technical assistance with the development of a central webpage to

UK - Tower Productions were recently engaged by the association of tennis professionals to install temporary court lighting at the O2 arena. In order to achieve the required 2000lux across the playing surface, a 10-legged Prolyte self-climbing ground support was installed by Towers rigging team prior to 14no. 2000w HQI fittings being installed to give the desired lighting levels.

Tower's Pete Donald managed a team of eight who started at 06.00hrs and had everything up in the air and shining bright by lunchtime...This was Towers second visit to the O2 in a month, having just completed a lighting and heating project for the world gymnastics in the same area.

(Jim Evans)

UK - The World Travel Market held at ExCeL last week used four of PSCo's 103" plasmas to relay content to the exhibition's travel professionals from across the globe.

The exhibition offered a seminar, conference and event programme presenting the issues and hot topics of the travel industry. Working with the exhibition since 1995, production company Fred Productions were brought in to produce the main conference set and relay live content and information to the show's visitors.

The World Travel Market is the first exhibition to use four 103" Panasonic plasma screens as a digital signage solution. The screens were positioned in the Boulevard between the exhibition halls to display live conference feeds, information about the upcoming seminars and advertisements for exhibitors at the show, mounted in exhibitor sponsored surrounds.

Phil Tobitt at Fred Productions comm

UAE - ShowTex Middle East has moved to a new site in Sharjah. Managing director Sven Peeters announces, "We've gone from 600sq.m to more than 2000 m2! And the extra space means more possibilities for our customers, faster service, and more refined finishing.

"One of the major reasons for the move was to accommodate the 24mlong high frequency welding machine table. The welding machine is actually built into the floor of the 1000sq.m dedicated mezzanine workshop adding even more area. ShowTex already created some of the Middle East's biggest projection screens.

Now, with the self designed exclusive ShowTex system on site, we're able to produce screens measuring upwards of 500sq.m with super strong seams that are nearly invisible at less than 1mm. For the screens alone we've hired two new specialists and the expanded workshop means there's room for more sewing machines

Sweden - Swedish garage rock band Mando Diao's fifth and most successful album, Give Me Fire, also gives its name to the band's current - and equally successful - European tour. Mando Diao has taken the decision not to follow the current trend for visual overload; music is what their shows are all about and, as a result, the sound system is one of the most important components for their performance.

Landsberg-based event production company, Rain Age, with Martin Heining as head of sound, supplied an extensive audio system that had a DiGiCo SD7 at its FOH position during the German leg of the tour, and now has the additional benefit of an SD8 at monitors for the remainder.

Dispensing with extensive light installations and special effects, Mando Diao concentrates on the business of simply making music in venues across the country with capacities from 5,000 to 10,000 seats

UK - EvenLED, the modular LED cyc backlighting system has continued to win new friends across shows of all genres in the year since it was first supplied by White Light to the UK tour of Mary Poppins - the company having recently supplied systems for new opera, for television, for corporate events and for comedy.

"I think it's the best new piece of kit I've seen in ages - I never want to light a cyc again without it," is how lighting designer Peter Mumford describes his experience with EvenLED on Prima Donna. The new opera, written by Rufus Wainright and performed at this year's Manchester Festival, used an array of 111 panels to light Anthony McDonald's set. "I was able to use EvenLED for the cyc, but also for the back 'glass' wall of an enormous room - and even 'raw and exposed' in intense green for one of the enormous scene changes. The sequence f

Germany - Pink's worldwide Funhouse Tour embraces Sennheiser's microphones and monitoring equipment.

When it comes to microphones and monitoring, Pink relies on the German manufacturer's 2000 and evolution wireless series and also benefits from a few special variants. "Pink uses her SKM 2000 with a special e 935 capsule in silver," explains monitoring engineer Horst Hartmann. Front of house engineer Chris Madden continues: "The handheld has been trouble-free, it sounds fantastic with hardly any EQ. The gain before feedback attributes have been outstanding considering she sings in front of the PA for most of the show."

Chris Madden uses the SKM 2000 with the standard 935 capsule for the background vocals and the sound engineers have also remained faithful to the 2000 Series for the instrument transmitters. "As far as sound quality is concerned, t

UK - The Performance Pavilion is one of the highlights of the new £86 million Medway Campus in Gillingham, which substantially extends the facilities of the MidKent College, officially the county's largest provider of education and training. Construction of the Performance Pavilion presented the ideal opportunity for design and installation specialists Stage Electrics to integrate a Cat 5 infrastructure and RSS digital audio system at the heart of the venue, reaping significant advantages in terms of versatility and cost.

"From the very beginning, MidKent College was able to make meaningful economies," says Darren Beckley, business development manager at Stage Electrics. "The whole building could be wired with a Cat 5 infrastructure, which carries audio, lighting, video and data, which considerably reduced their cabling costs. The choice of the compact RSS M

UK - PSCo has appointed Mark Warden as a project manager to support its integration partners, working with its clients from a position of experience and understanding from every side of the sales process including service, sales and engineering.

Warden, who joins the company with 10 years AV experience, has worked at two of the industry's leading integration companies, Saville Audio Visual and Matrix Display Systems. His experience includes starting as an AV engineer progressing to the position of project manager within Saville Audio Visual during his six years with the company.

"PSCo gave me an irresistible opportunity to work for a company with a great portfolio of products and an experienced team of engineers and technicians," says Warden. "I am looking forward to working with the integration channel, where I gained most of my experience, to manage PSCo's fla

Germany - On 27 and 28 September, Dynacord staged a Professional Dealer Training course at its headquarters in Straubing. Dealers from the Netherlands and Greece attended the Academy conducted by Frauke Jungbluth, sales manager Dynacord Western Europe. As well as amp construction, the course dealt with a variety of speaker systems (D-Lite, VariLine and Cobra) and mixers (PowerMate and CMS) as well as the DSP260 processor and the new CXM-15 monitor.

During the seminars Frauke Jungbluth said: "We want to ensure that our dealers are not only experts when it comes to our own systems but also well-schooled in the underlying acoustic principles. This theoretical foundation guarantees competent customer support and makes is possible to provide sound individual advice."

Participants were invited to put into practice the theories they had just learned in the course of a numbe

Japan - Yamaha Commercial Audio's policy of listening carefully to what audio professional need and providing high quality solutions bears fruit again this month, with the introduction of the new MY8-SDI-ED interface card.

The MY8-SDI-ED is being launched at Inter BEE 2009, the annual international broadcast equipment exhibition held at Japan's Makuhari Messe from 18-20 November.

Compatible with all of Yamaha's digital mixing consoles and DME series digital mixing engines and offering from eight to 64 I/O channels (depending on the console and number of cards used), the MY8-SDI-ED provides input and output of HD-SDI embedded audio signals.

"Many broadcast companies are now embedding audio within the SDI digital video transmission as a convenient method of managing signal flow. With HD gaining acceptance globally, an HD/SD-SDI card was an inevitable addition to our rang

South Africa - The Market Theatre Johannesburg, made its choice of new lighting console after researching and testing the various options for nine months.

In an historical connection, Dan Riley from DWR Distribution, was involved with the installation of the Market Theatre's first desk - a Compact 80 - when he worked there as a technician in the early 1970s. Some 33 years later, he was more than delighted to present them with a slightly newer model... a grandMA2 ultra-light.

Carl Johnson, production manager at the Market reports that various issues influenced their decision to go with MA. "The majority of the theatres/companies that we receive, and also those we send productions to are utilising or migrating to grandMA technology, including some of our international partners. Many Lighting Designers with whom we work regularly speak very favourably about the grandMA, the

UK - The Langham Hotel in London's Portland Place opened in 1865 as Europe's first 'Grand Hotel' and reopened in June 2009 after an £80 million refurbishment, it is the flagship hotel of Langham Hotels International. Beneath the Victorian splendour of its fabric, however, the refurbished Langham, London boasts a hi-tech infrastructure in which PA/VA systems from TOA play a pivotal role.

With 380 guestrooms, three restaurants (including the dazzling Palm Court), a Chuan Spa opening in 2010 and no fewer than 18 different conference spaces, The Langham, London is as extensive as its impressive façade suggests.

Systems integrator Safetech Systems designed, supplied, installed and commissioned a complete voice alarm set-tup for the The Langham 18 months ago, with three racks of TOA's VX-2000 at the hub of the system. Since then, the system has been upgraded to take into acco

UK - Piggott's, a leading UK branding, festive lighting and marquee hire company won a new four year term contract to light Oxford Street, to complement other West End contracts, including Regent Street, Bond Street, Marylebone High Street and South Molton Street. This year's display on 3rd November contained over 500,000 LED bulbs and saw around 50,000 Londoners flock to the city to enjoy the switch on display.

The switch on tied in with the world premiere of Disney's new 3D adaptation of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, timings were carefully co-ordinated to give the crowds the "wow" factor and for the first time ever included a joint switch on with Regent Street and Leicester Square (not lit by Piggott's).

Star of A Christmas Carol, Jim Carrey turned on the lights at Oxford Circus with British celebrities Colin Firth turning on the Regent Street l

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