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China - Lighting designer Sha XiaoLan of Beijing-based practice Feng Shang Shiji specified 159 Robe moving lights for the colourful and energetic Ocean Fantasy musical show, a central feature of the new Olympic Sailing Centre Theatre in Qingdao, China.

The 700 capacity new build theatre is right on the new waterfront development at the seaside city of Qingdao in China's eastern Shandong province, which hosted the 2008 Olympic sailing competitions.

The nightly Ocean Fantasy is a fast paced, humorous five-chapter performance created by Mr Wang XiaoLe, relating a series of stories from the sea and capturing some of the culture and history of the local area which is also famous for its beer. The show has already become a big hit with tourists and the locals.

Lighting

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UK - HSL supplied lighting and video equipment plus crew, and designed a bespoke DJ booth for two recent sold-out performances by The Swedish House Mafia at London's Brixton Academy.

The shows were presented and produced by Cream and Loudsound Events and HSL was working for technical co-ordinators, BPM, who also supplied pyro and lasers.

SHM Management's Amy Thomson's brief to BPM was to have the 'biggest and best' show possible. BPM worked closely with HSL to design a full show based on a four section lighting rig, action-packed with strobe pods, moving heads, specialist LED products and three large video wall sections.

HSL's Mike Docksey project managed for the Blackburn-based company, working closely with BPM's Adam Murray. Dave Lee was asked to produce an exciting and fresh visual design concept which incorporated both lighting and video elements that could be run, impro

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Denmark - A large quantity of DPA microphones were used for the opening ceremony of WOMEX, a world music festival staged in Copenhagen. Held at Danish Broadcasting's new Koncerthuset concert venue, The Great Nordic Night featured artists from Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, the Faroe Islands, Samiland and Greenland.

Torben Sminge, an experienced live sound engineer working mainly with acoustic music, knew exactly what to expect when asked to handle sound for the ceremony. "Firstly I had to deal with lots of instruments with very low acoustic output, such as violins, acoustic guitars, mandolas, and ethnic Nordic instruments like the n°gleharpe and hardanger fiddle," he says. "These were instruments that I needed to amplify a lot while still keeping them sounding very natural and 'acoustic'. This introduces the problem of feedback from stage, especially in thi

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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 - Alcons Audio has announced that Ascon Trading A/S from Aalborg has been appointed the sole pro-ribbon partner for Denmark.

Established in 1988 by Knud Eskildsen, the company is active in the music, installation and pro-audio market, with established brands such as Midas, Tascam, and Klark-Teknik.

Torben Laursen, in charge of pro-sales, comments, "The first thing that struck us when listening to the Alcons speakers was the total lack of listening fatigue, the "in the face" vocals and the smooth response above 10kHz. It offers a three-dimensional experience with stereo width and depth that we haven't found anywhere else and this has been proven on every shoot out we've done so far. We love selling something that's different from the rest: Not because of hidden settings and compensations in DSP's but due to the nature of the products and that's the real b

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UK - On December 9 and 10, PRG Distribution are inviting lighting professionals to the Royal Opera House in London's Covent Garden, to see if they can tell the difference between a traditional incandescent or halide fixture and the next generation Nemo Li-FI Plasma source from Seachanger and the VLX LED Wash Luminaire from Philips Vari*Lite.

With a menu of numerous pastel and saturated colours, PRG Distribution challenge you to tell the difference between incandescent, halide, plasma and the phenomenal output of the LED VLX.

Sessions are available on both dates at 10.30am, 12.30pm and 14.30pm. If you'd like to attend, please visit the web address below for more details, or email sales@prgdistribution.com to book your place.

The Royal Opera House are also offering a unique opportunity to the first ten guests to confirm their attendance to get a behind the scenes tour and look

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UK - Baldwin Boxall this week held an informal drop in event at The Old Bank of England in Fleet Street, London. The celebrations went well and new voice alarm products were welcomed. The products included the new BVRD2M4 DSP-controlled routeing matrix and the BVRD microphone controller. Both products have just been put into production and Baldwin Boxall is already experiencing high demand for them. Also being demonstrated was the Unitouch touchscreen control paging station.

The BVRD2M4 four zone voice alarm router is the latest addition to the VIGIL EVAS range of DSP-controlled routers. It is a four zone voice alarm router with dual outputs. Retaining many of the features of the well established EVAS BVRD2M router, the new router is small enough to fit alongside a VIGIL2 amplifier and power supply in one 19" mainframe.

The BVRD microphone controller has been designed spe

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UK - SFL Group has installed an L-Acoustics line source system into the Dominion Church, based in a renovated 1930s Art Deco cinema in Wood Green, North London, using Kudo large format and Kiva ultra compact cabinets.

L-Acoustics' UK technical manager Jamie Gosney met the Dominion Church's technical manager Eben Awuah on hearing of the renovation project back in January. The church had been meeting in a room under cinema's balcony, which was already equipped with an L-Acoustics coaxial system, and it was time to expand into the rest of the building.

"Although it was clearly in the early stages of renovation, walking into the building was breathtaking as it's a perfect example of Art Deco architecture," says Gosney. "We discussed the church's audio requirements and it became clear that high sound quality and versatility were essential as music concerts and confer

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USA - Total Structures reports great interest at the recent LDI in its RSC Lightlock which was making its US debut.

The RSC Lightlock now gives designers the ability to dampen the natural tendency for moving lights to twist in reaction to the fixture's pan movement, allowing the light to hit the focus point without swinging back and forth. Live Design awarded the RSC Lightlock the Best Debuting Product Award in the Rigging and Staging category. The award, presented during Saturday evening's festivities on the show floor, recognizes the RSC Lightlock for "increasing the range of uses for moving head lighting fixtures, while reducing the amount of rigging equipment needed to place fixtures within facilities and productions".

For the team at Total Structures, the response from attendees reinforced what they already believed. "When people come back three or f

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USA - The Minnesota Orchestral Association (MOA) has appointed Sound Space Design to serve as acoustical consultant for the expansion and renovation of Orchestra Hall, Orchestra President and CEO Michael Henson announced yesterday. The acoustical team, led by Robert Essert, will be responsible for ensuring that Orchestra Hall's current acoustics are preserved throughout the renovation, for making onstage acoustical modifications and for advising on lobby acoustics.

Sound Space Design, founded by Robert Essert in 2002, has designed acoustics for performing arts venues across the world, including the newly-opened Winspear Opera House in Dallas, Toronto's Koerner Hall and London's Menuhin Hall.

Orchestra Hall is well-known for its symphonic acoustics, which were originally designed by Cyril Harris. "Bob Essert and Sound Space Design will be involved in every decision that we

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UK - The Royal Albert Hall was the backdrop for the launch of the Clay Paky Alpha Spot HPE 1500. It is the top spotlight in the Alpha range, to which other models have also recently been added: the Alpha Profile 1500 beam shaper and the Alpha Wash 1500 washlight.

The demo took place on 20 November 2009, in two parts: the first entailed a "live" show, presented by Durham Marenghi using the rig put together for the Classical Spectacular, which took place the same week at the Royal Albert Hall. The Classical Spectacular is produced by Raymond Gubbay and has now nearly reached its twentieth year (the anniversary will be celebrated in 2010). It is a blend of classical music with a light show.

LD Durham Marenghi, has always been very attentive to technological progress, and often uses innovative technology for his own work with big names in the music business

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USA - Flamingo Audio Owner Brad Walker comes from a music recording background, and his company still does plenty of that at their Seattle-area facility. But their real bread and butter these days comes from systems installation and live sound. As Walker puts it, "The installation work keeps us smart, and the live sound work makes us fast." And for a company that has to cover as many categories of events as Flamingo Audio - from concerts to corporate, from government to tribal - the EAW NTL720 self-powered line array loudspeaker system has been a versatile solution.

"We really like the physical form factor of the NTL720, as well as the way it sounds," says Walker, who notes that the NTL720's compact dimensions, flexible mounting possibilities and scalable deployment let it be used in a wide range of situations. For instance, at the Kitsap Arts & Crafts Festiv

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USA - The new Dallas Cowboys stadium has opened its doors, and with costs in excess of $1 billion it is one of the most advanced sports and entertainment venue in the world to-date. The audio/video system not only features the world's largest HD on field display, but several offerings from Community Professional Loudspeakers.

Fans are welcomed to the stadium by 84 R.5 all-weather loudspeakers mounted to glowing light poles on the sidewalks surrounding the building. The R.5s provide live announcements and pre-recorded playback material and were selected for their "weather serviceability and high output in a small package". The shape and colour of the R.5 enclosure also closely resembled the lighting fixtures making them the perfect choice for the application.

Inside the stadium, Community i2W8 full-range two-way boxes ring the main seating bowl and provide under-balco

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UK - based flight-case manufacturer 5 Star Cases has recently strengthened its partnership with DJ equipment specialists Pioneer, supplying 3000 cases for the popular Pioneer Pro440 DJ system console.

In the last 18 months, 5 Star has supplied over 3700 Pro440 cases, all finished in a striking red laminate. When Pioneer recently launched a Limited Edition 'piano black' CDJ-400 and DJM-400 featuring cool blue LED illumination, Paul Beardsall of Pioneer Europe NV, once again contacted 5 Star, wanting a new look case to compliment this special equipment release.

An initial order of 1000 blue cases was delivered to Pioneer's Belgian distribution facility in Melsele in early November, followed by a further 2000 units, scheduled for dispatch between December 2009 and January 2010. The option for a final delivery of more units will be made in February, bringing the Limited Edition ca

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UK - Adlib Audio is supplying The Specials with sound equipment and the crew of James Neale and Richy Nicholson for their current UK tour.

Adlib was chosen to be the audio supplier by tour manager Mike Darling, with whom they have worked on several seasons of Ibiza Rocks and other projects.

Neale and Nicholson are working with the band's engineers Marcos Ferrari (FOH) and Pete Abbot (monitors) on a tour that ranges from small arenas and to provincial theatres. So the primary requirement of the system was that it be exceptionally flexible.

The main FOH speaker system is L-Acoustics V-Dosc (specified by Ferrari), however Adlib are also carrying some dV-Dosc and Arcs cabinets for the larger shows. In the largest configuration, this is set up as main left and right flown hangs of 8 V-Dosc cabinets and a under hang of three dV-Dosc per side.The flown side hangs consisted of six d

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USA - Martin Professional scored a hat trick at the second annual ESTA Rock Our World Awards coming away with two best in category accolades and a special recognition award. Martin's P3-100 System Controller won Best Product of the Year while the Grand Mosque won for Best Project of the Year. The judging panel, headed by Mike Wood, also voted a special award to the 2008 Beijing Olympics Opening and Closing Ceremonies.

The 2009 Rock Our World Awards were presented at ESTA's Annual Dinner on Thursday evening 19 November in Orlando, Florida, just prior to the opening of the LDI show. The awards recognize groundbreaking achievement by ESTA Members in new products, product applications, or projects. According to ESTA, the awards were created to acknowledge the genius of both the creator of technology and the designer or integrator who applies the technology in a real wo

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France - This December, French designer Sonia Rykiel launched her new range with a fashion show in the heart of Paris and Stageco built the specialist structures required to create a Parisian themed set.

The Grand Palais in Paris welcomed 2350 guests when it was transformed into a fairytale village for the launch of one of France's biggest fashion icon's new H&M range.

Stageco was approached to design and build the structures for the show working closely with the show's production manager Piet Winten. Stageco started work on the project a month before the show designing the custom built support structures.

The 26 strong Stageco team worked to a time and venue sensitive brief, building the set in three days ready for the international media, celebrities and special guests to watch the show.

Stageco designed the 400m² base upon which the replica version of the Eiffel Tower

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UK - The only entertainment and installation technology show in the North of England, PLASA Focus: Leeds 2010 has launched its website with news of a near sell-out show. The success of the first ever PLASA Focus event this year has already seen next year's event fill two exhibition halls and now you can check out the brands bringing their new technology to Leeds, on Tuesday 27 - Wednesday 28 April 2010 at www.plasafocus.com/leeds

April 2010 will be the second time that venue owners, consultants, show designers, producers and technicians working on the North's leading events, installations and venues have a dedicated event where they can meet and find the new technologies to use in future facilities and productions.

Over 100 manufacturers from all over the world will be on show and the free Education and Learning Programme that runs alongside the exhibition brings

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Argentina - The sixth Edition of the Personal Fest took place on 16 and 17 October, with Depeche Mode and Pet Shop Boys as headliners and with many national and international bands including Nile Rodgers & Chic, Zero 7, Cafe Tacuba and Tahiti 80.

More than 60,000 people attended the show which took place in the famous Club Ciudad de Buenos Aires. As in previous editions of the festival the sound and lighting was provided by Buenos Aires Live Show, who chose to use 15" stage wedges from the Proel Edge series.

The monitoring system consisted of Proel Edge15CXPB wedges amplified by Powersoft Q4002 and processed by the Proel DSO26 processors.

All involved were very satisfied with the high power, punch and intelligibility of the Edge monitors throughout the event.

(Jim Evans)

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India - Famed for its sunny weather, indigo-tinged houses and tourist attractions including palaces, temples and the Mehrangarh Fort, the Indian city of Jodhpur now has another claim to fame - it is home to the first DiGiCo SD8 digital mixing console in the country.

Sold by DiGiCo's Indian distributor, Mumbai-based Rivera International to local production company Rajan Amplifiers, the SD8 is part of a system which includes a large JBL and DAS loudspeaker system, with Crown and Lab.gruppen amplifiers.

"We had looked at a number of digital consoles and we were keen to go with a different one, but Rivera International were very persistent," says Rajan Amplifiers owner Rajan Panwar.

"We purchase all our high-end gear from them and have always been completely happy with their equipment suggestions. Their advice was to try the SD8 and so we agreed to give it a shot.

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Germany - In the new Rudolf-Harbig Stadium, the city of Dresden - and its third division football team, SG Dynamo Dresden - possesses one of the most modern and attractive stadiums in Germany. The arena was opened in mid-September after slightly less than two years' construction, and boasts a capacity of over 32,000 spectators, a VIP area capable of accommodating just under 1,200 guests, and a customer-friendly infrastructure.

The new building, erected on the site of the old Dynamo Stadium in Dresden's Volkspark, cost around 46 million euros - a budget that left the planners and organizers plenty room for a state-of-the-art stadium design. Already, barely two months since the opening of the new arena, their decision has been vindicated, as the stadium has not only proved a magnificent setting for SG Dynamo Dresden's home games but also impressed FIFA authorities enough for them

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UK - Hoist UK, master distributors for the complete range of Verlinde lifting products for the industrial and entertainment industry has launched a new website (www.verlindespares.co.uk).

Tony Dickson, director of Hoist UK comments, "As part of our ongoing development we are proud to introduce our online spare parts enquiry service available through the new website.

"With direct access to the Verlinde spare parts stock and hoist archive, Hoist UK are proud to offer a quick delivery time on most spare parts. If the part is not available from our UK site, it will be available from the factory in France.

Louise Dickson, sales executive of Hoist UK comments, "The process could not be easier; all you need to do is access our new website and select the hoist you have. This will take you to an exploded view of the hoist, where you will need to note the part numbers r

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