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UK - Jonny Gaskell, lighting designer for British electronic duo Orbital, calls the Martin MAC 250 Beam "a new exciting product that has amazing light output for such a small unit."

Gaskell was happy to get his hands on 12 Martin MAC 250 Beams for Orbital's set at London Freeze 2009, a snow sport and music event held at Battersea Power Station in London from 30 October to 1 November.

"It has an excellent fat beam, usable gobos, and lovely colour mixing," he says. "They gave the rig a serious level of punch and stood out over the rest of the rig, giving stadium style fat searchlight beams."

The festival played host to live music acts on two stages with Orbital as headliners. Gaskell had six MAC 250 Beams sub-hung on drop bars across the back

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USA / Japan - Yamaha Commercial Audio has announced that Audinate's Dante-MY16-AUD cards are now commercially available. These cards are fully compatible with Yamaha digital MY16 card slots and may be ordered through authorized Yamaha Commercial Audio dealers.

The Dante-MY16-AUD card is based on Audinate's Dante IP audio networking solution. The card can be used to network low latency, sample accurate audio to Dante networked equipment including Yamaha mixing consoles, DME processors and TXn power amplifiers which have MY16 card slots. Each Dante-MY16-AUD card provides 16 bidirectional audio channels (16 channels at 48 kHz, or 8 channels at 96 kHz) over Gigabit Ethernet with real time network redundancy. Multiple cards may be used to support higher channel count.

Each Dante-MY16-AUD card also includes a licence for Audinate's Dante Virtual Soundcard - a software program that e

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UK - BrightSign media controllers are delivering messages about marine biology and conservation at the Sea Life London Aquarium, which re-launched in April 2009 following a multi-million pound refurbishment. Eighty of the BrightSign HD110 units provide interactive looping signage, primarily as electronic labels on tanks that are home to thousands of marine mammals, fish, turtles, seahorse and octopuses.

BrightSign players are delivering the same benefits at other Sea Life attractions throughout Europe, including 15 BrightSigns at Legoland Germany and 30 of the units in Sea Life Portugal.

Each controller drives an HD LCD display built into a bespoke metal enclosure; designed, integrated and installed by audio visual experts Digital Antics. The fish-tank label display is divided into two zones. A narrow menu area shows images of all the species in the particular enclosure whilst

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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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UK - Lighting designer Chad Peters used 28 GLP Impression moving LED lights on his enlarged set, once American band Paramore moved up to arena sized shows in the UK this December.

He sourced the fixtures from Bandit Lites (who hold a rental stock of 60 Impressions), and their chief executive Lester Cobrin comments: "The units are in high demand from many lighting designers - thus we made the decision to invest heavily - a decision which has proved very successful."

Having been introduced to the power of the LED spots by other third party vendors back in the United States, Peters was sufficiently impressed to try them out for the first time with the band Rise Against, when he was covering for a colleague.

"They were asking whether it was a green design and I thought they were talking about the colour of their set until I realised they were concerned with eco-is

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USA - Mackie is scheduled to announce a host of new powered subwoofers at NAMM this week. When paired with an SRM450v2 (now clad in all black), the new TH-18s Powered Subwoofer "delivers real world power at extremely competitive pricing".

"Our legendary SRM450v2 now has a powerful ally," remarked Mackie brand director, Greg Young. "When paired with our new TH-18s, you have a complete system that comes in at a street price of nearly $400 less than competitive systems...and that's per side."

Also debuting at NAMM are the HD Series Powered Subwoofers, promoted as companions to the full-range HD Series loudspeakers launched in 2009.

(Jim Evans)

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UK - As Carl Cox wowed the gathered revellers during his five-hour Room-One set at Matter London's first birthday party this autumn, he made the most of the 3D room sound effects created by a TiMax audio delay matrix and triggered live via an M Audio Oxygen8 MIDI keyboard.

TiMax is intrinsic to the sound system design in the Thameside superclub and is the key to the 'tight' but spatial soundfield achieved in the very large and industrial, high-ceilinged Room-One space. TiMax operates in two standard modes: one to optimise the DJ club night sound experience and the second to emphasise the stage focus for live band performance.

Subtle or extreme sound movement effects, such as mix elements spinning or zig-zagging around the room in different directions, are triggered in TiMax by the DJ using the MIDI keyboard. Keen to assure his crowd of special set, Cox incorporated these effec

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Croatia - The combination of transparency, vertical beam distribution and a tiny footprint made Martin Audio's OmniLine micro-line array system the choice for Croatian installation company Ivas Studio when it came to fitting out the 500-seat Church of Saint Ana in the centre of Krizevci.

The parent company of Martin Audio's Zagreb-based importers, Niking d.o.o, covers a wide spectrum of integration work but finds houses of worship a vibrant sector - just as OmniLine does.

With its modular, scalable approach, the architecturally-designed OmniLine can be optimised in the system's dedicated intelligent software, which enables the sound to be delivered precisely over any vertical angle, while the elimination of high frequency side-lobes provides an advantage over DSP-steered columns, making it appropriate for heavily reverberant spaces such as church interiors.

Niking director,

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USA - 3RD Power Amplification, which caused a stir last year with its innovative triangular cabinet design, has announced a new cabinet with dual 12-inch speakers - and another innovative twist. The Switchback212 is a rectangular cabinet with a pair of premium Celestion Vintage 30 loudspeakers, each housed in its own triangular chamber, eliminating the standing waves and boxy sound inherent in conventional cabinet design. In addition, the Switchback 212 features removable vent lids on the back, allowing the user to achieve either open- or closed-back operation - or a simultaneous combination of the two.

"The speaker cabinet is the final link in the audio chain for guitarists," notes 3RD Power founder and designer Jamie Scott. "An open back makes it easier to achieve tweed-inspired tonality, while a closed back is great for plexi-type tones. With the Switchback 212

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UAE - Martin Audio took part in the recent FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup Dubai 2009, with local service providers Almoe featuring a full line array sound rig.

This was the 15th edition of the Cup since its establishment in 1995, and the event in the United Arab Emirates was the second tournament to take place outside Brazil.

System designer was Almoe's head of audio, Bruno Vitanza, who relied heavily on Martin Audio's DISPLAY software to make all the acoustical predictions for the purpose-built beach soccer stadium, which was designed to accommodate nearly 6,000 spectators. "DISPLAY was a great help," he said. "I just had to 'virtually rig' the system on my PC and then when I did it for real I knew the line array would perfectly cover the areas I wanted ... in just one take."

For the main pitch Almoe fielded 16 W8LM Mini Line Array enclosures and eig

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The Netherlands - Allen & Heath will be showing a cross section of its latest digital products at the forthcoming ISE show in Amsterdam.

A highlight on the stand will be the newly launched iDR-16 3U MixRack and iLive-R72 rackmountable Control Surface, which together provide a space saving, lightweight digital live mixing system, bringing the same power, sonic performance and flexibility of the larger touring iLive systems to a significantly lower price point, says the company.

Also on display will be the record-selling iLive-T digital mixing system and various components from the iDR digital installation series.

(Jim Evans)

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Hot News - A major initiative for NAMM 2010 this week will be the introduction of NAMM's H.O.T. Zone which will offer specialised training courses and networking events for music industry professionals in live audio, house of worship and stage and lighting industries.

"NAMM recognises the importance of the live audio, house of worship and stage and lighting industries to the music products industry and welcomes these music industry professionals to the 2010 NAMM Show," says Kevin Johnstone, director of trade shows, NAMM. "This year, we're working closely with a number of partner organisations and media outlets that serve these segments to create a new and valuable education track to meet their needs and giving them even more reasons to attend this year's NAMM Show."

More than 15 industry partners, publishers, organisations and associations will offer a seri

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USA - During the holidays, New York City has some of the world's most beautiful outdoor displays. This year, the iconic display of large vintage C7 Christmas light bulbs in front of the McGraw-Hill building at 1221 6th Avenue has gone green. The traditional display has been replaced with a giant string of 31 LED holiday lights. PRG Scenic Technologies partnered with the designers from American Christmas, a leader in holiday décor and installations, to build and install the massive display.

"We initially pitched the new design to our client, the Rockefeller Group, owners of 1221 6th Avenue," said Lance R. Caffrey, chief production officer, American Christmas. "The Rockefeller Group puts a lot of emphasis on being LEED-certified and being environmentally aware, so as a nod to that, we suggested they change the existing display of conventional holiday lights t

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UK - As part of an ongoing relationship with Songtime Theatre Arts, London Light has again supported the theatre school with its latest production, Hairspray The Musical. London Light provided full support services from lighting design and pre-production to rental, get-in, operation and get-out.

The production was presented at the Magna Carta School theatre in Surrey, which presented a number of challenges including power, space and access restrictions during school hours.

Lighting designer Andy Vere explains: "We had a very short time in the theatre before the first performance so we arranged to do a pre-rig on the Thursday night, leaving the Friday night for focusing and plotting. Then the cast was onstage at 11am on the Saturday for re-blocking before the first performance at 8pm.

"Having pre-plotted the show back in our offices meant the only touch ups t

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France - RCF has provided the audio system for the new multi-purpose arena in the city of La Chapelle St Herblain, near Le Mans.

The New Theatre has been designed specifically for both theatre and live music performances. RCF France's local partner Terre De Son Le Mans installed a combination of C5212 Acustica series speakers and TTS28 passive subwoofers.

The C5215s were chosen for the installation to cover the different areas of the main hall. The design enables the system to cover the hall with both punchy sound and high definition.

Since the stage is mobile, TTS28 double 18" subwoofers have been chosen for their ease of movement and compact size.

A DX4008 digital sound processor was specified to manage the global system, with different presets according to stage placement and audience size.

RCF ART525-A two-way speakers are also used for mobile sound reinforcemen

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Belgium - Stageco used its engineering expertise to create the infrastructure for an ice skating rink and surrounding structures in Bruges.

As one of the oldest and most picturesque cities in Belgium, Bruges was the host to winter shopping and ice skating for locals and visitors to the city.

Stageco was brought in for the seventh consecutive year to create the framework and infrastructure for the city centre attraction. The Stageco team of four transported 80 tons of equipment to the site to build the 20m x 30m ice rink structure.

Tom Bilsen, project manager for Stageco comments, "The ice rink was a challenge due to the uneven ground level. Across the rink there was a difference of 1.5m in height which meant we had to design the structure to overcome this."

This year, Stageco also built 12 scaffolding towers surrounding the ice rick which were used for decoration

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UK - The annual Clothes Show Live fashion spectacular turned 21 in December 2009 with three-days of celebrations taking place at the NEC in Birmingham. Brought in by Haymarket Exhibitions and production manager Paul Devine, Stage One were asked to supply the Patrick Donohue designed stage, set and catwalk for this popular event.

"We were delighted to be invited to join the Clothes Show Live team once again," commented Steve Dolan, Account Director, Stage One. "Having worked with Paul and the team for over 10 years now it is testament to the hard work we have put into developing and maintaining a close working relationship."

The 400m2 stage was constructed using over 200 of Stage One's stock staging units and was completed with a PVC flooring effect, designed to resemble snow. Thrusting out from the stage was a 16m long catwalk and performance

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USA - Following successful discussions at PLASA 09 Multiform Lighting has appointed Apollo Design Technology based in Fort Wayne, Indianapolis as its US distributor of LED lighting and controllers for the Stage and Architainment markets.

Apollo will be exhibiting at the Big City Bash 14 January and at Super Saturday on 16 January in Atlanta, Georgia.

On display for the first time in the US will be the latest LED luminaires from Multiform, the MultiSpot HP and MultiBeam HP. Rated at 27W and 54W respectively these fixtures use 3W Multricel LEDs to produce a uniform, shadow free, colour output. Fitted with interchangeable lenses they can provide beam angles of 25, 40 and 60 degrees.

Manufactured from rugged aluminium extrusions and galvanised steel they are equipped with a combined hanging bracket/floor stand, safety cable and designed for DMX or standalone operation making the

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Denmark - Climate change is proving to be a good thing for video and projection services specialists Bluman Associates, who have completed a high-visibility project at the UN Conference in Copenhagen featuring a 20m tall giant globe in City Hall Square.

As the leaders of 192 different countries gathered in Copenhagen for the UN Climate Change Conference, Bluman Associates were providing full project management to American 'dome industry leaders' Absolute Hollywood. Designer James Lanier conceived a 20m tall Total Sphere representing Planet Earth which dominated the central square of Copenhagen.

The giant globe changed in appearance as it responded directly to text messages and emails from all over the world. Bluman Associates deployed 10 Christie S+20k c/w/TWIST projectors and two Delta Media Servers, running over 2 kilometres of custom-made fibre-optic DVI distribution

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The Netherlands - Synco Europe Network, the pan-European alliance of independent audio rental companies, has announced the appointment of Marcel Albers as its new commercial director.

Albers, a well-known entrepreneur in the Dutch music and entertainment industry, has a 20-year track record of success as an international artist manager, theatre and television producer and record company owner, and has close ties with many key figures in the international entertainment industry.

He will coordinate all activities related to Synco Europe from the Ampco Flashlight Group headquarters in Utrecht, Holland, while continuing to oversee his existing business interests.

Dick van Berkum, CEO of the Ampco Flashlight Group, said, "I'm delighted that we have a person of Marcel's calibre to lead the challenge of developing the Synco Europe Network that Fred Heuves established over the

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The Netherlands - Duran Audio BV has teamed up with Danish company Odeon A/S to create an interface between Duran Audio's Digital Directivity Analysis software (DDA) and Odeon Room Acoustics software.

This new interface allows sound system designers the ability to carry out their loudspeaker system design (using AXYS loudspeaker products) in DDA; within the DDA environment the critical 'beam steering' parameters of Intellivox and Target arrays can be set and modelled, using statistical methods. Once they are satisfied with the performance of the system the loudspeaker data can then be easily exported to XML format so that it can be imported into Odeon. Further modelling work can be carried out using the ray tracing method. In addition to this export functionality DDA users can also import the room geometry from Odeon into DDA models using the .CAD export function in Odeon.

The

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Egypt - TAO Productions provided production consultancy for Beyonce's show in Egypt this winter, solving a range of challenging production issues that ensured the event's safety.

TAO was brought in 21 days before show day by Creative Entertainment Groups CEO Peter Brightman to assist with one of Egypt's biggest concerts at the new resort of Port Ghalib on the Red Sea coast. The event included a support show of aerial performance art supplied by Newsubstance Creative Agency from the UK.

CEG initially required production consultancy from TAO, with Andy Cotton fly to Egypt. The first issue was the staging structures which had been newly purchased by the Egyptian production company Golden Show from Eurotruss. Although the stage roof had sufficient weight loading for the Beyonce rig, globally there was a requirement for a 7.5 tonne touring video wall to be flown from the rear arch.

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