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UK - A.C. Rigging, a division of A.C. Entertainment Technologies, has supplied a high specification Kinesys motion control system to Northern Stage Theatrical Productions in Newcastle for their Christmas production of Peter Pan and other future shows. The venue is the largest producing theatre company in the North East of England.

When Northern Stage were looking for a fast moving, variable speed system to fly scenery during the show, they approached A.C. Rigging to find a cost-effective solution as A.C. had previously supplied and installed the theatre's complete lighting technical facilities for all three performance stages as part of a multi-million pound refurbishment programme in 2007.

The venue required a complete package with the ability to expand on the system in

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International - An international group of companies from the lighting industry - including Acuity Brands Lighting, Cooper Lighting, OSRAM, Panasonic, Philips, Schréder, Toshiba, TRILUX and Zumtobel Group - is to initiate the formation of Zhaga, an industry-wide cooperation aimed at the development of standard specifications for the interfaces of LED light engines.

As rapid advances in LED technology continue, Zhaga will enable interchangeability between products made by diverse manufacturers. Interchangeability is achieved by defining interfaces for a variety of application-specific light engines. Zhaga standards will cover the physical dimensions, as well as the photometric, electrical and thermal behaviour of LED light engines.

Zhaga is being formed for the benefit of the consumers in the expectation that standardisation will prevent market fragmentation into incompat

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USA - While thousands of media representatives from around the world are soaking up the sights across South Florida this week, they'll also get a portion of Texas glitz along the way. That's because the North Texas Super Bowl Host Committee has set up a giant booth in the Super Bowl Media Centre that's impossible to miss.

With a major assist from partners GoVision, Daktronics, CorporateMagic and Todd Events, the committee is generating buzz with its Texas-size booth modelled after the new Cowboys Stadium in Arlington. The exhibition space features scaled-down replicas of the stadium's two massive support arches and its iconic centre-hung LED screen.

GoVision, one of the nation's premier suppliers of turnkey mobile LED units and customized modular LED walls, constructed a 5ft x 10ft central screen using 14 modular Daktronics PST-6i-b LED panels. Additional Daktronics PST-12HD L

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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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USA - Allen & Heath has announced the sale of the 1,000th and 1,001st iLive mixing consoles to Sound Image, one of the top touring sound companies in the US. To mark the occasion, Allen & Heath presented a commemorative award to Sound Image at the recent NAMM Show. American Music & Sound (AM&S), the US distributor for the consoles, made the presentation during a press conference.

In accepting, Sound Image president Dave Shadoan noted that his firm had actually purchased two of the consoles. "The products we purchase have to make good business sense - basically, to make our clients happy," he notes, "To get this much flexibility and DSP capability in a console, at this price point, made purchasing these two iLives a no-brainer for Sound Image."

The key to the sale was bringing the iLive-T112 in for a demonstration, according to Rick Stanley, director of corp

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UK - Clear Vision Systems, supplier of installation tools and equipment for home cinemas and AV installations, announces the availability of the EZ-Snapjack, a professional, self-terminating, snap-on jack for Cat 5 and Cat 6 cabling. The jack can be fitted instantly, without a punchdown tool, making for less work and a more accurate termination and connection.

The reusable, time saving EZ-Snapjack is suitable for new or retrofit commercial network and home automation installations. With the EZ-Snapjack there is no need for eight punchdowns and the installer can repair damaged jacks on the spot.

A colour-coded wire guide is included to ensure that the conductors remain in place until the connector is snapped closed by hand to complete the connection. An adapter is available to allow the EZ-Snapjack to fit standard Euromod outlet plates.

"The EZ-Snapjack is an ideal addit

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Denmark - The 15th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP15) took place at Copenhagen Bella Centre from the 7 to 18 December, 2009. Hosting about 15,000 participants, this has been the largest international political conference ever held in Denmark with attendants from 192 countries representing governments, business communities and civil society.

The installation company in charge of the project, Dansk Video Center, needed a reliable and powerful lighting fixture, which could blend discretely with the architectural features of the Bella Centre outside façade. A long-throw vividly coloured beam was required to enhance the horizontal concrete tunnel which embellishes the main entrance of the conference centre along with the entrance itself.

The technical features of Griven's Graphite 600 were recognised as the most suitable for this prestigious installation and Griven d

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Hong Kong - This winter, the Hong Kong Repertory Theatre performed 20 shows of Leslie Bricusse's Scrooge, a musical based on Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol. Staged at the Hong Kong City Hall's 463-seat proscenium theatre, the presentation marked the christening of HKRep's new Meyer Sound system.

"Space is very limited, so the speaker system has to be as small as possible, yet able to deliver exceptional sound pressure levels," says sound designer Yuen Cheuk-wa. "There are bangs, thunder, explosions, tornados, and low drones, which demand a lot of headroom and low-frequency extension."

Using Meyer Sound's MAPP Online Pro acoustical prediction program, Yuen designed a system featuring two UPA-2P, four UPJunior VariO, and six MM-4XP miniature loudspeakers, in addition to four UMS-1P subwoofers. A Galileo loudspeaker management system with Co

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Canada - Audio-Technica reports that over 3,000 of its microphones will be used at the XXI Winter Olympic Games, taking place in Vancouver, British Columbia this February. The use of Audio-Technica microphones for the broadcast of the 2010 Winter Games marks the continuation of A-T's Olympic involvement, which has been consistent since the Summer Games in Atlanta in 1996.

Olympic Broadcast Services Vancouver (OBSV) is the Host Broadcaster for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games, responsible for producing and distributing audio and video coverage of the Games. To generate an international production, OBSV will deploy all cameras, develop graphics, and capture audio at each sporting venue. OBSV will transmit this international production to all radio and television Rights Holding Broadcasters, who will adapt the signal for transmission on their networks. In this way, each nation will

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USA - ESTA has announced that the 1 March deadline for submitting applications to sit for the paper and pencil examinations to be given at USITT is quickly approaching.

All three ETCP examinations will be offered at USITT in Kansas City, Missouri. All applications must be submitted to the ETCP office no later than 1March 1, 2010. The exam dates are: Entertainment Electrical Exam: March 31, 2010 (9:00 am); Arena Rigging Exam: April 1, 2010 (9:00 am); Theatre Rigging Exam: April 1, 2010 (2:00 pm).

All three exams are available at over 190 testing centres in the US and Canada on most business days. The Arena and Electrical examinations will also be given at InfoComm this summer in Las Vegas.

Complete information is available on the ETCP website: http://etcp.esta.org. The ETCP 50-question practice examinations are now available at www.esta.org/etcppracticeexams.

(Jim Evans)

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USA - Lighting and video designer Nick West specified a Jands Vista T2 console to provide lighting, IMAG and video control for the recent tobyMac annual Winter Wonder Slam tour. The American Grammy award-winning gospel rapper's explosive show featured Diverse City, his 8-member touring band, and played a series of US Arena dates throughout November and December. The touring schedule re-commences in March to promote the launch of tobyMac's latest studio album, Tonight.

Tour lighting was provided by Axxis Inc, with lighting design, direction and programming by Nick West. Video was provided by Big Picture.

When it came to specifying lighting control for the tour, the Jands Vista was Nick's desk of choice. Nick is an experienced user of the Vista range, switching between a rented full-size T2 console for tours and his own S1 control surface for fly dates or using as a wing, which

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UK - Orbital Sound has replaced all of its CD and MiniDisc recorders in its sound rigs with Tascam's HD-R1 CF card/USB solid state media recorders. The theatre sound design company has already taken delivery of 23 HD-R1s, with a further 10 units on order. The initial order was to meet the company's requirements for more than 20 productions in major theatre venues nationwide over the busy festive season.

The Tascam HDR1 solidstate recorder is designed to exploit the advantages of latest generation file based digital media in professional audio and AV integration applications, previously fulfilled by CD/CDR, MiniDisk, cassette tape and commodity PCs. The HD-R1 provides recording and storage of MP3 and uncompressed .WAV file formats to both Compact Flash memory cards and USB removable storage devices, in conjunction with advanced IP network capabilities.

Orbital Sound hire manage

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Romania - At a public New Year's celebration in Bucharest featuring top Romanian bands and DJs, tarm Showlaser, working in collaboration with lunatX, put on a 15-minute multimedia show that entertained the 100,000 spectators with a mixture of laser effects, fireworks, flames, and lighting displays.

The spectacle took place on the Piata Constitutie, in front of the Parliamentary Palace and the 800m long Bulevardui Unirii. The Bucharest City Hall, which sponsored the spectacle, called it the "best New Year's show Rumania had ever seen".

(Jim Evans)

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UK - Following the recent decision by Allen & Heath to alter the colour scheme of its Xone DJ range, leading London nightclub, Matter, has installed a new storm grey Xone:92 in its main DJ booth.

"The Xone:92 is an iconic product, one that I have been working with it for years. It has never let me down, despite having been in the hands of some really tough DJs," explains Matter's head of sound, Roberto Pieroni. "Although very familiar, all the controls on the new colour 92 appear easier to find thanks to a clearer layout and design; for example, the booth level can be more easily distinguished from the mix level. As ever, the sound quality is impeccable."

The colour change is purely cosmetic, and there are no alterations to the Xone range's design or performance. "The best thing about Matter's new Xone:92 is that the new colour perfectly matches our Te

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UK - The 2,500-strong congregation at Belfast's Metropolitan Tabernacle is finally enjoying the results of an 18-month project to upgrade its audio services. From the prominent Electro-Voice XLC line array in the main auditorium to the compact ZX1s and SX100s in the adjacent youth centre, the extensive digital audio network designed by the Church's in-house team features almost exclusively EV sound reinforcement products.

Trevor Bowron and Ian McAlees from the Metropolitan Tabernacle worked closely with Neal Allen from Shuttlesound to draw up the system specification, selecting XLC for the main house PA. "We hadn't really used Electro-Voice before," says McAlees, "but, from the start, the experience has been really positive. We auditioned the XLC and XLE line array cabinets at the Shuttlesound Big Day Out conference, and Neal Allen made the effort to travel

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Australia - The John Butler Trio One Way Road tour, which has just finished touring Australia, was carbon neutral.

Emissions associated with the tour (such as electricity generated from the shows, air and road transportation, including touring party and freight) was calculated and a reinvestment made into renewable energy projects. This effectively balanced out the impact the One Way Road tour had on the climate and is a positive investment to assist the current situation of global warming.

People travelling to the concert by carbon transport even had the opportunity to purchase a Green ticket which incurred an extra cost of 50 cents - this money was also donated to renewable energy projects to help make this a truly carbon neutral tour.

The obvious path for lighting designer Dave Jackson was to use LED fixtures in the show and he opted for the new Mart

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USA - Behind the Scenes and Light Relief have announced that a host of big name designers have joined in support of the charities' fund raising By Design Day 2010. Heading the roster are Jonathan Deans, David Gallo, Derek McLane, Tony Meola, Hugh Vanstone and Tony Walton, who have joined Ken Billington, Paule Constable, Rick Fisher and Ken Posner as signatories to the event, scheduled for Saturday 24 April.

In the coming weeks these designers will be asking their colleagues to voluntarily give a day's royalties to Behind the Scenes in North America or Light Relief in the UK, the two charities which provide assistance to their colleagues in the entertainment technology industry when a crisis occurs.

These designers know that without the support of the many dedicated technicians and assistants in theatres and venues across the country, they would not be where they are tod

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UK - A.C. Video, a division of A.C. Entertainment Technologies, has been appointed as the exclusive UK and Northern Ireland distributor for the award-winning Midiator Vision, an innovative new way of controlling video and lighting on live shows.

Recipient of a PLASA Award for Innovation at last year's show, the Vision finally offers a master control that can be the interface between lighting consoles, media servers, MIDI / SMPTE devices and many other show system components. With minimal set-up time, its large touch screen mappable buttons allow it to quickly navigate to and trigger all other devices. As a result, programming a show is faster and easier, says the company.

For real live control, by connecting the Vision to a favourite lighting console, users can directly navigate into their cue-lists / executor lists, and add all kinds of new functions to their show.

The Visi

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USA - Village Baptist Church near Portland, OR, has recently taken delivery of a 72-input/16-output Innovason Sy48 digital mixing console with DioCore stagebox following the opening of their new worship centre in September 2009. The new building provides 43,695sq.ft of space spread over three floors and includes nurseries, a toddler care room, five multi-use classrooms, lounge/coffee bar areas, and a 1000-seat Sanctuary.

With the new build came a new sound system, at the heart of which is an Innovason Sy48 with a DioCore complete with the onboard VB-Audio FX package and a 16 x 2 Aviom A-Net card. Positioned at FoH in the Sanctuary, the Sy48 handles both the FoH mix and monitors, while additional feeds are used for recording purposes and for distribution throughout the rest of the building.

Village technical director and sound engineer, Jerry Keifer says that he went through a

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Germany - The production Die Drei ??? und der seltsame Wecker (The Three Investigators and the strange alarm clock) the successful audio drama series has toured Germany for the second time. In addition to Oliver Rohrbeck as Jupiter Jones, Jens Wawrczeck as Pete Crenshaw and Andreas Fröhlich as Bob Andrews, all of whom have already become icons to fans of the series, Peter Klinkenberg was the foley artist and Helmut Kraus the narrator.

Kai Schwind adapted the original story and directed. The Three Investigators were created at the beginning of the 1960s by the US journalist and author, Robert Arthur.

The sold out tour relied heavily on lighting and video as well as digital sound effects. mb-media Engineering and Design used a control system consisting of one grandMA2 full-size console, two MA NPUs (Network Processing Unit), one grandMA2 replay unit with one grand

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UK - Adlib Audio's Richy Nicholson once again applied his mixing talents as he took up his role as front-of-house engineer New York EMO band Brand New.

The band played a recent high profile, one-off UK show at London's Wembley Arena to great critical acclaim. Nicholson has also engineered the band for their last two UK and European tours.

Adlib supplied equipment to meet Nicholson's spec and audio design for Wembley. The FOH system was tech'd by Tony Szabo and monitors were looked after by Marc Peers who was also Adlib's crew chief, and they were joined by two additional Adlib crew - Kenny Perrin and Michael Flaherty.

Nicholson chose an L-Acoustics system, with 12 V-Dosc speakers a side for the main-hangs complete with 3 dv under-hangs, and 10 of ADLIB's newly purchased Kudo elements per side for the side hangs. "You're under massive pressure doing a large one off like

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Switzerland - A SoundField SPS200 Software Controlled Microphone, supplied by German SoundField distributor SEA, has been used to capture audio for a sound installation at a Zurich cultural museum. NONAM, Switzerland's North American Native Museum, is constructing a permanent exhibition representing five of the main geographical regions of North American Native culture.

The new audio installation evokes the culture of the north-west coast of the continent, playing quadrophonic sounds and audio textures captured on the West Coast of British Columbia on a permanent loop inside an acoustically treated chamber.

The engineer responsible for capturing the sounds was Hein Schoer, a German PhD researcher working at the Fontys School of Arts in the Netherlands, and accredited by the University of Maastricht. Schoer recorded the sounds and textures during a three-week trip to Canada's w

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