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UK - London-based drapes and soft good specialist Cover It Up has been appointed as a 'preferred supplier' to the Natural History Museum in South Kensington.

The Museum has a busy programme of events and functions often taking place in the impressive Central Hall, home to 'Dippy', the spectacular 26m long skeleton of a Diplodocus, who has been one of the Museum's most treasured exhibits since he was first unveiled to the public in 1905.

As a standard draping package for events staged in this space, the Cover It Up team will install a 160 x 25ft LED full colour changing starcloth along one side of the room, which has to be hung in lightening quick speed in the hour between the doors being shut to the public at 6pm and the event kick off time of 7 - 7.30pm. This is achieved by six

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UK - Point Source Productions' technical productions department was commissioned by Eclipse Presentations to provide a lighting system for the Australia Day celebrations at the Australian High Commission in London on 23 January this year.

The event involved a Thai-themed gala dinner created by the famed Australian Michelin Star chef, David Thompson, of Nahm in Belgravia, and a cabaret of Australian artists including Philip Quast, Kirby Hughes and Sam Harrison to entertain the diners. The evening culminated in the presentation of the much-coveted Australia Day UK awards for Australian of the Year, Honorary Australian of the Year and Young Australian Achiever of the Year.

Point Source Productions provided lighting for the exterior and reception areas for the evening, in addition to lighting the Gala Dinner and cabaret. Lighting designer David Miller, working on behalf of Point S

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South Africa - Six dnp Supernova screens have been specified in the UCKG Park Station Cathedral in Johannesburg to provide all 7,000 members of the congregation with a clear view of the service.

A full 12,000 people were able to follow the building's inauguration ceremony recently, thanks to the high-quality live images on the screens.

While the building was still at the planning stage, the UCKG church asked Questek Customer Care (QCC) to supply the audio-visual installation for their new cathedral. QCC's task was to create a set-up which would afford all congregation members a good view of the preacher's face - no matter where they were sitting. Since most services are held during the daytime, a further challenge was to project quality images in ambient light.

QCC chose dnp's Supernova Screens primarily because of their ability to provide quality images in high ambient ligh

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

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France - City Rock, a lounge bar/restaurant in the Parisian suburb of Cergy Pontoise, is the latest nightspot to benefit from an APG sound system powered by Lab.gruppen's C Series amplifiers.

The system was designed and specified by Pierre Yves Seddiki of AMPI, a systems contracting company based just south of Paris. He designed a multi-zone distributed system based on APG's dedicated installation Micro Axial Series.

City Rock comprises three distinct zones, each of which required its own sound system to suit the particular environment. The first zone is designed like a high class, luxurious New York loft with decor to match. Here the emphasis is on creating a calm and tranquil atmosphere for customers to dine in comfort. AMPI therefore specified a total of eight MX1 loudspeakers which offer a broad dispersion pattern in a compact format. An MX2, which is slightly more powerfu

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Ateis UK is playing a major part in the expansion and refurbishment of ExCel London, a leading European exhibition and conference centre. As part of this important project Ateis is supplying audio processing and control technology for the public address (PA) and voice alarm (VA) systems used around the rooms and halls.

ExCel opened in Docklands in 2000, attracting international conferences and exhibitions due to its proximity to the City of London and rail and Underground links to the West End, with London City Airport not far away. After nearly ten years in the competitive venues market ExCel's owners decided to redevelop the original building and add more halls and rooms.

PA and VA systems are necessary in both areas, so Ateis UK was involved by Notifier by Honeywell and their customer installation company Unysystems to supply equipment and advice. Phase One of the project was comp

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UK - On 15 September 2008, capitalism came to a grinding halt. As sub-prime mortgages and toxic securities continued to dominate the headlines, in spring 2009, London's National Theatre asked David Hare to write an urgent and immediate work that sought to find out what had happened and why. Helping to illustrate his story was G-LEC Phantom 30. A 17m by 3m tall screen flown in and out using four chain hoists showed video, original computer graphics, green screen images, text and still photographs.

Al Parkinson, the production manager for The Power of Yes, explains, "We knew that we wanted to make this show look as high tech as possible and while we'd used projection before, we'd never used LED screens. We used the internet to research a number of companies' products and then invited them to demonstrate them.

"During the show, some of the time, the screens were

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UK - The Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (RSAMD) has suspended a member of staff after it emerged that he was using a false name.

As reported in the Scottish News of the World on 7 February, the lecturer, who for six months had gone by the name 'Simon Cadell', was in fact Simon Brophy, the former head of lighting at the Millennium Dome who was jailed for four-and-a-half years in 2005 after being convicted of a £4m fraud at the Dome.

The deception apparently came to light following allegations that Cadell had had a relationship with a student. He was immediately suspended by the Academy.

Last year, "Simon Cadell" was mentioned in RSAMD press releases as part of its lecturing team that had been named "the best in the world" by OISTAT at the World Stage Design Exhibition & Conference 2009, in Korea. As of this morning, "Simon Cade

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Sound in the Round - The Human League, Gary Numan and Grace Jones will all play special shows at a new temporary venue, the 5DX dome, in Miami and London in March and April. The venue will offer "3D Surround Sound and 360-degree visuals as well as dining facilities, with five-course meals for guests". Gary Numan is quoted as describing the experience as "The entertainment equivalent of walking into a laptop - the audience are immersed in a 360 degree digital environment unlike any experience known before."

Back to The Eighties - Blondie will play an outdoor show in the UK as part of The Forestry Commission's annual series of outdoor concerts. The show, at the Westonbirt Arboretum in Gloucestershire will take place on 20 June. Happy Mondays will headline the Saturday night of this year's Wychwood Festival at Cheltenham Racecourse on 5 June.

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Jordan - Under the banner, Party line never before, R&B singer-songwriter Akon performed live in concert at Amman Exhibitions Park with lighting courtesy of TriTec AV and Clay Paky. The show was hosted by The Arabian Journal, organized by Young Modes and powered by Creative Plus. Special guest Melissa opened the concert.

TriTec AV of Amman provided the lighting and sound setup for the event. Among the arsenal of gear used for the show were 34 Clay Paky Alpha Wash 575, 24 Clay Paky Alpha Spot 1200 HPE, and 16 Clay Paky Alpha Beam 1500 fixtures, all controlled with a grandMA Full Size console.

TriTec senior production manager Rajai Khalil explained, "For the Akon show we used almost the same amount of Clay Paky fixtures as in Distant Heat (the summer dance party held in the Wadi Rum desert in Jordan). We didn't have many technical details or even a ligh

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The Netherlands - PR Lighting has strengthened its management team by appointing the experienced Fons de Vreede to handle sales in Western Europe.

The appointment was confirmed by Ernie Armas, PR Lighting's international sales director. Setting out the rationale, Armas states, "One of the main reasons for hiring Fons was to improve our communications and develop new relationships with the European distribution network.

"We felt it was necessary to recruit a strong player that could help us achieve that goal. Fons comes to us with not only an already established network of contacts, having for over five years been European sales director for High End Systems, but also a solid reputation of achievement and credibility.

"We are very excited to have him onboard and feel that this new partnership will enable us to achieve our strategy for future growth."

In

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USA - The Rose Bowl in Pasadena hosted the year's most anticipated college football game - the BCS Championship game - as well as the Rose Bowl. For each game, nearly 95,000 college football fans in attendance looked to the new Lighthouse LED screen for game action replays, sponsor messages and entertainment.

The BCS Championship game on 7 January, pitted the two top-rated, undefeated teams in America, the Alabama Crimson Tide versus the Texas Longhorns. And though the historic Rose Bowl's sheer size prevents it from being considered an intimate venue, the stadium's new Lighthouse LED screen delivers a video experience to each fan that feels like watching high-definition television in the family room with 95,000 of your closest friends.

"Lighthouse is honoured to be such an integral part of the Rose Bowl," said Ed Whitaker, Lighthouse N.A.S.A director of sales. "

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UK - While Paradigm AV founder Greg Jeffreys prepares to take over the role of president of InfoComm in 2012, new appointments have been announced to the board of his engineering and distribution company.

Paradigm reports that sales manager Mick Perrone and operations manager, Steve Pratt have joined the main board with immediate effect and are appointed as directors. This expands the working board, led by managing director Paul Wood to five members. Greg Jeffreys remains chairman and Polly Whittaker as finance director. At the same time Ross Hugo has been appointed as a non-executive director.

Meanwhile Jeffreys has ascended through the InfoComm ranks. His academic work on projected image quality and associated metrics gradually merged into InfoComm's pioneering work on quality standards and best practices. InfoComm is now an accredited ANSI/ISO Standards Development Organisa

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USA / Australia - LSC's Clarity is the console of choice for lighting designer Dave Haus for the current Wolfmother New Moon Rising world tour.

Haus and his company Prodigy Lighting Design are based in Maryland USA. He is a lighting designer and programmer and owns a number of his own consoles. He came across Clarity last year whilst programming a live TV broadcast in Colorado, USA where Clarity was part of the house rig.

"I found it to be very intuitive and easy to programme," comments Haus. "So much so that after the gig I immediately contacted the USA distributor Applied Electronics and purchased my very own VX20 Wing and software.

On arriving in the Europe with the Wolfmother tour, Clarity continued to be a real time saver for Haus when he was faced with combining their touring fixtures with the local house rigs.

He adds, "Clarity's easy pat

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Germany - Wireless Solution Sweden was recently in Berlin to celebrate the 20-year anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

The four-day festival ran from November 5-9, 2009, with the highlight being the Festival of Freedom held at the landmark Brandenburg Gate. Thousands of guests attended the evening of 9 November to celebrate the fall of the wall 20 years ago.

The Berlin Staatskapelle and State Opera Chorus, conducted by Daniel Barenboim, opened the ceremony on the Pariser Platz. Potsdamer Platz, 18th of March Square and the Reichstag all held major events as well. Lighting designer was Gerd Helinski, managing director of Helicon-Media. After the concert, the fall of the Berlin Wall was symbolized with the toppling of a domino wall made up of over 1000 giant Styrofoam dominoes, stacked along the entire wall path. Following the symbolic 'fall', hundreds of thousand

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UK - Combining an emergency voice alarm system with digital audio PA, paging and BGM functionality, the new VM-3000 Series from TOA brings new levels of flexibility to the deployment of PA/VA in small to medium-sized commercial projects, all at an affordable price, the company says.

The VM-3000 offers a range of emergency functions, including built-in voice alarm and continuous speaker line monitoring without interruption of BGM distribution or paging announcements. All audio is digitally processed and controlled, resulting in PA broadcasting, paging and BGM delivery of consistently high sound quality and intelligibility.

The system is controlled by a choice of two System Amplifiers, and can be expanded using up to nine VM Extension Amplifiers, each of which offers six assignable speaker zone outputs to give a maximum of 60 speaker zones, each with its own programmable volume

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USA - Audio-Technica has announced updates to its award-winning Artist Elite 4000 Series and 5000 Series Frequency-agile True Diversity UHF Wireless Systems. To signify the enhancements, the letter "a" will be added to the end of all 4000 and 5000 Series system model numbers.

Product updates include a new backlit LCD on transmitters and locking battery door on UniPak body-pack transmitters; two-colour (green/red) power/mute LED to indicate on/mute status; new 25kHz spacing, providing up to 996 selectable frequencies; and a new v3.0 of the AEW Control Interface Software, which now works with all popular operating systems. A newly announced five-year warranty is also included.

Audio-Technica's updated Artist Elite 4000 and 5000 Series Frequency-agile True Diversity UHF Wireless Systems will be available Spring 2010.

(Lee Baldock)

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Switzerland/USA - Barix AG will introduce Store and Play, a new FTP/HTTP download and playback application for in-store audio programming at the upcoming Digital Signage Expo, taking place 23-25 February at the Las Vegas Convention Centre.

"While digital signage and out-of-home networks remain the big buzz for in-store entertainment and advertising, many businesses continue to rely on audio as their main resource for reaching customers at the point of purchase," said Johannes G. Rietschel, CEO and Founder of Barix AG.

"Recent studies have proven that the right mix of music and advertising can have a significant influence on brand perception and in-store atmosphere, de-stressing both customers and employees to respectively increase purchasing and raise productivity. The Barix Store and Play application can deliver these benefits to retailers and hospitality busin

Details
Kenya - Gearhouse South Africa supplied full technical production - sound, lighting, AV & video, staging, sets, rigging and power - and one of their massive new In2Structures SupaDome venues for Swedish cosmetics multinational Oriflame's 2010 Diamond Conference.

This was hosted at the Sarova Whitesands Hotel & Spa in Bamburi, near Mombasa on the Kenyan coast, and produced by Oriflame's in house production team.

The project, the site and the logistics were managed for Gearhouse by Bill Lawford and Eyal Yehezkely, working closely with account handler Gareth Hadden.

Forty four Gearhouse SA crew - designers, engineers and technicians - worked across all the disciplines, utilising 63 tonnes of production equipment that was air freighted out of SA via Nairobi in a 747 freighter. The SupaDome was transported to Mombasa in seven 40ft Hi-Cube sea freight containers.

The event compr

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UK - The doors for the ABTT Theatre Show at the Royal Horticultural Halls do not open until 16 June but already the organisers are facing the happy problem of ensuring there is enough space for new exhibitors as regulars book bigger stands and commit to additional sponsorship opportunities at the show, say the organisers.

The exhibition provides a forum for theatre technology and services. Last year it bucked the downturn caused by the financial crisis and presented the broadest range of products and companies in its 32-year history.

The Show also provides a platform for airing the big issues in the theatre and live performance sectors. Among the most challenging right now is the Digital Dividend Review and re-allocation of frequency spectrum following the switchover from analogue to digital television.

Theatre and live music shows rely heavily on wireless technologies, incl

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France - Following La Norma ski resort in the French Alps, the ski resort of Tignes has also entrusted Martin Professional with its lighting needs. Located at an altitude of over 2000 m, Vignes, together with nearby Val d'Isère, is internationally renowned for its quality slopes.

Initially, the town of Tignes sought to freshen up its image in order to better match its reputation as a young, dynamic resort. Lighting designer Jean-Philippe Corrigou therefore turned to Martin Professional visual solutions to bring about this dynamism through lighting.

The first project, the Maison de Tignes, is a large reception centre located just below the ski slopes. It enables guests to orientate themselves, obtain information and have fun, all while getting warm.

The architecture of the building, which is made completely out of wood, is simple and chalet-like and, due to its dimensions,

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Australia - The Brownlow Medal Count is the one of the most prestigious annual awards ceremony on the Australia sporting calendar. Staged at the Palladium Ballroom in Melbourne's Crown Casino complex, the 2009 Brownlow dinner was attended by over 1000 sporting celebrities and VIPs and broadcast live on Australia's Channel 7 TV. The Brownlow Medal is awarded to the 'fairest and best' player in the Australian Football League.

Clifton Productions supplied a large array of equipment to this year's event including Robe moving lights and Anolis LED fixtures which were used on stage and throughout the venue.

The event's art director was Mal Nichols of Mal Nichols and Associates. "The design elements had to be three-dimensional to allow lighting and texturing to be a back drop to the talent", says Nichols. "So the lighting was required to be flexible and allow for subtl

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