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UK - GearSource Europe has announced the appointment of Benjamin Hollenberg to assist in developing the market for pre-owned lighting and sound equipment in Benelux and Germany.

Hollenberg has worked many years in lighting and sound sales, having previously been sales & investment manager with Focus, Amsterdam. His understanding of the business stems from his earlier 'hands-on' activities as a lighting technician for local Dutch bands and musical theatre.

Garry Nelsson, GearSource Europe's owner said, "I've known Benjamin for several years and had always considered him to be the ideal candidate to expand our activities in the Benelux region and on into Germany. He joins Keith Dale in London, Michelle Morin in Paris and Monica Savio in Milan."

(Jim Evans)

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Kenya - The Carnivore in Nairobi was recently chosen as one of the "World's Top 50 Restaurants" by a specialist magazine and boasts kings, presidents, famous musicians and film stars among its clientele.

Besides being a world-class restaurant, the establishment boasts a club called the Simba Saloon in which music is performed live, and it too has a reputation not only for the cultivation of local talent but as a stage for top international acts from genres as diverse as rock, soul, jazz and reggae.These have included the likes of Maxi Priest, Yellowman, Sadao Watanabe, Chaka Demus, Manu Dibango, Salif Keta and most recently, the Jamaican reggae star Beenie Man.

The steadily rising expectations of visiting bands made investing in a new sound reinforcement system essential. After analysing what was on the market, comparing offers and attending demos from leading suppli

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UAE - Nicolas Kyvernitis Electronics Enterprises, distributors of Shure microphones and audio electronics in the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar and Oman have supplied Sound and Stage in Dubai with the top of the line Shure UHF-R microphone system for their live sound concerts and other events.

"For the last UAE National Day celebrations in Abu Dhabi, Sound & Stage provided the complete audio requirements for the event," commented Richie Hiranandani, marketing manager. He added, "Famous stars like Fadel Shaker, Nancy Ajram and Shireen all relied on the Shure UHF-R microphones for their performance."

(Jim Evans)

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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Germany - This year's ProLight&Sound show will see GDS (Global Design Solutions) add a number of new, innovative products to its portfolio, including additions to its successful LiteWare and CueSystem ranges.

GDS will showcase the newest addition to the LiteWare range, LiteWare HO (High Output). Following the success of LiteWare wireless RGB uplighter, launched in 2009, LiteWare HO is a high output version offering 80Watts of LED power. Designed to be completely compatible with the existing LiteWare range, the LiteWare HO product is the same footprint as the standard version and is calibrated to deliver colour-matched output.

Andy Duffield, European sales manager, GDS commented: "LiteWare has achieved enormous success since its launch in February 2009, with over 20 of the leading live events companies in the UK holding inventory and many more units sold worldwide. Buildin

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Honduras - Event and AV rental company, Comunicaciones Mango BTL, recently added a new digital console to its hire stock, selecting an Allen & Heath iLive digital mixing system to complement the company's existing Electrovoice PA and DAS PA Line Array.

Based in the capital, Tegucigulpa, Mango provides event management services for a client list that includes Unilever, Pepsico, Tigo, Bimbo and Cerveceria Hondureña.

"We started using digital consoles three years ago and we love the flexibility digital gives us as we can carry less equipment. Recently we decided to invest in a digital console with at least 48 channel capacity," explains Mango's Andre Ferrer. "Our first choice was the Yamaha M7CL but following a demonstration of the iLive-T system by All Music Corp we decided iLive was the right choice due to the flexible digital snake and easy learning curve."

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The Netherlands - Optical screen manufacturers, dnp Denmark, reports an overwhelming response to their portfolio of displays at the recent ISE 2010 in Amsterdam, where German distributors, COMM-TEC and Paradigm AV from the UK demonstrated their technology.

Global sales manager, S°ren Kraemmergaard, described the decision to allow their key resellers to represent the company's range in their own specialist sectors as a complete success. "We noticed the favourable response, not only at these booths but also those of OEM partners such as Christie and Eyevis," he said.

Kraemmergaard added that although the general traffic appeared reduced this year, dnp were excited by the quality of visitor, and the potential of the follow-ups that this has generated.

While the market was clearly getting more competitive, dnp seemed largely unaffected. "Generally we saw more

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The Netherlands - DMi D&M Installation (Europe) reports record visitor numbers and business activity at this year's Integrated Systems Europe exhibition. With the DMi stand inundated with visitors on all three days of the show, the dedicated D&M CI distribution channel signed up a record number of new installers to its accreditation and training programmes.

A major incentive in attracting new installers to DMi was the new Escient Zone product offerings, enabling the streaming and playout of HD video, and the bidirectional control integration of leading Blu-ray players, universal disc players and AV receivers from Denon and Marantz.

DMi brand director, Bert Kiggen, commented: "It has been a very successful show for us with plenty of new installers and distributors signing up for DMi 'membership' and training. Feedback from installers was especially positive to our offering

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UK In less than seven years, the impressive growth of the congregation of CRC London, an evangelical Christian ministry with its roots in South Africa, has brought them from the London suburbs to the 770-seat Vue cinema at the O2 in London. Citing multimedia as one of the essential tools in the expansion of the church, CRC's AV team has called on Edirol to help them optimise their dynamic service content for one of the largest cinema screens in the UK.

Sunday morning services in the huge Vue theatre are co-ordinated by a large team of volunteers, led by Sakkie Erasmus and Glen Trollip, which mans SD and HD cameras, numerous laptops, live streaming, audio control and vision mixing. The church has just invested in an Edirol V-440HD multi-format video mixing system to help them step up their video presentation from standard to high-definition.

Says Erasmus, "For the last thr

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UK - Based in Stockton-on-Tees, John Saunders Productions (JSP) has carved a reputation for supplying cutting-edge audio systems to some of the highest-grossing 'nostalgia' live productions. With five DiGiCo SD8 consoles recently added to the company's inventory, the shows that the company services may be nostalgic in nature, but in reality are very much the real 21st century deal.

"In the past, I have made purchasing decisions based on who could offer me the best deal," admits JSP owner, John Saunders. "But sound designers have very definite ideas about what they want and they tend to stick to that, so it's hard to compete if you don't carry the kit they want to work with. It's all about quality."

Working in tandem with d&b loudspeakers, Sennheiser in-ear monitors and Shure microphones, all shows the company services claim to sound as good, if not better,

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Mauritius - EAW was recently chosen as the loudspeaker of choice for a house-of-worship installation at CTMI Church in the town of Trianon, near Port Louis in the island nation of Mauritius. Durban, South Africa-based Northwind Recording provided the system design, analysed the space's acoustics and performed the installation. EAW's South African distributor Surgesound supplied the equipment and managed all processing and system alignment. Further consultation was provided by EAW's Whitinsville, Massachusetts-based Application Support Group (ASG), under the management of Joe Fustolo.

EAW loudspeakers selected for the space included 15 EAW AX366 and AX344 Arrayable Install Loudspeakers, six EAW JF50S Compact Full-Range Loudspeakers, eight EAW SB1000z Large Format Subwoofers, five EAW MW12 MicroWedge Stage Monitors and two EAW UX8800 Digital Signal Processors.

Amplification was

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Germany - Norway's projectiondesign is supplying seven F32 DLP projectors for an immersive and panoramic 180-degrees high resolution display measuring 3.35 by 12m wide. The display is the centrepiece of the new HHi TiME Lab - HHI Tomorrow's Immersive Media Experience Lab to be launched at an official opening and symposium on 19 February at Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute in Berlin, Germany.

The audio visual system uses the seven F32 projectors for the reproduction of panoramic video images with a special resolution of about 7,000 pixels and luminosity of around 28,000 lumens. The HD images are projected using an optical mirror system as vertical slices onto a curved 180-degree screen. Dedicated warping and blending hardware allows seamless transitions between these HD slices to enable the video to appear as a single panorama of brilliant image quality. The system is backed u

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Australia - Robe moving lights once again took centre stage at one of Australia's biggest annual music events, when Parklife 09 officially signalled the start of the summer dance festival season.

Tens of thousands of revellers gathered in five cities, with a massive line up featuring more music than ever before - including main acts like Empire of the Sun, Tiga, MSTRKRAFT, La Roux and Autokratz, along with local supporting DJs such as Art vs. Science.

Clifton Productions supplied moving lights for the Melbourne event with stage designs by Fuzzy Events and Parklife's national lighting designer, Davyd Williams. This massive production was managed by local production manager Adam Gibson in conjunction with national producer, Josh Chapman. Over 90 Robe fixtures were utilised across four stages, with Parklife featuring its trademark Earth, Wind, Fire & Water themed arenas an

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UK - The 30th anniversary of the annual Brit Awards took place at London's Earls Court on the 16 February 2010, presented by comedian Peter Kay and broadcast live on ITV 1. XL Video once again provided LED screens, projection, PPU, camera system and playback content management to the show - for the ninth consecutive year.

XL project manager Chris Saunders, who coordinated the camera and playback elements was also clocking up an impressive sixteenth Brit Awards, working alongside XL's Paul Wood, who managed the screens, projection and specials. Saunders and Wood both work closely with The Brits production team each year, together with lighting designer Al Gurdon and set designer Nicoline Refsing from Stufish, to create a distinctive look and feel for the show.

This year, the central onstage 'artists' screen was made up of 80sq.m of Pixled F11, which returned after leaving such

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UK - QMS Music is a new independent sales and marketing agency formed by experienced industry professional, Bob Harrison. QMS represents pro audio and MI manufacturers through Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Having worked previously for Beyerdynamic, EAW and more recently Crest Audio & Peavey, Harrison has a thorough knowledge of the EMEA market and is a well-known and respected sales professional. QMS's current portfolio includes a number of US guitar amplifier manufacturers, namely Jet City Amplification, ZT Amplifiers, Soldano Custom Amplification and Piranha Cables.

"It is becoming increasingly important to have good sales representation in today's challenging economic climate, and using an agency format like QMS is an extremely attractive proposition for many companies who are not in a position to finance a full-time sales operation in certain territories,"

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USA - Lighthouse Technologies, TS Sports and the American Airlines Centre are primed for one of the NBA's showcase events - the NBA All-Star Weekend. Featuring the Haier Shooting Stars, the Taco Bell Skills Challenge, the Foot Locker Three-Point Contest, and the Sprite Slam Dunk, the NBA's All-Star Saturday Night is an impressive display of entertainment, performance and technical expertise, qualities Lighthouse shares with the NBA's rising stars.

The first true 1080p HD video screen in an NBA or NHL facility, Lighthouse's American Airlines Centre installation in Dallas features a 1080x1920 high definition video screen and includes 25 individual Lighthouse screens for superior impact and visibility.

"Lighthouse is excited to play such a large role in the NBA's showcase event," said Ed Whitaker, Lighthouse N.A.S.A director of sales. "Our LED video technology and

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Spain - Soundcraft's Spanish distributor, Earpro, has underlined the continuing success of the manufacturer's Vi series digital desks, with the recent installation of a Vi4 at El Teatro Campoamor in Oviedo.

Roberto Alonso, technical manager of the 120-year-old venue, believes it is easy to pinpoint the success of Soundcraft digital audio mixers. "The Vi4 is very user-friendly," he states. "After 20 years using an analogue mixer, the transition has been an easy one to make. In very little time sound engineers can gain the same confidence they had when using any traditional mixer."

Earpro is firmly convinced that digital audio is the gateway to the future and fully endorses the Soundcraft roadmap. "Soundcraft's mission hasn't ended with the Vi series - the new Si series proves that an 'analogue' method working is not incompatible with the digital era. Th

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UK - Installation contractor Matthew Dilley of About Sound had more than English Heritage and the Diocesan Council to contend with when fitting the new JBL CBT (Constant Beamwidth Technology) columns to St Benet's Church in Cambridge - the oldest church in the city.

In the event, the installer turned the situation to his advantage. "We welcome challenges and restrictions such as this," he stated. "I derive no satisfaction in trashing historic buildings. But what you don't want to see is a pulpit ahead of where you want to place your speakers."

Angela Tilby, vicar of the Anglican Franciscan Church and well-known broadcaster, had long been aware of the shortcomings of the old omni-directional system. It was when she was appearing as guest preacher at nearby St. John's, where About Sound had installed a webcast system, that she remarked on how refreshing it wa

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Sweden - PA company, Parashoot EA, recently invested in an Allen & Heath iLive digital system to increase its hire inventory and service its growing touring business.

Comprising an iDR-48 MixRack and an iLive-T112 Control Surface, the system has already been employed for various events over the busy Christmas period, and has embarked on the European tour of celebrated Swedish rock band, the Backyard Babies.

Entitled the Them XX Tour 2010 to mark the band's 20th anniversary, the tour visits Finland, Sweden, Norway, Spain, France, Germany, UK, Switzerland and Italy, with a full PA touring rig from Parashoot.

"The major reason for using iLive on this tour is the sound quality," says Parashoot EA's Oscar Söderlund. "All the house engineers we have met so far on the tour like the light weight, space-saving size, and ease of use. It's a great system for tour

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Canada - One of the enduring images of the Vancouver Winter Olympics is likely to be the Sails of Light show, titled Look At The Games. The show, which takes place nightly, is projected on the five 90ft sails atop the Canada Place building and is often used as an iconic background for television images around the world.

The gobos used for many of the projections were created by Moment Factory and manufactured by Rosco.

The designers chose to use custom made glass gobos in Martin 1200 projectors. But they were restricted to using an exact match of the official colours of the Winter Olympics and to design and produce them so they fit the triangular surfaces of the sails, with no image spill off the sails.

Rosco manufactured more than 40 colour glass gobos for this project, as well as nearly a dozen black and white glass gobos.

Anne Hunter, who supervised this project

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UK - The star-studded 2010 Brit Awards was broadcast live from Earls Court with a Midas XL8 handling front of house for the first time. Sound designer and live sound coordinator Derrick Zieba, who's been working on the UK record industry's annual awards ceremony since 1994, specified the XL8 after witnessing its capabilities at December's Nobel Peace Prize concert, which featured a networked system of two XL8s and three PRO6s.

"I'd been terribly impressed with how the XL8 was used out in Oslo, and this was an ideal opportunity to get it onto one of my shows," he says. "When I started on the Brits in 1993, it would take around six consoles to run a live show like this, with short changeovers, almost all of which were Midas XL4s and Heritage 3000s. With the introduction of digital consoles, the benefits were huge in terms of space saved and ability to recall what th

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Germany - Italian loudspeaker manufacturer dBTechnologies is ensuring it has a strong presence at this year's Pro Light & Sound exhibition with 780sq.m of booth space to showcase its many new products and multi-media updates to be beamed from MesseFrankfurt around the world during the four-day event.

The considerably larger booth is in a new location in Hall 8, G70 where dBTechnologies, together with cousin brands RCF and recently acquired SGM Lighting will be launching an array of new products from under the RCF Group umbrella.

dBTechnologies will also be uploading daily video blogs to their newly designed website, featuring news and product information direct from the stand. "We want all clients, distributors and dealers to be fully informed. Whether they can't be at the show, or are tied up with other responsibilities, it's important that they don't miss anything,"

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