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Germany - French loudspeaker manufacturer APG has announced the appointment of Audio-Technica Germany as its exclusive German distributor with effect from 1 March 2010.

According to APG's Xavier Pion, the move represents a significant step forward for the brand. "Germany is one of the biggest and most dynamic markets in Europe, so it's important that we have strong representation here," he says. "Audio-Technica is an internationally recognised brand with a high-end product image which reflects our own. Furthermore, Audio-Technica Germany, as a subsidiary of Audio-Technica, has a well-established and technically knowledgeable sales force with excellent market penetration."

"The only other brand they currently represent is Allen & Heath with whom they have

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UK - Waves Audio has announced the upcoming release of its SoundGrid technology which gives users the ability to run large numbers of Waves' audio processors using standard PCs via Ethernet.

SoundGrid offers super low latency performance, which means users can take advantage of even more audio processors and CPU-intensive processors than ever before, says the company. Waves says it is leveraging the recent advances in both Ethernet and CPU technologies to provide better, more cost-effective performance for the pro audio and live sound markets.

(Jim Evans)

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Germany - Following a period of major growth, Optocore has bucked the economic trend and marked the start of the new year by moving into larger premises in West Munich.

Situated on one floor, the new industrial unit in Gräfelfing gives them twice the space that they had previously to service the additional production and customer requirement; meanwhile the 'loft' style layout has enabled them to incorporate a show/seminar room and dedicated meeting room alongside warehousing and offices for the first time.

Sales and marketing director, Tine Helmle, said that with its 4m high ceilings, bright rooms and large picture windows it is the perfect environment in which to pursue their vigorous development programme following the introduction of their acclaimed SANE (Synchronous Audio Network plus Ethernet) protocol last Autumn.

"Our large R&D room will enable us to support con

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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UK - Goga Ashkenazi celebrated her 30th Birthday in style with a visually spectacular party featuring the latest interactive and special effects technology such as stunning water and laser shows, interactive floors and building projections.

The event was held in a series of marquee structures at the historic Tyringham Hall in Buckinghamshire and organised by event production specialists GSP with interactive technology experts Arcstream AV providing the technology.

The entertainment programme included aerialists and contortionists and live opera and drummers, featuring headline performances from Akon and Sophie Ellis Bextor.

The biggest spectacle of the evening was a fully choreographed, special effect, laser and water show produced by Arcstream AV which took place in and around the 72m pool, watched by guests through the glass sided marquee. The company used its newly acquir

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Germany - Allen & Heath, will be showing a cross-section of its latest products at the forthcoming ProLight + Sound exhibition in Frankfurt.

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. The company will also be demonstrating new features in the latest version of its iLive software v1.6.

Allen & Heath will also be launching a new club installation product, the Xone:PB. The Xone patchbay is a 1U rack size, passive interface box, designed to simplify the task of connecting encoded vinyl replay systems to installed mixers, without the need to re-patch.

Also from the Xone DJ range, A&H will be launching

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Palestine - The only movie theatre in the West Bank town of Jenin has been closed since 1987. Now Ismail Khatib of Jenin and German documentary filmmaker Marcus Vetter plan to bring Jenin's cinema back to life.

Ismail Khatib and Marcus Vetter were inspired to take on the mission of refurbishing Jenin's historic cinematheque during the making of Vetter's documentary The Heart of Jenin. The film received the Cinema for Peace Award for Most Valuable Documentary of 2009.

Renovations are scheduled for completion in the spring of 2010. Gerriets, the theatrical equipment company, is donating materials. In August the theatre will host the city's first international film festival, which a number of prominent guests, including Leonardo DiCaprio, Mikhail Ghorbachev, and Roger Waters have already agreed to attend.

(Jim Evans)

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Germany - Ateis International will address a problem that has long plagued teleconferencing with its latest product showcased at ProLight + Sound, Frankfurt next month.

The ECS-Teleconference unit is an echo cancellation system (ESC) that is designed to produce clear audio for teleconferences, with no delays or doubletalk.

At the heart of the system is a digital signal processor using Dynamic Automatic Echo Cancellation, based on a wideband acoustic echo cancelling algorithm developed by Ateis' R&D department.

This technology enables the ECS to produce natural, full duplex speech with a bandwidth of 20Hz to 27kHz, which brings benefits during conversations involving large numbers of people.

The ECS range currently comprises eight units, which provide a range of tools for producing clear, successful teleconferences. The system features integrated compressor-limiters, equali

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South Africa - For the fourth year running, Gearhouse South Africa supplied technical infrastructure to the Top Gear Live show on its recent visit to South Africa.

The event was staged in the Coca Cola Dome in Johannesburg and at the Grand Arena at Grand West, Cape Town, with Gearhouse working through technical production company Lucidity for Brand Events SA, the official licensee for Top Gear Live in South Africa.

Gearhouse project manager Michael Lewis worked closely with Lucidity's Paul Newman, technical production manager, and the international Top Gear Live touring production team to ensure that sound, lighting, staging, rigging and 6000 seats (from Havaseat, also a Gearhouse company) were installed into the Dome to create the Top Gear Live arena.

Live arena lighting was designed by Steve Sinclair from the international Top Gear Live team, wh

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Japan / Europe - Yamaha's ongoing programme of software updates to its digital audio products continues, with February seeing the launch of the M7CL V3 upgrade. Available as a free download from the Yamaha web site, the V3 operating system adds several features requested by M7CL users.

Direct Sends on Fader access from the mix send encoders in Sends on Fader mode gives the operator more options for a smoother, more efficient workflow and frees up the console's user-defined controls to be used for other functions.

Another key development is that Sends on Fader functionality in the M7CL V3 Editor software now provides remote, console-independent Sends on Fader operation. This means that, for example, an engineer can make stage monitor adjustments from a tablet PC while standing on stage.

Further enhancing the M7CL's setup flexibility and control, additional Recall Safe functio

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Spain - As one of the most successful musicians in Latin America, Alejandro Sanz has built a name for himself as a dynamic and exciting performer; selling over 25m albums worldwide and winning 17 Grammys. With his new project Paraiso Express on the verge of release, Sanz recently embarked on his worldwide Paradise tour, showcasing the anticipated album with a set of AKG equipment that included the DMS 700, an IVM 4 in-ear system and a variety of D7 and D5 microphones.

Spanish distributor Neotecnica supplied the tour with the AKG equipment. Each and every concert will be using 24 different DMS 700 channels for voices and instruments and will also use 16 channels of the IVM4 in ear-system. For vocals, the DMT 700 will be equipped with D7 and D5 handheld capsules that prove to be the best solution for adapting to Sanz' vocal style.

"After speaking with Alejandr

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UK - Alongside the English language workshops that take place regularly in Germany, the d&b audiotechnik Remote network workshop has now come to the UK.

This one day session will take place on Wednesday 3 March at the new UK office in Nailsworth, Gloucestershire. Controlled by d&b's Steve Jones, the day will explore d&b amplifiers within the network and the d&b Remote network topology.

The workshop will look at all the necessary hardware including cable options along with the R1 Remote control software's installation and preparation as well as a practical session using it to programme a user interface.

Further information on d&b's full education programme and registration details are available at the web address below.(Jim Evans)

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Malta - DPA 4006 omnidirectional mics, purchased via UK distributor Sound Network, have been used on Agora, a new film by Spanish director Alejandro Amenabar, starring Rachel Weisz and Max Minghella set in Roman Egypt. The mics were used for crowd ADR sessions shot on location at Fort Ricasoli in Malta.

The sound crew behind the recordings was Sound24, the BAFTA winning and Oscar nominated team from Slumdog Millionaire. The team included supervising sound editor and sound designer Glenn Freemantle; sound designer Tom Sayers; dialogue/ADR supervisor Lee Herrick and field recordists Nicolas Becker and Hugo Adams. They chose the 4006s for their clarity, transparency and sound quality, as well as the mic's low signal to noise ratio and high SPL which meant they could record people whispering one minute and roaring the next.

"The clarity of sound from the mics wa

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Croatia - Opera singer Jose Carreras starred in a Christmas charity concert in Zagreb as the culmination of the Step into Life humanitarian project that has raised over €400,000 to help give poor Croatian children the chance of a university education.

Beside Carreras, the renowned Croatian singer Toni Cetinski, Ireland's premier soprano Celine Byrne, the Ivan Goran Kovacic academic choir, the Zvjezdice girls choir and the Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra completed the line-up.

The goal of the 'Step into Life' project is the better socialisation of children without proper parental care by means of scholarships, and the foundation has already assured more than 30 scholarships for young people who can't afford to go to university.

Audio production services for the concert at the 15,000 capacity Zagreb Arena were provided by Croatian production company Lite-Prom, fielding a

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Israel - Waves has launched a mini-YGDAI interface card which will allow users of Yamaha digital mixing consoles to process up to 32 channels of audio with Waves plug-ins, via the company's proprietary SoundGrid Server system.

With SoundGrid bringing the worlds of studio and live sound closer than ever before, the introduction of the WSG-Y16 sees Waves bringing the networking and processing capabilities of SoundGrid functionality to the live sound realm for the first time.

Announced at the Winter NAMM show in January, the WSG-Y16 card will be available from mid-March and follows on from the existing Waves Y96K, eight in eight out, plug-in DSP card for Yamaha digital consoles.

Using a SoundGrid-compatible PC as the plug-in host and Ethernet connectivity, the system allows users to run large numbers of Waves plug-ins with ultra-low latency. The WSG-Y16 card allows users of Yam

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China - The ancient city of YangQuan in Shanxi Province originally built its train station in 1905 to facilitate the exploitation of the local mines - making the city one of the birthplaces of Shanxi's modern industry.

Today, China is in the midst of constructing a huge high speed rail (HSR) network, embracing a distance of 120,000km in total by the year 2020, at an aggregated investment of RMB 5 trillion (US$ 732 billion). And YangQuan forms an important part of that network.

Situated on the high-speed line between ShiJiaZhuang and TaiYuan, YangQuan North train station has already been equipped with China's first Q-Sys fully-integrated digital audio platform within a transportation hub. This digital audio networking system boasts high-speed characteristics of its own, providing all the audio routing, processing, control and monitoring necessary for any facility while maintain

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Good News - Behind the Scenes, the entertainment technology industry charity, has announced it has received a grant of $50,000 from Broadway Cares / Equity Fights AIDS. In his cover letter to the grant, BC/EFA executive director Tom Viola said: "BC/EFA is very grateful to the companies and individuals working in the technical professions - from lighting and rigging to scenery, special effects, audio and more - who have participated in and made so much of BC/EFA's fundraising in the theatre community possible."

Rick Rudolph, chair of the Behind the Scenes Committee, responded: "We are incredibly grateful for this generous grant and the recognition of what Behind the Scenes is accomplishing and the community we represent. We have had an unprecedented number of requests for grants in just the first six weeks of this year and this gift from BC/EFA will ensure we can c

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UK - Artistic Licence reports a very successful experience exhibiting at the ARC 2010 show at Earls Court earlier this month and has already booked its place to return to the event in 2011.

Artistic Licence managing director Simon Hobday, says, "We laid our stand out to illustrate some of the key technology prevalent in today's lighting control market and reflected this concept in our new Technical Focus brochure.

"Technologies covered included DALI & DMX, RDM & Art-Net, Colour-Tramp and Interfacing solutions. DALI is a relatively new protocol and there are a lot of technical complications surrounding it as people get to grips with how it works. Our Technical Focus brochure gives more information about DALI and how to avoid common pitfalls when using it, and our customers say the brochure has already proved a useful tool.

"The show proved to us that the

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UK - Entertainment lighting supplier White Light welcomed the new year by allowing lighting designers and technicians to explore some of the new lighting technology which will shape the way they work this year and in the coming years in a friendly, informal New Technology Showcase.

The mid-January event presented the equipment in the real theatre setting of the Central School of Speech and Drama's Embassy Theatre. At different times of the afternoon, visitors were able to play 'hands on' with the products, to watch the products in action in mini-shows designed and programmed by students on Central's lighting courses, and to participate in feature-by-feature run-throughs of each product with the ability to ask to see specific actions (slow fades, colour changes), or combinations of products compared side by side.

Included in the rig were some of the latest LED lighting fixtures

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Albania - Mumja Club in Tirana has undergone a refurbishment that included a new Martin lighting package of MAC 250 Beam and smartMAC moving heads.

Reopened in December of 2009, Mumja is a 600 capacity club that features DJs from all over the world and also hosts live music. The new Martin gear was supplied by Martin's Albanian distributor Prosound Shpk and also includes a Magnum 1200 fogger and a PC-based LightJockey for lighting control. Lighting design was by Armand Dosti of Prosound.

"The club wanted high quality lighting but something other than the usual moving heads, so we suggested the MAC 250 Beam which has very good aerial effects," says sales manager Kliton Gjika of Prosound. "It can also be used to highlight the live bands using the fixture's frost effect."

The 250 Beams are the first for any club in Albania and Mumja Club is happy with them.

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Russia - EAW was recently chosen as the loudspeaker of choice for the Russia-based Zapashny Brothers Circus, the current incarnation of the world-famous family act dating back to the 1800s. MS-Max Company, EAW's Russian distributor, put together a sound system package featuring several EAW loudspeakers, and this configuration was selected over a number of packages featuring other manufacturers' products, to provide the sound for the Brothers' recent tour dates throughout Russia and to other countries.

The package assembled by MS-Max Company included 12 EAW JFL210 compact line array modules and four EAW JFL118 subwoofers. Processing is handled by the EAW UX8800 digital signal processor, and the system is powered by Crown MT-series amplifiers.

The circus, which features such spectacles as tigers, lions and other large animals, is performed in the round. The biggest issue with th

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Switzerland - Swisspor, a leading manufacturer of insulation and sealing technologies for the building and construction industry, celebrated inauguration of its new building. The launch included two gala events at the headquarters of Swisspor in Steinhausen near Lucerne.

The events were attended by approximately a 1000 people. They also included a dinner and a show by the Pepe Lienhard Orchestra.

Matthias Kern of Kernfusion Design, based in Switzerland was responsible for the lighting and media design, operation and programming. Kern used a Compulite Vector Blue and Vector motorized playback wing for the event.

At the back and to the sides of the stage were three scenic elements constructed from different Styrofoam shapes, suitable for lighting and projections. Kern used two of the DigitalSpots 7000DTs positioned each side of the stage to throw projections onto the two 15m S

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