India - India's Premiere haute couture fashion designer Tarun Tahiliani called on the assistance and skills of technical director Dave Parry, from Most Technical India, for a recent society wedding in New Delhi.Most Technical India, which is slowly gaining a strong reputation with their designs for hotels and clubs, have also been involved with many fashion shows and high society weddings. Working alongside the world renowned Tarun Tahiliani, Dave Parry used his own Avolites Tiger Lighting Desk to light up the vast private farm in South Delhi.

Having recently bought his own Avolites Tiger console, Parry emphasised: "It was great to use a desk that I knew wouldn't fall over and the Tiger was the perfect size, enabling me to go from tent to tent programming the lights, and then

UK - The distinctive Studer Vista technology has proved popular with the large houses of worship in North America and also in the Far East. Now the first Studer Vista 5 digital console has been chosen for a UK church, the Metropolitan Tabernacle in Belfast, which has been refurbished with one of the highest sound reinforcement system specifications in Northern Ireland.

This substantial installation was completed entirely under the aegis of the Tabernacle's in-house technical team, led by Trevor Bowron and Ian McAlees, members of which were unanimous in their choice of the 42-fader Vista 5, the first digital console for the church.

"There's a lot of experience in our team, much of it gained from the broadcast industry," says Ian McAlees. "So we were well-versed in Studer's reputation for reliability. As well as the capability to handle the large number of sources

USA / Germany - At the forthcoming ProLight&Sound exhibition (Frankfurt, 23-27 March) Furman will show its latest technologies for voltage regulation, power protection, and AC noise filtration for musicians and AV professionals.Furman's 'P-6900 AR E' and 'P-1400 AR E' utilise Furman's exclusive True RMS Voltage Regulation Technology to provide stable voltage to connected equipment, along with the company's Series Multi-Stage Protection (SMP), automatic Extreme Voltage Shutdown (EVS), and Linear Filtering (LiFT) technologies. Both models provide stable voltage output (selectable between 230V and 240V) at 6A (P-1400 AR E) or 30A (P-6900 AR E) capacity. Furman's True RMS Voltage Regulation Technology utilises an ultra-low-noise, microprocessor-controlled eight-tap toroidal autoformer. This, Furman says, assures quiet operation for critical listening and recording applications, with m
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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

USA - The Soundcraft Si2 compact digital console recently installed in Neumo's Crystal Ball and Reading Room in Seattle, one of the Northwest's leading music venues, has made monitoring manageable for the digital age. The club installed a Soundcraft 48-input Si2 console with 24 monitor sends in December.

The console was sold to Neumo's by K. Berry Associates, a leading Seattle-area sound and lighting systems sales and installation provider, which also provides the club's other sound and lighting systems. Bay Area-based Plus 4 Marketing sold the Si2 console to K. Berry Associates.

Neumo's is a complex venue, hosting its restaurant, Pike Street Fish Fry, and the aptly named MOE BAR neighborhood pub, as well as its VIP Room. But the concert hall side of the business is its priority, with advanced lighting production, a serious sound system, and a carefully scheduled music calenda

UK - Saville Audio Visual recently installed a Dynacord surround-sound system in to a custom built, 100 seat cinema on board a Stena cruise ferry. Savilles, in conjunction with POLARaudio specified five Dynacord D-Lite D8 speakers, a Dynacord active D-Lite PowerSub 312, a Biamp MCA8150 multi-channel amplifier and a Violet Audio ADP61 processor for this unusual installation on board the Stena ship.

The brief was to supply a system that would provide high quality sound for up to 100 passengers. The system needed to be loud whilst retaining clarity.

Utilising the voicing of the D8 D-Lite Speakers, Savilles were able to install a high quality audio system within the constraints of the customer's budget.

The Violet Audio ADP61 Studio AV Preamp Decoder was installed to process the surround-sound before being fed to the Biamp MCA8150 8 channel amplifier. The MCA8150 delivers 150Wat

USA - In an effort to become a greener, more energy-efficient hotel, the Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress Resort, Florida, has installed LED lighting by Cree. One of Orlando's largest resorts, with close proximity to Walt Disney World, the hotel recently completed a multi-million dollar renovation that included replacing traditional, antiquated lighting fixtures in its 54 hallways, as well as its freshly refurbished 10,000sq.ft lobby.

The Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress began its remodel to comply with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection's Green Lodging programme, a voluntary initiative for hotels and motels across the state to adopt cost-saving green practices to conserve energy, reduce water consumption, protect air quality and reduce waste. In order to become a more environmentally conscious organization as well as to reduce its extensive utility costs, resort managemen

USA - As one of the most popular rock acts in the world, Foreigner is constantly touring or playing major events, and singer Kelly Hansen relies on beyerdynamic Opus Series wireless microphones night after night.

"In the 20-plus years I've used Beyer mics, I've always been impressed with the sonic quality," states Hansen. "These mics sound like studio mics onstage. I don't want hyped midrange or narrowed spectrum to assist in feedback rejection, I want to hear what I'm putting out, and Beyer does that in a big, warm way. I sing a demanding range of music, and I'm very particular about what I need to hear, so I choose Beyer, every time."

"We carry two systems right now, based on the new Opus 900 wireless with the EM981S condenser capsule," says monitor engineer Lorenzo Banda, who has been with the band three years. "Bar none, it's one of the b

Hong Kong - Lighthouse Technologies has announced the recent installation of a 10mm LED screen at the all-new iSQUARE, one of Hong Kong's most luxurious shopping and entertainment destinations.

Located at the historic 63 Nathan Road in Tsim Sha Tsui, iSQUARE was built to be Hong Kong's premier shopping destination, providing a shopping and entertainment experience. iSQUARE chose Lighthouse's P10-FA 10mmFront Access SMD panels for their high brightness and contrast ratios ensuring the screen would be clearly visible in the mall's high ambient light environment.

Comprising 30 panels, the 3.84m (w) x 2.4m (h) screen is situated in between iSQUARE's third and fourth floor concourse, a high traffic area where thousands of shoppers pass through every day. Thanks to its wide 140-degree viewing angles, shoppers will be able to view advertisements and promotional messages, and other im

Mexico - In March, April, and August 2010, Meyer Sound will bring its four-day SIM 3 Training and System Design seminar to Mexico City as part of the company's worldwide education programme. Registration for the seminars is available on the Meyer Sound website: http://www.meyersound.com/education/calendar.php

The in-depth SIM 3 seminar, taught by Bob McCarthy and Oscar Barrientos, provides participants with a thorough theoretical and operational understanding of source independent measurement and a solid grounding in application of SIM analysis in the design of complex audio systems. The seminar gives a brief review of SIM theory and system development, followed by a comprehensive discussion of field use procedures for the SIM 3 audio analyzer.

The seminar then extends the foundation of SIM measurement into sound system design. Participants also look at the complex interaction

USA - Nemetschek North America has announced that a new partnership with City Theatrical has been established. This partnership will allow both companies to cross sell and market their products to professionals and schools focused on the entertainment and lighting design industries.

Acting as a US distributor partner, City Theatrical will sell Vectorworks Spotlight and Vectorworks Designer software through their distributor network of more than 200 lighting dealers in all major cities.

Nemetschek North America, in turn, will be able to offer their customers the product Lightwright 5, a quintessential tool for tracking all aspects of selecting and arranging, numbering and comparing, assigning, and footnoting lighting paperwork.

"The partnership between John McKernon's Lightwright and Nemetschek North America's Vectorworks is a natural fit," stated Gary Fails, presid

Canada - Imagination has launched the Samsung Pavilion at the Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver. This is the third time Imagination has created an Olympic environment for the Samsung brand. The Olympic Rendezvous @ Samsung will remain open to the public throughout the duration of the Games until 24 February and is expecting up to 8,000 visitors a day.Imagination and Samsung's global agency Cheil Worldwide have partnered on numerous extraordinary experiential destinations over their 10-year partnership, including previous Olympic activation programmes in Salt Lake City (2002) and Beijing (2008). This year's Olympic Rendezvous once again underscores Samsung's commitment to connecting with a wider audience, and its enthusiasm for bringing the public closer to the Games in new, interactive and engaging ways."Recognising that the public is seeking better and more seamless engageme

Europe - Glen Johnson of i-Lite, set and lighting designer for the current Will Young's Greatest Hits UK and Irish tour, is using two grandMA2 light consoles to run the show's lighting. The two are networked together, with the first used as the main console, and the second running in full tracking backup.

Johnson has used the grandMA2 light on a number of other tours and events this year, including Maximo Park and Tracy Chapman. He likes many features of the grandMA2 light. The screens and faders are a "joy" to use. He's also impressed by the hardware the build quality and the sheer speed at which it saves.

He's now experienced a few tours and software upgrades with the grandMA2 light, and with the latest one, is very happy enjoying the power of the new effects engine within his sequence stacks, and watching them slow-fade in and out as required. "The spe

China - Scarlet is no ordinary dance club; an unexpected juxtaposition of Spanish Colonial interior design as context to contemporary dance music. Scarlet is rightfully attracting the young and trendy of Shuzhou in ever growing numbers. Located in one of the most beautiful cities of Jiangsu Province on China's east coast, Shuzhou as a city is no stranger to fabulous architecture; its labyrinth of canals, stone bridges and pagodas rightly earned it the soubriquet 'the Venice of China'.

That's Spain, Italy and China in one breath, so perhaps we shouldn't be surprised to find Germany added to the mix, for when it came to audio, Feng Pan of Nanjing Li Te Mei Technology Co, Ltd recommended loudspeakers from d&b audiotechnik. "There is a recent tradition in China for dance clubs to install enormous PA systems," explained Pan, "much bigger than is needed. The owners of S

Canada - As all eyes focus on this year's Winter Olympics in Vancouver, the ears of many attendees were hearing the announcements, commentaries and entertainment through Community loudspeakers.

"As a long-time provider of large scale, all-weather loudspeaker systems, we have had a long association with the Winter Olympics", commented John Wiggins, Community's vice-president of business development. "In Turin 2006, Community loudspeakers were installed in three of the major venues. This year Canadian contractors have installed many more Community loudspeakers, not just in host venues but also in numerous practice venues. There's been a major focus on these venues' longer term benefit to their communities."

The Speed Skating Oval in the Vancouver suburb of Richmond is the first Olympic venue to install Community's Entasys compact three-way, full-range, weathe

UK - Boasting the same form factor as Denon's twin CD controllers for mobile DJs, the new Denon DN-HC5000 is billed as the world's first professional controller for Serato ITCH(TM). The DN-HC5000 provides the same control and performance capabilities as the company's long time market leading twin DJCD systems, with dedicated hardware control of Serato's leading DJ software for digital music files.

The DN-HC5000 is a turnkey digital DJ system; an integrated hardware / software solution, designed to give mobile DJs ultimate control of MP3, AAC, WAV and AIFF digital music libraries. Connection to a PC or Mac with a single USB cable, provides full control of digital music files from the included Serato ITCH software which is quickly and easily installed.

The control layout of the DN-HC5000S is immediately familiar to anyone who has ever used Denon's twin DJCD controllers.

Analog

USA - Synthe FX has released Luminair 2.0, the next generation of the wireless multi-touch DMX control app for iPhone and iPod touch. Luminair is a wireless lighting control software, which uses the Art-Net protocol to control compatible lighting equipment and media servers.

Among the new features in v2.0 is 'Stacks', which is a cue-list playback system designed to make it very easy to put together shows for a wide variety of uses. Cues can be programmed directly within Luminair, and also recorded as snapshots from an external console or any other DMX control source. Standard playback life using the device's internal battery can run up to 3.5 hours, and can be extended to over 36 hours using a 3rd-party external battery pack.

Playback will run indefinitely when the device is plugged into a power source. Another major new feature in Luminair 2.0 is the ability to assign images

USA - As one of the top-grossing tours in 2009, the Trans-Siberian Orchestra fuse elements of progressive rock, symphonic heavy metal, and classical music, and are known for their dazzling live performances, complete with full light show and synchronized pyrotechnics.

In 2000, TSO created two separate touring groups-TSO East and TSO West-to allow the band to cover more ground, and they've maintained that format ever since. Last year, as the band was clearly maxing out their monitor board, the conversation got the ball rolling to implement DiGiCo SD7s for both touring outfits. They previously toured with D5's on monitors and the change to SD7s gave the production what they needed. It quickly became an integral part of TSO's live sound.

"I prompted the discussion early on last year for the SD7 primarily because the biggest handicap for us was the amount of outputs our show

China / USA - I.E. Effects delivered 3D reality for Traveling in the Storm, an immersive entertainment experience developed by Falcon's Treehouse for OCT Shanghai's Happy Valley. In this innovative ride participants assume the role of storm chasers. Travelling in an amphibious exploration vehicle, they embark on a series of extreme weather adventures, including stereoscopic visuals combined with physical effects, such as splashing water, wind, changing temperatures and more. I.E. Effects designed and executed all of the stereo content, including visual concepts, modeling, texturing, lighting, and compositing for each shot.

"We were really impressed with the knowledge and creativity of David's team at I.E. Effects," said Cecil Magpuri, president of Falcon's Treehouse. "Their experience with previous stereo 3D and venue projects was a great asset, and their u

USA - Oscar winning actor Jamie Foxx recently completed his second arena tour with production designer Daunte Kenner. Foxx's charismatic show opened with a video montage celebrating his resume followed by an eclectic mix of music and comedy.

The design focused on hiding production elements. Except for the set, every other metallic object was black. The lighting rig featured 18 Studio Beams, 15 MAC 2K washes, 12 VL 3K profiles, four ShowGuns and eight PixelLine 1044s. A 90' fibre optic curtain provided the backdrop alongside a FlexiFlex video wall.

Kenner comments, "Foxx wanted to recreate some of the same elements of the previous tour - as with the economy in its current state - he wanted to keep costs low in order to keep the ticket price low. So we gave him a similar design updated with the latest smart technologies that allowed us to slightly downsize our control crew

Austria - Award-winning Austrian film Das Weisse Band (The White Ribbon) proved such a major hit at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival that Michael Haneke, the film's director, was invited to give a special showing by no less than the country's parliamentary president, Barbara Prammer. And with a DiGiCo SD8 console, supplied by Austrian sound rental company Ton Eichinger, ensuring that the cinematic sound was as good as possible for the assembled politicians and other VIPs, the one-off screening was a complete success.

Having won Cannes' most prestigious prize, the Palme d'Or, along with a special mention by the Ecumenical Jury, then the FIPRESCI Grand Prix at the San Sebastian Film Festival and Film of the Year 2009 at the Sinema Greece Festival, Das Weisse Band has put Austrian film-making firmly on the map.

In recognition of this, the Austrian parliamentary preside

Qatar - Nicolas Kyvernitis Electronics Enterprises, distributors of Midas and Klark Teknik products has sold system integrators Hi-Fi Services a PRO6 Live Audio System for the La Cigale Hotel in Doha, Qatar. Hi-Fi Services is a professional system integration company that has carried out various projects in the region.

"The La Cigale hotel is a premium hotel in Doha," commented Richie Hiranandani, marketing manager. "The Pro6 system like the other top end systems in the hotel will be used in their newly built ballroom for various events."

Midas consoles can be found in various locations across the UAE, such as Dubai TV and MBC OB Vans, restaurants such as Trader Vic's at the Madinat Jumeirah and also at the Emirates Palace Hotel in Abu Dhabi, which uses the XL4.

(Jim Evans)

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