UK - A Victorian building in Covent Garden has been reopened as a burlesque cabaret diner following a £2m conversion by owners, restaurateur Trevor Davies and his son Adam.

The 130-cover site has a rich heritage. Formerly used as a stable for elephants and horses by the Royal Opera House in Victorian times it was most recently trading as a jazz venue when the two entrepreneurs saw it.

The aptly-named Circus - which has been designed by Tom Dixon - features a quartz dining table running the length of the club which transforms into a dance platform later in the evening. This is surrounded by a bar at the far end and a second dining room to the side of the DJ booth, as well as a lounge set to the rear of the venue.

London-based AV integrators, The Sound Division Group, have

USA - Miami-area production company, Drummer Boy Sound, has added an Allen & Heath iLive-T digital mixing system, comprising an iDR-48 MixRack and iLive-T112 Control Surface, to its hire stock.

Founder and CEO, Harold Cummings, comments: "I took an iLive-T system out on a couple of demos and was blown away with what it could do, especially for such a great price. Our roots are in live sound, and we do a lot of high-profile events around Miami. When I began using the console system at those shows, I can't tell you what a difference it made; small footprint, easy and fast to set up, no outboard gear - and it sounds fantastic."

One of the first events Cummings managed with his newly purchased iLive system was the National Day of Prayer at Miami's Faith Centre. The venue seats about 4,000 worshipers, and the event was also recorded by the Telemundo network.

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USA - At NAB 2010 this week, Barco is introducing a powerful new line of 3G/HD/SD-SDI and Analogue routers. Specifically designed for the needs of the events market, the new routers are integrated with the Encore and ScreenPRO-II presentation systems.

The MatrixPRO-II series provides a flexible and dependable routing solution of 3G/HD/SD-SDI and high speed analogue signals for simple and complex configurations at an affordable price, says the company.

The line is offered in three models, 8x8, 16x16 and 32x32, in a slim, power efficient package that is only 2.2 inches deep. All three models support 3G/HD/SD-SDI signals at bit rates of 19.4Mbps to 3Gbps. Reclockers are standard on all three models. The routers can be controlled from the front panel, Ethernet or RS-232. A redundant power supply option is also available.

Barco's MatrixPRO-II analogue series is offered in three c

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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

UK - RCF will be showing newly developed products for both their Professional and Commercial catalogues - with the flagship being the UK debut of the VSA 2050 Digital Steerable Column at PLASA Focus in Leeds this month.

Visitors will be given a special sneak preview of this multi-amplified vertical steerable array which "embraces the new generation of digital technology".

With inbuilt DSPs, the audio signal sent to each speaker is processed and optimised for controlling its vertical acoustic dispersion pattern. This will make it a suitable speaker for indoor installations where the critical acoustic environment is an issue and where moderate visual impact is required.

Also showing under the RCF Professional banner will be examples from the new ART 4 Series, and the NX 10-SMA and NX 12-SMA.

The ART 4 Series is the new addition to the ART series portable speakers f

Germany - ProLight&Sound 2010 saw Dutch loudspeaker manufacturer Alcons Audio creating a buzz on the trade show floor with an array of products that sees it confirm its place as a major player in the pro audio market.

On show were the LR7 micro pro-ribbon line-array and LR7B micro line-array bass unit, plus the Cinema Ribbon Monitor System (CRMS) three-way reference cinema sound system, first seen at this year's ISE Show.

However, the most noteworthy product on display was the new LR24 pro-ribbon line-array system, which is a major development for Alcons and marks an important advance for the company within the concert touring and large-scale installation market.

Designed to be able to deliver the same SPL as equivalent products in the mid-size line-array category, but with 15dB less distortion, the Alcons LR24 system utilises Alcons' pro-ribbon technology.

"We were e

Germany - Following a successful showing at ProLight&Sound last month, Wireless Solution Sweden is headed back to Frankfurt to demonstrate the new W-DMX G4 line at Light + Building this week.

The new G4 BlackBox is able to repair corrupted data and vouches for maximum security by running on dual band and creating a backup duplicate of the signal. This new standard is transparent and works with several protocols, creating extreme flexibility and reliability without need for additional controllers or software, says the company.

Attendees will learn about how the new G4 product line brings innovative new features to the W-DMX line of products, including Adaptive Frequency Hopping technology for peace of mind when using other radio products, W-DMX invisi-wire and data-safe technologies for fidelity, and support of RDM so units can be configured remotely with no fuss or cables.

N

Germany - Optiled Lighting International will be showing its full range of products at Light+Building 2010 in Frankfurt this week. This is the first time that Hong Kong-based Optiled is showing its products at a European trade show.

Optiled offers a full range of indoor LED lighting products for different applications. Visitors to Light+Building can see a full array of its illumination solutions including: LED Tube series - measuring two, three and four feet respectively, plus a brand new five feet long fixture; the new Array-M AR111 in the LED lamps series; Super Star MR16, Accent Radar MR16, Rocket PAR30, Galaxy and Festival H12 and H13 colour fixtures; LED Downlight series, including the new Round 200, and the LED Array Accent series.

"LED lighting is already making significant inroads into the home and commercial markets, as traditional forms of lighting like tungsten

Germany - GLP and G-LEC exhibited together for the first time at this year's ProLight&Sound Show in Frankfurt, with the large (260m²) stand fully lit with LED. This joint appearance saw nearly 120m² of G-LEC Phantom 30 LED video display and over 100 different impression units in various LED assemblies (warm and cold white / RGB / 5-colour XL / XL RGBWWC).

The presentation included four new developments from GLP - the Volkslicht Zoom (at the lower end of the LED range), the impression 300 RZ (at the upper end), the Creation II-2048 controller and the impression Meisterstück.

Head of marketing, Uli Steinle, said he was more than satisfied with the reaction. "This year again the large number of visitors was a pleasant surprise to us," he said.

(Jim Evans)

USA - Renkus-Heinz has expanded its engineering staff with the appointment of Derrick Pierce to the position of staff loudspeaker engineer.

The California native returns to the state after more than a decade in design engineering and product development with loudspeaker manufacturers JL Audio in Florida. A designer of several award-winning products, Pierce has also held high-level engineering positions with Niles Audio and Menlo Scientific., and contributed to the development of several patents.

"I'm really pleased to be joining a company as forward-thinking as Renkus-Heinz," Pierce remarks. "For me, this is truly the ideal opportunity to maximize the skills I've acquired through my years of loudspeaker design, and take things to a whole new level. I'm looking forward to taking on the challenge of designing the next generation of Renkus-Heinz loudspeakers."

UK - Building on the successful Big Day Out events of the last two years, Shuttlesound is taking product demos to another level with the announcement of the first Big Day Outside over the second May Bank Holiday weekend. In conjunction with the Glastonbudget festival near Nottingham, a collaboration between the technical and performance sectors of the industry will allow Shuttlesound guests to demo three different Electro-Voice line array systems in a bona fide festival environment.

Glastonbudget is Europe's largest festival for tribute bands and new acts. Dubbed 'the Mecca of tribute', the event is now in its sixth year and will see more than 6,000 fans gather to see 130+ bands. With six stages on site, production services company OneBigStar has ample opportunities to set out the Electro-Voice stall on behalf of Shuttlesound. With XLC providing a fir

France - Aviom is providing several of its best-selling products to help streamline audio monitoring for the 10-piece orchestra for a new production of The Lion King at the historic Theatre Mogador in Paris. Co-produced by Stage Entertainment and Disney Theatrical, this presentation relies on an Aviom-based monitoring system to simplify the audio setup and workflow.

Sound designers Steve Kennedy and John Shivers specified Aviom personal monitoring gear for this project. The audio setup, which was provided by Dispatch, consists of a Yamaha M7CL digital mixing console with a 16-channel Pro16 A-Net Interface card installed. The A-Net card is connected to three A-16D Pro A-Net Distributors and 19 Aviom A-16II Personal Mixers to provide 16 channels of monitor mix content to the orchestra's 10 musicians as well as providing a monitor feed to the main audio desk. The production

Asia Pacific - QSC has strengthened its presence in the Asia Pacific market, recruiting two experienced audio professionals to help consolidate the company's market profile in the region.

With immediate effect, Sebastian Chong takes on the role of product specialist, Asia Pacific Region, while David Fuller joins the team as sales manager for the territory.

Before joining QSC as a product application specialist, Sebastian Chong worked as a technical sales manager with Architectural Audio in Singapore for six years, a company recognised as a leading distributor of installed DSP products in Asia.

"I have been seeking an opportunity to take my experience in installed audio to a regional scale and the position at QSC is a perfect match," he says. "QSC is recognised worldwide as an industry leader, and I'm ready to achieve strong company growth with its exciting pro

UK - The chair of the Health and Safety Executive, Judith Hackitt CBE, has officially opened the new headquarters of PASMA, the trade association representing the mobile access tower industry in the UK and Ireland. Situated in the commercial heart of Glasgow, 7 Newton Place is the association's first permanent HQ and is home to its eight strong secretariat.

Unveiling a plaque to mark the occasion, and recalling her time as director general of the Chemical Industries Association (CIA), Hackitt acknowledged the contribution of PASMA and trade associations in general to advancing safety and best practice.

In particular, Ms Hackitt highlighted the long time cooperation between HSE and PASMA and the work of the association in promoting competency when working at height. She commented, "PASMA is a good example of what can be achieved when regulator and trade body work together

Norway / UAE - Tim Wood is the latest sales addition to projectiondesign's sales force. The appointment coincides with the opening of the company's first office in the Emirates, reflecting the rapid growth of projectiondesign's business.

Wood started his professional life in retail store management in the UK before moving to Saudi Arabia and then the UAE, and progressing into regional business development with Disney Consumer products throughout the Middle East. In 1999 he became regional business manager for Quadriga EMEA, looking after the Middle East and Turkey.

Chris Axford, international sales & marketing director at projectiondesign, comments: "Tim understands that our ambitions are International and recognises the potential of our products for specialist markets. In Tim we have found someone with whom we could realise our ambitions in the Middle East. I am confiden

UK - RG Jones has been providing the sound for Raymond Gubbay's Classical Spectacular concerts for over a decade, and if there's one thing that's constant, said RG Jones' FOH engineer Simon Hodge, "it's that the audience's expectations for a loud, exciting and high quality experience keep on rising, year after year. And they do like it loud."

With over 200 musicians on stage for the recent Royal Albert Hall show, including a string section 50 per cent larger than that of the average orchestra, together with a large choir, military band and numerous soloists, the crew faced a phenomenal task long before a note was struck. Load-in at 3am was followed immediately by flying the PA - 16 cabinets per side of Synco by Martin Audio W8LC line array - to allow cabling and lighting rigging to follow. By 9am the stage was set. "Just as well," observed Hodge, "

UK - Northern Light is supplying and commissioning 72 ways of ETC Sensor dimming and a custom made house lighting control system to Northamptonshire's newest venue - the as yet unnamed theatre which will be housed within the £31 million Corby Cube development.

The Cube development - due to open in October - is a six storey, civic building which will form part of a new town square for Corby. The facilities include a 445 seat theatre, arts and studio spaces, a library, a bistro, council offices and chamber and a terraced roof garden.

Northern Light were approached by main contractor Mitie to provide dimming and control for the theatre's house lighting system.

Mike Percy, Northern Light's project engineer, says, "We've designed a bespoke control rack which features equipment from suppliers such as Pulsar and Global Design Solutions for operation of the theatre house

Denmark - The MAC III Performance is a flexible, high-output profile moving head with a new interleaved framing system with full crossover of each blade and continuous rotation for new and unlimited projection, framing and effects possibilities.

It is available as a stand-alone fixture or as a cost effective upgrade that installs in minutes on any existing MAC III Profile.

The MAC III Performance's continuous rotation framing system is an industry first. Four individually controllable shutter blades can be micro-adjusted in an infinite variety of positions for a greater refinement of beam shape, and continuous rotation allows the image to revolve successively at any angle, says the company.

Each shutter blade can move across the entire beam to a complete blackout so not only are more shapes possible but any shape can be positioned in any part of the field of light. This flex

Europe - D&M Holdings has ended its fiscal year on 31 March 2010 and announced a significant improvement in profitability. The company reports increased market shares across all regions, earning many awards internationally for its new products. It has "strengthened relationships with channel partners and improved inventory management and operations; positioning itself for further growth in 2010".

In a consolidation of its brand portfolio, D&M is continuing its investment of resources in its core Denon, Marantz, McIntosh and Boston Acoustics brands, and has announced the discontinuance of Escient Vision. Escient's technologies and R&D resources are to be assimilated within D&M's core brands. D&M Europe, however, will continue to develop and market the Escient Zone CI integrated home control system, available exclusively through DMi.

D&M Europe will continue to grow it

UK - Playing for one week only at Glasgow's 1800-seat Kings Theatre, the latest production by The Paisley Musical and Operatic Society set a new benchmark for an amateur dramatics event. Reportedly costing over £100,000 to stage, The Producers took advantage of a cleverly-designed digital audio control system, using linked RSS M-400 desks supplied by Sono Vie.

The Paisley Musical & Operatic Society was able to use the original set from the West End production, and in all other respects aspired towards the highest professional standards for their show, retaining amateur status only in the sense of not being paid. Alan Beattie of Sono Vie, the production services rental company, points out that "members of the public assumed it was a professional production, which in technical terms it was."

With 30 characters moving on and off stage, the show deployed 32

USA - Turbosound's Flex Array has made a significant contribution to the success of the Winter Music Conference in Miami's South Beach, where The Shore Club hosted an impressive line-up of DJs.

The Shore Club hosted some of the most popular events of the well-established Winter Music Conference - now in its 25th consecutive year - with the main focus of attention being the Pool and Patio venues, where a line-up of DJs such as Carl Craig, Juan Atkins, Kevin Saunderson, Theo Parrish, DJ Hell, Peter Kruder, Metro Area, Christian Prommer, Roberto Rodriguez, Mark Farina and many more entertained the crowds of between 1,500 and 2,000 over four intensive days.

Following on from the excellent results achieved at last year's WMC, The Shore Club hotel and Miami-based event producer Tomas Ceddia of The Loud Minority were keen to bring Turbosound systems back again.

"

Germany - Attending the PL+S show in Frankfurt provided an opportunity for ETASound to close a deal with Nexo for a new Geo S12 line-array system, after a convincing one-time demo at SSE Audio Group's facilities earlier in the month.

Eddie Thomas of ETASound confirmed that he has ordered a total of 16 Geo S12 compact line-array cabinets, along with four PS15 in-fill and/or stage monitors, and power options in the shape of three NXAMP 4x4 amplifiers. Expanding his existing Nexo inventory, ETASound becomes one of the first rental companies in the world to offer the new RS18 sub, buying eight units after this latest Nexo subbass was released in Frankfurt.

SSE Sales handled the larger part of the transaction. "Buying the S12 package from SSE gave me the option to order bespoke flight cases and flying kit , and they will deliver the whole system complete and ready to go,"

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