China - Loudspeaker manufacturer Fohhn Audio has exclusively equipped the German, Swiss and China State Grid Pavilions at Expo 2010, Shanghai, with state-of-the-art loudspeaker-, amplifier- and DSP-technology. Hundreds of the German-engineered speakers have been shipped to China, installed and finely tuned by Fohhn engineers in the months leading up to EXPO 2010, which officially opened on 1 May.

The theme of the 2010 exhibition, Better City, Better Life, is reflected in the 6000 sq.m German "balancity" Pavilion, where visitors undertake a guided walking tour of the pavilion 'city', moving through 13 different areas including a harbour, parks and the city's power plant. Over 300 Fohhn products, including a range of Arc Series loudspeakers, have been networked usin

UK - At over 300 years old, contemporary art auctioneer Phillips de Pury & Company knows that having high quality sound in its premises is essential. With buyers potentially paying many thousands of pounds at the company's auctions, every word uttered by the auctioneer must be clear and unmistakeable. With this in mind, the company recently commissioned a new audio system at its London premises, controlled by a Yamaha DME series digital mixing engine.

Adapting a Victorian former Post Office sorting station as its London premises, the company needed an audio system that could cater for a wide variety of applications with equal, high sound quality. Most importantly, however, it had to be very discreet.

Cambridgeshire-based Absolute Pro Audio was commissioned to design and install the system. Comprising 16 zones, the system's 'brains' had to be able to cover all eventualities fro

Switzerland - A high-end audio-visual system has been installed at Jade, the newest addition to Zurich's nightclub and restaurant scene, featuring Nexo's compact Geo S12 line array modules for the main dancefloor and a variety of PS cabinets around the venue.

Jade has quickly established itself as one of Zurich's top clubs. The new venue is located in an old post office. Throughout the day, it is open as a fine-dining restaurant, and on the weekend, it is transformed into a high-spec nightclub, home to national and international DJs, and a crowd of 700 guests. Such dual identity represents a relatively new fashion for Switzerland, although "such hybrid concepts are widespread in other countries", observes owner Mario Contartese.

Zurich-based AV integration specialist Baranday AG was chosen to handle the installation. CEO and project manager Nicola Votta is a long-tim

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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 - Cavendish Corporate Finance LLP, the advisor to sellers of businesses has recently appointed Joe Stelzer as a partner. Stelzer has a specialist expertise in the lighting sector and can also offer an insight into the company sale process having worked as both client and advisor.

Stelzer will also be focusing on the technology, defence & aerospace sectors and also dealing with family controlled businesses.

On graduating, Stelzer began his career by starting a software republishing firm before merging this business with his family engineering firm where, as chief executive, he used this foundation to build a broad based industrial technology group comprising nanotechnology, defence & aerospace, lighting controls and energy management companies. The business was floated in 2004 on AIM as Polaron plc.

In late 2006, Stelzer appointed Cavendish to sell Polaron and the company

UK - Fast-growing Gloucester-based AV support company Production:av has wasted no time in adding Christie's new MicroTiles to its inventory. The Christie partner immediately ordered 25 of the new tiles after seeing them at this year's ISE Show in Amsterdam.

Started by MD Pete McCrea five years ago, Production:av provides technologies for the fixed installation and systems integration markets. The company is enjoying its best year ever - with turnover showing a 30% lift on the previous year.

According to Business Development Manager, Andy Cook, they are confident that the addition of the modular MicroTiles - which combines the strengths of both DLP and LED technology to produce spectacular brightness in a near seamless display - will take them to the next level.

"MicroTiles was one of the big talking points at the ISE Show and we were immediately sold on it," he sai

UAE - With technology lying at the heart of Creative Technology's business, the company's extensive inventory has been enlarged further with the purchase of a variety of new products that complement CT's already comprehensive stock of audio visual equipment.

Amongst the new purchases, CT now own three new types of LED Video Display systems - the Flyer 12, the Panasonic 12mm LED and the Spider 30, two new Christie DLP 18K projectors with lenses and four 16:9 projection screens.

Dave Crump, CT's managing director comments, "Despite our industry facing many challenges over the past 18 months, CT has continued to see rapid development in the sports and entertainment sectors of our market. These new products are a first step in our development of a unique family of high performance LED systems to meet the anticipated demand across all market sectors in the coming years."<

UK - Billed as the first ever panel discussion to address the issue of working at height and sustainability, the Access Industry Forum (AIF) representing the nine principal trade associations and federations involved in working at height, has brought together a panel of experts in the inaugural AIF Knowledge Base at this year's Safety & Health Expo in Birmingham next week. These include representatives from UKCG (UK Contractors Group) and the Construction Products Association. They will discuss the topic: Work at height - sustaining the future.

The panel of experts will examine and discuss the initiatives currently in place, review what other areas of industry are already doing and identify specific areas for future attention and development. The debate therefore promises to be both stimulating and informative.

Jane Thornback is sustainability policy advisor at the Cons

South Africa - For the third year running, Gearhouse South Africa supplied full technical production, site infrastructure and a series of solutions to stage the 2010 Mighty Man Conference, at Greytown outside Durban.

Gearhouse was again working for The Shalom Trust, and in close collaboration with its technical co-ordinator, Nik Fairclough of Northwind Recording who also mixed the FOH sound.

Gearhouse's project manager was Eyal Yehezkely. He oversaw a crew of 28, spanning multiple technical disciplines - audio, AV and screens, power, lighting and staging. The project management included internal and on site logistics, surveying and GPS mapping of the site, detailed layouts, design of the crowd seating, positioning of delay towers and structures and producing comprehensive site plans.

The primary technical challenge - with an expected audience of up to 400,000 - was to

USA - Live F.O.H mix engineer Richard Barling used a SADiE LRX2 location audio workstation on the recent three-week Friendly Fires tour of the United States.

"The LRX2 performed very well," Barling says. "I used it to both multitrack record the shows and 'virtual soundcheck' at soundcheck time. We ran 28 channels from stage, four lines of music and intro at F.O.H and two audience mics. In total, we recorded 36 channels every night via the two fibre optic MADI cables linked to a Soundcraft Vi6 local rack with MADI outs and one wordclock cable. The audio sounded great."

Barling adds that he used the SADiE MTR software to capture and play the audio back into every channel on the Vi6, as if the band were performing on stage.

"The audio comes back into the desk in exactly the same gain level," he explains. "MTR saved the files neatly onto an ext

Slovakia - Lighting and video content for multiple LED surfaces at the 2010 Miss Universe Slovakia beauty pageant, staged in the SIBAMAC Arena, Bratislava, was controlled by two grandMA full-size consoles, six video stations with the MA VPU software (Video Processing Unit) and six MA NSPs (Network Processing Units). The show - which regularly draws one of the highest annual ratings on Slovakian TV - was broadcast live on national STV1, and featured an enthusiastic audience of 5,000 people.

The show's visuals were designed by Martin Kubanka. He worked closely with lighting and video programmers and operators Michal Schmid and Tomas Lecky, who each used a grandMA full-size console for their respective departments.

Says Kubanka, "I have been using grandMA for at least 10 years on all my shows and I would not even think about using another brand, and especially not now, for s

USA - The nominations for this year's Tony Awards were announced this morning. Nominations in the design categories went a broad line-up of productions, with plenty of recognition for leading productions Fela! (11 nominations), La Cage aux Folles (also 11), Fences (10), Memphis (8), Ragtime (8), and Red (7).

In the category of best scenic design for a musical, the nominees are Marina Draghici, who transformed the Eugene O'Neill Theatre into an African nightclub for Fela! ; Christine Jones, for the towering, video-filled environment of American Idiot; Derek McLane, for his highly imaginative, three-level re-imagining of Ragtime; and Tim Shortall, for his original, and somewhat down-market, take on La Cage aux Folles.

Leading the best scenic design of a play category, the nom

UK - Infinity M, the latest addition to the Coemar range, is making its début at the Adelphi Theatre in London in Andrew Lloyd Webber's new musical Love Never Dies.

The opera, which will run until 23 October 2010, continues the story of The Phantom of the Opera of 1986, the highly successful musical that has been performed in over 25 countries and seen by more than 100m people.

To translate the complex story into reality and make it a successful musical, Webber chose prize-winning lighting designer Paule Constable, who called in the lighting supplier White Light.

The Infinity M moving head projectors were chosen first and foremost due to their excellent output in relation to their dimensions: as powerful as 2000W projectors, they have the dimensions of a 250 W projector and consume less than half the energy, due to the optical quality of the components u

USA - Visual effects company Origami Digital has completed the move to its new location near the Hawthorne Airport. The 8,000sq.ft building includes an expanded performance-capture stage, a large studio for the artists and state-of-the-art infrastructure. Origami Digital provides a solution for filmmakers who want to keep their postproduction in the Los Angeles area.

"We've always had a full-service approach to our work, and in the new space we can offer the whole range of our services more efficiently," said Oliver Hotz, founder of Origami Digital and visual effects supervisor at the facility. "We have invested a great deal in the development of our mo-cap pipeline and now we have a dedicated 50' x 50' mo-cap volume so we can really put the system to work."

"We looked at a number of great buildings, but we decided on this location because it gave us t

UK - PLASA and L&SI magazine have confirmed the schedule for the major Loudspeaker Demonstration event which takes place this month at The Centaur in Cheltenham.

PLASA and L&SI have joined forces with the technical team at The Centaur in Cheltenham to stage this unique three-day product demonstration on Tuesday 18th, Wednesday 19th and Thursday 20th May. The event will allow visitors to hear and compare a range of leading professional PA systems designed for shows and events with up to 5000 audience capacity.

Over the course of three days, 11 leading manufacturers will gather at the 4000-capacity multi-purpose venue to demo' their systems. Each will set-up for a Test Period, during which measurements will be taken from a uniform source, and a Performance Period during which they will have the chance to play source material of their choice and demonstrate the capabilities of th

UK/USA - At InfoComm in the US and the ABTT Show in London, Allen & Heath will be introducing the iDR-64 larger format fixed I/O MixRack to the iLive digital mixer family, offering high I/O capacity and a lower cost alternative to the flagship modular iDR10 MixRack.

The new iDR-64 comprises 64 mic/line inputs and 32 XLR outputs in a 9U frame, and features the iLive 64x32 RackExtra DSP mix engine, providing full processing (dynamics, EQ and delay) for all 64 channels and 32 mixes. The RackFX DSP framework provides eight stereo processors capable of high quality FX emulation of industry classics. Each Rack has flexible I/O routing with EQ and Dynamik FXShaper on every dedicated return.

With the addition of the iDR-64, the iLive Series now includes a total of six MixRack and seven control surface variants, which can be mixed and matched in any combination, and share the same firm

Indonesia - RCTI (Rajawali Citra Televisi Indonesia), one of the biggest TV stations in Indonesia, recently proved that 10 years of hard work is no big deal for a grandMA lighting console. Their two grandMA full-size boards have been in active service over the past 10 years, starting on the show Who wants to be a Millionaire.

"The consoles are still in very good condition and all they have needed is a minor upgrading of the memory and a round of updates to the installed software", reports Jens Poehlker, sales director MA Lighting Asia Pacific. "Since coming here last December, we also wanted to follow up on our promise to provide training."

After the console upgrades, a two day MA training session was jointly organised by MA Lighting, Adi Nugroho (head of lighting at RCTI), Setyo Wibowo (head of technical maintenance at RCTI) and Rocky Jong (PT Monal

China - This year's international exposition in Shanghai China is considered to be the world's biggest and most spectacular expo ever. Some of the permanent pavilions where Compulite's equipment is featured include the China Pavilion, Urban (City) Beings Pavilion and Urban Planet Pavilion.

The Chinese national pavilion is the largest and tallest of its kind at the Expo. Compulite's Vectors are used in the China Pavilion section called Wisdom journey.

To facilitate the Urban Being's pavilion lighting and sound Shanghai Yongjia chose to control the lighting (accompanied with sound and video synchronization) utilizing Compulite's Vector console. The Vector console and the sound system receive MIDI signal from a Medialon system achieving synchronous play of light, sound and video. The lighting system of the Urban Being Pavilion was programmed and operated by King Chou from

UK - Completely revised and updated, the Ladder Association's new 40-page Code of Practice contains much information for ladders users and employers alike. Timed to coincide with the launch of the association's Don't be a ladder lightweight campaign promoting training, the code covers everything from the Work at Height Regulations and managing risk, to ladder selection, safe use and inspection.

Intended to encourage safety and best practice amongst the UK's estimated 2m ladder users, the code contains a foreword from HSE welcoming the Ladder Association's contribution to helping minimise and avoid falls from height.

Complete with a risk assessment template covering planning, setting up the job, carrying out the task and inspecting and maintaining ladders, the code offers easy-to-follow, practical advice in five distinct sections.

Whilst the document may be used as a s

Spain - QAV, who are a leading events company and have many years' of experience and expertise of managing events throughout the world, provided a full turnkey package for the Global Progress and Promise event sponsored by Pfizer. As part of this package Stage Electrics recently supplied two of their high resolution 6mm LED screens for the event, which took place in Madrid.

Working together over the four-day conference, the two 4mx3m indoor 6mm LED screens, were flown from two 4m truss structures within the reception of the conference. They then were taken down and combined into one 8mx6m screen and again flown from the truss structure in the main exhibition area for last two days of the event.

Included within the package, Stage Electrics also supplied their own video specialist, Chris Lewis, who was on site to provide technical support, for the whole duration of the co

UK - Following the popularity of last year's course, AC-ET's Rigging division is hosting another training school on 7-8 June. This year's event is being held in conjunction with trussing, staging and support solutions manufacturer, Litestructures, at their Wakefield premises.

Eric Porter, experienced independent rigger, trainer, assessor and committee member for the PLASA National Rigging Certificate, is leading the training school again alongside staff from AC-ET and Litestructures.

Keeping the same format as last year, the comprehensive two-day training programme is adopting an established course that has been attended by industry people from all over Europe. Content is aimed at professionals wanting to acquire specific know-how and expertise to use in their day-to-day roles. It is equally suitable for people in other industry roles who wish to understand this sector in more

Belgium / China - In response to growing demand in China and across Asia, ADB Lighting has opened its first regional subsidiary - ADB Asia, headquartered in Hong Kong. The ADB Asia team is headed by Bertrand Dauphant who will manage the Asia / Pacific area.

It follows the recent appointment of Acoustic and Lighting System, with offices in Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand, as ADB's new distributor for Malaysia and Brunei.

Bertrand Dauphant comments, "The two largest Asian markets for us are currently China and South Korea, where ADB is a leader in the entertainment lighting market for theatre and broadcast. We're expanding further with our new distributor, Acoustic and Lighting System in Malaysia, and we've recently signed a new distributor for broadcast in the Philippines, as well having a good presence in the Vietnam and Thai TV studio markets."

He adds: "As

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