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UK - Liverpool UK based sound and lighting rental company Adlib continues a busy Spring-into-Summer supplying full technical production and crew for the recent LCD Soundsystem UK and European tour.

Adlib has worked with the band's FOH sound engineer Steve Revitte before, most recently on Hot Chip, and he was instrumental in getting them back onboard for LCD along with tour manager Mark Duston.

Adlib supplied a complete monitor system and consoles for the entire tour, which picked up racks-and-stacks throughout Europe. In the UK, they supplied a full PA for the larger venues and then, when possible, hooked into those with good house speaker systems like the Academies. Richy Nicholson was the Adlib systems engineer for the full tour, joined by Otto Kroymann for the UK leg.

The F

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Indonesia - L-Acoustics' Indonesian representative Tri Tunggal Abadi has installed a complete new sound reinforcement system into the Nafiri Convention Hall in Jakarta. The system consists of a left/centre/right hang of six Kiva ultra compact line source cabinets and two Kilo low frequency extensions each, with four SB28 subs. LA4 and LA8 amplified controllers power the system.

The 1,600-capacity hall is used to host three church services every Sunday, as well as special events such as weddings and other large gatherings.

According to the hall's sound engineer Lody, the system is the best he has ever heard, delivering clear and very detailed sound even when it's being driven at very high levels.

(Jim Evans)

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UK - With just over one week to go before the 2010 PLASA AGM & Members Lunch, the organisation is asking all its Business Members to make sure they cast their vote on the proposed merger with North American trade association, ESTA.

The PLASA AGM & Members Lunch, which takes place this year at Kings Place, London on Wednesday 2 June, is always an enjoyable event and an excellent networking opportunity for the Association's members. However, this year's meeting will mark a significant step for the organisation as Members are urged to vote in favour of the proposed merger with ESTA. ESTA's own members received ballot papers on 30 April, along with a strong recommendation to vote in favour of the merger.

There are still places left at the AGM so Members can register at the address below. Alternatively, if members are unable to attend the day itself, there is an opportunity to cast

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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

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USA / UK - Peavey has announced the formation of its new Commercial Audio Division. A new management structure has been put in place to run the organisation which is headed up by MD Clive Roberts based in Corby, UK and Peavey Commercial Audio general manager, Kevin Ivey, based out of Peavey HQ in Meridian, MS.

The Commercial Audio Division has been set up specifically to handle the established brands of MediaMatrix, Crest Audio and Architectural Acoustics. The aim is to create an identifiable and integrated group of pro audio brands with its own dedicated support staff and a clear roadmap for the future. The new structure will offer clearly laid-out channels of communication both up and down the chain, including marketing communication, so that distributors and customers can easily obtain the information they require in a timely fashion.

The new organisation was presented to E

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Live at The White House - Sir Paul McCartney will perform at the White House next week as he picks up an award from President Barack Obama. The former Beatle will play as part of a concert in his honour when he is presented with the third annual Gershwin Prize for Popular Song. Other performers in Tuesday's concert in the East Room include the Foo Fighters' Dave Grohl, Stevie Wonder, Emmylou Harris and Faith Hill and Elvis Costello. Paul Simon won the inaugural prize followed by Wonder last year. The award is given by the Library of Congress.

On Broadway - The musical Memphis has picked up four honours at the Drama Desk Awards in New York, voted for by journalists and theatre critics. The new musical, set in dance clubs in 1950s Memphis, won best musical, orchestration and music. Its leading lady Montego Glover tied with Catherine Zeta Jones for the outstand

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UK - For the ninth year running Hawthorns have been contracted to supply Walk the Walk's MoonWalk and SunWalk power walk challenges in aid of breast cancer charities.

Hawthorn were also involved in Walk the Walk's new challenge this year, the Celebrity SunWalk in Southampton, created to celebrate the naming and launch of the new Celebrity Eclipse cruise ship.

For the two MoonWalks involving nearly 30,000 'MoonWalkers', Hawthorns provided lighting, sound, staging, rigging, power distribution and for the first year Video which was installed into De Boer's massive 'pink palace', a 150m x 60m Galaxy structure.

Three artics of lighting, sound, rigging, power distro, video and site services made their way to Hyde Park for the main structure and ancillary marquees, including six main generators and over 10 miles of cable to supply the marquees, 300 toilets and

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UK - Green Hippo's VideoMapper hit the road with Editors on their recent In this Light and on this Evening tour, promoting the latest album from the Birmingham quartet.

Lighting company Siyan supplied all the lighting for the show. Lighting designer Cate Carter, who has previously worked on successful tours for Duffy and Elbow, and her colleague video designer Paul 'Pablo' Beckett, specified two HippoCritters, conceiving one of the most creative uses of VideoMapper to date.

The design brief for the tour was to create something, dark, edgy, sinister and theatrical and as they began to understand more about the band's vision for the live shows, they settled on the concept of industrial and urban decay as a basis for the set design and visual content.

The set and video elements evolved from their desire to have a backdrop that wasn't just a two-dimensional printed image,

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UK - Orbital Sound continues to expand its exclusive audio sales lines, announcing the addition of Da-Cappo Micro Microphones. Orbital has been appointed as Da-Cappo's exclusive UK distributor with immediate effect, and will be showcasing the range, including the DA-12 single-ear microphone and the DA-04 lapel microphone, at this year's ABTT Show (16-17 June).

The European-designed Da-Cappo capsule is the result of extensive research in the field of precision-hearing instrumentation, measuring a discrete 2.5mm in diameter and combining market-leading performance with a flat frequency response, exceptional EMI protection and unparalleled resilience against sweat and water, says the company. Da-Cappo's latest product release - the DA-15 single-ear microphone with an in-ear monitor piece - was singled out at the 2009 AES, winning the Award for Innovation.

Da-Cappo's claim to have

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UK - Showsec worked with BBC Radio 1 and newly appointed organisers Live Nation to deliver the Big Weekend in Bangor, North Wales. 40,000 visitors enjoyed the sunshine and artists including Rhianna, JLS, Paolo Nutini, Florence and the Machine, Cheryl Cole and many more.

John Probyn, chief operating officer says, "BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend is the first large outdoor music event of the summer season for 2010 and has set a high benchmark for others to aspire to. I believe the partnership between the BBC and Live Nation has worked very well in delivering an event that appealed very well to the Radio 1 audience. Bringing Showsec back into the production fold was a key element in achieving that, they have provided a robust security service that belied the experience and innovation within the company."

Having worked on Big Weekends with the BBC in previous years, Showsec wa

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UK - Vince Cable, the new UK Secretary of State for Business, Innovation & Skills visited UK specialist LED lighting manufacturer i-Pix, as part of a tour organised by David Goddard, leader of Stockport Council, to illustrate the model of a successful economic regeneration project in the town of Greater Manchester.

i-Pix is one of a number of businesses in The 'Stockport Business Incubator', a project located in the Grade II listed Broadstone Mill complex in Reddish. It is a partnership between Stockport Council, the University of Manchester Incubator company and the Mill, which has transformed 40,000sq.ft of the Mill into a state-of-the-art workspace with business incubation facilities.

i-Pix was selected because of its commitment to producing low carbon lighting fixtures and solutions for the entertainment industry, and because of the company's continued success.

As i-Pix

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China - PRG has chosen Barco's video and lighting equipment for their installations at the Shanghai World Expo 2010. The company was responsible for delivery and installation of the audiovisual technology in the Belgo-European pavilion, the United Arab Emirates pavilion and the opening ceremony. To bring the designs to life, PRG used Barco's LED, lighting and projection technology.

The most important inspiration for the designers of the Belgo-European Pavilion was the image of a neuron. This image, the 'Brain Cell', represents the central position of Belgium in the heart of Europe and showcases the great cultural diversity present in all major cities of Belgium. To enhance this overwhelming image of Belgium, PRG chose Barco's outdoor black LED displays, the TF-16BK.

The entrance features one 30sq.m screen, integrated in the glass facade, showing a combination of video clips an

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UK/USA - Following the recent addition of a formatting utility in BlackBox Recorder, UK manufacturer JoeCo has carried out a series of tests on selected disk drives to evaluate their effectiveness in live performance situations. With reliability high on the agenda for the 24-channel live multi-track recorder manufacturer, Glyph Technologies' new GT 062E drive has gained top marks, accompanying the BBR to both NAMM 2010 and the Frankfurt Musikmesse.

Glyph's GT 062E is a professional-grade storage solution designed for audio and video editing, content creation and live recording. It has two hard drives inside, and can be configured in several different drive modes, selectable using the Glyph Manager software utility.

Peter Glanville, director of marketing at Glyph Technologies comments, "The BlackBox Recorder packs huge recording power into a small package, and requires fas

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USA - At InfoComm 2010, live demonstrations of Meyer Sound's new MIna line array loudspeaker will showcase the system's impact and fidelity despite weighing merely 47 lbs. The Constellation acoustic system will also be featured.

In the Meyer Sound demo room at InfoComm, Mina will be heard with its low-frequency complement 500-HP subwoofer. The JM-1P arrayable loudspeaker and 700-HP subwoofer will also be featured in the demos.

Meyer Sound will also showcase the CAL column array loudspeaker, an expanding range of low-voltage installation solutions, the Acheron Studio screen channel loudspeaker and HMS-10 cinema surround loudspeaker, along with the D-Mitri digital audio platform, which will also be shown at the AVnu Alliance Pavilion.

(Jim Evans)

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UK - SADiE recently sponsored In The Dark's high profile events at the London International Documentary Festival (LIDF), which took place in early May.

In The Dark is an organisation dedicated to celebrating and enriching the culture of radio documentary in the UK. Through workshops and live 'listening' events that bring together producers from around the world it aims to encourage a thriving community where radio can be easily accessed, enjoyed and discussed.

This year, In The Dark hosted a number of events in association with LIDF. These allowed audiences to close their eyes and open their ears to a world of aural story telling. Running alongside LIDF's programme of films and photography, it asked how story-telling through sound continues to enrich documentary culture as a whole.

All events were guest-chaired by independent producer Alan Hall (Falling Tree

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Australia - Prior to a much anticipated world tour, Crowded House played the West Coast and the East Coast Blues & Roots Festivals, plus a sell-out show at the Enmore Theatre in Sydney. The band's longtime lighting director Dave Harding was there at the helm of a Jands Vista control system comprising of a Vista S1, S3 and a couple of M1's driven off a MAC Midi with a laptop for backup.

Harding has played an integral part in the development of the Vista from the launch of the system at PLASA in 2004 until present day. "I had been working on it for a couple of years prior as a consultant to Jands," he says. "I designed the control palettes and had quite a lot of input into the fixture selector."

"I have a Vista S1 that I carry around in my backpack," he reports. "Once in my hotel room I can just plug into my laptop and it's got encoders, playba

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UK - At the recent PLASA Focus show in Leeds, Martin Professional gave visitors the chance to win one of their popular ZR44 smoke machines. The lucky winners were the team from Barnsley College's two-year, full-time level three qualification in all aspects of backstage management, operations and theatrical production.

Course leader Lee Flint and technical instructor Michael 'Fletch' Fletcher picked up their prize which is now in residence at The Shed theatre on the Honeywell Campus of Barnsley College but soon to move to new premises at the Old Mill Lane new-build site in Barnsley Town Centre.

(Claire Beeson)

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UK - The Lyttleton Theatre of London's National Theatre is one of the UK's most prolific hotbeds of stage creativity, which means its technical team has to cope with changing between very different productions on an almost nightly basis. With a DiGiCo SD7 recently installed in the South Bank premises, life is now a little easier.

"We have a connection with DiGiCo because we often use a D1 console for outdoor productions in our Theatre Square venue," says Lyttleton Theatre sound manager Yvonne Gilbert.

"So we had prior knowledge of the user interface, which helped our choice. But the truth is we looked at a lot of digital consoles and none seemed to do the job we wanted as well as the SD7.

"We're a rep house, we have a different show each night and they are extremely varied. We needed a console that would give us a wide range of possibilities, from mixing

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USA - In outfitting San Diego's Old Globe Theatre for Duncan Sheik's musical Whisper House, the sound design team of Dan Moses Schreier and associate designer David Bullard - who designed the audio for the current Broadway hits Westside Story, A Little Night Music and Sondheim On Sondheim - drew on years of combined experience to select the optimal equipment for every scenario of the complex audio production.

With an on-stage orchestra, a cappella vocal performances, large-group sequences and loud, complicated battle scenes transitioning throughout the entire play, they needed a verstile audio system and ultimately selected AKG's DMS 700 wireless microphone system and JBL VRX loudspeakers.

AKG DMS 700 digital wireless microphone systems were outfitted with a variety of AKG handheld mics, such as the C5 condenser, D5 dynamic, D7 dynamic handheld. The most i

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UK - The fast growing Sweet Potato Restaurant & Leisure Ventures Group has extended its latest restaurant concept - Kitchen Italia - by opening a second site close to Covent Garden's trendy Seven Dials.

With its big sharing wooden benches the lively fast-service basement atmosphere is brought to life by a background music system, installed by the Sound Division Group and featuring white Martin Audio architectural AQ loudspeakers, alternating along the vaulted ceiling, down the length of the room.

With its prime location next to the Donmar Theatre, and well-known in its previous guise as the Bunker Bar, Kitchen Italia specialises in fresh, homemade pastas and char grill pizzas.

The Sound Division Group has a long history with the operator, having carried out various installation phases at the leisure group's original venture, Hush in Mayfair, as well as the Villandry restaura

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UK - The BBC has equipped its two newest outside broadcast vehicles with Focal CMS50 active monitors. The two vehicles form part of a BBC Radio OB fleet that became fully operational this spring and will ultimately replace the oldest vehicles in the existing fleet.

The CMS50 is a two-way, bi-amped, nearfield monitor featuring a 5" mid-woofer and it is the middle size in the CMS (Compact Monitoring System) range, which also comprises the CMS65 and the new CMS40.

Garry Robson, of UK Focal distributor, SCV Electronics, said, "We presented the Focal CMS range for approval during late 2009 and were delighted when we heard that the CMS50 had been chosen over the usual suspects. One of our dealers, HHB, received the BBC order in early 2010."

(Jim Evans)

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Germany - The long-running German hip hop band Fettes Brot embarked on their latest tour of German arenas (Fettes/Brot Tour 2010) at the end of April to coincide with the release of their new dual live CD's, Fettes and Brot.

Initially the tour was planned to have taken place in smaller venues but, such was the success of the new CD that it quickly transpired that demand was much greater than expected. Many of the concerts moved to arenas with much larger capacities (ranging between 2,000-9,000) - and this leg will culminate in a performance at the vast, 20,000-capacity Lanxess Arena in Köln.

The variation in venue size had little effect on Gunnar Loose's lighting design as he had created it with sufficient versatility and scalability to be easily implemented in tour venues, whatever the size.

Loose has been working for several years with Fettes Brot, co

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