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UK - While preparing for their annual Asian cultural show, private school Merchant Taylors' of London was faced with a problem.

"We had a pre-order of eight MAC 250 Wash fixtures to help light an average-sized stage with an audience of over 400 people per night," states lighting designer Ben Yager. "Two weeks before show date, as we visited the hall for the second time, we suddenly realised there was insufficient power for the discharge moving heads we had pre-ordered from Stage Electrics. We immediately made a decision on what to do next."

Yager, who describes himself as a "Martin fanatic," insisted on using Martin products and remembered back to the PLASA '09 exhibition where the new MAC 301 Wash LED fixture was displayed. He was thoroughly impres

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USA - Lighting designer David Pedemonti specified a Jands Vista S3 console to provide lighting control for a regional production of the hit US Off Broadway show, Altar Boyz. The musical comedy tells the story of a religious boy band trying to save the world one soul at a time.

Some of the original Off Broadway show's creators help bring to life this version produced by and at the Bristol Riverside Theatre, Bristol PA, with stage direction and choreography by Christopher Gattelli, and musical direction by Gary Adler. Lighting design was by David Pedemonti of APA Music & Pictures Inc., with programming by Nick Wyant.

Pedemonti was particularly impressed with the Vista's ability to combine big bold looks with the show's precise comic timing, and how quick and easy the show was to programme using the console's unique visually based lighting plot. He commented:

"When

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Singapore - Long-term Midas users, the Singapore-based Faith Community Baptist Church (FCBC), have purchased their second PRO6 digital audio system this year.

FCBC, which attracts a congregation of up to 10,000 at its weekly services, has installed the second PRO6, purchased from Midas' Singaporean distributor Quad Pro, into its 1,500-capacity Touchcentre place of worship. The first PRO6 is already in fulltime use at the Touch Community Theatre.

FCBC's senior audio engineer, Philip Nadesan says, "The PRO6 retains the warmth of analogue boards yet adds a crisp 'sparkle' at the high end. The learning curve from analogue to digital board was surprisingly fast and smooth with the PRO6. The onboard EQ was a breeze to use and functioned like an analogue board. More impressively, there are four-mode compressors at the input channel and side chain functions.

"An unexpected

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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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UK - Cooper Controls has announced the appointment of Sarah Burridge as customer service manager for Cooper Controls. In this newly created role, Burridge will be responsible for all customer service activities including quotations, order processing, and customer returns functions for the iLight architectural and Zero 88 entertainment brands.

Burridge has a background of over 20 years of professional experience in high service, customer focused environments as diverse as retail and contract delivery in the construction industry.

"I am really excited about this new role" said Burridge. "Cooper Controls is a well respected company with an excellent portfolio of loyal customers and a good service record. As and our customers grow we also have to look to drive our support services to the next level in customer satisfaction. My key priorities for the future will incl

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USA - When the 2400-seat Verizon Hall opened in Philadelphia's Kimmel Centre for the Performing Arts in 2001, its automated rigging system seemed like the right choice to move the massive acoustic canopies as each concert required.

Before long, however, the hall's manager, David Thiele - now the Kimmel Centre's vice president of facilities and operations - determined that there were significant issues with the rigging. The hardware components initially functioned properly, but the software did not.

"We discovered early on that the software was not reliable," he said. "We had a series of problems with software bugs that had to be solved. There were unusual error messages that couldn't be cleared without a phone call to the manufacturer's main office."

As time went on, Thiele noted, the manufacturer's ability to help him waned as well - and then hardware pr

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UK - HHB Communications has supplied two RSS M-400 digital consoles, with RSS S-1608 Digital Snakes and stageboxes, for installation in an Outside Broadcast Vehicle newly acquired and fitted out by SECMedia, the AV arm of the South England Conference of Seventh-day Adventists.

Ahead of the Church's biggest annual get-together at Camp Meeting in Wales, SECMedia has refurbished an OBV built by Sony Broadcast, once part of the Grampians TV fleet. Equipped with a new 48-channel M-400 digital console plus configurable digital snake solution, the truck will handle a packed schedule, recording and mixing for internet broadcast six programmes a day throughout the six-day event.

The South England Conference is the umbrella organisation that enfolds all the Seventh-day Adventist churches in the south of the country. Stefan Stanciu, leader of the 15-man AV and IT team, was the fir

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Greece - The Nuevo Trova is one of the latest additions to the vibrant night life in Athens. Housed in a neoclassical building in the centre of the Greek capital, the new bar/club is the work of Greek actress Katerina Papoutsaki and her brother John Papoutsakis. Their aim was to create a stylish and elegant environment for the people of arts to enjoy (although not exclusively) and also to provide a stage to express various forms of art, such as concerts with bands from all genres, theatrical groups and entertainers, stand-up comedy and high quality music playback.

The building had to undergo major internal surgery in order to meet the demands of a modern space whilst retaining the aesthetics and the feel of such an ancient structure. The sound was therefore a very important issue, hence the reason they turned to audio specialists and Peavey distributor, DNA Systems.

According

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Greece - Meyer Sound has announced Philippos Nakas as the company's new distributor, providing technical support, product servicing, and coordination of educational programmes for the Greek professional audio market.

The publicly listed Philippos Nakas has been supplying musical instruments and professional audio equipment in Greece since 1937. Today, the Athens company distributes for manufacturers including Robw lighting, Sennheiser, Klotz, and Neumann, in addition to Meyer Sound.

"We have been looking for a big name in loudspeakers for a long time now, and are very excited to add Meyer Sound to our offerings," says Konstantinos Nakas, managing director of Philippos Nakas. "The current economic state is driving a wave of new sound rental companies to the market and these companies are demanding quality equipment like Meyer Sound."

Philippos Nakas has es

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Australia - Sydney Theatre comprises an impressive 896-seat auditorium with outstanding technical capabilities as well as a sprung-floor rehearsal studio, spacious function room and stylish, sweeping foyer spaces.

Throughout the year, Sydney Theatre plays host to productions from the Sydney Theatre Company as well as dance and drama productions from companies such as the Melbourne Theatre Company, Sydney Dance Company and the Australian Ballet.

Since many recent productions have been specifying next generation lighting consoles such as ETC Eos, head of lighting Andrew Tompkins decided it was time to upgrade. After testing various consoles the undisputed winner was the ETC Eos range.

"EOS gives us a very powerful set of lighting tools to meet the expectations of today's designers, while providing a familiar syntax for operators moving up from our old Strand consoles,&quo

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Germany - Over 1000 visitors from more than 30 countries attended the recent Lightpower Open Days, hosted by the German distributor of professional stage lighting and show technology.

This international business symposium proved to be a major meeting place for the lighting and visuals industry. In addition to lectures by like Patrick Woodroffe, Rick Fisher, Manfred Olma, and Jürgen Schmidt-André, scores of guests from theatres, TV, concert touring and live events came to Paderborn to share the Open Days experience which took place in the Heinz Nixdorf Museums Forum.

As well as interesting lectures and informative seminars, all guests were able to get an insight into the latest developments in the fields of control, video, dimming, networking, moving lights, spot lights, follow spots, LED sources, trussing, clamps, custom-made products, power supplies, gel strings and n

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UK - Over the weekend of 21-23 May, The O2 in London hosted its first fully staged opera-a larger-than-life rendition of Bizet's vibrant and passionate Carmen. To convey both the power and subtlety of Bizet's music throughout the 18,000-capacity arena, Autograph Sound Recording provided a massive Meyer Sound reinforcement system.

To cover The O2's main seating bowl, the production relied on left-right arrays of 16 MIlo and two Milo 120 line array loudspeakers each for the orchestral system, with 90 Mica line array loudspeakers dedicated to performers' voices. A total of 60 UPJ-1P VariO loudspeakers serve as front-fill to cover the front rows and provide correct imaging of the performers.

"It's a fascinating project," says Autograph's Duncan Bell. "Starting with many theatre-based techniques and using 32 channels of radio and then applying them to a scale

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UK - When Peter Gabriel decided to promote his latest album Scratch My Back via select live shows with a 54-piece orchestra, an immediate concern was how the Front of House mix position would accommodate the exacting audio requirements. The answer was a DiGiCo SD7, with enough inputs to make Gabriel's New Blood tour both a reality and a major success.

Manned by Richard Sharratt, the DiGiCo SD7 was supplied, along with the rest of the audio rig, by Britannia Row. After rehearsals in Shepperton and a Paris warm-up gig, the tour took in dates at Paris Bercy, the Berlin O2, London O2 Arena, Montreal Bell Centre, New York Radio City Music Hall and finally LA's Hollywood Bowl.

With 10 first violins, 10 second violins, eight violas, eight cellos and four basses comprising the string section alone, the channel count was inevitably high.

"All the strings had Schoep

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USA - The largest annual Christian music tour in the United States - Winter Jam - toured the country from January until late March with acts like Third Day, Newsboys, Newsong, and Sidewalk Prophets.

One of the main visual elements of the set was a flown wall of upgraded LC Series LED panels supplied by Axxis of Louisville, KY. The enhanced panels were upgraded with many features of Martin's LC Plus LED panels including compatibility with Martin's advanced video signal processor, the P3-100 System Controller.

Production manager and set design duties for the tour were handled by Jerry Holcomb (along with his usual audio duties) with bands performing on a 360o set with views from all angles.

"Sometimes we'd get no one behind us and sometimes there would be a lot of people behind us, you just never knew. That's one of the reasons we used the LC panels - you can see t

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UK - Orbital Sound reports two recently completed installations with an ecclesiastical overtone.

The Emmanuel Centre, part of Westminster's Emmanuel Evangelical Church, commissioned Orbital to install a new d&b audiotechnik Q-Series loudspeaker system for one of its mainstream conference rooms, used regularly by political parties and large corporates.

At St George's Cathedral, Southwark, Orbital was brought in by the cathedral architect Jonathan Louth Architects to install a new Tannoy D-i5 system as part of a refurbishment programme of the Archbishop Amigo Jubilee Hall, in a joint project with CAFOD. In both cases, Orbital Sound was responsible for the system supply, installation and commissioning.

Located within a Grade 2 listed building, the conference centre at the Emmanuel Evangelical Church comprises the principal Auditorium that seats 1000, plus two smaller rooms with

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UK - Robert Juliat, will be exhibiting at ABTT 2010 in London on the White Light Stand where the new RJ Aledin LED profile will make its first London appearance.

Also on the stand will be Robert Juliat's Victor 1800W HMI followspot, 1000W Lutin spotlight and the White Light/Robert Juliat 350LFX effects projector.

(Jim Evans)

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India - Robe lighting has appointed Mumbai-based Integrated Entertainment Solutions (IES) as its new Indian distributor.

The deal was concluded by Robe's sales director Harry von den Stemmen and IES's Rasesh Parekh at PALME Dubai, and IES will offer the full range of Robe products and comprehensive technical support across India.

Says von den Stemmen, "We took our time and researched carefully to find the right partner in India. It is a country with massive potential, and it was important to find a company that shares our visions and ideals for the future and has a real dedication to providing the superlative long-term customer service and support for which Robe is renowned."

Rasesh Parekh adds, "We are delighted to become part of the Robe Family. The quality of the brand and the commitment of the Robe team towards their products, future technologies and custo

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Norway - Production Resource Group (PRG) was awarded a seven-figure contract to be a primary technical supplier, providing lighting, video, LED and rigging equipment and services for this year's Eurovision Song Contest in Oslo.

Following five weeks of pre-programming at PRG's facility in London, 31 trailers (approx. 270 tons) of technical equipment and a team of more than 65 technical specialists from across the PRG group have travelled to Oslo. The three shows are televised to an estimated worldwide audience of 120 million, building to the live final on 29 May.

PRG (formerly PROCON Event Engineering) has provided technical services for the Eurovision TV show in Athens (2006), Belgrade (2008) and Moscow (2009).

(Jim Evans)

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UK - Comprised of dedicated specialists and project managers, the recently formed Rosco Architectural group will provide designers, contractors and suppliers with product consultation, detailed specification information and customised support from idea conception through final turn on, assisting at each level of the project.

Though experienced in the broad range of Rosco products, the Rosco Architectural group's primary directive is to support Rosco products used in the creation, colouration and control of light in themed environments, new construction, corporate locales, retail and interior designs, and hospitality - namely Rosco LitePad products, X24 effects projectors, dichroics lenses and accessories, and control solutions for fluorescent and LED luminaires.

Ame Strong has taken up the position of director of Rosco Architectural. Since 2003, Ame has been Rosco's worldwide

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UK - DiGiCo is the latest company to confirm its presence at PLASA 2010, taking place at Earls Court in London from the 12-15 September 2010. DiGiCo is joining a strong line up of pro-audio companies already committed to the show this September.

DiGiCo managing director James Gordon commented: "Before booking a stand at PLASA 2010 we had to evaluate our heavy commitments to PL&S and the Montreux Jazz Festival. Through the process it just became clear PLASA is such an important date in our calendar and DiGiCo just has to be there in 2010."

DiGiCo can be found on stand 1-E4, at the front of Earl's Court 1 among a host of other pro-audio brands such as Allen & Heath, HK Audio, Equipson and Roland.

Also joining a long string of pro-audio brands that have committed to PLASA in recent weeks is KV2 Audio: having moved stands from its 2009 location, KV2 Audio can now be fo

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USA - Healing Place Church in Baton Rouge (featured as 'One of America's Most Innovative Churches' in Outreach magazine) has recently moved into its new worship facility, the HPC Arena (www.healingplacechurch.com). To serve the 3,000-seat Sanctuary, SIA Acoustics, responsible for sound system and acoustical design, selected Outline products to reliably reproduce the word and music of the church's worship leaders, as well as numerous visiting groups.

The main sound system is comprised of 42 C.D.H. 483 Butterfly loudspeakers, divided into three arrays (two of 13 elements and one of 16) to cover the floor seating area, with 10 Subtech 218 SP's for low-frequency reproduction and 11 Micra II SP loudspeakers for front-fill.

The raised seating area is served by six delay arrays, each composed of six Mini-COM.P.A.S.S. elements and two C.D.L. 1815 cardioid 'Low Packs', connected

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USA - Nestled in the foothills of the Sierras and best known for olives and orange groves, Lindsay, CA has become known for some very innovative municipal programmes promoted by its forward-thinking Mayor Ed Murray , along with city manager Scot Townsend, head of city services Mike Camarena, and associate engineer Neyba Amezcua.

When the city recently undertook an extensive downtown makeover that included new roads, sidewalks, street lights and trees, Mayor Murray and his team wanted to do something that would really put the town on the map and make it stand out.

Anyone who visits Lindsay will see they succeeded. Hundreds of ornamental Chinese pistache and palm trees that line a six-block area in the city's downtown district are now aglow in brilliant colour - pinks, purples, blues, oranges, and a whole spectrum of dramatic hues. The trees are lit up with inground colour-chang

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