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Belgium - Audient's 16 channel mixing console Zen is making its mark in Belgium with the help of recently appointed distributor Juke Box Ltd, with two prominent sales and a successful demo studio in the bag within three months. Studio Simonne was set up two years ago by engineer/producer David Minjauw and is now centred around his new Zen, with an extensive range of outboard gear, patching, Logic and ProTools recording software, ADAM and Genelec monitoring.

"My goal is to realise a compact studio within an affordable budget, but without compromising the quality. The addition of the Audient Zen has gone a long way to help with this," says Minjauw, who is currently upgrading the studio - previously just a mixing room - by adding a recording booth for basic recording and ov

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Qatar - Athletes from 150 countries competed in the IAAF World Indoor Championship held in Doha, Qatar recently. A total of 1,134 athletes and officials attended what was the IAAF's most important event of the 2010 World Athletics Series.

The event was held at the Aspire Dome, credited as the world's largest indoor multi-purpose dome, offering the highest quality facilities for multiple sports and international events.

The event was managed by Big Events Australia. At the opening and closing ceremonies, TechnoPro (Qatar) provided and installed lighting fixtures and truss structures - with the lighting dominated by automated fixtures from PR Lighting (which they distribute in the region). Suspended from the trusses were 50 XL1200 Wash lights and 12 XL1200 Spots.

(Jim Evans)

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Hungary - Clay Paky products were found in abundance at the recent Havasi Symphonic Red Concert held 4 - 5 March 2010 at the Budapest Congress & World Trade Centre. This was a surprise concert during the conference of the 20th anniversary of Generali-Providencia Insurance company, Hungary's second largest insurance company.

Noted pianist Balázs Havasi was the featured entertainment, performing with the Havasi Symphony and 40-person choir. Havasi holds the Guinness Record for The Fastest Pianist in the World by managing to beat the same bar on the piano 490 times within a minute - a title he earned in November 2009. No one has ever tried to do the same.

The Budapest Congress & World Trade Centre is the largest, most modern congress and meeting facility in Hungary, located in the heart of Budapest. Lighting designer Attila Lenzsér used nearly all Clay Paky lightin

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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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Show News - InfoComm International reports that InfoComm 2010, the annual conference and exhibition for professional audiovisual buyers and sellers held 9-11 June in Las Vegas, Nevada, was "the second largest commercial AV show ever held", with 32,002 AV professionals attending from more than 90 countries.

Randal A. Lemkee executive director & CEO, InfoComm International says: "The AV marketplace has enthusiastically embraced InfoComm as the place to make their purchasing choices, network with product and service providers, and enhance skills through our robust educational programme."

There were 925 exhibitors participating at InfoComm this year, up from 832 at InfoComm 09. Exhibitors occupied more than 475,000 net square feet of exhibit and special events space.

Opera News - Henry Purcell's When I am laid in Earth, from the opera Dido an

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UK - This week's ABTT Theatre Show is set to be the biggest yet, with pre-registrations at 28% higher than previous years, with an array of new products on debut.

The list of companies taking stands at The ABTT Theatre Show 2010 covers the spectrum of products and services for the theatre production and staging market, with a strong showing from the engineering sector, but also from the sound and lighting fraternity. Some of the highlights of brand new innovations at the show include:

Soundcraft's Vi1 digital mixer is the highlight of the Sound Technology stand. In a compact footprint, the Vi1 features the Vistonics user interface.

London Light Production Services is exhibiting for the first time to raise awareness of its services offered to the theatre and events industry, including lighting design, production, equipment hire and sales of integrated AV and lighting systems.

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South Africa - ShowTex supplied the 1000sq.m (3 281 ft) stage flooring made from custom printed dance floor at the Kick-off Celebration Concert welcoming in the 2010 FIFA World Cup. 30,000 excited fans attended the 10 June show in Soweto's Orlando Stadium in Johannesburg, featuring a host of stars including Shakira, Alicia Keys, K'Naan and the Black Eyed Peas.

Kim Akester from ShowTex South Africa explained the challenges of printing on such a grand scale, "We started with a design depicting a figure playing football. Since the dance floor rolls are 150 cm wide, the print had first to be divided over these panels at just the right spot. Then, after printing, came the intricate work of matching up all the panels on the stage and attaching them without visible seams.

"Not only did the lines and the colours have to blend into each other to recreate the image, the wide a

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USA - Viva ELVIS, the seventh resident production by Cirque du Soleil in Las Vegas, revitalizes the mythic rock 'n' roll icon by infusing the raw energy of his best concert performances into lavish Broadway-style production numbers and exhilarating acrobatic spectacles.

The show demands artful blending of disparate audio elements: an eight-piece on-stage band, four female singers, the voice of Elvis, and dynamic sound effects. To support the mix with full impact, sound designer Jonathan Deans engaged a total of 279 self-powered Meyer Sound loudspeakers and the largest all-digital Matrix3 audio show control and CueConsole modular control surface system ever assembled.

"Cirque didn't want to recreate anything they have done before," says Deans. "They wanted to create something new and special for Elvis and for Las Vegas, drawing on the energy of Elvis's liv

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UK - Adlib supplied audio equipment and crew to the recent Flight of The Conchords UK tour, ensuring that "formerly New Zealand's fourth most popular guitar-based digi-bongo acapella-rap-funk-comedy folk duo" and now a US TV phenomenon had suitable sonic treatment for their first UK tour.

It was also the first time that Adlib has worked for Flight of The Conchords, having developed a penchant for the specialist requirements of live large-scale comedy performances.

Adlib's Ben Booker and Hassane Es Siahi were the systems engineers for band engineers Ryan Pickett (FOH) and Matt Shane (monitors), with Nick Jevons as production manager / lighting director.

The main system was a JBL VerTec - comprising 4889 cabinets with 4880A subs. Though not generally a bass heavy show, there were certain instruments that needed serious low end, like a miniature acoustic guitar with a

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France - The weekend of 22-23 May was the occasion of the 35th Franco-Portuguese festival in the Parisian suburb of Pontault-Combault. A hugely popular cultural event with a carnival parade, barbecue and live music, attendance figures this year broke all records.

For Saturday night's headline act, Jorge Ferreira, crowds were estimated at anything up to 22,000, and it was a similar story for Louisy Joseph and Quim Barreiros on Sunday night. Handling all the audio requirements for the festival stage was local rental company and APG Uniline partner, SNO Technique. SNO Technique supplied a powerful Uniline line array system for FoH and an SMX15 monitor system.

"We were all totally bowled over by the number of people who came," observed SNO Technique's Jean-Francois Fougeras. "We were expecting a maximum of 15,000 if the weather was good, and we ended up with over 20

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South Africa - The first Xone:DX in South Africa has been purchased by DJ and producer, Gavin 'Vin' Deysel, who used the new controller for his performance at the World Cup celebrations United We Shall Stand for Bafana Bafana in Johannesburg last week.

An estimated 185,000 fans lined the streets of Sandton's business district in support of their national team ahead of the World Cup opening match. The Bafana Bafana football team paraded the streets in a double decker bus, whilst radio presenters from both stations interacted with the players and crowds along the route.

As well as a performing DJ, Deysel is a producer at the top Johannesburg radio station, Highveld Stereo (94.7), which organised the event in partnership with Talk Radio 702 and Southern Sun.

"I have used a variety of controllers and can honestly say that the DX is by far the most superior when it co

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China - Italian audio manufacturer dBTechnologies reports that its significantly larger presence at the recent PALM exhibition was met with increased traffic on the mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau distributor Sharp Dragon booth this year, where all new ranges including DVA, DVX, Opera Digital and FlexSys loudspeaker systems were showcased.

As the show kicked off, Sharp Dragon's representatives were inundated with both Chinese and international visitors at the stand, and three times as many Chinese-language product catalogues were distributed as compared to the previous year. General manager Shelly Xia comments, "This is the best PALM show to date. We had a good number of existing customers visiting, and made a very pleasing number of new contacts."

Asia Pacific sales manager Martin Capp feels that this demonstrates the acceptance of the dBTechnologies brand and i

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Norway - ShowLED Chameleon starcloths set the scene at Oslo's Telenor Arena for the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest. 800sq.m of full colour RGB LED curtains featured as backdrops and lined the giant green room walls of the venue.

For the top ten placing Belgian entry by Tom Dice, Me and My Guitar, ShowLED Chameleon starcloths sparkled behind the lone troubadour in vibrant red. During the dramatic vocals of the Belarus group 3+2, the starcloths were diffused by silk drapes to create softer colour accents on the circular stage.

For Ireland's performance, the starcloths hung behind the textured backdrop fabric enabled a transformation from a rich green hue to a warm red glow without any change of scenery.

The ShowLED Chameleon curtains were supplied by rental Partner ShowTex NL, Norway distributor Norsk Sceneteknikk. The ShowLED system allows for full colour mixing, dmx con

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UK - Despite a last minute decision from Ascot to purchase power distribution for the current Royal Ascot race meeting, SES Entertainment Services in Datchet, managed to turn round the package to ensure power was provided for race-goers.

SES's Gordon Cooper commented, "Despite our usual heavy demand for our products during the summer season, we managed to produce the power requirement for the racecourse a day ahead of schedule, ensuring that demands were met by the racecourse for its vendors.

"A wide range of products have been supplied over the past few weeks but this last minute order really did put us to the test, and we are very pleased that we were able to meet expectations. This time of the year is always a very busy time for us and this has been added to with two exceptional exhibitions namely PALME in Dubai and PLASA Focus.

(Jim Evans)

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Finland/China - Suomen Videoviestintä (SVV), the largest AV technology provider in Finland, has selected Barco's events projector series for the Finnish pavilion during the Shanghai World Expo. In total, eleven FLM HD14 and three RLM W6 projectors are responsible for all video projections inside the pavilion.

The Finnish pavilion at the Shanghai World Expo 2010 is called Kirnu (Giant's Kettle). Its gorge-like shape reminds visitors of ravines found in Lapland and leads them through a peaceful visual, illuminated and aural experience, disconnecting them from the hectic expo environment. The pavilion is a miniature city, presenting both Finland and its society to the world.

The virtual guide is one of the technological highlights of the pavilion. Various virtual guides are projected on huge animated screens to help the guests understand the themes and stories by interact

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UK - 5 Star Cases will be exhibiting at the Farnborough International Airshow 2010 (FIA) which takes place 19-25 July. The exhibition runs for seven days, and attracts trade visitors from around the world plus a huge public interest.

5 Star will be showcasing specialist cases aimed primarily at the aerospace, military and engineering sectors, all of which will be displayed on a purpose-built exhibition stand designed specially for FIA 2010. The stand was also built by the 5 Star team at their facility in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire.

It is the first time that 5 Star has participated in the show. "It reflects a growing interest from new sectors in our products, and our intention to diversify and expand," explains Keith Sykes. In the past 2 years, 5 Star has designed and built bespoke tool cases for the Red Bull Air Race pilots and also cased a number of racing cars.

(Jim

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UK This year's ABTT Exhibition sees Lift Turn Move Ltd (LTM) and COW Lifting Technology (COW) present their combined portfolio of lifting, control and rigging equipment products.

LTM recently purchased 100% of the shares in COW Lifting Technology - the Aichach (near Munich, Germany) based manufacturer of BGV C1 and SIL 3 chain hoists, winch and control systems.

Together the two companies offer solutions for most lifting and control applications within the entertainment industry.

LTM is showing the LoadGuard electric chain hoists in capacities from 250kg to 5 tonnes as standard rigging hoists and to all current European entertainment standards.

COW Lifting Technology is showing the C-Force range of hoists, winches and control systems. C-Force products specialise in fixed or variable speed hoist and control systems to BGV C1 and up to SIL 3 performance standards.

Also on d

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UK - This week's ABTT Theatre Show sees the launch of Canford's new wireless Tecpro system designed for use in theatre, conference, live performance and broadcast applications. The completely new digital wireless system employs EU licence-exempt UHF frequencies. It provides full-duplex speech communication to a group of up to six users in an encrypted conference and unlimited listen only users. It is completely compatible with the original Tecpro and the new Tecpro2 wired systems, says the company.

Wireless Tecpro enables members of the group to talk to and listen to all the other members simultaneously, using wireless beltpacks. In addition an unlimited number of listen-only wireless beltpacks can be added to the system, for personnel who only need to monitor conversations. An interface is in the final stages of development which replaces one of the full-duplex users with a con

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UK - PSCo is the first UK rental company to invest in a fleet of Panasonic's new 20 series plasma screens, as part of the company's plan to make its entire screen fleet Full High Definition (HD).

The new fleet features 30 42" Full HD and 20 50" Full HD models, bought in line with the upsurge in HD flat screen rentals for the World Cup. This new range follows on from the 12 series but has four times the luminosity of previous models, a longer screen life of 100,000 hours, an impact resistant front glass panel and an improved viewing angle.

PSCo rental director Mike Nield comments, "The new 20 series Panasonic plasmas are the premier flat screen displays available at the moment. The picture quality is stunning when compared to anything else in the rental market today and we are proud to be the first company offering people the chance to be able to rent them to wat

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USA - 10-13 June was a very busy time for the staff and crew at Bandit Lites in and around Nashville as the company again served as lighting contractor for two of the premier live events of the summer, Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Manchester and CMA Music Festival at LP Field in Nashville. This was on top of prepping and shipping 12 other new tours in the same week.

Production guru Hadden Hipsley of Lambda Productions once again called on Bandit Lites to serve as prime lighting contractor for the three-day arts and music festival. Bandit's Dizzy Gosnell works with Hadden, Leslie Radigan, Joel Carmichael, AC Entertainment, Superfly Productions and Coran Capshaws Red Light Management to provide the artists with their illumination needs at the award-winning event.

Artists at the 2010 Bonnaroo included Dave Mathews Band, The Kings of Leon, Stevie Wonder

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UK - Orbital Sound is showing its range of innovative stage products at the ABTT Theatre Show this week. Distributed exclusively by Orbital in the UK, the products include Da-Cappo Micro microphones, Zaxcom digital wireless micrtphone systems, HME digital wireless intercom systems and the CSC Ver. 3 Show Control Software.

These products are complemented by loudspeakers from d&b audiotechnik, together with digital mixing consoles from Digidesign, and Roland RSS digital multicores and consoles. Completing the product line-up are Telex and RTS intercom systems. Orbital is also presenting its Noise at Work assessment service for theatres, production companies and venue managers.

The Da-Cappo product range includes the DA-12 single-ear microphone and the DA-04 lapel microphone, plus the award-winning DA-15 single-ear microphone with an in-ear monitor piece. Manufactured in Australi

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UK - The APRS reports the availability of enhanced financial support for UK companies intending to exhibit at the Autumn AES show, scheduled to take place at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, California, from November 4-11 this year.

For many years, small government grants have been available to companies throughout the UK economy wishing to explore business opportunities in overseas markets. The APRS is the ATO (Accredited Trade Organisation) for the AES Conventions and despite the current economic climate, has succeeded in negotiating a higher level of grant for successful qualifying candidates for TAP (Tradeshow Access Programme) support in San Francisco.

Peter Filleul, executive director of the APRS, comments,"US AES shows are very different creatures to the European shows - they're much more music-oriented, and considerably more 'rock'n'roll'. What's more, each ye

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