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UAE - The first ever Middle East world premiere by a Japanese auto manufacturer took place recently at the Emirates Palace in Abu Dhabi, when the Nissan Patrol 2010 SUV made its global debut in GCC.

The event was managed by MIA Agency, a Dubai based events management company, with TechnoPro, the distributor for PR Lighting, supplying and installing the LED screens, video, audio, lighting fixtures, staging and trussing.

To create the dynamic they used 24 each of PR Lighting's XL1200 Spot and Wash moving lights, and 32 XLED 590 (LED spots). The XLED 590 moving yoke colour-wash LED fixture in particularly impressive as with 90 Osram Diamond Dragon 5W LEDs (30 red, 30 blue and 30 green) it is one of the brightest in the market.

Patrol is Nissan's flagship SUV and enjoys a rich her

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Turkey - One of the most enigmatic of sweetmeats, there are just eight simple ingredients to make this most ancient of pleasures. Rosewater is essential and what gives it a flavour that resembles no other; Turkish Delight is quite simply unique. It transpires that Hakan Tamer, President of Display Sound and Light Systems in Istanbul, has a selection of ingredients too when creating his latest recipe.

"Since we took on the Distributorship for d&b audiotechnik it quickly became apparent we needed something special to tempt the appetite of our clients." That something was a new showroom and office premises, "But it needed some specific ingredients. It had to be easy to find and simple to reach; maybe not such a big deal in Paris or Singapore, but Istanbul has unbelievable traffic, there's almost no escape. So we managed to find a street that's not too crowded, a very

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USA - Renkus-Heinz introduced a number of new products at the recent InfoComm exhibition in Las Vegas, including the new IC2 (IC Squared) - what the company calls "the first ever crossover array".

The company says: "The IC2 is a digitally steerable line array that combines the power and focus of point source loudspeaker technology with the control and flexibility of a digitally steered array."

The system integrates Renkus-Heinz's digital beam steering into a powerful and versatile point source design. Four 8" low frequency Neodymium transducers and 1" Titanium Nitride coated HF drivers offer high SPL point source performance, while individual steering control of each driver gives the IC2 excellent vertical pattern control for maximum intelligibility, even in the most reverberant spaces, the company claims.

Each IC2 two-way 8" module deliver

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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 - On 24 May in New York City, Live Design honoured Hippotizer's new VideoMapper component with a 2010 Product of the Year Award. "It changes the game in terms of deforming content for any set shape, live and in the moment," says Live Design.

With VideoMapper, individual elements of any video display product - panel, strip, or other device - can be angled, scaled, even separated from other elements, and placed anywhere within a virtual canvas, with its source image supplied from any part of an existing video feed. This frees the designer from the constraints of modern video processor hardware, and allows complete artistic freedom with even the most complex systems.

Debuting this year at The Who's performance in the Bridgestone Super Bowl XLIV Halftime Show, a Hippotizer running VideoMapper sent video content to over 3,000 Barco MiSTRIPs arrayed in a

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Australia - Violinist Marcus Holden has purchased a DPA 4099V clip mount from distributor Amber Sound. Holden has been using his mic to tour Australia with Scotland the Brave, a musical tribute to Scotland, and also for the Sydney Theatre Company production, Spring Awakening.

"The first thing I noticed about the 4099V was the amount of gain you can get before feedback occurs," he says. "The sound is incredibly natural; it brings out the real tone of the instrument and totally minimises breath and surround noise. For someone who plays with a combination of microphone and piezo pickups on violins, mandolins and bizarre hybrid instrument situations in a myriad of acoustic or amplified venues, the DPA is the solution. I've been waiting 30 years for someone to invent this microphone."

Holden, a recording engineer as well as a violinist, is also a fan of D

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UK - Lighting for the current UK touring version of cult classic musical The Rocky Horror Show has been transferred to grandMA for control, with the tour, produced by the Ambassadors Theatre Group, carrying a grandMA light with a grandMA ultra-light for backup and two MA NSP (Network Signal Processors), supplied by lighting contractors White Light.

The lighting design is by Nick Richings and the programming was completed by Jim Beagley. The tour originally started in 2006. This current version has been out since 2009, when it started with another lighting console which was replaced shortly afterwards by the grandMA. Beagley explains, "We needed a reliable rock 'n' roll style touring desk onto which we could easily transfer the show and run in a similar fashion."

The programming for the transfer was done offline at White Light. Beagley took a DMX capture of the

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Norway - Wireless Solution Sweden once again worked alongside the Eurovision technical production team to deliver the 56th Eurovision Song Contest in Norway. The show included three live broadcasts.

Lighting designer Al Gurdon used W-DMX for a special keylight ring built into the Technocrane and cameras in the Green Room to achieve specific lighting effects. The Technocrane ring light was operated by Gurdon himself while the Green Room camera ring lights were operated by Sveinung Solbrekke, lighting designer for the Green Room.

Production manager of design Ola Melzig said, "There's a very good reason that W-DMX is used for Eurovision - it works. You name it and it's at Eurovision: every kind of wireless and broadcast equipment, moving sets, thousands of fixtures and thousands of people. Wireless DMX is required for some aspect every year and we just won't take a chance wi

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The Netherlands - With 18 bars and restaurants spread throughout the east of Holland, expanding operators, Oubaha Beheer BV, have retired their eight year old sound system at the 600-capacity, heavily themed Aspen Valley Enschede music bar in favour of a complete QSC system approach.

The Nijmegen-based operators had already adopted a QSC solution at the sister Aspen Valley Arnhem, but head of technology and maintenance, Gerwin van den Brink, has now gone a step further.

A long time user of QSC components, he was first introduced to the brand's amplifiers four years ago by Benelux distributors, AED. But now the Californian manufacturer has a complete set of audio tools he has been able to network Aspen Valley's three nautical concept bars (including a circular revolving bar) on a CobraNet backbone.

It was AED, who alerted van den Brink to the potential of this end-to-end solu

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South Africa - Lighting sales and distribution company DWR has supplied over 400 LED fixtures for a new landmark, eco-friendly installation at the new HD hub of satellite channel, Supersport.

Located in M-NETs Studio 6, Randburg, Johannesburg, this is the first of its kind in South Africa, setting new technological standards with eight Philips Vari-Lite VLX Wash luminaires, plus over 400 Anolis LED units which are integrated into various set elements in a design by Michael Gill.

With sustainability a key issue, this whole elegant, highly versatile lighting rig can be run off two 15 amp plugs.

Gill, who collaborated closely with lighting designer Joshua Cutts of AV Unlimited to produce the original aesthetics, wanted "Something contemporary and totally different that utilised the best technology in the world".

The new studio was launched in time to broadcast compr

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UK - Creative production supplier Hawthorn has announced its recent appointment as an approved supplier to the historic Royal Courts of Justice.

Hawthorn's general manager, Simon Wood, commented, "The Royal Courts of Justice is a stunning building which lends itself so well to events. We have worked at the Royal Courts of Justice many times in the past, so becoming an approved contractor was the logical next step for Hawthorn and we look forward to offering innovative solutions and to building a strong working relationship with the venue's events team."

"The quality of suppliers we have complements the first-class events we produce at the Royal Courts of Justice, most recently for Vivienne Westwood, Anish Kapoor and the British Fashion Council," said Royal Courts of Justice head of events for seasoned events, Gavin Marshall.

(Jim Evans)

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Finland - L- Acoustics' Finnish distributor Starlike has supplied a new sound reinforcement system to the Old Student House, a multipurpose hall in the centre of Helsinki dating back to 1870.

The installation features five Kudo line source cabinets and an SB28 sub bass unit per side, with a 12XT coaxial providing centre-fill, driven by five LA8 amplified controllers.

As the venue is protected by the Finnish National board of Antiquities, any changes to the building or its structure were strictly forbidden. "My mission was to find a high quality system for this very demanding venue," says Old Student House sound engineer Sami Ahonen. "Any acoustic treatment is forbidden, and the stone walls and hard wood floor create a very powerful and long reverberation."

One of the venue's main requirement was to have an angle of horizontal coverage of 90° or less t

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UK - Leona Lewis's new arena tour takes the concept of David Bowie's 1986 movie Labyrinth, bringing with it many set rotations (and four costume changes) during the heavily scenic show.

The production was conceived by a top team of creatives, with Alan MacDonald designing the set, Stufish's Nicoline Refsing the props - and the currently much in-demand Baz Halpin originating the lighting scheme (which was later carried forward by Nick Whitehouse).

All the lighting production (including 20 GLP impression 120RZ RGB LED Zooms) were supplied by Bandit Lites - and it was left to experienced LD Graham Feast to animate the set.

Having originally intended to use the impression heads to function on elliptical arms - similar to his design for the Alicia Keys 2010 Freedom Tour - a late concept change saw the lighting designer redeploy the GLP heads as floor effects.

&quo

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China - Returning late at night through whirling snow by the noted playwright Wu Zuguang is a magical story that has captivated Chinese audiences for over a century. It has run several times in the main theatres in the country such as the Beijing Opera and the Guangdong Opera, and it has also been broadcast on television. Now, to mark the 9th China Art Festival, the same story has been made into a ballet.

The Guangzhou Ballet has just finished its tour of over 100 performances in the most

important theatres in China.

The lighting designer of the event, Sun Tianwei chose to use the Infinity Spot XL by Coemar. Tianwei adopts a simple clean-cut style using black and white as the main colours: the key to the show is the emphasis on the spectacular effects of the ballet, the movements and forms of the bodies on stage.

The Infinity Spot XL meet all the requirements

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UK / Germany - Optocore's new OptoRack environment - the plug and play fibre line system, co-developed by the German manufacturer and Wigwam Hire - has made its world debut on Leona Lewis's current Labyrinth tour.

Experienced FOH sound engineer (and long-term Wigwam affiliate) Kevin Pruce, said that the returns system, designed to provide a flexible solution to the technical restrictions which many hire / production companies face with Cat 5 cable systems, was functioning without a hitch.

"I enjoy working with new systems and know that Wigwam would never put anything out until they are 100% sure that it works," said the sound engineer. "Chris [Hill, Wigwam Hire director] decided it was time to find a solution to the problem of having to supply various different types of cable runs from FOH to stage, (AES, analogue and data). This system overcomes that, by

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USA - Audio-Technica is a sponsor for the 15th Annual USA Songwriting Competition. This is the 11th year of Audio-Technica's involvement in the contest.

As part of the competition's prize packages, Audio-Technica has provided four AT4040 Cardioid Condenser Microphones, two ATM450 Cardioid Condenser Instrument Microphones, 10 ATH-M40fs Precision Studio Headphones, two AT2041SP Studio Microphone Packs and two ATM610 Hypercardioid Dynamic Handheld Microphones. The entry period recently ended 28 May 2010, and winners will be announced in November.

The USA Songwriting Competition is currently the longest-running consecutive-year songwriting competition. Last year's contest saw 34,900 entries from around the world. The competition has a proven track record in helping winners achieve recording contracts, publishing contracts and getting their music placed in film and television. Winn

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USA - Peavey has updated the PR Series powered loudspeakers with its new class D amplifier topology for lighter weight on the new PR 15D and PR 12D models, which are available now.

The Peavey PR 15D and PR 12D are two-way powered loudspeaker systems engineered with a bi-amplified class D power section that drives a 12" woofer with a robust 150 watts continuous and a 1.4" titanium-diaphragm RX 14 compression driver with another 50 watts continuous.

The PR 15D and PR 12D are capable of up to 120dB peak SPL and feature Peavey's exclusive DDT speaker protection, which virtually eliminates audible power amplifier clipping. A built-in, heavy-duty crossover increases reliability at high power levels, says the company.

A Woofer Servo monitors the woofer for back-EMF that is not a result of the drive signal and compensates for the unwanted woofer response in the overall sig

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USA - Clay Paky Alpha Beam 1500 fixtures dazzled a complete sell-out crowd at the recent Ultra Music Festival - billed as 'The World's Premier Electronic Music Festival' held 26 and 27 March in Miami, Florida. The event won Best Music Event 2010 at the 25th Annual International Dance Music Awards, which celebrates the best dance records, CDs, DJs, website, producers, promoters and more.

AG Light & Sound supplied 24 Clay Paky Alpha Beam 1500 fixtures used by lighting designer Stephen Lieberman. The fixtures were spread over a 60m stage span. The fixtures that weren't under the protection of the main roof were covered with custom inflatable bubble domes. The rest of the stage was a towering back wall of high resolution video screens accompanied by lasers, fog machines and special effects to pulse with the high energy music. AG provided lighting and video for the mai

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UK - Claire Sodergren (formally Bromhead) has joined Edinburgh-based Black Light to front its customer relations work. She brings with her experience working as a freelance lighting and sound engineer for companies such as the National Theatre of Scotland and with the Edinburgh International Festival. She is already working with old and new clients to review and improve Black Light's services and product offering.

"I knew about Black light 'from the other side' as a customer, so I'm perfectly placed to understand our clients' challenges and requirements and so help Black Light respond," says Sodergren who joined the company to provide maternity cover in a sales capacity, but who has only recently taken up her new permanent job.

Her duties involve meeting and talking with existing clients to review how Black Light is performing and to meet new clients to discuss how B

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USA - Audio-Technica has expanded its contractor-exclusive Engineered Sound line with the introduction of the ES963 Three-Element Multidirectional Boundary Microphone. The ES963 is designed for surface-mount applications such as high-quality sound reinforcement, conferencing, professional recording, television and other demanding sound pickup applications in the installed sound and sound contracting markets, says the company.

Three cardioid condenser elements mounted in the microphone housing are factory set with an angle of 120 degrees between them to provide complete 360-degree coverage (in the hemisphere above mounting surface).

Two positioning levers on the microphone base allow two of the three elements to be reoriented (with no tools or disassembly required) to offer angles of 90/90/180 degrees between elements - ideal for positioning at the end of long conference tables

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USA - John Taylor ,speaking at this year's Broadway Sound Master classes said, "This is clearly an award by the people who use the kit, rather than by those who buy advertising space, so it's an award we really value." Taylor was accepting the award for Best Loudspeaker on behalf of d&b audiotechnik. "The panel, kept secret from all of us who submit products, is made up of sound designers and sound operators. We might not know who they are, but we do see some of their comments which is great."

The loudspeaker in question is the new d&b B4-SUB, ostensibly a cardioid sub and the new addition to d&b's extensive subwoofer collection. "But this one is very different," said Taylor. "Matthias Christner from the R&D acoustics department refers to it as PSP (as opposed to DSP) which stands for Plywood Signal Processing!

"DSP is normally needed to

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China/Switzerland - Chinese radio company Chongqing Broadcasting Group has placed an order for more than 20 Pyramix digital audio workstations with Merging Asia, the Chinese distributor for Pyramix's Swiss manufacturer, Merging Technologies.

The order is part of the broadcasting group's plan to move its eight radio stations to a new headquarters. In addition to the 16 DAWs required for live use on air (two for each station: one for live use, and one for back-up), a further six systems have been purchased to make recordings from the new headquarters' performance hall, and for use in the broadcaster's recording and post-production studios.

Weishen Xu, president of Merging Asia, comments, "The Chinese radio broadcast industry is entering a period of rapid change, and the new systems at Chongqing Broadcasting Group form a milestone installation, one offering a level of qualit

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