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UK - Christie has announced the latest edition of its Christie Mirage Series, the Christie Mirage WU7K-M. Featuring a full WUXGA resolution display and dual lamps for uniformity, the Christie Mirage WU7K-M is a compact, 6,300 ANSI lumens powerhouse.

With dual-link DVI support at 330MHz full bandwidth and up to 10,000:1 contrast, the projector delivers crisp images, vibrant colours and uniform brightnes, all at the lowest cost of ownership, says the company.The stereoscopic 3D display system meets the precise needs of the energy markets, life sciences, government, education and medical research where performance, reliability, easy maintenance and low operating cost are critical to project success.

Built on proven 3-Chip DLP technology, the Christie Mirage WU7K-M has three modes o

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UK - On 5th June 2010 a group of bikers, hailing from all sectors of the entertainment technology industry, swapped their blacks for leathers and their hard hats for helmets and embarked on an eight-day sponsored motorbike tour of UK theatres to raise money for The Theatrical Guild (TTG).

David Edelstein, who co-organised of the event with his wife Brenda, comments: "We set out from the National Theatre following a hearty breakfast. In total we rode over 1600 miles and on the way visited 16 fascinating and unique theatres. We've been welcomed by some wonderfully hospitable and generous theatre staff and are hugely grateful for all the brilliant support we received. Sponsorship came from all sectors of the entertainment industry, we certainly couldn't have done it without them."

Those who took to the road were: Rob Barnard, Neil Collins, David Edelstein, Charles Haine

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USA - PRG Distribution North America has announced its exclusive distribution partnership for North America, Mexico, Central America and South America with Eurotruss. Eurotruss has been manufacturing truss since 1993 and was the first to implement the conical connection system. Their wide range of aluminium truss systems covers all aspects of the entertainment industry.

"We are very excited about this relationship and have already begun selling Eurotruss systems into permanent installations through our dealer network," stated Eric Mueller, director of sales for PRG Distribution NA. "It is evident to me that that our friends at Eurotruss have the same mindset for support and responsiveness as we do in any situation. They are very responsive to our needs for our customers and we look forward to working together with them for some time to come."

(Jim Evans)

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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 - York DanceWorks is a new singing, dancing and theatre school close to the York city centre. The massive studio (nearly 200sq.ft) boasts one of the best all-round floors available, and is suitable for the full range and variety of dance styles that are being taught.

"We had been looking for a floor to best suit our school for some time, as we offer such a wide variety of performances we need a floor that could do it all. Overall we found Le Mark's Consor portable dance & performance floor to be incredibly durable easy to roll out and very well priced. My personal thanks to Le Mark for the flexibility and patience in arranging the order and delivery, a great floor, and great service to match" says DanceWork's Sue Stead.

DanceWorks hosted two sell-out shows in June in aid of Help for Heroes.

(Jim Evans)

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UK - The Nomination Phase for the prestigious Gottelier Award, due to be presented for the fourth time at this year's PLASA Show, is now open and will continue until Friday 23 July. Industry professionals are invited to put forward their choices, identifying the specific product contributions that make their nominee a worthy contender for this award.

Named in honour of the late designer, developer and commentator Tony Gottelier, this award aims to recognise the product developers who have made a significant contribution to the development of the equipment and tools that enable our entertainment technology practitioners to continually push the boundaries of event production, presentation and installation.

Once the shortlist of nominees is decided, the Voting Phase will begin. This year, to help ensure that only legitimate industry professionals can cast a vote, voting for the n

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Denmark - ETC, working with its Danish distributor Bico, has recently completed commissioning of a new dimming and control system for the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen.

Working in the main Concert Hall, which holds over 1,000 people, Bico installed a Unison Paradigm system with 24 ways of dimming to control the house and rehearsal lights, along with an sACN network system, all connected both to a new Ion control desk and several wall mounted fader stations. Two 48-way Sensor dimming racks and five gateways were also fitted for show light.

Søren Jørgensen, sales project manager at Bico, comments, "This year, we were tasked with updating all their old dimmers with streaming ACN (sACN) and integrating the house and stage lighting. After doing on site tests with the Ion and another manufacturer's desk, the Ion was specified because it operates sile

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South Africa - Four Robert Juliat 1800W MSR Victor followspots have been supplied and installed by Electrosonic SA to the Artscape Theatre in Cape Town.

The Victors - the first to enter South Africa - are installed in the largest of the venue's three auditoria, the 1487-seat main Opera Theatre, where upcoming shows include Le Grand Cirque Fantazie, African Songbook, the Cape Town International Ballet Competition and Mamma Mia!.

Senior lighting operator, Nicolas Tilney comments, "Robert Juliat has fantastic equipment with superb R&D. Their followspots are extremely user-friendly with the placements of their controls. The followspots have a general feeling of high quality. From what I had read and seen I knew what I wanted and what I would get from RJ. There was no reason to compare them with any other products."

Robbi Nassi from Electrosonic add

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Qatar - Called upon by long time partner QMDI in Doha and working alongside production company John Adkins (JA) Productions, Creative Technology (CT) provided a variety of video equipment for the inauguration of Phase 2 of the Al Khaleej Gas (AKG) project in Qatar.

The ceremony, held at the Cultural Village in Doha on 10 May 10 was the second stage, the first phase of which began in November 2005 and was completed in December last year. This is an ambitious project, the aim of which is to provide gas to some of Qatar's most significant industries.

For this event Creative Technology supplied four Barco R20+ projectors with 0.8 lenses blended onto a 27m wide x 6m high rear projection screen, also provided by CT. This was used to run the main show content and included GFX video and Catalyst. Operated and programmed by CT London's Anthony Bezencon, the entire system was driven by

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China - Coemar has been chosen to illuminate Arcade, the performance of the GuangDong Song & Dance Theatre which in May won the Wenhua Special Awardat the ninth China Art Festival.

The lighting designer of this event, Liufeng Shu, renowned for having realized several shows of international significance, including the Singapore International Cantonese Opera Festival and the Qingdao Austria Sail, has chosen the iSpot Extreme 6000, the iSpot Flex and the CF 7 Hard Edge X, which are all Coemar products.

The iSpot Flex, launched in 2002 at the LDI in Las Vegas, boast three patents. They are the first moving heads made with 2000 W discharge lamps, featuring a carbon fibre body.

The iSpot Extreme 6000, created for the Winter Olympics of 2006 in Turin, are the first moving heads with a 1450 W lamp.

The CF 7 Hard Edge X won the Award for Innovation in 2000, are

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Japan - L-Acoustics' Japanese distributor Bestec Audio has installed a Kudo system into the Iwate Prefectural Hall in Morioka, Iwate. Twelve Kudo line source cabinets with four SB28 subwoofers, powered by eight LA8 amplified controllers, have been supplied as a mobile system which can be moved between the venue's two halls, with 10 L-Acoustics 112P coaxials for monitoring.

Iwate Prefectural Hall plays a leading role in the art and culture of Iwate, being used for many different purposes, including music, theatre and conventions. Open since 1973, the building's main hall spans three floors and can accommodate almost 2,000, with a secondary 600-capacity hall.

"The reverberation time in the main hall is 1.75 seconds when vacant, and 1.45 seconds at 80% capacity," says the hall's head of hall administration, Mr Naruo Seki. "With a system that has a relatively long r

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Money Matters - British music fans spent £1.45bn on tickets for gigs and festivals in 2009 Concert and festival promoters have warned that ticket prices could go up as songwriters consider requesting a greater share of live music takings. Currently, 3% of all gig ticket money goes to PRS For Music, which passes it on to writers and composers. It is reviewing that rate, saying it needs to ensure a "fair balance" between music fans and creators.

Melvin Benn, who runs the Reading, Leeds and Latitude festivals, described it as "blatant money-grabbing". He told BBC News, "The quantum leap in what the PRS are being paid by live music promoters is very, very substantial compared to what it was 10 years ago. Live music is so much stronger than it was, and therefore the receipts the PRS are getting are substantially more than they were. Instead of being ple

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UK - Stage Management student David Baldwin tightened the symbolic last bolt on the roof structure of the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama's new Concert Hall at the Topping Out ceremony to mark the completion of the concrete shell of the £22.5 million building project.

Baldwin joined fellow students and leading figures from the College, the board of Governors, architects BFLS, project managers Davis Langdon and construction team Willmott Dixon to celebrate this symbolic moment in the building project. Work will begin shortly on the roof structure, the final construction phase of what will be an important new gateway to Cardiff.

"It'll make such a difference to us as students to have everything all together in one building at last, and on this scale, and not to have to travel to other venues to do our work,' said Baldwin. 'I can't wait to get in there and start s

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Australia - EAW provided the solution needed by Norwest Productions for this year's Playground Weekender music festival. The EAW KF740 line array was used for one of the festival's six main stages, hosting artists including Bjorn Again and Orbital.

The Playground Weekender has emerged as an eclectic gathering featuring a diverse mix of international and local artists, coupled with a relaxed outdoor atmosphere featuring multiple music stages, cabaret acts, a cocktail bar, a healing area, yoga and an array of international food and market stalls. The PA system had to cover a large area but also needed to be well integrated into the visual presentation, and to go up quickly.

The main system consisted of 24, three-way KF740 modules flown in two line arrays on either side of the stage using 12 KF740 modules each. These were augmented with eight EAW SB1002 Large Format

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UK - R&B Group, has just completed a successful conference project for the Chartered Institute of Housing. The event, held in Harrogate in June, represents one of the largest gatherings of housing professionals in Europe, as they come together to debate and discuss the very real issues faced by the sector.

During the week thousands of delegates, presenters, exhibitors and visitors descend on the Harrogate International Centre. To facilitate the audio-visual aspects of the conference, R&B provided a team of 30 engineers who work closely with the event organisers, Ocean Media Group and the venue technical staff. 2010 was the 9th year that R&B have provided support for this event, which is always a highlight of the year.

As well as AV support in five conference rooms, R&B Group also supplied numerous plasma screens to exhibition stands and produced a daily in-house/web TV program

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Belgium - International staging company Stageco engineered a spectacular skyscraper stage for Muse's 2010 European Tour. The band appeared to be playing in the basement of an imposing building, with screens for windows and viewed by the audience from one corner.

Stageco project director Dirk de Decker and creative designer Es Devlin consulted with Muse production manager Chris Vaughan, and Malcolm Birkett, technical designer for the tour to create the unique stage designs to support the artistic concept of the show.

Stageco's Koen Peeters and Tom Frederickx were also essential to the team, creating CAD designs and complex calculations needed for the bespoke stage, which was comprised of 20% unique components alongside Stageco's trusted staging system. Dirk then worked out the tour logistics to create the stage in the most efficient way for transportation and building.

The 34

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UK - Prospective stage managers, lighting technicians, sound engineers and set designers can now turn to a North college to get the training and experience needed to start their career.

The Sector Skills Council for creative and cultural industries has named Gateshead College as the only college in the North East and one of only a few in the country to lead on new training opportunities.

This will mean that the college, in partnership with international music venue, The Sage Gateshead, will now work as the founder college of the National Skills Academy for Creative and Cultural Skills (NSA) to ensure it continues to provide the best possible learning opportunities by bringing together education and industry.

The NSA, along with the national network of 20 founder Further Education colleges, is also working in partnership with over 200 theatre and live music employers. Gateshe

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Australia - The newly refurbished South Melbourne pub, The Fleece, has undergone a facelift with a main sports bar that's decked out with plasma screens for big sporting matches, cosy lounge spaces and an upstairs rooftop deck and restaurant area, replete with its own fireplace.

Pulse AV were asked to design, supply and install a comprehensive audio visual system for the entire venue which is divided into five separate audio zones: Bistro, Main Bar & Lounge, Function Area 1, Function Area 2 and Function Area 3.

Wall-mounted DBX ZC-8 keypads located behind the bars are used to control the volume level and audio source in each zone. Each zone is capable of having its own audio source and volume level regardless of what is being heard in any other zone.

A combination of Control24 and Control26 in-ceiling speakers are used throughout the entire venue. Weatherproof surface-mount

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UK - Black Light reports that it has achieved the Investors in People Standard (IIP). The company, which provides light, stage, sound and AV solutions, was assessed in May and passed all the scheme's critical requirements along with its main optional extras.

Investors in People is a national standard which helps organisations transform their business performance. Preparing for the IIP assessment (which took over a year) has involved all of the Black Light team and has led to a business-wide rebranding, improvements in its business systems and a number of changes in staff roles and responsibilities. Together, these have streamlined the company's operations and improved customer service.

"IIP has helped me, as the business owner, focus on what is important for Black Light and start rolling that out," says Gavin Stewart, Black Light's managing director. "I hope tha

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Brazil / UK - Veteran UK soul-pop band Simply Red have sung the praises of the Midas XL8 live performance system on their worldwide farewell tour which kicked off in Recif, Brazil in April.

Monitor engineer Graham Blake, whose 25 years' experience includes working with Queen, Live Earth, Spice Girls and the Classical Brits as well as the last five years with Simply Red, says, "The band all commented on the warmth and richness of the sound. They really noticed the difference. I've never had a band respond to new equipment like that before.

The tour provided Blake with an opportunity to use the XL8 on the road for the first time, having completed the training with Midas' brand development manager Richard Ferriday some eight months earlier. "Even with that kind of gap it was easy to pick up," says Blake who was won over by the XL8's scope and versatility, and eager

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China - Winkler Veranstaltungstechnik, a full-service provider of AV equipment, has partnered with Barco for a 360° projection in the Swiss Pavilion during the Shanghai World Expo. A total of 21 CLM HD8 projectors work together to create images in the urban area of the Pavilion.

With its external chairlift, the Swiss Pavilion is an eye-catching element of during the Expo. The chairlift takes visitors up to the flower beds of the green roof, as a symbol of the natural environment. In contrast, the interior area stands for the urban part, where 21 Barco CLM HD8 projectors are used to create a 360° projection showing visitors images of the cities Zürich, Basel and Geneva.

Winkler VST is responisble for the planning and technical realisation of all AV equipment. "We have experience with Barco's CLM HD8 projectors and have learned that they are ideal to use in multi-p

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UK - This year's two-day AC-ET Rigging School has been hailed as another success, quickly becoming fully booked and receiving positive feedback from all who attended. The event was held on 7-8 June at the Litestructures Rehearsal Studio in Wakefield.

Eric Porter, experienced independent rigger, trainer, adviser and committee member for the PLASA National Rigging Certificate, led the two-day course. A structure was built in the studio area that allowed delegates to carry out working at height training, truss building, motor flying and rigging exercises, with a separate classroom area for theory work.

The course included an evening out allowing people attending the course to get together and enjoy a meal alongside staff from A.C. Rigging and Litestructures.

Jay Bridges, technical manager - produced, for the Derby LIVE group of venues, commented, "I was looking for a forma

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