Switzerland - SpinetiX has announced a new business relationship with Texas Instruments (TI), the silicon manufacturer, supporting SpinetiX technology as its reference designer for digital signage solutions.

SpinetiX currently uses Texas Instruments' DaVinci video processors in its dedicated digital signage appliance, the HMP100 Hyper Media Player. The processor performs real-time video decoding and high-definition scene composition, enabling customers to meet the requirements of changing standards in video codecs and provide software updates and new features to field-deployed units.

Now the two companies are taking their partnership further, with TI's ready-to-incorporate SpinetiX technology into its microprocessor chips for third-party LCD panels and projectors, tailored to di

Italy - Proel Group was a key player at the latest edition of the Cosmoprof show. The Italian company, in cooperation with EVR Media as the main contractor for the video, audio and lighting systems setup in the major areas, provided the sound reinforcement with Proel Axiom and Turbosound.

For more than 40 years, Cosmoprof has been the most important international event in the beauty and cosmetics sector.

Agorà, Symposium, Green, Trend/Coppola, Gam, Hair were areas in which Proel Group operated in collaboration with Hollywood Service, responsible for the main stands setup and promoter of the principal events in Cosmoprof.

For the 21st edition of the Accademia del Profumo award, EVR Media, a Proel Group company, created an evocative and suggestive holographic projection during the event. Fragrances were appointed by Victoria Cabello, supported on stage by a Proel Axiom sound

Qatar - Creative Communication Group was hired by QMDI Event Organizer to produce the light and sound for the third Senior Convocation of Qatar Education City. On 5 May a concert took place at Qatar Foundation Ceremonial Court featuring the Saudi Arabian singer Abdul Majid Abdullah.

The lighting system used on stage had some limitations due to the shape of venue and the stage, the only possibility was to use a truss of 12m height with no room to get any front lights. Thus, the CCG lighting crew used the Clay Paky Alpha Profile 1200 from the control area which was about 40m from the stage.

A large LED wall was used to send different contents and pictures and because of that, the quantity of light on stage had to be balanced with the Clay Paky Alpha Wash and Alpha HPE 1200.

"The light output of the Alpha 1200 is great, especially using the narrow beam; we could see clearl

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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

UK - A crew member working on a Will Young concert died yesterday after a fall before an open-air show at Rochester Castle in Kent. The man, who has not been identified but is reported to be in his 40s, was reported to have suffered severe facial and head injuries in the fall and died later in hospital. An appeal for witnesses was made over the PA before the delayed start of the show; Police have said the death was not being treated as suspicious and a post-mortem examination would take place. Significantly, they also added that the incident was "not thought to be in relation to any health and safety issues".

A spokeswoman for the Ambulance Service said that the man "had apparently fallen off the stage".

(Lee Baldock)

USA - When Scott Scovill of Moo TV was deciding which manufacturer's LED panels to use to create the video screen for Brad Paisley's 2010 Summer Tour, he turned to the country superstar himself to help make the final call. Scovill had narrowed the choice down to three LED panel models - two with a 20mm pixel pitch, and one with a higher-resolution 18mm - all of which he had been "putting through the paces" in the office of his Nashville video production company for weeks beforehand.

"It always helps if you have the artist in on the final decision," said Scovill. "So I brought Brad in, and as soon as he walked into the room he pointed at one of the screens and said, 'That's the 18.' I told him, 'No, that's the Elation 20mm.'" Paisley thus confirmed the decision that Scovill had arrived at after extensive testing - to go with the Elation Professional

UK - Allen & Heath's iLive digital mixing system was once again on tour with Danish pop act Alphabeat, who were supporting Lady Gaga on her arena tour and have just completed a UK solo tour to promote the band's second studio album.

The band's engineers - Steve Pattison at FOH and Ben Booker on monitors -selected an even smaller, space-saving set up, without compromising capacity and features.

"I asked Allen & Heath if they were considering making a smaller surface because I am comfortable working in layers and prefer using a touch screen," says Booker. "They had something in development and I sent them a drawing of what I required; the end product was spot on."

The band toured with an iDR10 MixRack digitally split to the new iDR-16 MixRack, with control from the new rackmount iLive-R72 surfaces.

"The R72 lends itself to any live application becaus

China - Milos trussing is being utilised in style in several major pavilions at the 2010 Shanghai Expo, supplied by Guangzhou based Milos China in conjunction with Milos' HQ in the Czech Republic.

Five major Pavilions - USA, UAE, Canada, Singapore and the China Information & Communications Pavilion are all featuring Milos products.

The Information & Communications Pavilion - Extending City Dreams is built by China Mobile and China Telecom, and utilizes cold water from the Expo site to regulate the indoor temperature, helping to reduce energy consumption and emissions. Most of the construction materials are recyclable and environmentally-friendly, and after dark, the pavilion's surface changes color. A variety of Milos products are used in this space showing the versatility of the range. All the indoor structures in here are supported with Milos which is hanging many pro

UK - Black Light reports that it is renewing its sponsorship of one of Scotland's leading village cricket clubs. The sponsorship deal for the Freuchie Cricket Club, which includes providing clothing for the club's teams and equipment for its social functions, is designed to help the club move forward with its community and youth work.

Freuchie Cricket Club, which celebrated its centenary in 2008, is one of the most active and successful village teams in Scotland and a real focal point in the life of the mid-Fife community in which it is based. It is a driving force in the development of youth cricket and a leading fund-raiser for this worthy cause.

"Freuchie Cricket Club's members are justifiably proud of their achievements, whether on the pitch, in the community or through its youth development programme, and we are proud to support them," says Gavin Stewart, Black

UK Baldwin Boxall is introducing two new amplifiers on at PLASA 2010. In addition, the company will be demonstrating the Unitouch touchscreen paging station, the BVRD8 voice alarm control microphone, the BFM404 firemans microphone and the popular Omnicare EVC (Emergency Voice Communication) system.

Two new D-class amplifiers the BV125D (dual 125 watt) and BV225 (225 watt) will be introduced at the show. Replacing the BV220 (220 watt) and the BV120D (dual 120 watt) the new units are more cost-effective and, together with the BV050Q (quad 50 watt) amplifier, the range provides a complete solution from the smallest to the largest voice alarm system, says the company.

Unitouch is a touchscreen paging system which is becoming an increasingly popular method of control for complex or large voice alarm systems. Displaying either a full graphic layout view of the site or buttons repres

USA - Electro-Voice and Audinate have announced the availability of the DM-1 Dante audio network card for the NetMax hardware family. The DM-1 may be installed in the N8000 or N8000-1500 chassis to provide high resolution, low latency audio transmission over IP networks.

Audinate's Dante solution provides a no-hassle, self-configuring, plug-and-play digital audio network that uses standard Internet Protocols. Dante is a scalable solution that works on both 100 Mbits and 1 Gigabit Ethernet. Using Dante, many bulky cables that are typically needed to provide point-to-point analog wiring for AV installations are eliminated.

The DM-1 is also fully compatible with Audinate's Dante Virtual Soundcard. The Dante Virtual Soundcard turns a PC or Mac into a Dante-enabled device. The Dante Virtual Soundcard has many characteristics of a physical sound card or audio interface, including th

Sweden/Vietnam - Dataton will reinforce its presence in the Asia-Pacific region by exhibiting at the upcoming PALME exhibition in Vietnam.

The company will be showing the latest version of Watchout, using a multi-projector setup and wide screen to demonstrate how the system can combine images with standard computer and network technology to create presentations of practically any size.

Fredrik Svahnberg, marketing director at Dataton, comments, "Having supplied Watchout systems to run on literally hundreds of computers at the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai, we are experiencing our most successful year ever in Asia.

"The fact that the PALME exhibition is taking place in Vietnam for the first time gives us the chance to put our product's capabilities in front of an even wider audience, and we are looking forward to showing dealers, rental partners, and end users in this

USA - Audinate has announced the hiring of John McMahon as its new vice president worldwide sales and support. He will be responsible for expanding Audinate's sales and customer support organisations.

Previously, McMahon has held various leadership positions in the field of networking and Audio-Visual companies over the past 25 years. He formerly held the position of COO and EVP at Network Engineering Technologies, Inc. and also served as VP of U.S. Markets for Polycom.

"Audinate is positioned for significant growth with the industry adoption of its patented Dante media networking solution. Customers recognise that Dante offers a market leading solution today, while also providing a migration path to upgrade to new standards such as the emerging IEEE Audio Video Bridging (AVB) standard." states McMahon.

"John's strong track record for developing strategic sale

USA - D.A.S. Audio USA, has hired Steve Trimble for the newly created position of Southeast regional sales manager. In his new role with the company, he will oversee both sales and technical support for the Southeast United States. Trimble's background encompasses retail sales, system design, pro touring, and sales management. He will be stationed in Nashville, TN.

Trimble comments on his new position, "With a highly respected and comprehensive product line, D.A.S. Audio represents a terrific opportunity for me to take an active sales and support role with a well-known loudspeaker manufacturer. I've always had a passion for audio and this new position enables me to become further involved with a business that is near and dear to my heart while enabling me to flex my skills as a sales professional. It's the perfect combination of responsibilities and I'm delighted to be on-b

Germany - Pop star Pink was injured during a gig in Nuremburg, Germany when a flying stunt went wrong. She fell out of a harness which was supposed to carry her out over the crowd, and was dragged into a barricade. The concert was stopped and the performer was taken to hospital for checks.

She later apologised to fans on Twitter, and added: "Didn't get clipped in2 harness correctly, drug me off stage, fell in2 barricade. Getting xrays. I hope it at least looked cool!!!"

(Lee Baldock)

UK/Germany - In the wake of its successful sponsorship of the Agora stage during the Frankfurt Musikmesse 2010, Peavey Electronics has confirmed that it has been selected to run the live stage at the forthcoming London Music Show at ExCel in October in partnership with LMS organisers, Future Publishing, and the Agora stage in Frankfurt once again for Musikmesse 2011.

The LMS stage will feature a similar system to the one that performed in Frankfurt in March - that is to say a Peavey Versarray line array system powered by Crest Pro 200 Series amplifiers with Peavey QW Series stage monitors also powered by Crest Audio Pro 200 Series amps. A Crest CV 20 console will handle FoH duties and a Crest HP-Eight has been selected to run monitors. System management and speaker processing will be handled by a MediaMatrix Nion n6 digital audio processor.

British singer-songwriter Newton Fau

South Africa - Gearhouse South Africa was contracted by ceremonies producers VWV Group to deliver all technical aspects of the Closing Ceremony of the 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup - including rigging, power, sound, lighting and large format projection (which was contracted out to French-based ETC) - utilising the dynamics, skills and services of most companies in the Gearhouse Group.

The 30-minute show at Soccer City Stadium in Soweto happened just ahead of the Final match. It reflected the vibrancy, energy and colour that characterised one of the most successful World Cup tournaments ever. It featured a cast of 740 including 40 'elephant operators' plus 35 headline artists.

Mark Ransom was technical production manager. Technical director Mik Auckland and David Proctor, David Zolkwer and Adrian Bourke from Jack Morton Worldwide acted as consultants. A spectacular lightshow was d

Russia - While leading politicians and authoritative experts gathered in St. Petersburg, Russia for the International Economic Forum to focus on the problems faced by emerging economies and to discuss laying the foundation for the future, Faithless, the British electronica band, entertained the masses.

The main rental company in the area, Euroshow, organised the event, which took place on 17 June. To create the dynamic effects desired, Euroshow chose to work with Martin Professional's MAC 401 Dual, MAC 301 Wash, and the power-packed MAC 700 Profile luminaires, as well as Martin LC Plus LED panels.

Alexander Blednykh, owner of Euroshow, states, "It was Martin equipment that performed the main role in the lighting decoration of the event. Martin is a good and reliable partner. Their technical solutions for lighting projects are innovative and their equipment is high quality

USA - Audio-Technica reports that its microphones are being used by a number of leading performers and stage shows in Las Vegas. Productions as varied as Donny and Marie at the Flamingo and comedian Carrot Top's show at the Luxor, as well as a number of other high-profile venues including Sammy Hagar's newly-opened Cabo Wabo Cantina at Planet Hollywood, have all turned to Audio-Technica microphones and wireless systems.

Veteran performers Donny and Marie Osmond have been the headlining act at the Flamingo Hotel since September 2008, and the show has proved to be a huge success, with the duo set to continue their run through at least October 2012. Both performers use Audio-Technica's Artist Elite 5000 Series UHF Wireless System.

Sax, trombone and trumpet are handled by the 3000 Series Wireless System with ATM350cW Cardioid Condenser Clip-On Microphone. Also used a

UK - Paul and Sarah Clarke, who run The Great Football Giveaway hosted an event in June to celebrate and thank all their volunteers, friends and donors for their continued support in their goal of delivering footballs and netballs directly into the hands of children from some of the poorest and most rural areas in Africa. Stage Electrics provided a complete technical solution for this outdoor event, which took place at their home in Wiltshire.

Stage Electrics supplied a 3m x 1.7m (12 panels) high performance LED screen to display the England vs. America World Cup football game via a live Sky feed, with the match sound being provided through an L'Acoustics PA system, controlled by a Yamaha LS9.

A 4m x 3m stage and lighting for the live band was also be supplied by Stage Electrics, as well as illuminating the marquee and the picturesque grounds with warm mood lighting, re

Israel - The music of Brahms, Grieg, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky and Verdi featured in the Jerusalem Festival of Light 2010. The Concert of Light took place at the Sultan's Pool in the city.

The performance included the work of internationally renowned lighting designer Gert Hof and the music of The Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra IBA orchestrated by Gal Altrovich. With the old city walls of Jerusalem as a dramatic backdrop to the event, it also relied on the latest technology, with a grandMA system used for lighting control. Lighting director and programmer Ofer Brum ran the show on a grandMA full-size console with a grandMA light as a backup and two MA NSPs (Network Signal Processors).

Ofer Brum reports, "The show programming was done on a grandMA full-size with MSD (Martin ShowDesigner) 3D lighting visualisation software. I made the 3D model, including stage trus

UK - Martin Dawes has been working closely with the Business Design Partnership (BDP) for many years, so when it required a full audio-visual solution for its newly built, award-winning Manchester studio Martin Dawes was the natural choice..

The system Installed features a full audio-visual and video-conferencing suite including beyerdynamic Revoluto conferencing system, Biamp audio processing and beyerdynamic wireless microphone systems.

The space, used for both internal and customer meetings can be divided in to one, two or three room configuration and required an adaptable, easy-to-use and configurable microphone system for meetings and video-conferencing. BDP also required the facility to display boardroom content on LCD screens in its reception area and wireless microphones systems for meetings and presentations. Martin Dawes project managed the job from inception.

POLA

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