UK - Leicestershire-based flooring and access solutions specialists, Prima provided premium pitch protection for the inaugural concerts at Welford Road Stadium, home of the Leicester Tigers rugby union team.

Following completion of the stadium's new, 11,000 seat Caterpillar stand, Leicester Tigers commissioned Squareleg Entertainment to host two concerts, headlined by James Morrison and Will Young, with the main stage infrastructure situated on the pitch. As a local supplier, Prima was chosen to provide pitch protection for the stage and adjacent LED screens.

Malcolm Spencer, event director, Squareleg Entertainment comments, "As a locally based company with an excellent reputation for their product, Squareleg Entertainment was very happy to invite Prima to supply and fit th

UK- Flare Audio and Lab.gruppen have agreed to be strategic partners ahead of Flare Audio's launch at PLASA 2010 on stand 1-G21. Davies Roberts MD of Flare Audio comments, "We are thrilled to have struck such a wonderful relationship with Lab.gruppen even before we officially launch, their range of class leading amps coupled with our new Stealth Array speaker enclosures will really shake the Pro Audio market up and improve audio at all types of events. We have been amazed at the commitment we received from Lab.gruppen and their understanding of where we are going and what our needs are from their amps."

"We provided a PLM10000Q for test and Davies was extremely pleased with the results. We look forward to our Speaker Programme Partnership with Flare Audio," comments Simeon Ludwell, UK sales manager. "The PLM series offers exceptional flexibility and cont

UK - On display for the first time in the UK at PLASA 2010 will be the Mini Fan Fogger and Fog Haze Case following their launch at Prolight + Sound Frankfurt earlier this year. Alongside will be the Tourhazer 2.

Smoke Factory UK celebrates its first birthday at PLASA this year as they launched at PLASA 2009 as an exclusive distributor in the UK for the German made Smoke Factory range of Fog and Haze machines.

Smoke Factory UK hold stocks of spares and fluids and spare parts in its London warehouse for immediate despatch to any UK address.

(Jim Evans)

featured content

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 - Void Acoustics, designer and manufacturer of advanced professional audio systems for the installed and live sound markets, has launched a new range of four-channel amplifiers - the Infinite QX - in response to the market demand for greater power in smaller, lighter weight equipment. The new range, comprising three models, is manufactured at Void's new facility at its headquarters in Poole, UK.

Based on the Infinite X architecture, the Infinite QX amplifiers are designed to provide significantly enhanced performance, deploying a newly developed advanced MOSFET output stage for the highest fidelity and maximum reliability. Each channel also features a fully adjustable crossover filter, enhancing the QX series' flexibility. Each 24dB/oct L-R crossover can be configured as either Hi-Pass or Lo-Pass at any frequency between 70Hz to 5kHz, providing exceptional control. The three-

UK - Blackburn- based lighting rental company HSL has again supplied site-wide lighting equipment for the high profile Global Gathering dance festival, staged at Long Marsden Airfield in Warwickshire.

For the third year running HSL was working for Electric Fly Productions, whose Philip Winward and Nick Jevons created the production lighting, video and show designs for the main stage, four indoor arenas, two terrace lounges and the VIP zone, working for promoters Angel Music.

HSL's Tim Fawkes managed the project, which involved five 45ft trailer loads of kit, including trussing and rigging, which he also co-ordinated on site, in close collaboration with Electric Fly's hand-picked crew of lighting technicians/operators and riggers.

"HSL as always have provided brilliant service, great value and immaculate equipment," comments Jevons, "We could not do a pr

UK - As the central mosque in Bolton, Zakariyya Jame Masjid plays an important role in uniting and serving all Muslims in the town. In addition to having space for up to 3,000 worshippers, it acts as a meeting place for many groups, agencies and local authorities involved in various issues in the borough, and provides Islamic education for children and adults from the surrounding areas.

As speech is of pivotal importance during prayer sessions, it was recently decided to find a way of enhancing speech quality and audibility in the prayer hall. At the same time it made sense to upgrade the audio control system to provide a simplified user interface.

Bose Pro Partner, Apple Sound, was asked to provide a demonstration of a system that could do all of the above, and they chose to showcase Bose line array technology, combined with a Bose ControlSpace audio management system.

The

India Harman Professional has announced the creation of three new sales teams positions in India and the appointments of Kaushal Garg, Robin Ghose, and Vibhor Khanna to fill the roles. The new additions will serve as the national sales manager and the regional sales managers for North and West India, respectively, and will be directed by Harman Professional's senior director of sales for Asia, David McKinney.

Garg comes to Harman with 22 years of experience at Bhartia Cutler Hammer, a switchgear company, and most recently Bose India, where he was the head of the Professional Division for sales for the past 12 years. At Harman, he will work with his team to generate demand in India for Harman Professional products across all markets - including MI, broadcast/recording, cinema, tour-sound and more - using various sales, channel network and business development strategies.

Report

Philippines - In an effort to educate and promote its citizens about the importance of environmental protection, the municipality of Carmona, Cavite selected Lighthouse Technologies to install its new Green Channel LED display.

The new display, comprising 16 R16i/o 16mm LED panels, is located at the inbound tollgate of Cavite Province, a high traffic area for motorists and pedestrians alike.

Content provider Icon Advertising manages the screen content, which is displayed from 6:00am to 10:00pm every day. In addition to dynamic advertising, the Green Channel will also deliver 15-second 'fillers' that provide useful tips on how everyone can do their share to protect the environment. The screen itself is eco-friendly, as it has eliminated the need for tarpaulins, posters, and other physical advertising materials.

Lighthouse worked closely with local partner Avolut

Taiwan / Israel - Oree Inc, the developer of LED planar illumination technology, has secured an investment from Epistar Corporation, Taiwan's largest manufacturer of LED chips.

Oree says it has developed a differentiating technology that brings LED lighting to a new level of efficiency and practicality in terms of energy consumption and cost. Oree's solid-state light source is thin and flat - about the size and shape of a credit card - and is suited for general lighting applications, decorative and architectural lighting, as well as backlighting for LCD panels. Oree is currently working with selected customers in Asia and Europe, and will be in high-volume production by early next year.

As one of the world's leading chip suppliers, Epistar Corporation is dedicated to partnering with companies that have novel and promising technologies. Epistar has been manufacturing chips for

Romania - AV and security integrators Avitech, who are also the Romanian distributors for Christie, are slowly introducing sophisticated command and control room monitor environments to the nation's telecommunications industry.

Having successfully completed a complex two-phase integration at Ericsson's new Global Service Delivery Centre, based around Christie components, they have now provided a turnkey solution for Romtelecom, one of the country's largest communications companies .

Avitech received last year the go-ahead for the implementation of another important project, this time for Romtelecom. The project had to offer severely improved monitoring and control possibilities for the client's national network.

Avitech replaced the existing system used to check feeds with specified 27 x 67" Christie SXGA+ cubes, with RPMSP-D132 single chip DLP projection, featuring dua

USA - Alfred University has chosen PowerLift automated hoists and the SceneControl 500 rigging controller - products designed and manufactured by J. R. Clancy, - for its new theatre in the Miller Performing Arts Centre. The 498-seat proscenium theatre is slated for completion on 15 October.

J. R. Clancy has supplied 20 PowerLift automated hoists - 12 fixed speed hoists for electrics, borders, legs, scrim, teaser and tormentor, and the Wenger Diva acoustical shell; and eight variable speed hoists for moving scenery. A single counterweight lineset will be used to raise and lower the house curtain.

The SceneControl 500 will control all 20 automated linesets.Designed by Clancy's in-house team of rigging professionals, this intuitive touch-screen system shows operators a 3D representation of the stage and the scenery hanging on each batten. Operators can set simple or elaborate cue

UK - The new i-Pix 2x2 LED fixtures made a major impact at the 2010 Global Gathering dance extravaganza staged at Long Marsden Airfield, Warwickshire.

They were used by the event's production lighting and video designers Philip Winward and Nick Jevons of Electric Fly Productions to illuminate the stage and dancefloor in the VIP tent, and to illuminate the Live Terrace area.

It was the first time that they have had the chance to use this latest i-Pix product, which was launched 'live' at Glastonbury just a few weeks earlier, but Jevons liked the BB 2x2s so much that he even rigged two in the main stage front-of-house mixer area - from where he was operating the lighting for the two-day event. This made it look pretty and exude a warm, inviting ambience to all entering 'lighting world' at the back of the enclosure.

Says Jevons, "i-Pix has always supported us ever s

Germany - A total of around 32,000 people attended the five sold-out concerts that comprised the 19th edition of the Classic Open Air event in Berlin from 15-19 July 2010. The first night was inaugurated by German TV personality, Herbert Feuerstein, who hosted a spectacular 'musical request' night complete with lights, lasers and fireworks.

The following evenings were filled with Verdi and Tchaikovsky performed by some of the biggest names in classical music, as well as a swing night. The event culminated with The big night of film music performed by Mousse T. and his band and the Deutsches Filmorchester Babelsberg. TSE AG of Berlin was once again responsible for the sound production, and this year they selected two Eclipse consoles from Innovason to handle FoH and monitoring duties.

Martin Kaiser, technical director for Classic Open Air Berlin, explained

Italy - QVC, the home-shopping channel broadcaster owned by Liberty Media Corp, will start a service in Italy for on-air launch at the beginning of October.

Experienced Berkshire-based broadcast integrators, TSL, won a competitive tender to design and install a highly sophisticated broadcast system, with audio mixing based around two Studer Vista 5 32-fader production consoles with SCore Live and D21 I/O extension frames installed in the two identically-configured live studio control rooms and central technical area.

TSL has a long history of specifying Studer Vista consoles, and their audio applications manager, Martin Dyster, said that in this instance the desks were chosen for their compact form factor, the familiarity that QVC's newly-recruited sound engineers already had with the Studer topology - and the comfort the client was given in knowing that Studer's Italian distr

UK - XL Video supplied video production for a series of shows in London's Hyde Park this summer spanning the three-day Hard Rock Calling and Wireless festivals, with a Kings of Leon show in the middle, all promoted by Live Nation.

It was the eighth year that XL has supplied these central London events, which were once again project managed for them by Chris Saunders, working with an XL crew of 15.

The headline acts for Hard Rock Calling were a blend of classic rock genres represented by Pearl Jam, Stevie Wonder and Paul McCartney. XL supplied a five-camera PPU 'house' IMAG system which was directed by Ruary MacPhie using a GV Kayak, and this stayed in place for the whole run of shows.

The cameras were positioned two at FOH with long lenses, two in the pit on track-and-dolly and the fifth mounted on a remote pan/tilt head above the stage, all of which com

UK - The early part of 2010 saw part of one of London's busiest thoroughfares, Oxford Street, transformed into the age when dinosaurs ruled the earth, as Dinosaurs Unleashed delighted young and old alike. A key part of the exhibition is a prehistoric aquarium, which has come to life thanks to Adtec media players supplied by UK distributor Pixels.

So successful were the Dinosaurs' appearance in the Capital that the exhibition has now headed for the South West and Bournemouth which is, appropriately, the gateway to Britain's only natural World Heritage Site, the Jurassic Coast.

Dinosaurs Unleashed features life-size animatronic versions of the land-living Tyrannosaurus Rex, Stegosaurus, Diplodocus, Triceratops and many others. One of the key features is, however, a virtual prehistoric aquarium, where marine reptiles like plesiosaurs and cephalopods such as ammonite

UK - Save Our Sound UK has issued its reaction to the Ofcom statement on PSME funding:

As we know, the Government and Ofcom have decided to clear TV bands 31-37 and 61-69 of all wireless microphones and similar technologies that operate on these frequencies. At the end of July, Communications Minister Ed Vaizey announced that the Government would be making a "significant contribution" to the replacement cost, but only for equipment that tunes to channel 69. Following on from this, Ofcom published a statement providing details on the compensation package, including eligibility criteria. Save Our Sound UK has since had time to digest the content and consult with stakeholders.

The SOS UK campaign has been successful in persuading the UK Government to take another major step towards addressing the needs of the PMSE community. Following the willingness of the authorities

UK - The Stage Technologies training department is offering new one-day introductory courses on automation and operator programming at the end of September in London.

The courses are aimed at students of technical theatre, technical professionals who wish to expand their skills into automation and automation operators who would like to familiarise themselves with eChameleon techniques and the very latest in operating software.

Course 1, Introduction to Automation and the eChameleon Suite, is designed for beginners. The programme offers attendees a basic understanding of automation use and best practice, an understanding of terminology and architecture of automation systems, a basic understanding of eChameleon features and functionality, and an understanding of health and safety, as applied to stage automation.

Course 2, eChameleon Suite Plotting and Programming

Turkey - Established in 1939, TÜDEMSA? (Turkish Railway Machines Industry Inc.) repairs freight and passenger wagons and manufactures freight wagons and spare parts. Its factory in Sivas, Turkey has a total area of 287,467sq.m with an additional indoor area of 96,000 m2. The factory employs 1,500 people, making TÜDEMSA? one of the biggest industrial groups for the international railway market in the Balkans and the Middle East.

Between January and April 2010, solutions supplier and Bosch dealer Entegre Electronics from Istanbul designed and installed a public address and voice evacuation system at TÜDEMSA?, based around 50 Hemi-directional Loudspeakers from Bosch. The loudspeakers were installed in three buildings and cover around 50,000sq.m.

The public address and emergency evacuation system is controlled and managed from the factory's head office and security centre. Busi

UK - Llanelli-based Lighting Technology projects (LTP), was asked by Philips SSL to provide its specialist design, specification and installation services to replace old sodium lighting for eight Cadw Monuments in South Wales.

Cadw, a division of the Welsh Assembly Government, holds responsibility for preserving and promoting the history and heritage of Wales.

LTP was brought on board at the tender stage of the project by Philips' key account manager Richard Williams. The eight sites in which LTP is involved are Tintern Abbey, Chepstow Castle, Caerphilly Castle, Castell Coch, Coity Castle, Llansteffan Castle, Kidwelly Castle and Swansea Castle.

In addition to making significant savings to the amount of electricity needed to run the schemes, the new scheme dramatically reduces the long term maintenance needed and radically enhances the quality of light with a cleaner and more

USA - After 35 years of touring, George Thorogood is still hammering out the gritty rock 'n blues tunes that fans have come to expect at his hard-charging shows. But even though classics from the '70s and '80s like Move It On Over still make up the bulk of his set list, the lighting on his current tour isn't a throwback to that era. Quite the contrary, George Thorogood and the Destroyers' 2010 Tour bears the distinction of being one of the first to use the newest light in the LED Impression series from Elation Professional, the Impression 120RZ Zoom.

Like the original Impression, the Impression 120RZ is a LED moving head with RGB colour mixing and a baseless design that makes it compact and lightweight. Also, the 120RZ version brings a new feature to the mix - a 10° to 26° Automated Linear Zoom, which gives it greater flexibility to be used in more applications. T

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