UK - Visuals designer Neil Trenell used his grandMA2 full-size console and a grandMA2 light for backup to control video at London's Roundhouse venue for the month long iTunes Festival, which ran throughout July.

The Roundhouse shows were produced by W1 Productions. Over 60 artists were performing on 31 consecutive nights, all being recorded and made available on iTunes, offering up a high profile mix of international artists from a mix of musical genres.

The line-up included the Scissor Sisters, Faithless, Ozzy Osbourne, Biffy Clyro, Paloma Faith and Rolando Villazon and many more, all of whom required a distinct look and identity for their shows. The imaginative and intelligent use of video was a large part of creating a unique presentation for each night.

It is the se

South Africa - Pretoria-based Blond Productions is supplying lighting - including Robe moving lights - sound and AV to the new Big Brother Africa All Stars series, which sees 14 of the most controversial, popular and interesting housemates from the first four BB Africa series' battle it out for $200,000 and their place in the annuls of reality TV. The BB house and studios is at Sasani Studios in Balfour Park, Johannesburg, South Africa.

It's the third time that Blond has supplied technical services for the Big Brother phenomenon, produced by Endemol South Africa for DSTV Africa, and lighting for the studio that hosts the opening and finale episodes plus the weekly eviction shows is designed by Peter Rieck. The set was designed by Dewet Meyer.

The studio is a small space, narrow and tall, and the lighting was required to be flexible and multifunctional, with every single

UK - This summer, Four-piece JLS played four UK open air shows, with AP Security ensuring that their excitable fans kept cool heads.

The four shows took place at Westonbirt Arboretum, Gloucestershire, Exeter's Escot Park; Peterborough Embankment and Quex Park.

The first show was part of the Forestry Commission's annual series of live concerts, for which AP's contract for safety and stewarding was recently renewed for a further three years, while the latter three shows were promoted by Beat- up- music, with whom AP also has a long working relationship.

"JLS are the current number one boy band and we're aware that there can be some hysteria from the audience," says AP national sales manager John Phillips. "But we always do extensive planning for any event, we had numerous advisory group meetings with all interested parties and we were 100% confident that we coul

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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 - AC Entertainment Technologies' video division has announced exclusive UK and Ireland distribution for the Green Hippo Hippotizer media servers range.

During two years as a UK distributor, A.C. Video has been instrumental in the success story of the Hippotizer range, with major sales to the TV, rental and staging, corporate and leisure sectors. The exclusive agreement follows an impressive sales and service record which includes a continuing investment in product knowledge, demo equipment, training facilities and technical support.

A.C. Video's business development manager, Lee House, comments, "The Hippotizer range has always been in our eyes, one step ahead of the rest in this very complex and ever evolving field of technology. After inventing one of the first off-the-shelf real time video servers with Hippotizer, Green Hippo then pioneered the first DMX-controlled

UK - Martin Professional has now made it possible to easily convert two of the most advanced wash lights on the market - the Martin MAC 2000 Wash XB and MAC 2000 Wash - into a powerful beam fixture with an inexpensive conversion kit that installs in minutes.

Suitable for any large scale event where both beam and wash effects are required such as stadium and arena shows, the conversion kit gets the most out of existing lighting gear, eliminating the need to invest in a completely new fixture.

The MAC 2000 Beam XB upgrade kit consists of a new front lens module with micro-Fresnel lens and a set of four beam effect gobos/apertures. The kit installs in less than fiveminutes and also works with the MAC 2000 Wash. Components can be easily uninstalled and the fixture returned to a standard Wash configuration at any time.

The 1500 W MAC 2000 Beam XB delivers a fat, tight and bright

Germany - The Roth Challenge triathlon in Franconia, an event sponsored by the German radio station Bayern 3, has attained cult status. This year, 2,500 triathletes competing individually and 500 relay squads from over 50 different countries lined up at the start, with more than 120,000 spectators lining the route to cheer them on. DJs, live music, the 'Finish Line' party, and a closing firework display added to the fun, creating a party-like atmosphere among spectators that contrasted strangely with the solid determination of competitors in the throes of the gruelling eight-hour ordeal.

The need to provide spectators with intelligible live commentary and information on the intermediate placing and times of the various teams and athletes, as well as music before, during, and after the competition, meant that the quality of the sound reinforcement was of crucial importance to the

Singapore - Marina Bay Sands worked with Luminous EMC Singapore to organise an impressive opening celebration event involving 1,100 media and 2,500 VIPs.

The event included a spectacular outdoor concert featuring performances by Grammy-Award winner Kelly Rowland, Broadway's Jersey Boys, regionally acclaimed artiste JJ Lin, and Singapore Idol 2009 first runner-up Sylvia Ratonel.

Working closely with Luminous, JM Rental provided a 127m2 Lighthouse LED screen as the backdrop to the integrated resort's Event Plaza. The screen comprised 15 x 11 panels (15.2m x 8.36m) of Lighthouse R7-ER LED panels, with a pixel resolution of 1920 x 1056, which treated guests to full HD resolution images.

Before the live concert got underway, the celebrations began with the inaugural World Championship Climb to the Sands SkyPark, a competition for seven teams of climbers from

Slovakia - The popular TV Markiza dance show competitionLet's Dance features a Martin Professional visual solutions package that includes LC Series LED panels and MAC luminaires.

A Martin Maxedia Broadcast media server, complete with video clips, still images and integrated animations and optimised for High Definition playback, supplies graphics to horizontal rows of backdrop LC video panels.

Media content onto the LED panels is driven through Martin's P3-100 System Controller, an advanced video signal processor that allows LED screens to be treated like lighting instruments through direct DMX control of brightness, colour, pixelmapping and more. The LC Series panels used on Let's Dance were upgraded with LC Plus Series electronics, which adds many of the LC Plus features, including P3-100 compatibility.

Projected across the dance floor are powerful beam looks

UK - 5 Star Cases has invested in another Thermwood Model 40 CNC machining centre to help keep pace with its healthy order book, which has experienced "phenomenal sales" in 2010 following a consistent year in 2009.

Phil Bailey, 5 Star's chief engineer explains: "Once we'd made the decision to invest in a third machine, plans were initiated to ensure the smoothest possible installation with the minimum disruption to production - which took some logistical juggling as we have been absolutely flat out busy throughout the summer."

The existing two machines were moved, along with the necessary electrical and air services, allowing the third Thermwood to be secured in place.

Bailey concludes: "Having completed the installation and commissioning of the latest machine, 5 Star now has even further capacity to produce cases and foam inserts that require CNC ma

USA - Having laid claim to the moon with a Declaration of Lunar Ownership in 1966, Geneva, Ohio is a small city with a history of thinking big. So it's no surprise that the local GaREAT Sports Complex, operated by the non-profit Geneva Area Recreational, Educational, Athletic Trust, is an ambitious undertaking.

Started just two years ago, the multi-sport recreational facility on a 175-acre campus already encompasses more than 450,000sq.ft of indoor fields, courts, and tracks for year-round practices and competitions, as well as an outdoor stadium with a field and a track. Sound throughout the facility, which also includes dining and meeting rooms, has been handled by Paladin Professional Sound of Valley View, Ohio, working in close cooperation with manufacturers' representatives C. L. Pugh & Associates of Brunswick, Ohio.

With two decades of experience serving clients includin

UK - Le Mark's heavy duty PAL Road Case Labels fare being utilised by Cambridgeshire-based lighting and support service, Elstree Light & Power.

"We've been using Le Mark's labels on all our kit for more years than I can remember," says ELP's Jon Smith. "They stick to almost anything and they stay there too. Our flight and road cases are transported throughout the world and as with most things in this industry, the labels need to be incredibly heavy duty otherwise they just don't last.

"Being able to re-use them is essential, we just write on the contents of the case and the production they heading for, when we're done Le Mark's Label cleaner wipes away the ink and they're ready to go again."

UK - White Light teamed up once again with lighting designer Phil Supple and Midas Productions for The Mill Project, which used lighting to bring life to the landmark Tower at Cranfield's Mill in Ipswich in Suffolk.

The Mill Project was part of the Ip-Art 2010 arts festival organised by Ipswich Borough Council. As part of the festival, Midas Productions asked Phil Supple to develop a centrepiece lighting project, building on the collaboration the two have enjoyed over three years of the Northumberland Lights project as well as the Iconic Burns project in Scotland, both of which were also supplied by White Light. Phil Supple comments, "The only parameters offered were a desire by the Council to create a focus of interest on the town and the festival, and on the waterfront in particular."

Supple's proposed scheme involved using lighting to animate and draw attention to

The Netherlands - The Digital Media Centre (DMC), one of Europe's leading providers of channel playout services, TV distribution and content delivery; has upgraded its intercom system with a comprehensive communications system from Riedel Communications. Riedel installed a Riedel Artist digital matrix intercom installation with seamless VoIP telephone and professional mobile radio integration at the DMC premises in Amsterdam.

The main requirements for the installation were the integration of VoIP telephones and enough connections for the previous system's 4-wire signals. Furthermore, the transition to the new system needed to be completed as fast as possible to prevent downtime.

At the core of the system is a Riedel Artist 128 mainframe providing connections for 40 4-wire signals via Riedel Artist AIO client cards. Due to Artist's modular approach the system can be easily expa

UK - Lake has announced an upcoming series of online seminars aimed at providing an in-depth insight to their new LM 26 digital audio loudspeaker processor and the Lake Controller software.

On Wednesday 1 September TC Group's VP of international sales, Miguel Hadelich and the Lake team will present a detailed look at the new product. Hadelich will be on hand to field questions and "take you through the ins and outs (literally) of Lake". There will be two webinars on the day, to cater for varying time zones of an international marketplace, one at 11am GMT and the other at 5pm GMT.

Lake was one of the first brands to integrate Dante with its products. The webinars offer an opportunity for professionals working in the concert sound, stage mixing, broadcast or recording studio industries to learn more about using Dante within Lake and in combination with other Dante enab

USA - Johns Hopkins University's Peabody Conservatory, which has educated some of the world's finest musicians and whose curriculum also has an extensive professional audio training component, recently purchased and installed an entire new 5.1 surround monitoring system from Genelec.

The new system consists of an L-C-R array of three Genelec 8260A Tri-Amplified DSP Monitors, and a rear pair of 8250A Bi-Amplified DSP Monitors. All five monitors are mounted on stands surrounding the control room's console. The system is completed with Genelec 7270A Active DSP Subwoofer. The Conservatory also purchased a Genelec AD9200A 192kHz 8-channel converter. The Genelec monitors and converter were sold by Greg Lukens at Washington Professional Systems.

The Peabody Conservatory's director of recording arts and sciences, Scott Metcalfe, comments: "The studio is used for recording, mixing

UK - After a successful introduction in the US at last year's InfoComm, Drape Kings will introduce the Universal Screen Surround solution to Europe at PLASA 2010.

The Skirt/Header Clamp is for creating an adjustable screen surround. Utilising two clamps, a screen surround can be created in just about any size, 16:9, 4:3, etc. - up to 16ft wide.

See Drape Kings at PLASA 2010 on stand 2-SP12.

Register here for your visit the PLASA Show.

(Jim Evans)

Europe - Denon DJ has announced a major performance enhancement to its DN-S3700 direct drive digital media turntable. The firmware upgrade, to both new and existing units, implements MIDI Hybrid mode, enabling the DN-S3700 to also fully control DJ computer software, like Serato Scratch Live, from its control surface, including its 9" direct drive vinyl control platter.

The upgrade, implemented on all new production models, is available to existing users as a free download from the Denon DJ website (late September 2010). By internally generating relative mode timecode (output via the phono audio outs) the DN-S3700 now provides direct spinning platter control of various supported DVS applications (on PC or Mac) such as Serato Scratch Live; the MIDI hybrid mode is supplied with a default setting and mapping of the DN-S3700 controls to Scratch Live, but controls can be mapped t

UK - Richard Billings has joined the PSCo rental division in the role of business development manager for the UK. Billings began his career in the live events industry as a sound engineer and has remained in the AV sector ever since - moving into the sales and business development side of things and then going on to specialise in video conferencing and digital signage.

"Having been in the AV industry for some time, I have always had a great deal of respect for PSCo and the incredible innovation they continue to bring to the UK rental market," says Billings. "While my role encompasses the whole of the UK, my focus to begin with will be on PSCo's Northern territories; with the office in Birmingham and our extensive fleet of quality products, we are in a better position than ever to deliver in these areas and I look forward to developing good relationships with our e

Puerto Rico - Soundcraft Studer has appointed Angel G. Perez to the newly created position of applications engineer, intercontinental.

Perez, a veteran with more than 15 years in the audio field, is a recognised professional in the television and audio industry in Puerto Rico. His role in this new position is to support Soundcraft and Studer distributors in the region in all matters related to digital audio consoles. He will report to Jaime Albors, senior director of sales intercontinental, Harman Professional and will operate from the company's Intercontinental sales office in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Perez joins Harman Professional from Univision Puerto Rico, a network affiliate from the Univision Network in the United States. Perez was the head audio engineer of the production department and had the responsibility of working with the engineering department to design, select a

UK - On the strength of 30 years of accumulated experience in selling and marketing professional audio products, Chris Hollebone has launched Pro-Sales-Solutions.

This operation offers a bespoke service according to the needs of the client, but the primary objective is to leverage contacts and market knowledge to increase sales in countries within EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa). The service is particularly useful to the smaller company that may not have sufficient resources to devote dedicated manpower to improve the results in developing markets, says Hollebone. However, it has relevance to any organisation experiencing patchy results and under-performing resellers or distributors.

Hollebone has had recent experience in Russia, CIS, Eastern Europe and surrounding areas but has operated throughout Europe for many years. Those former countries require a different approach b

UK - Edinburgh-based Black Light is now offering the d&b audiotechnik E-series loudspeakers as part of its range of high-performance audio products.

Among the d&b products that Black Light now stocks are the E3 and E 12D speakers and the E15X subwoofer. "These products represent a significant investment for Black Light," says Stephen Reid, head of Black Light's Events Team. "They offer a really top-end system that can provide fantastic performance for small bands, live events and conferences."

Reid explains that the equipment has already been specified by the performance company Dance Base for all their Edinburgh Festival performances. "It really delivers when it comes to performance quality and Dance Base recognises this," he says.

The E3 is an ultra compact loudspeaker that is particularly suited to environments where space is at a premium. Th

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