UK - Four days in mid-August saw the Bristol International Balloon Fiesta's 32nd year, with 500,000 visitors enjoying the spectacle of over 100 hot air balloons of all different shapes and sizes, the RAF Red Arrows and a range of complementary ground-based attractions.

Brought in by Richmond Event Management, it was AP Security's first time at the event and something rather different from the live music circuit which tends to dominate the company's summer workload.

"We were really looking forward to the new challenges that the Fiesta presented," says AP's northern regional manager Simon Miller. "As always we started planning well in advance, in this case in April, and attended monthly meetings in Bristol where all the partners would meet and discuss the event and

UK - JoeCo Limited has confirmed a PLASA preview of its new Blackbox Player. Based on the Blackbox Recorder's's technology, the Blackbox Player is a dedicated 1U multi-channel device specifically designed for replaying backing tracks for live shows. Able to replay 24 channels of 24bit/96kHz audio, the player can be triggered with a footswitch or keyboard, or controlled via MIDI commands, giving the live engineer, musical director or artist full control of the show.

Audio for playback can be loaded onto a standard USB2 hard drive, or Flash RAM drive, from any workstation capable of creating Broadcast WAV files. A simple naming convention ensures that the correct file is replayed through each output. The 'set list' can be configured into a simple playlist file written in an easy to understand XML format. Multiple playlist files can be stored on the external media allowing for quic

Denmark - Guitarist, composer and producer Henrik Andersen has chosen a DPA SMK4061 miniature stereo miking kit for the live debut of possibly the most advanced guitar in the instrument's history: the 52-stringed, three-neck Manzer Medusa.

The concept for the Medusa sprung from Andersen's success on the Indian classical scene and a desire to create a personal trademark encapsulating his musical identity. Accordingly, the Medusa features necks of a veena, sitar and conventional guitar.

"The sonic range and acoustic colours of the Manzer Medusa are fantastic and outstanding, so I needed to find a mic solution for live concerts," says Andersen. "I ended up choosing the SMK4061 stereo miking kit from DPA. The 4061 miniature mics are extremely small, but catch the overall sound of the 52-stringed beauty. For me they set a new standard, because the small size of the m

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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

Vietnam - Lantern and followspot manufacturer Robert Juliat reports a successful experience exhibiting at the first PALME Vietnam trade show, which took place in Saigon Exhibition & Convention Centre, Ho Chi Minh City.

The stand was manned by Robert Juliat Asia's Jamie Boey and his team. They showcased spotlights, profiles and followspots from the Robert Juliat range. These included RJ 306 (Lutin), RJ 310, RJ 329 and RJ 325 Fresnels & PCs; profiles including the RJ 614SX, RJ 424SX Quincy, RJ 711SX and the new LED profile spot, the Aledin RJ 631SX which was released this year.

Two 1800W MSR Victor and 2500W HMI Cyrano followspots, completed the exhibits on show which gave visitors an indication of the wide range of top quality products available from Robert Juliat.

"It is our very first time participating at an exhibition in Vietnam and we are very pleased that our prese

UK / Austria - A reciprocal business partnership has existed between Le Mark & Tüchler since the late 90's seeing strong growth of Tüchler flooring within the UK . PLASA 2010 sees the official launch of a new venture between the two companies with the introduction of PVC front and rear projection screens and frames.

"This opportunity will allow us to fully utilise the production skills of Tüchler," says Le Mark's managing director Stuart Gibbons. "We have for some time considered developing 'a screen range' alongside our existing line of performance flooring."

Tüchler GmbH was founded in the 1970's as a specialist supplier of fire proof textiles to the Austrian theatre industry. The Company has grown to be one of Europe's most renowned manufactures of theatrical textiles, high performance stage flooring, projection screens and technical accessories. Vie

UK - Celestion has announced the appointment of Ken Weller in the newly created role of product marketing manager. Based at the company's headquarters in Ipswich, UK, Ken will take responsibility for Celestion's marketing function, with particular focus on professional audio product management.

"As the company continues to be successful, it's important that we invest in the right personnel to facilitate further growth" Commented Nigel Wood, Celestion managing director.

"Ken offers a wealth of experience and knowledge within the audio industry, and of loudspeakers in particular. Bringing Ken on board enables us to strengthen our product management capability and will help drive the business forward through the development of a new generation of innovative and market-leading new products."

With a strong background in physics and a keen interest in loudspeak

UK - A.C. Entertainment Technologies has confirmed its status as an official sponsor of the Jack Goff racing team for the 2010 ELF Renault Clio Cup with Michelin Championship.

For this year's Championship, Jack Goff is sponsored by several entertainment technology companies, including Avolites, Fibre Optic Systems, GLP, HSL Group, Litestructures, Pixel Range, Robe, Rope & Rigging and SES.

Jack Goff and his Renault Clio racing car will be appearing in the JG-Motorsport Lounge at PLASA 2010. Visitors to the lounge have a chance to enter a free prize draw to win an exclusive track day experience with Jack.

AC-ET's UK sales director, Phill Capstick comments, "Further to AC-ET's sponsorship of the BRDC's exclusive Rising Stars Programme supporting promising young British racing drivers, it was a natural progression to sponsor a talented up and coming driver from the local ar

UK - Electrovision reports that it has secured its continuing relationship with Behringer, after over 10 years of successful association with the German company.

A Behringer statement says, "Electrovision will now be authorised to service regional dealers in the European market who are not participating in the group's container programme with fulfilment of Behringer and Bugera product orders. The appointment marks a significant milestone in the existing relationship between the two companies."

Richard Fox, managing director of Electrovision, comments, "We have been fortunate enough to have a long and successful relationship with Behringer and we firmly echo their goal to offer 'the best equipment at fair prices', which helps us to stay competitive and makes the Behringer and Bugera ranges accessible for our customers."

Fox continues, "Electrovision's

Austria - Tannoy's QFlex steerable array system has recently been specified to good effect in Austria, solving a long-standing intelligibility problem in a historic ballroom. Located in the town of Wiener Neustadt, 30 miles south of Vienna, the opulent classical ballroom is housed in a 350 year old building that began life in the 17th century as a church and then later home to the Mayor's Office following a long stint as a factory for most of the 19th century.

The building was then acquired for use by a local bank with a grand opening in 1898 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Emperor Franz Josef I, and has remained in the hands of the financial institutions ever since with numerous renovations and a number of sound systems for the ballroom space having come and gone over the years.

To mark the 150th anniversary of the bank, the owners (Sparkasse Wiener Neustadt) sought to a

USA - Aviom's Pro16 personal mixing system is proving a big hit on Broadway, where it is being used as part of the monitoring setup by three of the season's hottest musicals - Promises, Promises, Come Fly Away, and La Cage aux Folles - to help the orchestra to stay on cue.

Promises, Promises, a musical adaptation of the hit 1960 Billy Wilder film, The Apartment, has the most traditional arrangement of the three shows, with a large orchestra playing in a pit near the stage. Production Resource Group (PRG) supplied Promises, Promises with its Aviom A-16II Personal Mixers and mounted them on the orchestra musicians' microphone stands, so musicians can easily access and customize the mix they need to listen to in order to properly get their cues.

With an A-16II, individual performers can create custom monitor mixes tailored to their indivi

USA - There is still time to earn 12 ETCP renewal credits and save with the early registration rate for Tomcat USA's Safely Building the Beast workshop at the 2010 LDInstitute. This new workshop will take place on 20 &21 October 2010 in conjunction with the LDI Show in Las Vegas.

This day and a half, ETCP recognized workshop features training from industry experts. Day one consists of a half-day course on fall protection led by Bill Sapsis, president and founder of Sapsis Rigging, Inc. as well as a half-day course on truss design, use and theory taught by Will Todd, product support manager for TomcatUSA.

For the morning of day two, Will Todd and Keith Bohn of Tomcat USA will lead a session on ground supported and outdoor structures which includes an overview of design elements and safety consideration of these structures, examples of real world scenarios from the Tomcat

UK - Hawthorn has announced the launch of its new division, Hawthorn Walling Systems (HWS), designing and building tensioned fabric structures for the exhibition and events industry.

Clients are now looking for more economical, yet high quality build methods for large exhibition stands and event sets, says the company. HWS offers a solution to that, with large-scale tensioned fabric systems that are already a popular alternative to more traditional build methods.

HWS has partnered with American company Dockside Canvas to produce high-quality tensioned fabric structures using their patented Fab-X-Frame aluminium extrusion system, designed specifically for large exhibition stand builds.

The HWS walling system produces seamless fully printed structures of any size, but is also suitable for smaller sets, event walling and branding. The fabric can be printed to high resolution wi

USA - When Barry Manilow moved his hit show from the Las Vegas Hilton to the Paris Las Vegas for a new two-year residency, the production team wanted to make a few changes to better reflect and adapt to their new home. To do so, they brought in lighting designer Chris Medvitz of Lightswitch to create an intimate yet powerful lighting design. Lightswitch then enlisted the assistance of PRG and 65 Vari*Lite luminaires from Philips Vari-Lite.

"When the production was moved from the Las Vegas Hilton to the Paris Las Vegas, everyone wanted to create a new look and feel for the show so that they could really compete against the larger Vegas shows that were established on the strip," says Medvitz. "Barry had never done a theatrical-type show before, so they felt this was a great opportunity to capitalize on the intimate 1500-seat Paris Théâtre."

Over the n

UK - Live Nation confirms that one of the UK's premiere concert venues, the Manchester Apollo will officially be changing it's name to O2 Apollo Manchester with immediate effect.

The Grade II listed venue will be undergoing a full interior re-decoration in keeping with its Art Deco style.

O2 Apollo Manchester has been central to the British touring circuit for decades, attracting Best Venue nominations and patrons from across the globe. With shows from every major rock, pop and comedy act on the touring circuit. The breadth of styles of events covers every market.

Paul Latham, COO international, Live Nation comments, "It gives me great pleasure to announce this partnership with O2 and it facilitates our investment in one of the greatest music venues in the UK . Concert fans deserve the best and this partnership delivers that and so much more."

Shadi Halliwell, he

UK - Artistic Licence will be supporting PLASA 2010 with a presence on three stands at the show. Several examples from the Artistic Licence range of Art-Net to DMX / RDM converters, along with a selection of Artistic Licence DMX/RDM Splitters, will be on the RDM 'Compatibility Corner' stand (Stand 2-P37) where visitors can put questions to RDM experts and gain hands-on experience of using the products.

Artistic Licence's latest releases, Rail-DMX-DALI and Rail-DALI-DMX, will be on AC Entertainment Technologies' New Product Section (Stand 1-E10) where members of AC's technical team will be on hand to answer questions about these new installation must-haves.

Flexi-Strip, the new flexible, fully encapsulated, self-adhesive LED strip from Artistic Licence will be adorning the Zero 88 stand (Stand 1-E32).

For more information on any of these products visit www.ArtisticLicence.com

UK - Production Resource Group (PRG) will be demonstrating its innovative proprietary products along with debuting new products and highlighting its integrated services in an immersive exhibit that represents a fully integrated production environment at PLASA 2010.

PRG will be debuting the new V476 control console which provides the same powerful, flexible control of the V676 control console in a smaller size hardware package with all the same programming capacities and capabilities. It is 2/3 the size of the V676 which allows it to be used in spaces that would prove too tight for the larger console. The V676 control console will also be demonstrated on the PRG stand.

Also debuting at PLASA on the PRG stand will be the PRG Bad Boy CMY automated luminaire with seamless colour crossfading technology. Allowing designers to fade between colours easily and simply while still having

UK - White Light, exclusive UK distributor for the ArKaos range of media servers, will host the UK launch of the new MediaMaster Express at PLASA 2010 in the White Light Zone. An intuitive and powerful media server software, MediaMaster Express is described as the 'perfect solution for quick media management and playback from a DMX or MIDI controller'.

Aimed at the concert/touring, film/TV, leisure/attractions, night venues, theatre/performing arts and architectural markets, MediaMaster Express allows anyone anywhere to exploit the possibilities of a powerful media server, combining ease of use and high performance for an affordable price, making it the perfect solution for quick media management and playback from a DMX or MIDI controller.

Built on ArKaos' latest generation of technology, MediaMaster's multi-threaded engine delivers "blistering performance", by takin

UK - The AVnu Alliance, founded to promote the adoption of the IEEE 802.1 Audio/Video Bridging (AVB) standards, will continue its first birthday celebrations at PLASA 2010. The alliance was founded in mid-2009 and has since quadrupled in size. Recent membership announcements include Biamp, Bosch, Molex, Peavey and XMOS. To celebrate the momentum it has achieved, the AVnu Alliance will host a panel discussion at the PLASA show in London.

The panel discussion, open to the public, will be entitled IEEE 802.1 Audio/Video Bridging (AVB): The Future of Standards-Based A/V Networkin. The panel, comprised of representatives from alliance member companies, will explore the role of the AVB Standards in the professional A/V industry, as well as consumer electronics and automotive applications. An in-depth explanation of AVB and related IEEE standards will be presented, followed by a

USA - Renkus-Heinz has announced the appointment of Rik Kirby to the position of vice president of sales and marketing.

Kirby has been with Renkus-Heinz for five years, most recently as vice president of operations, and previously as national sales manager. A pro audio veteran, his resume includes stints at Turbosound and BSS Audio and before that several years as a live sound engineer. In his new position, he will be responsible for the direction and coordination of all sales and marketing activities, as well as overseeing product management, and supporting the company's growing application engineering department.

"Rik is truly the ideal candidate to lead the company's sales and marketing efforts," says Harro Heinz, Renkus-Heinz founder and president. "He brings many years of experience and dedication to the position, and we are confident that under his leaders

UK - For the second consecutive year, a team of LED lighting specialists named Team Easily LED and made up of employees from Architainment Lighting Ltd, EcoSense Lighting and Philips Lighting will hike a gruelling 20 miles across London at night in order to raise money for the charity Maggie's Centres.Maggie's Centres provides care and support to those affected by cancer, including sufferers, their family and friends. The charity helps to enable people to cope with the emotional stress and feelings of helplessness that cancer diagnosis brings. It provides courses in managing stress, relaxation and nutrition to boost the immune system and aid recovery. The centres give reliable advice and sources of information for anyone affected by cancer, in a caring environment. This invaluable service is provided free of charge and therefore the charity needs your help to raise money for its c

Switzerland - reports that Montreux-Oberland-Bernois Railways in Switzerland will become the first customer of the new Barix Annuncicom 155, a networked Audio over IP device specially designed for harsh everyday operation on railways, buses and ships. Barix partner Railtec Systems will exhibit a new panorama carriage with the device on the open-air grounds at the Innotrans show in Berlin, Germany, taking place September 21-24 at the Messe Berlin Exhibition Centre.

Railtec Systems, based in Switzerland, is currently outfitting 14 locomotives and railcars and about 60 passenger carriages operated by MOB Railways with networked Annuncicom 155 devices. The devices are integral to the configuration of MOB Railways' pioneering passenger information and announcement system. The Annuncicom 155 is responsible for the bidirectional exchange of live announcements as well as priority, monit

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