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UK - Visitors to the PLASA 2010 saw the world debut of Nexo's 45°N-12 monitor loudspeaker, billed as featuring a new concept in stage sound - that of line monitoring.

The Nexo 45°N-12 wedge monitor brings all the benefits of line-array technology to the stage. It draws on Nexo's Hyperbolic Reflective Wavesource which is used throughout the Geo range of high-performance loudspeakers.

The design works by wavesourcing, creating virtual acoustic sources behind the enclosure itself and below the stage, using reflection rather than coercion to determine the shape of the wavefront. Unlike a conventional high frequency waveguide in which the exit is rectangular, the NEXO monitor's waveguide forms a 'smile', enabling cabinets to be linked together to form arrays without interfere

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UK - Black Light has announced its Autumn/Winter schedule of training and awareness courses. These courses have been developed in response to demand from the company's clients in the theatre and events industries and cover a wide range of key skills and technical issues. All of the courses will be run by expert trainers from Black Light and other leading companies. The courses will take place at the company's warehouse complex in Edinburgh.

The courses include training on pyrotechnic awareness, Rosco products, ION lighting desk and chain motor awareness. All attendees will be encouraged to ask questions, engage in discussion with their instructors and highlight any aspects where they need specific advice or training.

The courses require a £25 (ex VAT) booking fee. This fee will be returned when the course has been attended in the form of a voucher to be used with Black L

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UK - In the wake of the merger recently announced between UK structural aluminium specialists Litestructures, and Dutch trussing, staging and lifting company Prolyte, it was confirmed at PLASA 2010 that the branch of Litestructures formerly known as Litestructures Live has been launched as a new, independent company called LS-LIVE.

LS-LIVE is now a facility that unifies three previously distinct areas of operation, namely hire, stage & set, and the studio, which is Europe's largest purpose-built arena rehearsal facility.

LS-LIVE has its own experienced management team to handle and coordinate every facet of live events from equipment hire to project management and support to stage and set design and much more besides, says the company.

"I'm very excited about heading up LS-LIVE and taking on the challenge of moving the business from being a division of another company t

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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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USA - Chad Koehler of Sea Koehler, Inc. and a lead rigging consultant for many major touring rock and roll productions has specified Ron StageMaster's 6000-wireless system for the current AC/DC Black Ice World tour.

The current tour has a very large set piece; a full size replica of an old steam locomotive, too heavy for (two) 2-ton chain hoists. During installation, a delta plate is rigged, and then two hoists are used side by side on each end of the set piece. The load cells allowed Koehler to monitor the load while building and hoisting the set piece onto the stage and alert the rigging team of any overload.

The production also uses a large video screen which is hung underneath a large truss measuring twenty meters in length (65').

The screen moves up, down, left and right on a motorized track hung from the bottom of the truss. The truss is hung from nine 2-ton cha

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Belgium - StageCo, Tait Technologies, XL Video and Barco are are all involved with the U2 360° tour which hits Belgium on 22 and 23 September. The audience will be able to enjoy the show, with a giant 360° stage and video screen, made in Belgium.

The U2 360° tour started on 30 June 2009 in Camp Nou in Barcelona and will go on until the summer of 2011. This month, it finally sets foot in Belgium. Both the spectacular stage, as well as the transformable LED screen were made possible by Belgian companies.

StageCo was responsible for the construction of the impressive stage. "As it became clear what the designer and the band wanted to achieve, it was obvious to me that this was something unprecedented," says Hedwig de Meyer, president of Stageco. "The sheer scale of the structure, the span of the legs, lifting the huge technical production 28 metres in

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USA / UK - Clair Brothers, one of the most respected names in the entertainment industry, is now expanding its reach outside the US. Roy Clair, founder of Clair Brothers, and his son Barry Clair, president of Clair Brothers, have committed to design and manufacture a high-end line of loudspeaker systems and will continue to offer their expertise and attention to details to the AV systems design and integration industry.

Clair Brothers has signalled its intent to become a leading provider of loudspeaker systems by securing the services of David Cooper in the newly created position of Business Development - Global. The appointment of Cooper targeting the global market is the next step in the long-term strategic plan of making Clair Brothers' product portfolio available to a global customer base following the recent completion of their new manufacturing facility in Manheim, Pennsyl

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Australia - ARX has announced the release of the PC-pre2 two channel microphone preamplifier. The PC-pre2 can be mounted into a standard PC tower 5-1/4" Disk Player slot or alternatively used as a stand-alone unit.

The PC-pre2 has been designed for applications include Hard Disk recording, data acquisition, loudspeaker testing measurement, sound system testing & EQ'ing and law enforcement interview recording.

Features include the latest ultra low noise & distortion THAT Corp Mic Preamp ICs, high current +48V DC Phantom Power and a full Bi Polar Power Supply for maximum signal headroom.

(Jim Evans)

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UK / Germany - As soon as Martin Audio's revolutionary Multicellular Loudspeaker Array (MLA) had completed its world debut with German rap band Fettes Brot, the band's Berlin-based production company, Complete Audio, became the first global customer for the new system.

They wasted no time in placing an order for the rig, comprising 20 x MLA, 2 x MLD enclosures and 14 x MLX subs (along with Merlin network management system, rigging and peripherals), with Martin Audio's German distributor, Atlantic Audio. Complete Audio MD, André Rauhut remarked, "I now own a system which is truly unique."

The MLA, which collected a Gold Award in this year's PLASA Awards for Innovation at the PLASA Show in London this week, boosts the rental company's cutting-edge inventory which already includes Martin Audio's W8L Longbow, W8LC and W8LM conventional line arrays. "The MLA i

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UK - Broadcast sound specialist Red-TX was employed to capture the audio for the Help for Heroes benefit concert, which took place at Twickenham Stadium on Sunday 12 September.

The event which attracted more than 60,000 people, included some of the injured service personnel who benefit from the money raised by the charity. It was broadcast live by the BBC, which took its music audio feed from the Red-TX sound truck.

Help for Heroes has united the nation behind the Armed Forces. The charity, which does not question the rights and wrongs of recent wars, aims to provide the best possible care and support for injured UK servicemen and women.

Artists performing included Robbie Williams and Gary Barlow, Tom Jones, James Blunt, Alexandra Burke, Pixie Lott, Plan B and The Saturdays.

Red-TX was commissioned to handle the audio by Chris Bretnall, head of Creative Broad

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USA - As longtime and extensive users of Robert Juliat Profile spots, it could have been expected that the San Francisco Opera and Ballet would become the first US installation for Robert Juliat's motorized Victor followspots with RJNET electronics.

"When the Opera was remodelled and seismically upgraded in 1996, we purchased 172 Profiles, then the Opera bought a few HMI Profiles and the Ballet added two more. The Victor followspots are our most recent purchase," says Jim Caudle, technician for the San Francisco Ballet. "The building is shared by both companies which have consecutive seasons: the Opera runs May through December and the Ballet December through May. There are permanent followspot positions for both companies and the Victors remain in place for both seasons."

Caudle notes that the Opera and Ballet's previous followspots "didn't have the p

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UK / Brazil - Following up on its acquisition of Brazilian loudspeaker manufacturer Electronica Selenium in June this year, Harman presented the European professional audio community with Selenium by Harman at PLASA 2010. Selenium is now part of Harman Professional's Loudspeaker Group .

"Being a part of a global organization such as Harman allows Selenium to expand our distribution in a measured, strategic and well-supported manner," says Rodrigo Rihl Kniest, country manager, Harman Brazil. "In doing so, we dovetail well with other Harman Professional brand offerings and we provide European customers with greater choice, improved versatility and Selenium's special combination of innovation, quality and performance value. I am confident that Harman's product portfolio coupled with Selenium's positioning in Brazil and Latin America will facilitate new businesses opp

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France / UK Surbiton-based Plus 4 Audio serves the London Studios, Fountain Studios, Maidstone Studios and the BBC as well as various OB events with shows such as Dancing on Ice, Mercury Music Prize, Must be the Music, Over the Rainbow, Strictly Come Dancing and Sports Personality of the Year to name but a few. The company has just taken delivery of 12 DX12 compact, low profile monitor speakers from APG for rental stock from APG's UK distributor, Red Square Audio.

Plus 4's Stewart Chaney comments, "I had been looking for a micro wedge monitor for our smaller shows for quite some time, but I just couldn't find anything that met our requirements. They were either too big or simply not good enough, or both! Then Paul Nicholson said he'd got something that might interest me, and gave me a demo of the new DX12s from APG. I was more than

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UK - The cutting edge of modern audio and acoustics will be highlighted again at the Reproduced Sound 2010 conference which opens at the Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff, on 18 November.

Now in its 26 year, the two-day conference, organised by the Institute of Acoustics, has become a key event in the calendar for consultants, manufacturers, contractors and end users.

As well as providing delegates with detailed updates of major new developments, the informal environment of the event allows them to mingle and share insights and information.

This year's theme will be Performing Arts Venues: Balancing the Design and it will include a keynote paper from Jonathan Adams, architect of the Wales Millennium Centre, which became the country's national arts centre on its opening in 2004.

Adams will speak on what it takes to bring the various specialisms of acoustics, th

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UK - At PLASA 2010, rental companies ETA Sound, Total Sound Solutions and A1 Entertainments all placed orders for Nexo line array systems.

ETASound, which is based in North Wales but also has a London office at the O2 Arena, is to take delivery of 16 Nexo D10 modules, with an option to buy the same again, following installation trials of Geo D at one of the UK's most prominent live venues. In April, Eddie Thomas became one of the first rental companies in the world to buy the new RS18 subs from Nexo, and has just ordered more cabinets for ETASound's inventory.

Total Sound Solutions from Swansea and A1 Entertainments from Bristol are purchasing near-identical Geo S12 systems, comprising S1210 and S1230 line array modules, RS18 subs and NXAMP4x4 controller-amplifiers.

"One of the main attractions is the versatility of the S12," says Gareth Collyer from NexoUK. "

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UK - Martin Audio's Multicellular Loudspeaker Array (MLA) took the top prize at this year's PLASA Awards for Innovation, at London's Earls Court this week.

Winners of the Awards were announced in a special presentation during the PLASA Show, and after a hotly contested nomination process MLA headed the list of 62 products entered.

For the first time, the Awards were judged 'live' at the Innovation Gallery by an independent panel of 16 expert judges, in front of show visitors and a camera team on Sunday 12 September. Show visitors were able to watch the judging process replayed on large screens in the interactive Innovation Gallery for the rest of the show.

Seven Awards for Innovation were presented by PLASA CEO Matthew Griffiths - but there was only one Gold winner. This award is only given out when a product is worthy of particular commendation and it has not been awarded f

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UK - For the third time in recent years, the Italian manufacturer Outline received the PLASA Award for Innovation, thanks to its Mini-COM.P.A.S.S. iMode vertical line array.

The independent panel of judges noted, "This loudspeaker's combination of generic IT and innovative line array technology represents a step forward for the industry in systems integration. The cabinet's built-in web-browser support makes it possible to control a complete loudspeaker array from a plethora of industry standard devices."

"This is the third award won over a relatively short period, confirming the avant-garde features that have distinguished our brand for almost 40 years, and we're obviously very proud," comments Outline's Michele Noselli.

"As in 2001 and 2005, when Kanguro and COM.P.A.S.S. won the same award, we believe that this recognition not only rewards with sat

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UK - GLP's debut of the new SpotOne at this year's PLASA Show in London received an enthusiastic reception.

The Impression SpotOne represents a breakthrough in providing the world's first high powered RGB LED spot fixture, says the company. Light output is equivalent to a 700W discharge lamp and therefore truly usable in a wide range of applications.

It contains a full feature set including rotating and indexing gobos, iris, prism, focus, zoom, effects animation, pan and tilt - all of which are motorised. The RGB LED source retains high efficiencies, as no fragile glass colour system is required. To further minimise environmental impact, the baseless design reduces size, weight and transportation, whilst the fixture operates with near silent performance.

(Jim Evans)

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UK - The Martin Audio DD6 is the first in a new line of products that will eventually replace the Wavefront range. The DD6 extends the company's loudspeaker portfolio and targets the touring and theatre segments. "The DD6 marks the first step in a new evolution," states Martin Audio R&D director, Jason Baird. "This ultra-versatile system offers a variety of different deployment options in a tour grade enclosure."

However, it is the custom-designed Differential Dispersion horn, developed using Martin Audio's proprietary BEM tools, which is the system's greatest USP, he continues. "This yields a dispersion pattern which covers typical audience planes in a much more consistent manner than a conventional X by Y degree horn - in other words it delivers optimal near- to mid-field coverage."

To achieve this, the DD6 enclosure is loaded with a 90°-120

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UK - A.C. Entertainment Technologies, Audio division has taken stock of the new Sennheiser G3 GB wireless microphone systems for use on Channel 38 (606-614 MHz), enabling customers to start 'future proofing' their investment in new equipment for the impending UK radio frequency move.

As a distributor for all major wireless equipment brands, A.C. Audio have been keenly following the Ofcom designated 2012 digital switchover from Channel 69 (854-862 MHz) with a view to providing impartial customer advice and recommending the best course of action that will ensure minimal disruption.

The new Sennheiser G3 GB frequency range variant covers ALL of Channel 38 and as many 'future proofed' interleaved frequencies above Channel 38 as its 42 MHz (from 606-648 MHz) tuning range will allow. Models include the entry-level 100 series for live performances, the 300 series for installed sound

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USA - Intelix has announced the release of the DIGI-HD-UHR2, a professional-grade extender which transmits HDMI up to 300ft over a single twisted pair cable.

Designed for residential AV, commercial AV, and digital signage applications, the DIGI-HD-UHR2 transmits 1080p video up to 150ft, 720p and 1080i video up to 300ft, and 480i and 480p video up to 300ft. Built-in buffering and amplification allow multiple units to be linked for greater distances, and ESD protection safeguards connected equipment from power strikes and surges.

The DIGI-HD-UHR2 employs Intelix HDsh?k processing, which guarantees HDMI signal integrity through bandwidth limiting, dynamic key processing, and EDID storing. The unit is HDMI and HDCP compliant, and supports 3D.

(Jim Evans)

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UK - Specialist LED lighting manufacturer i-Pix showed six new products in its groundbreaking BB (Building Block) range at the 2010 PLASA exhibition in London and enjoyed one of their best PLASA shows ever.

Says i-Pix founder Chris Ewington: "We had lots of UK and international interest from new and existing people and it was a busy show for us all round. Our highly focused R&D team has spent the last 12 months developing these six new products, and we're confident, post PLASA, that this strategy has really paid off."

New customers were drawn to the whole range of BB products. The non-LED look of the BB1's which more resemble PAR 36 or 46 fixtures was a big advantage, together with the smooth homogenised light engine which sets i-Pix fixtures poles apart from most other LED products, says the company.

(Jim Evans)

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