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UK - Academy Music Group (AMG) has again backed Soundcraft's Vi digital platform, giving the mixing console a roving role in its new three-room O2 Academy Leicester, situated at the University of Leicester.

The upgradable 64-input Vi6 moved from its monitor position in O2 Academy2 for the very first show before relocating to the FOH position in the main room two nights later for the official opening (with Professor Green - Thursday 23 September 2010).

"The Vi6 is fast becoming the industry standard, so we wanted to provide the same level of control as we do at our other O2 Academy venues - engineers can then travel between our venues and know what to expect," said AMG's group technical manager, Ed Jackson.

"We needed to be aware of what the sound engineers were

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USA - Meeting Services supplied sound to the Comic-Con International 2010 convention in San Diego for the 19th straight year. Using a complete JBL solution, Meeting Services transformed the 6,500-person San Diego Convention Centre's exhibit hall into one of the largest movie premiere venues in the world.

The company deployed an arsenal of JBL loudspeakers, including 24 JBL Vertec VT4889 full size line array elements, 24 VT4888 midsize line array elements, and eight VT4880 full size arrayable subwoofers. Fill speakers, delay arrays and secondary room systems included CBT Series column speakers, VRX932LA compact constant curvature array loudspeakers and JBL EON powered portable loudspeakers. Crown XTi, MAi and I-Tech amplifiers powered the sound rig. The system was configured with Harman HiQnet System Architect software for remote control and monitoring.

"The room is shaped

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USA - When Midas announced the release of its new PRO3 digital mixing console at the 2010 Infocomm Show, Atlanta Sound and Lighting stepped up right away to be the first customer.

"We were on the Midas site to download some updates for the PRO6," says Atlanta Sound & Lighting GM Scott Waterbury, "and my lead engineer, Tom Smith calls me over and says, 'check this out, they've got a PRO3'. I took a look at it online and called my rep to get the story. By the end of that phone call, my order was in the system."

Waterbury, who has headed Atlanta Sound since 1978, does not consider himself a classic early adopter. "I admit it - I was slow getting into the digital realm. We tried all the usual suspects and even bought a couple, but I was never really happy with the sound. I still have a (Midas) XL200 and a couple of Heritages, and frankly, digital didn't me

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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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UK - At the recent PLASA Show Goboland launched GoboSlides, a new gobo product specifically designed for use with Robert Juliat's ground-breaking Aledin LED profile spotlight. Both GoboSlides and RJ Aledin were launched at PLASA 2010, London on the Robert Juliat stand in the White Light zone, where Aledin was awarded a PLASA 2010 Award for Innovation.

GoboSlides are full colour, 'A' size, images made from slide film and developed by Goboland's Wyatt Enever. These are mounted in a Black Steel slide mount created to fit a standard Robert Juliat profile gobo holder. The Aledin's 85W LED light source means the gate remains cool enough to project GoboSlides for extended periods of time without damage, just like any other gobo.

Unlike other gobos, however, the slide film substrate of Goboland's GoboSlides offers considerable advantages in terms of superior colours, tones and cost sa

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USA - The W Hotel in Scottsdale, AZ is a showplace of advanced architectural lighting. Everywhere in and around the building are visual effects, beginning with the outdoor wet deck, where four massive architectural pieces known as the Grand Lanterns change colours in sync with a 360° mobile bar that 'floats' to different sites around the pool. Then there are the hotel's LED elevator wall panels, which display its big white logo 'W' when guests step into the car, transform into a dazzling light show when the doors close, and revert back to the trademark W when the car stops.

For a time, however, it seemed this ambitious project wouldn't see the light of day. Budgetary, technical and regulatory issues forced the W Hotel to put a hold on its grand lighting plan - until Phoenix design/installation company Burning Retina Lighting & Transport LLC was called to the rescue.

"

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UK - Projection artist Ross Ashton of London- based The Projection Studio created artwork and designed a large format video projection system for the Illuminata son et Lumière at Caerphilly Castle.

The commission was from Cadw - the Welsh Assembly Government division responsible for preserving and promoting the history and heritage of Wales, and it is the first time that an entertainment spectacle of this genre has been commissioned for one of their historical monuments. Ashton's 20-minute work depicted the history and stories of the castle, accompanied by an audio track produced by sound artist Karen Monid. It ran twice nightly for two weeks to a paying audience.

Working at Caerphilly Castle was a "fantastic" experience says Ashton, who in doing so added another landmark building to his portfolio of world class site specific locations. Caerphilly is the larg

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USA - The Green Bay Packers' Lambeau Field is one of the American National Football League's crown jewels - the first stadium built for the exclusive use of an NFL team, and the longest continuously occupied stadium in the league.

Recently, on the eve of the park's 50th anniversary, a massive redevelopment plan was undertaken, transforming the venue from a stadium that fans would tolerate a few days per year in order to see their team, to a year-round tourist destination that has been recognized by Sports Illustrated as the top stadium experience in the NFL, and the eighth-best facility in the world to see a game.

While the stadium's original classic seating bowl was preserved, the rest of the park's infrastructure has been completely revamped, including an audio system upgrade that includes Community Professional Loudspeakers' WET and R-Series weather-resistant loudspe

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USA - Martin Professional is highlighting a range of innovative professional luminaries at LDI 2010, including the MAC 101, a small and simple LED moving head wash light, and MAC 350 Entour LED profile.

Also on display at Martin booths will be a new generation of LED display, the EC-20, as well as atmospheric effects, sophisticated control systems like the new M1 lighting controller, and more.

Held at the Las Vegas Convention Centre from 22-24, also on the show floor will be Martin's Brighter World road show trailer, hot off a successful, 37-city, nationwide presentation tour.

(Jim Evans)

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UK - Prominent businesses from the area, including Lola, Thurlby Thandar, Solo Cup Europe and Anglia Circuits, attended the inaugural event of the Huntingdonshire Manufacturers Association last week at the Brampton Racecourse Conference Centre.

Sponsored by Huntingdonshire District Council and supported by Huntingdonshire Chamber of Commerce, Huntingdonshire Regional College and Business Link East, the group has been created to reinforce the manufacturers' role in the district's economy. It will also help them promote high standards in manufacturing and access training and funding opportunities.

The launch was personally endorsed by Lord Digby Jones of Birmingham, Minister of State for UK trade and industry and prominent champion of British manufacturing. Delegates heard key speakers from HSBC Bank, the East of England Regional Development Agency and the Institute of Manufactu

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Israel - Showlogix, a developer of show control software for the entertainment market, has announced the release of its newest Logix-4D show and media control software, designed for controlling shows in museums, visitor centres, attractions and trade shows

The new Logix-4D is a significant step up from the previous version, offering greater flexibility, higher reliability and overall better performance, says the company.

As a multi-display control and presentation system, Logix-4D Manager communicates with multiple display computers for control and synchronization. Each of these computers drives one or two screens, creating a network of numerous audio/video channels with frame accurate playback.

For further flexibility, Logix-4D Player enables advanced edge-blending for seamless panorama projections. The geometry correction tool enables image shaping; video output can be man

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China - The five star Hengda Hotel recently opened in Guangzhou in south-east China. Its spectacular appearance becomes even more stunning in the evening, when the Coemar moving heads are switched on.

The entire external lighting project, created by lighting company Guangzhou Zhilliang, is highly innovative: it uses moving heads that aremore usually found in the theatre.

Walking through the gardens and along the paths of the park during the evening, your eye is drawn to the light beams lighting up the sky. The design includes 63 of the Infinity S model ACL, some of which are located in the upper part of the building in order to create light beams towards the sky. Others have been positioned along two sides of the garden, to light up the darker areas and fill them with colour.

The small moving heads of the Infinity S range have been combined with the larger Infinity Spot XL o

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UK - Advanced Optocore systems were used for site wide signal distribution by both SSE Audio Group and Wigwam Hire when Pope Benedict XVI visited the UK recently.

While SSE was entrusted with providing the full audio design and implementation for the two-and-a-half-hour mass at Bellahouston Park, Glasgow - as well as the full programme of pre- and post-service entertainment - as previously reported, Wigwam did likewise at Cofton Park in Birmingham.

The solution provided for SSE project manager Dan Bennett, had far-reaching consequences. The bespoke fibre system, configured and supported by Optocore (from both Germany and the UK), was designed to enable them to tunnel Ethernet through their optical fibre system, enabling L'Acoustics' new Network Manager Remote Control Software to reside on the network.

Bennett realised that Optocore would give them the combined benefit of suf

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France - Medialon has launched MAS Pro, a new generation of professional audio server for both multi-track playback applications as well as multi-zone independent playback.

MAS Pro is not a regular multi-track playback unit which plays all audio files at the same time. It can at the same time serve independent channels asynchronously and group together multiple channels for synchronized playback. Any number of individual audio files or groups can be controlled independently when needed, says the company.

Multiple playback channels can output to the same CobraNet outputs, so it is possible to play synchonized background audio and independently triggered sound effects from the same output at the same time. The volume of all players, tracks, and outputs can be controlled independently.

Medialon MAS Pro comes in a new professional hardware 19" 2U rack mount compact form for

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Remembering Lennon - A monument to John Lennon has been unveiled in Liverpool by his first wife Cynthia and son Julian on what would have been the star's 70th birthday. The statue is intended to act as a shrine for fans who want to pay tribute to the late Beatle in his home city. In the shape of a globe with doves flying above, it is also designed to be a monument for peace.

The global birthday celebrations also included a performance by his widow Yoko Ono in Reykjavik, Iceland. In New York, Lennon's original band The Quarrymen headlined a tribute concert and fans gathered to remember the icon in Central Park.

Unveiling the statue, Julian said: "We come here with our hearts to honour dad and pray for peace and say thank you to each and every one of you and everybody involved in the celebrations today." The onlookers also included original Beatles drummer Pete Best, w

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UK - With 65,000 pilgrims attending the Papal mass at Bellahouston Park in Glasgow, the task of delivering Pope Benedict XVI's voice with absolute clarity across the site was entrusted to a pair of Soundcraft Vi6 digital consoles, supplied by SSE Audio Group - augmented at the last minute by a Soundcraft Vi1 to increase the channel count.

Once SSE became aware that they would also be mixing a 35-piece brass band, as well as an 800-piece choir - plus various ensembles and pre- and post-show concerts, the Vi1 was brought in specifically to handle the choir sub-mix; this was then piped back into the main Vi6 FOH desk, and sent as a L/R monitor feed to the Vi6 stage desk.

Mixing at FOH was the experienced Craig Pryde - a long-time Soundcraft Vi devotee (whose induction into the Soundcraft environment had originally taken on the first Vi4 prototype). He and monitor engineer Kevin S

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UK - Harrier and Jaguar, the Duveens Commission 2010 installation by Fiona Banner at Tate Britain features two decommissioned fighter planes.

In the incongruous setting of the Duveen Galleries, a suspended Sea Harrier is transformed into a captive bird, the markings that tattoo its surface evoking its namesake the Harrier Hawk. A Jaguar lies belly up on the floor, its posture suggestive of a submissive animal.

The planning for the rigging of the two aircraft began at the end of 2009. Unusual Rigging was asked to tender for the project following similar work at RAF Hendon and RAF Cosford although, says Robin Elias, Unusual's project manager, "the two RAF projects were very different! For those projects, we had to keep restoration and conservation in mind, but in this case, we were free to gut the planes and, because of access problems, to 'cut and shunt' them."

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Denmark - Despite surging forward with its Supernova front projection programme, dnp denmark is reporting a sharp uplift in OEM rear projection cube business.

With a growing global market for monitor and control rooms - particularly in their key Chinese market - dnp is continuing to explore new technologies to create higher visual acuity and reduce bezel sizes even further to ensure seamless tiled videowall displays with edge-to-edge pictures.

According to S°ren Weis Lindegaard, dnp business manager, OEM & special projects, the company has called on its heritage in pioneering advanced lens technologies -offering a number of alternatives fit for purpose. But it is the Cross Prism Screen (XPS), supplied by the Danish company, that OEM customers are favouring, while the more mature screen types, like Ultra Contrast Screen and Black Bead Screen, continue to remain popular.

T

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Argentina - The Teatro Colón is the main opera house in Buenos Aires and its reputation for magnificent acoustics and opulence places it as one of top five opera houses in the world. It has hosted the likes of Maria Callas, Richard Strauss, Arturo Toscanini, Igor Stravinsky, Enrico Caruso, and Luciano Pavarotti. Pavarotti once described the acoustics of the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires as so perfect that they challenge singers because "if one does something wrong, it is noted immediately".

However, the past century had seen the building deteriorate to the point where balconies were blocked off, walls suffocated under as many as 10 coats of paint, bronze ornaments were splattered with floor polish, carpets were stuck to the floor with cement and the stage equipment had become obsolete.

In 2006 the city government's original 'master plan' to renovate involved structu

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USA - Audinate and Four Audio have confirmed a collaboration in which Audinate's Dante networking solution will be integrated into several future Four Audio products.

Four Audio has licensed Audinate's Dante Brooklyn modules to provide a synchronized TCP/IP networking solution for their HD2 loudspeaker management system. This will enable users to stream 24-bit audio data, control and have the ability to monitor HD2 devices over a normal computer network using only one Ethernet cable. Next to the usual features of an audio controller, the HD2 provides more than 130 dB dynamic range at the inputs and allows control of the phase response of the speaker down to very low frequencies. Its limiter concept uses RMS and peak limiters for the amplifier and thermal and peak limiters for the speakers.

Four Audio is also integrating Dante into their solutions for wave field synthesis syste

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UK - ETC Congo lighting control desks have been used for the annual Summer Sundae music festival in Leicestershire.

Starring Tinchy Stryder, Seasick Steve and folk rock band Mumford & Sons, the three-day festival focuses on indie, alternative and local music. The festival began as a single day event in 2001 and has grown since then to three days, adding two campsites. Programmer Florian Baeumler and lighting designer Andy Finn used a full size ETC Congo on the main stage this year, with a Congo jr as backup, supplied by Hawthorne Theatrical.

"This is the second time I've worked on the lighting for Summer Sundae," says Baeumler, "but only the first time we've used Congo control. I love the versatility of the desk and its ability to handle live events with ease. It makes a big difference that you can program blind, not affecting what's happening on s

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Hungary - Hungarian audio distributor, Interton, has supervised a major sound system installation as part of a complete cultural centre rebuild in the city of Ajka.

Located in the north-west of the country, the local government-run Nagy László Cultural Centre has been re-equipped with an end-to-end QSC solution, including an Installation Line Array (ILA) system.

Interton has a long relationship with the venue's acoustic consultant, András Kotschy, who specified QSC components in the tender. "Due to our good relationship with the main contractor [Csönget? Ltd.] we managed to win the supply of the equipment - and the installation works as well," stated Interton MD, Géza Balogh.

The scope of the contract included the commissioning of a new sound reinforcement system for the main auditorium, as well as the intercom system.

The ILA not only had to demonstra

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