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UK - Just past its tenth birthday and The Lowry at Salford Quays in Salford has something to celebrate by having the first installation anywhere in the UK of d&b audiotechnik's latest E6 loudspeaker. The E6 replaces the E3, d&b audiotechnik's most popular loudspeaker ever.

"We had decided to go with E3s," said Dave Woodward, technical manager at The Lowry. "We've needed delays in the Lyric since we opened 10 years ago, but they were value engineered out at the time. Virtually everything that tours here carries d&b loudspeaker systems; so we made our decision almost by default."

The Lyric seats 1,730 with a deep circle and upper circle. "A lot of what we present here has TV actors performing drama, so the need for delay reinforcement was twofold. One, TV

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USA - When Pyxis Industries in Riverside, California was asked by North Coast Church to bid on the design and installation of sound systems at two different locations, owner Chad Costanzo commented, "These installations had to come together extremely quickly. But our past experience with Electro-Voice gave us total confidence that everything would work out fine. And it did."

Based in Vista, California, North Coast's two newest purpose-built venues are North Coast Live and The Edge. The vendor that had originally been retained to design and install sound reinforcement systems for the sites had to pull out of the project only two months before opening day at both facilities. Pyxis got the call from North Coast, and Costanzo went to work with systems engineer Alan DiCato, deciding how to handle the project within the church's allocated budget.

While the previous provide

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France - Christie MicroTiles is the winner of the Satis-Le Radio Award in the Display category. In awarding this prize, the Satis-Le Radio panel of judges cited "the technological innovation, the quality of colour reproduction, and the detailed image resolution provided by Christie MicroTiles".

This is the second French award for Christie MicroTiles since they were introduced in Europe in February 2010 at ISE in Amsterdam. MicroTiles also received the Janus de l'Industrie award in May 2010 from the French Institute of Design.

"We're very proud of this award," said Pascal Gervais, regional director for Christie France. "Christie MicroTiles have enjoyed success worldwide since they were introduced in France and internationally. Today, they're winning over trend-setters in the fields of architecture, design, and billboard-style advertising in high-value p

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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 - Harman Professional has appointed John Goodrich to the newly created position of global sales manager for mass communications.

Goodrich joins Harman Professional from Altel Systems Group, where he was vice president of business development, leading the development of integrated audio/visual and communication systems for the airport, mass transit, and hospitality industries. He previously held senior sales and business development roles at Meyer Sound Labs and Innovative Electronic Designs (IED). In his new role, he will report to Michael MacDonald, Harman Professional executive vice president of marketing & sales, and will be responsible for developing Harman Professional's presence in the mass communications market.

Michael MacDonald comments, "In some verticals audio has been commoditised and as a result communication has suffered. Harman Professional brings profe

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USA / Europe - Monitor engineer Ramon Morales is currently on tour with Lady Gaga. The production is all in-ears, including all the musicians, the dancers and the audio crew. "I've been a huge fan of Sensaphonics several years now," he states. "In fact, I basically insist on wearing the 2MAX when I mix. I've tried pretty much everything out there, and there's really nothing that can match it for sound quality and comfort. On Lady Gaga, the whole band is on Sensaphonics, and most of the techs are wearing them, and others are on the 3MAX as well. Everyone is really happy with them."

In terms of hearing protection, Morales sees a major advantage to Sensaphonics soft-gel silicone construction. "It's not just a comfort thing, although that's part of it," he says. "The silicone gives better isolation than anything else, which keeps everything you don

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USA - American Pop-Rockers Passion Pit have been touring extensively since 2008's debut EP Chunk of Change propelled them firmly in to the limelight. They've since been riding high with 2009's follow up album Manners.

2010 has seen no let-up for the Massachusetts-based five-piece; this past Autumn they supported Muse for a string of North American dates. Tour manager Andrew Dobbins and monitor engineer Francois Pare - both a part of London-based live music production house Cato Music - spec'd the equipment for the tour, including Shure PSM900 in-ear monitors.

"Before the tour we were looking to try something new - mainly because we weren't very happy with the system we were using at the time. We were getting a lot of interference and the sound quality wasn't great. I'd heard about this new Shure system so I thought I'd try them on a tour that started back in

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USA - At Chicago's United Centre, 16 Martin MAC III Profile spot luminaires play a key role in generating excitement and raising the energy levels for more than 200 sports and entertainment events per year.

Last year, the United Centre production team took a hard look at their ageing lighting gear and decided it was time to upgrade. Brady Tieman, technical production manager at the United Centre, reports, "Eight of the fixtures were a pan and tilt model that was prone to frequent failures; they spent too much time in the shop which resulted in countless hours of programming to come up with workarounds for defective fixtures.

"The other eight moving mirror fixtures were over 12 years old and had become too expensive to maintain. Unlike a touring act, we don't have full time light techs on staff to quickly repair moving lights." The tech team brought their challen

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Russia - The Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, national theatre of Russia and home to the Bolshoi Ballet, the Bolshoi Ballet Academy and the Bolshoi Opera, is presently closed to its millions of annual visitors while undergoing extensive renovations. The doors were shut to the main building in 2005 and it is scheduled to reopen in a year's time. The Theatre has undergone many renovations in its time, but nothing anywhere near as major as this undertaking which is estimated at US$730 million and is being entirely funded by the federal government.

Early in October, 110 cartons packed with new lighting equipment left the Philips Selecon Auckland factory in New Zealand journeyed halfway around the world ready to take part in this crucial preservation project. In all, 561 Philips Selecon luminaires will grace the lighting rigs for the grand stage of the Bolshoi Theatre when it opens its doo

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Australia - Jands has scored at the 2010 Australian Musician Music Gear Awards, being announced as the winner across four product categories. Jands has taken first place for: Best Mixer: Soundcraft FX16ii; Best Speaker/Monitors: JBL EON 515 S; Best Live Microphone: Shure Beta 58A, and Best Studio Microphone: Shure KSM313.

The annual Australian Musician Music Gear Awards is in its second year. The products within each category are nominated by the Australian Music Association member wholesalers, which is then opened to the public for voting.

(Jim Evans)

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USA - Camelback Toyota, a dealership located in the heart of Phoenix, is receiving a lot of attention for its recent renovations. It just built a 62,000sq.ft showroom alongside a 65,000sq.ft service facility with many added conveniences.

"What continues to make the biggest impression on all of our guests, however, is the digital technology," said Kim McKay, customer relations manager at Camelback. A digital signage network from Unified Brand and Scala is one of the major components of the 22-year-old facility's complete makeover.

The goal of building this showroom was to create an environment that does not resemble a car dealership. The new facility is equipped with high-end amenities, including free Wi-Fi, a cafe, high-tech media room, kids' play area, outdoor patio and massage area with in-chair TVs. Accordingly, Camelback did an in-depth search to find a sophistic

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Belgium - ArKaos has released MediaMaster 2.2 which features new curved screen technology. This new functionality is available as a free upgrade to all user of MediaMaster Pro 2.

MediaMaster is a software solution for professional control of real-time video and effects that has been specifically developed for desk operators and lighting designers.

More than simply supporting curved screen functionality, the new geometry correction also allows you to correct a single projector mounted in those difficult places where standard keystone correction is not effective, says the company. It will also harmonise the output from several projectors which cannot be installed at the same distance or angle to a curved screen.

MediaMaster 2.2 also offers several other improvements, such as better support for multiple monitors. While still running on Windows XP and Mac OS X, MediaMaster 2.2 n

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UK - Sir Cliff Richard celebrated his 70th birthday in October with a week of concerts at the Royal Albert Hall, complete with a swing band and Midas PRO6s for front of house and monitors.

As the shows were more complex than Sir Cliff's usual live appearances, both PRO6s were full to capacity. Engineers Mike 'Bunny' Warren (FOH) and John 'JJ' James (monitors), who have worked with Richard for 12 and 30 years respectively, were new to the PRO6, and both were unanimous in their praise for the system.

Bunny felt the PRO6 had been a boon for the notoriously difficult acoustics of the Albert Hall. "It's definitely helped in this environment," he says. "The EQ just does what you want it to do, and I've been able to add definition between different instruments, which has been especially useful as 24 of my 56 inputs are brass. To get a difference between each of the sax

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USA - Edgar Bernal, aka, DJ Etronik has joined American DJ as the new product/sales specialist for American Audio. Bernal recently took the 2010 US DMC DJ Championship title in New York.

Tom Freret, national sales manager of American Audio, comments, "We are very excited to appoint Edgar Bernal, a highly celebrated DJ, to this position. His passion for music and his understanding of our vast family of products really embodies what American DJ is all about. We know we will see great things from him."

(Jim Evans)

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UK - Following the positive response to the new products from both Philips Color Kinetics and Sensacell at last month's PLASA show, Architainment Lighting has created a new technical sales engineer position to spearhead the promotion of its lighting products into the entertainment sector, and promoting current employee, Phil Grice, to this position.

Grice, who joined Architainment early in 2010 as a technical services engineer has a strong background rooted in the entertainment side of the business. Prior to joining Architainment, he worked for Dorking Halls.

Commenting on this new role, Phil Grice said, "I am excited for the opportunity to meet potential clients and introduce them to the LED fixtures Architainment can provide and the various benefits and functionalities these fittings can offer."

Managing Director, Nic Tolkien added, "We've been looking at es

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Russia - Tannoy's QFlex digitally steerable column array loudspeakers have been installed in one of Russia's most recent new-build churches - in the village of Usovo, on the western outskirts of Moscow.

Named Temple Spasa Nerukotvornogo Obraza, loosely translated as the Parish Church of the Saviour 'Not Made by Hands', the grand and imposing new complex was designed by the architect Vyacheslav Izhikov, and completed in record time last year - with the inaugural service taking place on 29 August.

The construction project was initiated by the local community and funded by Rosneft, one of Russia's largest oil and gas companies, with support from the Russian government and the formal opening ceremony was attended by Russian Prime Minister, and former President, Vladimir Putin.

Tannoy's distribution partner in Russia, I.S.P.A Engineering, was brought to the project by main AV con

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Singapore - An Aviom Pro16Personal Mixing System (WFX Booth 1220) was recently installed at Aldersgate Methodist Church in Queenstown, Singapore. The church called on CODA Audio Services, an audio design and system provider based in Singapore, for a structured cabling and equipment upgrade.

One of the biggest challenges the church faced prior to the equipment upgrade was the building's hexagon shape, with the pulpit centred on one of the six sides. The live band is located directly to the right of the pulpit and the choir is positioned on the left. The separation of the choir and the band, along with the uncommon shape of the worship hall, added to the unfavourable nuances of the audio system.

With this type of design, speech intelligibility was a prime consideration for selecting the new audio equipment. The church wanted parishioners to be able to hear the services clearly,

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UK - Playing nine arenas across the UK, Dr Who Live is in full swing. With 23 dates currently confirmed and multiple shows per day in main venues the tour needed a stage floor that could resist extermination. Le Mark's Consor floor was chosen.

The low profile Consor Stage Floor resists indentations allowing heavy items such as camera dollys, flight cases and the odd Dalek to roll over the floor with minimal drag. Most scuffs and marks are also easily removed with Le Mark's specialist cleaners keeping the floor looking fresh and presentable.

"We're now well into the tour and so far the floor has been brilliant, it works really well with the shows lighting and was a doddle to install" says Lianne Bruce, BBC deputy production manager for Dr Who Live.

(Jim Evans)

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USA - Bandit Lites played a key part in an historical event when the Grand Ole Opry House needed to be restored following last spring's devastating Nashville flood.. The day the rains stopped, and before the water started to recede, Opry lighting director Tyler Bryan and other Opry staffers were inside the Opry House in canoes. The entire stage and seating area was under several feet of water. The devastation the floodwaters left behind was unimaginable. One of the first calls Bryan made was to national director of sales & installations Chris Barbee to begin the task of restoring the storied building.

Four days after the water receded, Barbee and John Jenkinson toured the facility with Bryan to evaluate the damage, create a plan for the renovation and provide cost estimates for the work. The planning and decision making time were critically short as the Opry's 85th birthday cele

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Belgium - Tait Technologies, the joint venture between Tait Towers and Frederic Opsomer's System Technologies' team - is well on its way to consolidating the launch of the company in early 2010 with the activation of its rental division as of 31 October. Heading up the new division will be Dirk DHulster, an industrial engineer with over 20 years' experience in the visualisation industry.

Says CEO Frederic Opsomer, "The activation of our rental division is another milestone in the deployment of Tait Technologies' full range of activities throughout Europe."

Headquartered in Belgium, Tait Technologies offers clients in the entertainment, corporate and architectural markets solutions ranging from the rental of 'off-the-shelf' stage products to the design and development of custom-made, project-specific innovations. Over the past months, Tait Technologies has brought a s

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USA - When Scott Chmielewski, president of Digital Media Designs, put a pair of grandMA2 full-size consoles through their paces at Virgin Mobile's FreeFest, a day-long music and dance extravaganza, he deployed the grandMA2's new 2.0 software.

FreeFest attracted some 40,000 fans to the Merriweather Post Pavilion and surrounding grounds at Columbia, Maryland where headliners included Joan Jett, Lucacris and Chmielewski, whose Digital Media Designs served as the designer, programmer and production provider for the event and was responsible for the dance stage and one of the two primary stages.

"Everything went exceptionally well," he notes. "I was able to previz the show about a week before the event and, with the use of grandMA 3D, I was able to have most of the show done before we ever loaded in. Running the software on my MacBook Pro I never saw a

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China - The new Opera House in Guangzhou installed a comprehensive intercom system from Riedel Communications. Riedel delivered a digital intercom solution combining a Performer digital partyline system and an Acrobat wireless intercom installation. Responsible for the installation was Leifull Light & Sound.

The Guangzhou Opera House is one the three largest theaters in Asia. To provide the most comprehensive communications infrastructure for the control room, director and technicians, the opera house installed a combination of wired Riedel Performer partyline and wireless Riedel Acrobat intercom technology.

At the heart of the installation are two Performer C44 system interfaces. Performer's digital signal chain provides high quality digital audio. A total of 12 Performer C3 beltpacks are installed at the opera house. They are complemented by eight Performer CD-2 desktop cont

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