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Downsizing - Sir Paul McCartney performed an intimate lunchtime gig at the 100 Club on London's Oxford Street, the historic music venue that is threatened with closure. Around 300 fans were treated to a set lasting almost two hours, comprising songs by the Beatles, Wings and from Sir Paul's solo back catalogue. It was the smallest gig the star has played in the UK for nearly 10 years.

The club, which began life as a restaurant in the 1940s, has played host to the Sex Pistols, the Rolling Stones and Metallica down the years. But rising rent in the centre of London has pushed the venue into the red. Unless a new buyer or sponsor is found, the club could close before the year is out.

A campaign to keep the 100 Club open has attracted support from Primal Scream's Bobby Gillespie and

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Germany - ABBA - The Concert performed by AbbAgain is a live reconstruction of the legendary 1979 Abba performance at Wembley featuring more than 13 musicians and 150 minutes of Abba songs. To distribute the audio at the various tour locations, the show uses a RockNet digital audio network from Riedel Communications.

To connect the stage and the FOH into a single audio network rental company PRG Germany uses a set of three RockNet 100 interfaces at the event. RockNet 100 is a flexible, digital snake solution and a cost-effective entry to RockNet digital audio networks. Based on the RockNet 300 technology, RockNet 100 provides 80 audio channels with 48kHz/24-bit digital audio quality.

The RockNet 100 interfaces are combined with six RockNet RN.141.MY interface cards for digital Yamaha consoles. With RockNet's Independent Gain feature it is possible to control each input

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UK - Unusual Rigging may be the appointed points rigger for Earls Court - which means they're the only company with the licence to attach things direct to the ceiling - but that doesn't mean they automatically get to rig everything else. But when it came to choosing a supplier for the T4 show Stars of 2010, event producer Done & Dusted didn't need to think twice.

"We've worked with Unusual many times before, and we know they always do a fantastic job," says event director Rachel French. "The show is Channel 4's roundup of the year's highlights in music, TV film, featuring three presenters and 15 live music acts - so it was bound to be big - with stunts and special effects.

"Our designer, lighting designer and CAD artist all work closely with Ruthie Buchanan, Unusual's Earls Court service manager, to make sure everyone knows what's happening and agree

featured content

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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Norway - After a 28-year career, Norwegian trio A-ha have decided to split, saying farewell to their fans with a major world tour. Two DiGiCo consoles, plus a full complement of Sennheiser microphones and in-ear monitoring systems, ensured that the band's career - as the tour's name suggested - ended on a high note.

Taking in Asia, Europe, North and South America, the tour finished on home ground in December with four sold-out dates at the Oslo Spektrum. Having used a DiGiCo SD7 on the band's previous Foot Of The Mountain tour, front of house engineer Sherif El Barbari was happy to use it again. This time he was joined by monitor engineer Kursten Smith using an SD8.

"When the band asked me to do this tour, as far as equipment goes, all I asked for was an SD7," says Sherif. "It has never let me down and, with its full redundancy, I have complete confidence

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USA - FLI Rigging is a new company formed to service the entertainment lighting, film, AV and installation markets with professional equipment for sale or rent, along with safe, certified services.

Headquartered in Belleville, Michigan, FLI Rigging operations director Kevin Phail says the company was originally borne out of a need for recognised professional rigging services in their own home state, along with the neighboring Ohio and Indiana.

However, since it opened its doors this year, FLI Rigging has expanded its temporary and permanent rigging solutions nationwide. Stage productions, special events, concerts, trade shows, corporate functions, sporting events, film production, architectural installations and other markets have found a need for their services.

This demand led to the creation of two divisions within FLI Rigging. One division handles the sales and rentals o

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South Africa - A grandMA2 full-size console was chosen by LD Mauritz Jacobs to control all lighting for the 2010 Final of Miss South Africa, staged at Sun City Superbowl. Lighting equipment for the show - also a live MNET telecast - was supplied by Johannesburg Dream Sets, who purchased their grandMA2 from MA's South African distributor DWR earlier in the year. They were one of the first companies in South Africa to run the new grandMA2 with the latest software version.

The lighting brief was a bit of a departure from that of the normal beauty pageant with "lots of effects" requested to go with the up-beat vibe and general excitement of the presentation, which also included guest artists and dance performances plus the 12contestants appearing onstage.

The creative look and feel of Miss SA's lighting followed the clean, streamlined set designed by Dewet Meyer. Dream S

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Hong Kong - Lighthouse screens was chosen to be one of the focal points at MAHA2010, one of Malaysia's biggest public events, held between 26 November and 5 December.

The Malaysian Agriculture, Horticulture and Agrotourism Show (MAHA) is claimed to be the largest event of its kind in the region. Taking place every two years at the Malaysian Agro Exposition Park in Serdang, it showcases the best of the country's food growing and production industry.

The 6 x 5 panel (6.12m wide x 3.8m high) screens were supplied by Selangor-based Nova Spectra Sdn Bhd and had signals simultaneously routed wirelessly to them from a central server, displaying information about the wide range of demonstrations, seminars, tasting sessions, promotions, product launches and performances which took place each day.

"As the largest and most comprehensive show of its kind in the region, if not all o

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Australia - Sydney's Sefton High School has recently upgraded its auditorium following advice from Jands and The PA People who were contracted to supply and install drapes, audio and lighting equipment. The refurbishment was undertaken to coincide with the school's 50th anniversary.

The narrow stage had almost no wing space which severely restricted backstage circulation and technical space. Barely one metre either side of stage is a wall that supports a platform that, at a higher level, provides valuable storage as well as somewhere for dimmers and patching to reside.

The curtain and drapes staff at Jands developed a design in partnership with the school that reduced the width of the performance space thus providing somewhere for performers to stand off stage. This was achieved by providing dog leg wings rather than flat or diagonal wings and a full tab across the back of the

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UK - Lewden Electrical supplied a variety of cable and hose protection systems at the recent Taste of London 2010 event. The four-day festival took place in Regent's Park and included product stands and demonstrations by top chefs and restaurants cooking up a vast array of gastronomic delicacies.

With the event attracting over 50,000 visitors, Taste Festivals have become a global phenomenon and a brand which now holds events in 15 cities around the world. With safety of paramount importance for visitors and exhibitors alike, Lewden's Linebacker and Guard Dog Low Profile of cable protection systems were used throughout the site.

(Jim Evans)

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Hungary - An English-style pub in Budapest has been refitted with QSC's K-Series and AcousticDesign loudspeakers. Situated in the trendy downtown area of the Hungarian capital, Pub Silenus boasts international cuisine and a wide selection of beers downstairs, while up on the first floor a full evening entertainment package, ranging from soft ambient music to karaoke, disco and live music takes place nightly.

Owner, Ákos Bankó, wanted to replace his old PA system with a loudspeaker brand that would sound clear right across the volume spectrum - whether fed from a band or the resident CD background system. QSC's K-Series was chosen on recommendation from a colleague of QSC's Hungarian distributors, Interton.

The resellers were soon carrying out a live demo of the moulded enclosures to show how matched components (including a 1K Class D amplifier present in all models) would op

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UK - With a full television crew recording his every move, and 'meet and greet' packages (which also took into account a private sound-check viewing) on offer at every show, Peter André's big arena tour this December would not make life easy for the production company.

But for Mark 'Knocker' Neil's sound and lighting company Production Hire, the budget thrown at the stage and set design for this extravagant show could hardly have been more generous, as he rigged three different Martin Audio line array systems scalable to the different venue capacities.

At the UK's largest arena, O2 in London, his main weapon was the W8L Longbow - 13 elements a side, plus two W8LD down-fill boxes at the base. Borrowing a couple of enclosures per side from Capital Sound Hire for this gig, Production Hire serviced all remaining UK arenas from their own inventory - including hangs of W8LC C

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Singapore - Impact Engineering - one of the biggest technical production houses in Singapore, Hong Kong and China - has made a major investment in Robe moving lights, purchasing 116 units - 50 ColorSpot 700E ATs and 66 Robin 300 Beams.

It's the first investment in Robe that Impact has made, explains director Johnny Ong, although the company has been working with the brand for some time. They actually first used Robe lights for a club installation in Taiwan seven years ago using XT Series fixtures which are still going strong.

"Robe is being specified more and more frequently for productions, so we wanted to expand our inventory and get the brand onboard to ensure that as a leading rental house we can supply what LD's are asking for," he states, adding that they also had a gap in their hire stock for both a 700 and a 300 type fixture. The deal was sealed by Louis Teo

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UAE - To support its strategy of expansion in the Middle East market, Proel Group organised the first Proel Middle East Conference at the Novotel World Trade Centre in Dubai, a three-day event devoted to Middle Eastern markets. The conference also hosted professionals from the Northern African countries, such as Morocco and Egypt.

Fabrizio Sorbi, president of Proel Group, took part in the event together with Massimo Signor, Proel's managing director, and Simon Sinclair, business development director. Sorbi stressed how strategically important these emerging markets are for Proel. He went on to explain what the Group's strengths are - the R&D department, logistics, and the investments in the new management system that will "lead to an even greater general efficiency in the future".

The event hosted several specific product sessions, divided by line and brand, during w

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Italy - First opened to the public in 1928, Stadio Atleti Azzurri d'Italia in Bergamo has a storied history as home to the Atalanta and Albinoleffe football teams. Sound reinforcement was, until recently, a sore subject for attendees of the ageing stadium's various events. As part of planned refurbishments, that issue has now been rectified - thanks to an ambitious new sound system drawn from the catalogue of Valencia, Spain-based D.A.S. Audio.

Sound Services by Angelo Pelliccioli was contracted to renovate the sound system at Stadio Atleti Azzurri d'Italia. Luciano Biamino, head of D.A.S. Audio's Italian distributor Kennell and who collaborates with Sound Services and D.A.S. Audio on a variety of projects, commented on the challenges of the installation.

"Since most of this large stadium lacks a roof," Biamino explained, "we had limited structural support for t

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Spain - Around 500 pro audio and broadcast professionals assembled at the IFEMA trade show in Madrid for the eighth annual Producción Audio and Producción Professional awards ceremony. These awards, hosted by regional trade magazine publisher, Editorial Bolina, gave recognition to some of the most noted technological and personal endeavours to benefit the AV market in Spain over the past year.

Among the 23 category winners was the Lake LM 26 Digital Audio Loudspeaker Processor, winning the award for Best PA Product for Touring against some stiff opposition.

On hand to receive the award was Juan Fernández of Pro3 - Lab.gruppen and Lake's exclusive distributor in Spain - presented to him by Alfonso Gonzalez, president of Keido Music.

After collecting the award for the LM 26, Fernández commented: "We were delighted to hear that the new Lake LM 26 had been nominated for

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France - After missing last year's event, lighting designer Richard Knight returned to the Wella International Trend Vision Award 2010 (ITVA), held this year at Paris's Halle Freyssinet, to make his contribution to a dazzling spectacular.

Drawing on around 80 GLP impression (impression 90 and impression 120 RZ zoom) LED moving heads, the lighting designer, who specialises in theatrical and corporate events such as this, had a mission-critical role for the fixtures in each location.

Zone 2 became the location for the morning and afternoon catwalk shows and Zone 1 was used for the evening gala dinner and award presentations. These two areas were linked by a central 'hub', in the form of a 'live' TV studio, where interviews took place throughout the day, as well as four 'trend zone' exhibition spaces.

Working alongside event production company Jack Morton Worldwide's production

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Europe - Back in the summer, Danish lighting designer Christian Bonde prepared to scale up the Bullet For My Valentine lighting production he had successfully taken round a US club tour, in preparation for European arenas.

Knowing the vagaries of heavy travelling and short load in times, he needed a powerful floor rig, which required no more than a one man set up. And the impressions fit the bill.

The Download Festival in the UK marked the start of the upscaling process - from an inventory of 10 original impression RGB moving heads to 44 RZ 120 Zooms - in anticipation of the Welsh rockers' current tour. The RZ 120s and 700W profile discharge moving light became the mainstays of the new rig - with the lighting support for the European leg coming from Neg Earth.

The complement of floor lights was extended, with 20 GLP impressions now deployed along with strobes and blinders, w

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UK - A.C. Special Projects were approached by London's Southbank Centre to specify and supply a high power outdoor gobo projector to provide a visually impactful logo above the entrance to the Hayward Gallery's trendy Concrete cafe and late night bar, which takes its name from the building's striking 1960s architecture.

Based on the available throw distance to achieve a 6m wide projection of the logo, the company specified a Griven GoboStorm IP65 rated outdoor gobo projector with a powerful 575W metal halide lamp and high precision zoom optics to achieve the required image size, brightness level and clarity.

A.C. Special Projects were also contracted to specify and supply outdoor LED lighting to highlight an area under a railway bridge leading from the Royal Festival Hall to a restaurant and other visitor attractions along the South Bank area.

To overcome planning restrictio

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UK - The latest additions to Shure's renowned Beta range of microphones have now arrived in the UK. The new models include the Beta 181, a side-address condenser mic with a unique 'lollipop' design and interchangeable heads; the Beta 98AMP/C, a miniature cardioid drum mic with integrated preamp, and the Beta 91A, a boundary mic which Shure says is "heavily influenced in sound reproduction by the legendary SM91".

Having recently used a Beta 181 prototype, prominent FOH engineer Roger Lindsay commented: "In many applications where a large diaphragm side-address condenser might be a desirable, but impractical choice for live music, the Beta 181 offers a fresh solution. A full, rich, well-defined sound in a microphone that goes where many others can't. Impeccable performance in a neat versatile package."

The Beta 181 with its characteristic lollipop-design is s

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USA - Denon DJ recently launched the new DN-MC6000 Mixer and MIDI Controller with a special event at SKY Ultra Lounge in Oak Brook, Illinois. The launch, held on 1 December, was open to the public and attendees included DJs, leading music industry journalists and personnel from Denon DJ.

The evening featured live performances by Chicagoland-based B96-FM's DJ Flipside and Public Enemy's DJ Johnny Juice, both using the DN-S3700 featuring Hybrid Mode, in addition to live musicians performing music from the Halo video game franchise. Throughout the night, attendees were encouraged to take a test-drive of the DN-MC6000.

The three-hour event was streamed live online, and viewers from around the globe were able to chat in real-time with each other, as well as with on-site Denon DJ personnel. Denon DJ and B96 also offered product giveaways, both online and in person, and Denon DJ nati

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The Netherlands - Visual Productions has released a tool for creating personality files for use within Cuelux. This tool - the 'Builder' - is available for Mac OS and Windows and is free for download from the company's website: www.visualproductions.nl/downloads.html

The company says the Builder offers a friendly GUI (Graphical User Interface) for creating and editing personality files. Users can amend existing fixtures or start building their own fixtures from scratch. The personality files (sometimes referred to as 'profiles') are visualised by a coloured diagram to indicate good data and to highlight typical mistakes when inputting the fixture's DMX table, such as overlapping channels and values. Personality files created with the Builder can be used directly by Cuelux; the Builder also features an upload function to send the newly created file to Visual Productions' server t

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