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USA - POET Theatricals designs and produces the shows on the Celebrity Solstice class of vessels. Their creative director, Michael McPherson, features Martin LC Series LED panels in the show Edge on the cruise ship Celebrity Eclipse.

McPherson comments, "I like Martin products and I have used them for years. We use them in all of our shows actually. Martin panels are robust and built well, so for the guys who have to load them in and out, they hold up well."

The Eclipse is the third new vessel in this line of ships, following the Solstice and the Equinox. POET is designing and producing the next three shows on the new cruise ship, the Celebrity Silhouette, which is set to launch in 2011. McPherson says, "I'll use them on the next ship too because they worke

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USA - After five years of restoration, modernisation and seismic retrofitting, the historic Rotunda building of the Los Angeles County Natural History Museum in July 2010 reopened with a new face and a whole new set of lighting - decorative LED bulbs supplied by Torrance, California-based LEDtronics.

Renovation of the 97-year-old Beaux Arts-inspired building was part of a multi-phase, $107m project that included the modernisation of the electrical system to support multimedia presentations and events, improve climate control and enhance exhibition lighting in an energy-efficient manner. Modernising of the lighting system involved a retrofit from incandescent light fixtures with custom-manufactured LED systems without compromising the historical integrity of the original fixtures, notably in the Rotunda.

LEDtronics provided 90 5-watt PAR38-180 Series bulbs and 160 1-watt DEC-G2

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UK - Brighton Goes Gospel is that city's non-religious community gospel choir, entirely run by volunteers. To mark its 10th anniversary, the choir staged a night of gospel music in the Brighton Dome's Concert Hall before Christmas, a high-spec visual event featuring six cameras and a mix solution using the latest video products from Roland Systems Group.

Led by choir director Karen Gibson, and musical director Jason Thompson, the 180- strong choir was joined by prominent UK gospel singer Beverley Trotman of X-Factor fame and the Kingdom Choir as well as other surprise guests. The highly regarded seven- piece JT Band provided musical accompaniment for an audience of 1400.

Brighton-based video services company As Described handled the three-hour show's visual requirements, providing a live mix of six cameras and pre-recorded video material, relaying the mix to projection screens

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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Europe - GLP 120 RZ impression zooms were the LED moving lights chosen by LD Andy Hurst for Faithless's European arena tour at the end of last year. They were selected specifically to deliver the fast moving impact of a digital club environment on stage. The concept was a fitting one, since the band's sixth album - celebrating 15 years of the Maxi Jazz / Sister Bliss collaboration - is called The Dance.

Hurst selected a mixture of conventional and LED washes - detailing 68 of the impression zooms, mounted both on the main V truss and custom made floor towers (at stage left and right), for the chase and movement elements.

"Over the last couple of years I've done a lot of dance shows with the likes of The Prodigy and the advantage of LED is the speed of it," says Hurst. "If you're doing fast shutter chases through lamps, with LED there's no stutter as there

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USA - Barco has announced that its three-chip DLP projection technologies will be used throughout the expanded and renovated Museum of the Moving Image (Astoria, New York) when it reopens later this week. Seventeen Barco projectors will be used in high-profile spaces including a 50ft long seamless projection wall in the lobby, the new Video Screening Amphitheatre, a new 68-seat screening room, and in the inaugural exhibition Real Virtuality.

The exhibition's six experiments in art and technology, including a commissioned work by the Flemish collective Workspace Unlimited titled Realtime Unreal, utilise 10 RLM-W6 projectors in a variety of installations, two of which are stereoscopic. These installations employ video game engines, motion- and position-tracking, and sophisticated image processing to create simulated worlds that extend, augment, or disrupt the physica

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Canada - John McArthur, vice president of sales & marketing at PAG Canada has announced that Eric Prevost will be joining the sales team as Quebec sales representative beginning 1 February 2011.

"In mid-December we had a sudden need for an experienced and respected sales representative to oversee Electro-Voice & Bosch (Conferencing & Public Address Systems), so we started our search," McArthur says. "When it became public that we were looking for someone, we were surprised, humbled, and very pleased with the selection of candidates to choose from. We chose Eric, in part, because of his successful track record at Steve's and Solotech and what he recently accomplished with Sennheiser. We are very thrilled to welcome him to our team."

(Jim Evans)

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UK - ETC dealer Northern Light has recently finished a technical installation at the newly refurbished and renamed K College in Tonbridge, Kent (formerly West Kent College).The college is undergoing an £86m regeneration project in which it is modernising its facilities and building a flagship college in the south east of England. One of the first new buildings to be built includes a multi-use performing arts facility, specified by Arup Theatre Consulting installed by Northern Light with loose equipment supplied by Stage Electrics.Steve Myers, project manager for Northern Light, says, "Northern Light has a long history of both working with Arup Theatre Consulting and of carrying out technical fit-outs in educational establishments - we completed more than 1,000 installations in schools, colleges and universities. ETC dimming and control systems work extremely well in a f

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USA - Sensaphonics has announced an upgrade to its dB Check in-ear sound level analyzer. Beginning immediately, the dB Check will be able to check monitor levels for the Shure SE Series of musician earphones. Sensaphonics will have this new version of dB Check on display at the NAMM Show in Anaheim this week.

"Previously, the dB Check was only programmed for Sensaphonics models," notes company president D. Michael Santucci. "But due to consumer requests, we decided to include the new Shure SE Series as well. Now users of both companies' earphones can tell exactly how loud they are monitoring, and how long they can do so safely."

When plugged in between the sound source and earphones, the Sensaphonics dB Check provides a real-time readout of the in-ear sound pressure level (SPL) in dBA, along with the number of minutes of daily exposure under both NIOSH and

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UK - The British Military Tournament brings together all the best elements of the world famous Royal Tournament and incorporates them into a new show for the 21st century. Unusual Rigging provided both staff and equipment - in the form of over 130 points, 130 hoists and 400m of truss.

"Unusual had a 21 year unbroken relationship with the Royal Tournament until its last production in 1999," says Unusual's managing director Alan Jacobi, "and so we were delighted to be able to continue to support its modern day revival. The British Army is dedicated to keeping us safe, and we're proud to be able to support them in return."

Unusual supplied all the rigging equipment, motors and truss, and also fabricated many of the scenic pieces at the company's facility in Bugbrooke, near Northampton. They also took responsibility for automation of all the scenic pieces.

&q

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Italy - RCF has created a new PR & strategic marketing job function within the company and has appointed Kenneth Bremer to fulfil this role, starting from January 2011.

Bremer will work closely with the marketing team, to keep branding RCF internationally, developing marketing strategies and to keep relationship with all relevant media and to support customers providing them fast product information, and suggestions to invest in professional audio equipment. Bremer will also define the company PR strategy and work closely with company branches .

The strategic marketing role will also support the sales division and research & development department.

Bremer has been working in the professional audio industry for more than 25 years, from retail, distribution and international work. He will be based in RCF headquarters in Italy.

(Jim Evans)

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USA - Orange Amps continues to advance its guitar amps range with the new TH100 head, the 100 watt big brother of the TH30.

The TH100 has exactly the same controls and pre-amp section as its smaller sibling, but when running in class AB1 (half power) it makes 35 watts on two output tubes and 70 watts on four output tubes, says the company. Put it to full power (AB2 position) and the amp makes 50 watts with two output tubes and 100 watts with four. Being able to switch to half power means you can reduce the listening volume while preserving the power tube distortion.

Just like the TH30, the TH100's design features the best of the Rocker and TH Series, with two channels.

The new head will come with four EL34 tubes, four 12AX7 pre-amp tubes and a 12AT7 for the low impedance FX loop. It will also have four internal bias pots so the output tubes can be matched into the amp by a q

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USA - This year's NAMM Convention in Anaheim will be a busy show for Renkus-Heinz, says marketing manager Margie Ulm.

"NAMM is always a great show for us," says Ulm. "It's a good opportunity to reconnect with long-time clients and friends who come by to catch up, see our latest products and talk about their plans for the coming year."

The company will be showcasing their new CF101LA series of compact modular point source array loudspeakers. The CF101LA's power, portability and versatility has made it an immediate success in small and mid-sized venues, says the company. Also on display will be the IC Live digitally steerable line array.

In addition to the company's own space on the show floor, Renkus-Heinz loudspeakers will be covering a cross-section of events throughout the four days of NAMM.

The official NAMM Sheraton Park Jazz Lounge Stage will be am

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USA - Hartselle, AL's newest house of worship, Hartselle Church of Christ, boasts inspirational architecture featuring high ceilings and ornate brickwork. It's an impressive looking sanctuary, and the church's elders are understandably proud.

But that same stunning architecture had created some unforeseen challenges. As Christopher Bragg, senior systems engineer at Covington, GA-based Messenger Media Systems, explains, the room's acoustic signature did not lend itself to getting the message across to the congregation.

"It's a very wide room, and very reflective," says Bragg. "As a traditional Church of Christ, their service is very much centred around the spoken word. And while those brick walls look great, they can create problems with intelligibility, making it difficult to clearly discern what's being said."

The reflective nature of the space called fo

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UK - Hundreds of children and their families enjoyed a spectacular light show and a beautifully lit sponsored walk around Edinburgh's West Princes Street gardens thanks to the imagination and ingenuity of Black Light's Events Team. The Glow in the Park event took place at the end of October 2010. As part of Light Relief Week 2010, it was organized to raise much-needed funds for the Royal Blind charity, whilst also highlighting some of the difficulties faced on a daily basis by blind and disabled people.

"We put up a full production rig at the park's Ross Bandstand for a 10-minute programmed light and music show," says Black Light's events manager, Stephen Reid, who explains that the whole system had previously been set up in Black Light's warehouse to do a full 'plot' of all lighting cues and to ensure a perfect show.

Reid also explains that, in order to turn

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Denmark - Volbeat's Front of House engineer Mads Mikkelsen is contending with a band whose music embraces three powerhouse signatures, profound low end content, distinct multiple guitars, and big vocal harmonies. Volbeat's recent tour drew a decidedly young audience to arenas all across northern Europe.

"The band sound is a lot more dirty live," said Mikkelsen. "I double channel each of the two guitars, slightly delaying each to opposite sides of the PA to get that big guitar and bass sound and the J-Series delivers exactly what I am aiming for. That's one of the reasons I chose to use the J-Series."

Mikkelsen has a full d&b audiotechnik J-Series loudspeaker system supplied for the tour by DPA Soundco A/S in Denmark. "For me the J-Series is just the best for a great rock guitar sound. I am a very big fan of loud, clear and massive rock music and the J

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UK - Media Powerhouse, one of the UK's leading AV rental services companies, has announced that Special Project Solutions (Special Projects) has joined the Group. Special Projects is a problem solving company whose services span the entertainment and industrial sectors, covering technical project management, design translation, bespoke fabrication and mechanical and lifting solutions. Being a part of Media Powerhouse Group will strengthen the specialist technical management and system integration expertise in both companies, say Media Powerhouse.

Special Projects was formed in 2007 by directors Tim Roffey and David Green. Prior to forming the company, Roffey, one of the country's top experts in entertainment rigging and installation, spent 10 years at Unusual Rigging where he managed the worldwide tour of Mamma Mia! and engineering projects such as Old Trafford's Quadrant

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USA - On the heels of the retired Wybron Mobile Showroom's successful 15-month tour comes the launch of the Wybron Mobile Light Lab, which will begin its Visuality 2011 Tour in February with over 100 events in the US.

The Wybron Mobile Light Lab is a 48ft pop-out-equipped trailer that features all of Wybron's leading products. Wybron president Keny Whitright had it custom-built after proving the popularity of the company's Mobile Showroom, which travelled the country in a rental trailer from 2009 through 2010.

Whitright chose a larger vehicle and tailored it to the feedback collected from visitors to the Mobile Showroom. He also decided to allow visitors to take the helm of their Mobile Light Lab experience.

Upon arriving at a host dealer, visitors will enter the Mobile Light Lab's reception area. There they'll be able to view the day's schedule, which will include ed

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California Calling - NAMM returns to Anaheim this week with the organisers and exhibitors in buoyant mood despite the continuing fragile nature of the world economy. Alongside the many musical instrument offerings will be a healthy quota of pro audio exhibitors, covering live sound, the fixed installation sector and recording. Some significant new product launches are promised, while the annual TEC Awards have been revamped and the educational programme extended.

The education session schedule for this year's Hands-On Training (H.O.T) Zone offers "the broadest educational experience for professionals in the recording, live sound, DJ, house of worship, commercial systems integrators, and stage and lighting industries in the history of the show".

The H.O.T. Zone will offer attendees free one-hour classes on more than 75 educational topics over four days, including topi

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Saudi Arabia - The annual Eid Al-Fitr Festival is the three-day Muslim holiday that marks the end of Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting.

In Riyadh, Samir El-Wesemy's company, EvenTech, staged a major outdoor event at the Regime Palace District, sponsored by the Supreme Authority for Riyadh Development and attended (and officially opened) by HRH Prince Sattam bin Abdul Aziz. The event on all three days featured traditional shows from Saudi teams that represented all the cities in the Kingdom - and included children's shows with puppets.

EvenTech conceived the initial designs and developed the technical infrastructure, installing and providing all the event equipment such as projectors, screens, moving head lighting, trusses, staging, decoration and cinematography.

They fielded three Christie HD12K 1080HD 12,000 ANSI lumens DLP three-chip projectors from their inventor

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USA - The new Wybron Mobile Light Lab will kick off its Visuality 2011 Tour in February with events in Colorado, Utah, Nevada and Arizona.

The Mobile Light Lab's debut event will occur at Barbizon Light of the Rockies in Denver, Colo., on 7 February. It will then set up shop at PRG Denver on 8 February before heading west to Salt Lake City, Utah, for an 11 February event at Oasis Stage Werks.

Next, it's off to visit PRG Las Vegas, 4Wall Entertainment and Advanced Entertainment in Las Vegas, for events on 14, 15 and 16 February respectively. The Mobile Light Lab will then venture farther south to Arizona for events at AV Concepts in Tempe on 17 February and Clearwing Phoenix on 18 February.

The Wybron Mobile Light Lab will host events at dealers in Washington, Oregon and Northern California in March.

(Jim Evans)

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UK - Rosco has expanded its UK Sales force with the appointment of Laurie Giraudeau as sales executive. Giraudeau has experience within the entertainment industry having previously worked as marketing manager for trussing and staging manufacturer Litestructures.

Paul de Ville, senior sales manager comments, "I am delighted that Laurie agreed to come and work with us and help take advantage of the opportunities at this exciting time for us at Rosco. With many new products and markets opening up the timing could not have been better, and I wish her well with her appointment."

(Jim Evans)

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