UK - French sound designer and foley artist Nicolas Becker has used a quantity of DPA microphones for the Philippe Parreno exhibition at London's Serpentine Gallery. Parreno, an Algerian artist and film maker, has created a space in which a series of filmed events are projected in different galleries. Sound, which plays a major part in the exhibition, can be heard inside the gallery, as though the outside environment of Kensington Gardens and the surrounding streets is leaking in.

To facilitate this, Becker has positioned three DPA SMK4060 stereo mic kits, which each include a pair of 4060 omnidirectional miniature mics, around the space. As a film ends in one gallery, the blinds at the windows rise and the DPA mics transmit the sounds from outside into the gallery, while in the n

Brazil - W-DMX from Wireless Solution Sweden made Christmas a colourful event for the Caixa Econômica Federal Bank in Brazil during a special installation running 10 December, 2010 through 10 January, 2011.

The challenge: to send a reliable DMX signal to three different buildings at a distance of more than 300m. The solution: Two W-DMX BlackBox S-1 transmitters, one BlackBox R-512 receiver and one BlackBox Micro. The lighting installation included 24 Martin MAC 2000 Beam XB, eight PR Lighting XL 700 Spot, 32 PR Lighting Design 150, 3200 Micro Strobes, 64 Canais DMX dimmers, 24 Martin 3000 Atomic Strobes, 24 PAR 64 #1 and four Fine Art Outdoor Moving V2033 4K fixtures. The lighting rig was supplied by Veritas from Sao Paulo.

Lighting Bits, the Wireless Solution distributor for Brazil based in Sao Paulo, supplied all W-DMX equipment. Daniel Ridano of Lighting Bits said, "T

Germany - On 14 January, the 32nd Bavarian Film Awards (Bayerischer Filmpreis) ceremony was held at Prinzregententheater in Munich. The highly glamorous event, one of the biggest live productions carried out by the Bavarian Broadcasting Corporation, featured lighting and visuals from Martin Professional, including Martin EC-20and LC Plus LED displays.

Media Resource Group of Crailsheim implemented the lighting concept designed by Markus Müller (BR). As in previous years, the Bavarian Broadcasting Corporation placed its trust in LED technology manufactured by Martin Professional. In addition to extensive special effect lighting, the event gave Martin the opportunity to show off its new EC-20 LED panels, as well as the LC Plus Series LED panels.

For the Awards show, the LED panels were divided into eight mobile segments, each operating independently of one another. During the p

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

The Netherlands - Aviom announced at ISE 2011 that Gary Lee has been appointed the director of global sales.

Lee has been with Aviom since the beginning and has been instrumental in building Aviom's success in the US, says the company. "Gary's proven understanding of the sales channel, Aviom's partners and resellers, as well as the experience of the end user, has led to his success in selling Aviom products into various market segments," says Aviom's president and CEO, Carl Bader.

In this new role, Lee will work directly with Aviom's internal and external sales force, as well as with senior management, to formulate and implement worldwide sales strategies.

(Jim Evans)

UK - BlackBox Recorder manufacturer JoeCo has announced that its Blackbox Player is now shipping. Able to replay 24 channels of high quality audio at up to 24bit/96kHz, the BlackBox Player is billed as the first dedicated multi-channel playback device specifically developed to replay backing tracks or multiple surround stems for live shows. It can be triggered using time code, with a footswitch or QWERTY keyboard, or controlled via MIDI commands, giving the live engineer, installation sound designer, musical director or artist full control of the show at all times.

Audio files can be stored on a standard USB2 drive, or Flash RAM drive. Simple playlists automatically cue up the next song ready for instantaneous replay and multiple playlists can be stored ready for different shows or performances. Integrated safety features, including a built-in automated fail-over mechanism, ensu

UK - Security and crowd management company, AP Security has attained approved contractor status from the Security Industry Authority (SIA) and the Contactors Health and Safety Assessment Scheme (CHAS).

The approvals follow a period of rigorous updating of the companies administrative processes for both door supervisors and manned guarding, this updating also incorporates AP working towards ISO 9001:2008 and OHSAS 18001 accreditation and a number of other British standards. During this period, roles have been redefined across the company, putting a heavier emphasis on planning and client liaison as well as a comprehensive general management process.

"Our watchword is 'quality'," says Andrew Stevens, AP's general manager, "and that runs through every part of the company, with particular importance placed on staff training, and human resourcing in general."

Spain - Stonex and LumenRadio will join forces at the AFIAL trade show in Madrid this week to showcase the CRMX wireless technology and products.

Stonex is a long time leading distributor and installer of lighting and entertainment technology in Spain and distributes a host of top brands such as ETC, MA Lighting, Clay Paky, and Anolis.

"Our open house with LumenRadio last year sparked enormous interest in the CRMX technology.

Several of our largest theatres and venues have since then gone wireless with the products from LumenRadio; establishing CRMX as the de-facto industry standard in Spain", says Javier Latorre, manager of the engineering division of Stonex. "It is also very encouraging for us to watch how fast the wireless trend now spreads throughout the rest of the entertainment and general lighting community here - the CRMX products have become 'must hav

UK - A.C. Entertainment Technologies underlined its commitment to ongoing training when its Leeds office staged a Training Open Day for students on the BTEC Extended Diploma in Production Arts (Technical) at Oldham College.

Adam Beaumont, head of AC-ET's rigging sales division, James Bawn from the lighting division and Stuart Moots from the audio division co-ordinated the event, which involved their collective skills, experience and resources, plus some of the industry's leading rigging, lighting and audio products. The equipment was taken to the college for the day and set up a series of live interactive demonstrations in the purpose built Grange Arts Centre performance facility. Both Moots and Bawn are former students of the college.

The courses being studied are for Entertainment Technician and Stage Technician qualifications, and include modules on lighting & sound enginee

Korea - Yonsei Central Baptish Church, the first L-Acoustics V-DOSC church installation in Asia, has now become the first in Asia to install a K1 WST line source system.

Located in Seoul, the church is one of Asia's most impressive Houses of Worship. The entire site occupies a total area of 32,677sq.m and over 120 rooms, and is equipped with around 200 L-Acoustics cabinets. The K1 system has been installed into the main Jerusalem sanctuary, a 13,000 seat hall with a single balcony occupying three floors of the building, with no visible obstructions such as supporting pillars, allowing everyone a unobstructed view of the service.

The K1 installation came about when Mr Park Byung Jun, who heads the church broadcasting team, and Mr Lee Hwan Chul, head of the project team, together with Scott Sung, L-Acoustics product manager for local distributor Dream Sound, needed to conceal so

UK - Architainment Lighting Ltd has announced a new distribution partnership with European LED manufacturer, Atlantic Star. As an exclusive UK distributor, Architainment will be supplying the ORBIS range of modular and scalable LED display systems.

Based in Latvia, Atlantic Star specialises in designing and manufacturing practical, low maintenance, and reliable LED lighting systems for event designers and architects. Architainment will be distribution partners for the entire ORBIS range as it grows and develops, but will initially focus on the distribution of the ORBIS-120.

A series of 360° viewable pixels, the ORBIS-120 is made up of LEDs and control circuits, housed inside a white diffusing plastic sphere. The fitting has been designed to build up three dimensional structures, two dimensional backdrops and also curved or irregular 2D/3D shapes. Fibre optic technology is

UK - Millennium Studios located in Thurleigh, Bedfordshire is part of the ELP group meaning lighting, rigging and staging services are on tap for visiting productions.

But according to owner Ronan Willson, it's the space and flexibility which make this newly redeveloped site an attractive proposition for 'full production' tour rehearsals.

The 'A' Stage can accommodate arena size tours, the dimensions being 27.5m (l) x 18.8m (w) x 12m (h). There are two 4-star dressing rooms, production offices, wardrobe and make-up facilities, on site catering and 24/7 security.

"It's the ideal place to get everything working perfectly before you take your show on the road" says Ronan Willson.

Recording facilities and 'live room' band rehearsal space are nearing completion which will add another dimension to the on-site service offering.

Millennium is centrally located within t

USA - Usher has followed the release of his new album Versus with the OMG Tour, his first big-budget spectacle since 2004. Embarking on a 25-date tour of America, the platinum-selling artist remarked that his show would be "more technical" and predicted his fans would be left "blown away with gasps of OMG".

Usher's futuristic, high-concept show presented a complex challenge for lighting designer Peter Morse and associate LD Eric Wade. "We had to design around a lot of fly gags and moving set pieces," notes Wade who heads FOHShow, a lighting services company. "The rig is designed to look big but not be completely massive; it's large but not over the top. It fills two trucks and features between 160-200 fixtures."

For the OMG Tour, the designers selected 24 Clay Paky Alpha Beam 700s, supplied by production company Upst

Norway - Le Mark's StudioTak Studio Flooring is the floor of choice for Norway based NRK/Norweigan Broadcasting.

"Excellent service and great products, we used the StudioTak for the show Artistgalla for TV2 in Norway," says NRK's Thomas Nysveen." We have used the product for some years now. Today's HD TV require a perfect finish without visible joints on the floor, and that's why we choose the StudioTak from Le Mark. It's is easy to use, and gives a perfect result as long as you have a clean surface to put it on."

(Jim Evans)

UK - London-based The Projection Studio was commissioned to create a magical work on the Almond Pavilion in Saltwell Park, Gateshead for the NewcastleGateshead Initiative's 2010 Enchanted Parks event. This popular pre-festive occasion featured a collection of 25 family friendly 'after dark' art installations that ran for a week.

Enchanted Parks was presented by the NewcastleGateshead Initiative in association with Magnetic Events, and funded by Gateshead Council, the Arts Council England and the Northern Rock Foundation. Projection Studio's Ross Ashton has worked on previous projects for Magnetic Events and their producer Robin Morley, including the opening of Sunderland Aquatic Centre in 2008, the North East's first Olympic sized swimming pool.

The Almond Pavilion has been restored to replicate the original appearance of the 1881 building - it also loosely resem

USA - Lighting designer John Featherstone (of Lightswitch) has been working with both Kid Rock and The Judds recently - providing media and content for the former while designing a sensitive set blending lighting and video, to mark The Judds' swansong Last Encore tour.

Running throughout the second half of the year, The Judds' tour proved to be both a finale and a reunion, as mother Naomi has largely been off the road since 1991.

As the tour's production designer, Featherstone worked closely with production manager Art Rich, lighting director Dennis Connors, lighting suppliers Upstaging and Vision Visuals (who provided the video equipment).

To ensure the stage concept was sympathetic to the occasion, the designer called on a rich armoury (and eclectic mix) of cutting-edge generic and moving lights, as well as LED washlights , employing products from the GLP range to d

Germany - With its new, three-model CMS series, Dynacord says it is "resolutely pursuing the course it has set in the field of high-quality mixers".

The three devices - the CMS 1000 (10 input channels), CMS 1600 (16 input channels) and CMS 2200 (22 input channels) feature low-noise, microphone preamps; six AUX busses; two 24-bit stereo effects units; an 11-band graphic equalizer; vocal voicing filters; and a low-cut filter.

Newly integrated into these Compact Mixing Systems (CMS) is a 4IN / 4OUT USB interface (for PC and Mac) to support 4-channel recording and playback. The compact system therefore brings semi-professional studio quality to tasks such as live and studio recording, playbacks and interval music, says the company.

Martin Traut, senior product manager Dynacord, comments, "The CMS family is equipped exclusively with high-end components: from the ex

UK - The teams from James Thomas Engineering and PixelRange team were out in force at the Gielgud Theatre within London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) to showcase a selection of new products with the keen help of RADA'S head of lighting Matt Prentice. The two brands are closely linked with the Academy as JTE have supported the students at RADA for a few years.

On display was the new PixelSmart LED multi-role luminaire amongst other LED innovations. Now in production, PixelSmart has featured on the televised Royal Variety Performance as well as recent tours with Andi Watson - the LD behind the ideas for the product.

Also available for preview was JTE's new X-Truss that can be flat packed to be 60% more space efficient - saving both time and money.

Paul Young, general manager for the two companies, commented, "The day was a great success. We were able to ta

USA - When the legendary Grand Ole Opry House was struck by a devastating flood on May 2, 2010, the damage to the entire facility was extensive. With less than six months to get the Opry House back up and ready to go for the Opry's 85th Anniversary Celebration, lighting director Tyler Bryan was faced with what would easily be his biggest challenge ever; the complete redesign and installation of the facility's entire lighting system.

On the day of the flood, Bryan and a number of other Opry staff members were floating through the Opry House in canoes to survey the damage. Determined to make the anniversary celebration a reality, Bryan called upon his longtime dealer, Bandit Lites, and together they developed a new rig that consisted of 55 Vari*Lite luminaires from Philips Vari-Lite.

"We were looking toward upgrading our system at some point, but we never thought it

Australia - Campbelltown RSL recently amalgamated with Cabra-Vale Ex-Active Servicemen's Club and as a result a number of refurbishment programs were undertaken. Particular attention was paid to creating a much friendlier atmosphere for members, guests and visitors by opening up the very large lounge area so that much of the club's facilities could be seen from different vantage points. However this goal presented a major problem - how do you stage a variety of entertainment in one area of this vastness whilst simultaneously running other functions?

The closeness of the bar, restaurant and poker machine area meant that with a traditional audio set up, problems would be encountered relating to loud music and its exposure to patrons and staff.

The Club's general manager Tony Jackson contacted Jbn Sound Solutions . "Jbn assured us that the noise levels at the bar, restaurant

The Netherlands - Elation Professional announced the European launch of its range of high resolution LED video panels - the Elation Pro Video (EPV) series - at ISE 2011. The features pixel pitches down to 6mm, and is targeted towards installers, system integrators, commercial use and rental companies.

The Moving Head panel - the EPV762 MH - attracted much attention. The lightweight moving tile boasts 4096x 3-in-1 3528 SMD LEDs with total 2000 nits @ 2,000hz refresh rate and 16 bit processing depth while adding 540 x 265-degree pan and tilt capability via DMX. European sales manager, Simon Gasch, described it as, "the absolute highlight of the show".

The EPV15 FLEX also generated interest with its flexible design for creating curved video walls. Indoor and outdoor-rated to IP65 at the front (IP54 at the back), the EPV15 flexible tile features an in-built PSU for drivi

Denmark / The Netherlands - dnp Denmark reported an "outstanding response" to the launch of its new Zenith rear projection screen at last week's ISE 2011 in Amsterdam.

Aimed at the 100"-plus market, the new display pays homage to the fact that recently, brighter, more powerful projectors have become available. This has given rise to new challenges, such as how to prevent hot-spots showing up on the screen, while at the same time improving contrast / brightness uniformity and balancing viewing angles. This has been achieved with a low gain (of 2.2), along with more tint, and an anti-glare surface that minimises reflected ambient light and produces optimal 'eye-gonomics', says the company.

Proof of concept at ISE was in the form of a 128" Zenith display in partnership with Hitachi 5000 ANSI lumens projectors.

Drawing on the engineering services of their UK

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