Spain - "This says everything you need to know about building a strong network on the back on fantastic products," commented David Rosello who heads up the d&b audiotechnik Spanish office. Speaking after receiving a special award from Produccion Audio magazine in Madrid, he said, "We have won awards from the readers of this magazine before; in the past it has been for specific d&b products, but this award is different and I'm very proud to accept it on behalf of d&b."

Produccion Audio is exhaustive in its judging process; the first stage is a readers' vote via the internet to draw up a shortlist of three nominees for each category. From these a panel of judges makes the final decision.

"The magazine appoints the judges, a selection of the g

UK - West London based rental company Entec is supplying a sound system for the ongoing Skunk Anansie world tour which has just started its latest European leg.

FOH sound engineer Paul Ramsay who has worked with the band since 1996, has specified a d&b J-Series system with d&b B2-SUBS for the euro tour which visits a range of large theatres and arenas.

Ramsay is mixing the show on the original Midas XL4 console that Entec bought when they first supplied audio for the band in 1996.

While he's a big fan of digital consoles and the DiGiCo brand in particular - he used an SD7 for the 2010 festival run, also supplied by Entec - he felt that the XL4 was and still is spot-on for the band. "Both consoles sound amazing," He says, "The SD7 has a very analogue hands-on feel about it and in fact on the summer run with this board I reckon I got stunning results. However I

UK - Entertainment consumables supplier Le Mark has announced the appointment of David Cartwright as their national business development manager. He brings with him over 25 years' experience in the entertainment lighting industry, with a full and varied background from technical hire, design and production to international sales and marketing.

Cartwright returns to the industry after an eight year absence working as head of sales and marketing for an environmental energy company. He had Having previously worked for Stage Electrics and The Lighting Technology Group.

One of his priorities will be to develop new business and spearhead Le Mark's new range of projection screens and scenic floor products complementing the existing range of adhesive tapes and printed equipment supplies.

"It is great to be back working within an industry that I love and renewing contacts and co

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

USA / UK - Richard Cadena, a respected lighting designer and entertainment technology media professional, has joined the PLASA staff. Richard will serve as the Technical Editor for Lighting&Sound America and Lighting&Sound International magazines, and, at Protocol magazine with sr. technical editor Karl Ruling. Additionally in the PLASA North American office, Richard will serve as assistant technical standards manager.

Richard will take over as Technical Editor of Lighting&Sound International magazine from James Eade, who has helped the PLASA Media team steer the technical content of L&SI for the past nine years. Lee Baldock, editor of L&SI since 2004, said: "James has made a huge contribution to the technical content of L&SI over the years, while still running his own successful business, e-Mech. I personally would like to thank him for all his help and guidance over that

Germany - D&M Professional Europe is exhibiting the latest technologies and product ranges from its Denon DJ and Denon Professional brands at this year's prolight+sound exhibition. The line up includes the company's latest digital file recording, playback and control devices for DJs, commercial installations, and broadcast and commercial systems applications.

The Denon DN-MC6000 is a twin controller and integrated mixer with native control for TRAKTOR Pro and Virtual DJ 7. The new device provides control of all four decks in TRAKTOR Pro with Denon's switchable dual layer controllers; visual deck colour change indicates the deck currently being controlled.

The DN-SC2000 is a "highly affordable throw in the bag" portable compact TRAKTOR Pro controller. Advanced features include MIDI mapping capability, auto loop function, a wide range of EFX, rugged pitch slider, pitch

Norway - A Community sound system has been installed in the new Norwegian Sørmarka Arena, a multi-use indoor facility with an ice rink for hockey, curling and figure skating and a 400m speed skating track. Located in Stavanger, the arena is owned by the Municipalities of Stavanger, Sandnes, Sola and Randaberg and has been built to enhance the facilities available in the region.

Designed to meet the needs and standards of professional athletes, the focus of Sørmarka is also on improving public health for children and young adults through increased physical activity. The main sound system and automation for the Sørmarka facility was designed and programmed by Norsk Lydteknikk AS. with installation by Profitek AS. Using a total of 95 Community R-Series loudspeakers, the arena is the largest indoor installation of Community in Norway to date and comprises 15 R2-

Australia - Professional Audio Technology Pty (PAT) has delivered the first K.M.E. Pano line array public address system in Australia to the Elevate Church in Wendouree, Victoria.

Elevate Church prides itself on its musical performances and audio visual displays during services and it was vital to cater to the high quality audio demands on and off the stage. The church, which can hold up to 300 worshipers during a service, was equipped with Line Array subs QLB118, Line Source Units QL1215 PANO and Versio VL12 as monitors. The digital controller amplifiers DA 428 with extensive DSP functionality drive the entire system.

Professional Audio Technology's technology director Tony Fitzsimmons comments, "We are extremely satisfied with the performance and clarity of the new system and, what is equally important, the client is very happy with their buying decision. We recommended

Taiwan - One of Taiwan's leading artists Jay Chou held a mid-January concert in Guangzhou to welcome in the New Year. Performing at Tianhe Stadium, Guangzhou before 30,000 fans, the show was reinforced through an L-Acoustics K1 WST line source system. This was provided by new L-Acoustics rental network agent Reyn Yang Professional Sound Co, one of Taiwan's biggest rental companies, which was using its new system for the first time.

The system was configured into two L/R hangs of 12 K1s and three Kara modular line source cabinets for down-fill flown beneath six K1-SBs, and two side arrays of 10 K1s beneath six K1-SBs for far field coverage at both sides of the stadium. It was driven by LA-RAKs housing L-ACOUSTICS LA8 amplified controllers.

"This is a milestone and a revolution for the rental business in the Chinese market," says Danny Lau, managing director of L-Acous

The Netherlands - Elation Professional has introduced the Platinum Spot 5R Pro, an upgraded version of its Platinum Spot 5R DMX moving head.

Like the original, the new Platinum Spot 5R Pro features Philips MSD Platinum 5R Lamp Technology, an innovation that allows the creation of fixtures that are brighter and more powerful with superior light quality, yet are also faster, smaller, lighter weight, draw less energy and have longer-lasting lamps, says the company. But as its name suggests, the Platinum Spot 5R Pro also goes a step beyond to offer an expanded array of professional features and effects.

Among the new features on the Platinum Spot 5R Pro are a 16-bit CMY colour-mixing system, which allows users to concoct a palette of custom colours, and a Variable Zoom (4 to 1) with 11° to 42° beam angle. Additionally, the 'Pro' model is equipped with a built-in EWDMX Wire

China - The world's largest water-based permanent show, The House of Dancing Water, is located in a purpose-built, 2000-seat theatre centred around a 160ft diameter swimming pool within Macau's City of Dreams resort.

This latest spectacular from artistic director Franco Dragone was five years in the planning and two years in creation. Lighting designer, Luc Lafortune, who has worked for many years with Dragone, designed the complex lighting for The House of Dancing Water which includes fixtures from French lighting manufacturer, Robert Juliat.

Six Robert Juliat 1800W HMI Victor followspots and 18 Robert Juliat D'Artagnan HMI zoom profile fixtures were supplied to the show's lighting supplier, White Light, by Robert Juliat dealer, Pacific Lighting HK.

The theatre is a huge space to light with a large rig of moving lights, long throw distances from differing leve

UK - Yamaha UK's most recent two-day Motif training workshops, held at their Milton Keynes headquarters in February, was, as with the preceding three sessions earlier in the year, a complete sell-out with delegates travelling in from far and wide including Northern Scotland and one fan from Scandinavia.

The training also demonstrated the huge demographic and varied customer base embraced by the MOTIF range, occupations represented included music teachers, lawyers, church organists and GPs with skills ranging from beginners to advanced, says Yamaha.

Hosted by Yamaha's Chris Irvine and Bert Smorenburg the events have now also developed into in-depth 'try before you buy' events with a percentage of attendees not being Motif owners pre-event and happy owners post-event. Guest artist was Rihanna's keyboard player Hannah Vasanth.

(Jim Evans)

UK - Allen & Heath has released the latest version of its iLive firmware and Editor software, V1.8. The software includes support of the new xDR-16 expander hardware, MixPad app, and a range of enhancements, including a new scene safes system, additional channel and mix compressor modes, greater I/O FX capabilities, a speaker matrix rack processor, third party TCP/IP control functionality, and output socket polarity.

V1.8's most significant new feature is a sophisticated scene safes system, developed in response to engineers' feedback. It allows users to set up scene recall safes with any combination of channel processing, mix processing, faders, gains, mutes and DCA's. Additionally, new scene auto-increment options enable easier cue-based scene changes.

More Compressor types have been added under manual and auto modes. These include 'peak-based' manual, 'RMS-based' manual, 'P

Germany - Green Hippo has signed a distribution agreement for Germany with B&K Braun. Established in 1977, B&K Braun also distributes for GLP / G-LEC and has a large market share in trussing products by Global Truss.

Markus Augenstein from B&K Braun comments: "B&K Braun are looking forward to a successful collaboration with Green Hippo. Their products allow us to complete our product range perfectly and provide our customers with the necessary tools to put their ideas into practice. These days it is unthinkable to work without the countless possibilities and advantages that media servers have to offer and this will undoubtedly develop further in future."

Samantha Bailey from Green Hippo states, "We are pleased to welcome B&K Braun to the Green Hippo family, the enthusiasm and support they bring to the product is second to none and we have high hopes for the deve

Germany - At the beginning of February, Elements dealers from Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg visited the HK Audio headquarter in St. Wendel Germany, for a two-day product training seminar.

After a short introduction about the history of HK Audio the seminar got straight to the point. Elements, the new sound reinforcement system of HK Audio was presented with all its advantages and user benefits and discussed by all participants in detail. An extensive listening session in the HK Audio demo theatre gave the 30 participants an opportunity to experience the sound quality and performance of Elements under real life conditions. The second day featured an extensive factory tour.

"Approximately 600 dealers display and sell HK Audio products throughout Europe and convince their customers with their competence and knowledge. Excited consumers are the basis for their and a

India - Foreigner are currently out on their first tour of India with 48 channels of ARX MSX 48 Mic Line Splitters, part of the complete audio production package supplied by Mumbai based Audio Sound.com.

The five-date tour comprises shows in Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Bangalore. Foreigner are being joined on stage by Indian musician Niladri Kumar, the young Electric Sitar (Zitar) maestro who is opening each performance.

Sound.com are utilising their 48 channel rack of ARX MSX 48s for Mic and Line Splitting between the Digidesign Venue Front of House console and Yamaha PM5D-RH monitor console being used on the tour.

Sound.com are one of India's largest and most active audio production companies has recently supplied audio production and crew for events including the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games, Oman's Tattoo & 40th National Day Celebrations and the 2010 IPL Award

USA - It was the 90th anniversary of the Miss America Pageant and a pair of grandMA2 light's made their debut at the show, which was telecast live on ABC from the Planet Hollywood casino-resort in Las Vegas. The pageant reunited lighting designer Allen Branton, who returned for the fourth time, and fellow lighting directors Kevin Lawson and Felix Peralta, who marked their third year and fourth year on the show respectively.

"Because of the way the pageant is structured, we had a little extra time with several days of the preliminary pageant," says Lawson. "Felix and I worked on the show for eight days splitting the lighting rig as programmers and using the grandMA2 light in multi-user-mode: Felix lit the set and I lit the people on stage and the audience."

Atomic Lighting provided the grandMA2 light and the lighting rig, which included Vari*Lite VL3500 spot

UK / The Netherlands - MTR reports that Steve Harley, the leader of Cockney Rebel, is endorsing the stageClix 'Jack' digital wireless system.

"The system is faultless," says Harley. "The response is immaculate and the build quality superb. I've used my stageClix 'Jack' for a hundred shows or more last year, at venues including small, acoustic-set halls right up to outdoors at the Isle Of Wight and Glastonbury festivals. I had problems for many years with wireless guitar equipment. But I hate leads rolling under my feet and was determined to keep on hoping for the real thing to come along. Eventually, I was introduced to stageClix. Worries over."

Guitarist Robbie Gladwell (Dr. Robbie) is also using the 'Pack' beltpack version in the band, and guitarist/violinist Barry Wickens joins Steve in using his own 'Jack' system on his guitar.

(Jim Evans)

Germany / UK - Chauvet will be promoting a number of new luminaires at Prolight + Sound and will also confirm expansion of its year-old branch in the UK. This move will serve to reinforce their commitment to the European market by being able to ship products across the continent, says the company.

"This will allow for a quicker turnaround and access to more products with increased inventory," said Stéphane Gressier, international sales manager for Chauvet.

WELL, or Wireless Event LED Luminaire, is designed specifically to be a self-contained uplight for any event. Inside each WELL wash light are 12 3W tri-colour LEDS, similar to the 14 found in the COLORado 1-TRI Tour. It's powered by a 12-volt battery offering up to 12 hours of life to the fixture.

COLORado Range IP and COLORado Ridge IP are indoor/outdoor wash lights and feature RGBWA colour mixing. The us

USA - Audio-Technica has introduced the U851RO omnidirectional condenser boundary microphone.

The U851RO's small-diameter UniPoint capsule near the boundary eliminates phase distortion and delivers clear, high-output performance, says the company. The unit is equipped with a PivotPoint rotating output connector, allowing the cable to exit from either the rear or the bottom of the microphone; a UniSteep filter, which provides a steep low-frequency attenuation to improve sound pickup without affecting voice quality; and UniGuard RFI-shielding technology. Self-contained electronics eliminate the need for an external power module. It accepts interchangeable condenser elements in cardioid and hypercardioid polar patterns.

The U851RO features a low-profile design with a low-reflectance black finish for minimum visibility, in addition to a heavy die-cast case and silicon foam bottom

UK - Blitz Communications has appointed Brad Ward as a sound project manager. In this role, Ward, working alongside Adam Rudd and Peter Russell, will be responsible for theatrical and corporate events in the UK and throughout Europe.

Ward brings over 20 years experience in theatre and event audio. He relocated to London from New York City in early 2010 where he was working as a sound designer for Acoustic Dimensions. He has previously worked as the lead audio technician for Cirque du Soleil's Beatles Love show in Las Vegas as well as a freelance sound designer.

"I was drawn to Blitz by its reputation in the industry," says Ward. "Blitz is well known for its extremely qualified staff, high standards, and dedication to making its clients' productions a success. I am thrilled to be on board."

(Jim Evans)

Australia - LSC Lighting Systems has released new Redback Wallmount range, which previewed at PLASA last year. Billed as being more than just a dimmer, the Redback sports a number of new features including, optional relay channels, RDM, various output connector configurations, external wallplate control, and a slim figure.

A Redback Wallmount may be specified to be a combination of conventional dimmers and/or relay channels to power LEDs and intelligent lighting fixtures. For example, a 24-channel '"combo" unit provides 18 channels of dimming as well as 6 channels of relay in the same chassis.

In addition, the relay modules can be configured to be switched on or off using DMX512, auto-powered - to improve energy efficiency -- or controlled via a number of other methods in the same fashion that the standard dimming channels may be controlled.

The relay outputs provi

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