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Olympic Countdown - Creative director Kim Gavin, who was behind Take That's Circus shows, has been appointed artistic director for the closing ceremonies of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Gavin, who is currently working on Take That's forthcoming 2011 European tour, directed both the Concert for Diana and the Help for Heroes Concert. He will work closely with Danny Boyle, the artistic director of the Olympics' opening ceremony and the director of the Paralympics' opener, who is yet to be announced.

Gavin said he wants to put a "UK stamp" on the proceedings. Speaking to The Stage, Gavin said: "I think first and foremost [on my mind] is what would you like to see in the stadium and how do you want to feel. We have a time constraint, in that the last t

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Brazil - Optocore has appointed Sterling do Brasil as its strategic partner in Brazil. The company, founded by Nestor Almeida in 1987, relocated from its São Paolo base two years later, and has since been developing its brand portfolio from its current HQ in Rio de Janeiro.

However, the company is no longer merely a representative of equipment but, an integrator of solutions and related products for audio, video, signal transmission / receiving, satellite, fibre optics, CATV, DTH, HDTV, IPTV and digital signage.

"We only handle top line products," said Mr. Almeida who was a member of the original engineering department at the large Rio-based network, TV Globo, when it was founded back in 1965. "With sales and support partners covering all of Brazil - and some countries in South America - we look forward to building the Optocore brand profile.

"We had bee

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UK - 20 February saw the winners of the 2011 Whatsonstage.com Awards announced at a star-studded ceremony at London's Prince of Wales Theatre. These awards, run by theatre news website WhatsOnStage, represent the voice of theatregoers: all of the categories have entries nominated and then voted for by the public, from all of the shows that have opened in the West End over the last year.

Entertainment lighting specialist White Light sponsored the Best Lighting Designer award once again; this year it was presented to James Farncombe for his design for Ghost Stories at the Lyric Hammersmith and then at the Duke of York's theatre, where the show continues to surprise and scare audiences nightly. His fellow nominees in the category were Neil Austin for The Prince of Homburg and Women Beware Women, Paul Keogan for Novecento, Paule Constable for Bl

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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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UK - A Midas XL8 Live Performance System has once again been used at front of house for the UK music industry's annual awards ceremony, the Brit Awards. This year's ceremony was broadcast live from London's 02 Arena with an XL8 spec'd by sound designer and live sound coordinator Derrick Zieba, who has been working on the awards ceremony since 1994, supplied by Britannia Row Productions.

"The XL8 once again proved its flexibility and user-friendliness, as well as allowing the sound crew to set up and access everything very quickly," says Zieba. "For me, the sound of the XL8 has always been almost indistinguishable from the best analogue performance I have heard, and this was equally true in the new setting of the 02 Arena."

Among the quick-changing succession of artists to perform at this year's event were Rihanna, Arcade Fire, Mumford & Sons, Plan B, Adele

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Germany - The Aalto-Musiktheater Essen, one of the most renowned music theatres in Western Europe, has exchanged its old communications gear for a Riedel Artist digital matrix intercom system. Systemhaus Giebel Electronic- & Kommunikations handled the installation on behalf of Gemeinnützige Theaterbaugesellschaft Essen.

At the heart of the system is a Riedel Artist 64 mainframe. Due to its modular approach Artist systems can easily be expanded up to to 1,024 x 1,024 non-blocking ports.

Twenty control panels from Riedel Artist 1000, 2000 and 5000 series are used at the Aalto Opera. To provide for maximum of flexibility, two stage manager booths were set up - one on each side of the stage - with the ability to switch between the two booths. Both include an Artist 1000 series control panel plus three expansion panels providing a total of 76 talk keys, which can be doubled using

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UK - Wireless equipment owners who have submitted claims under the 800MHz Funding Scheme are being urged to ensure that claims are all complete, and accompanied by the relevant proof of ownership information, before 2 April 2011, the final deadline for all submissions.

So far around 50% of claimants have submitted the necessary documentation. But another 570 claims that have been submitted are still waiting on proof of ownership to be provided in order that claims may be fully verified and approved. Ofcom, supported by BEIRG (British Entertainment Industry Radio Group) is urging users to get in touch and provide the necessary information as soon as possible.

Ian Wainwright, PMSE Implementation Project Manager at Ofcom, said: "We realise the difficulty that some people may have in providing all of the required proof of ownership details, but we would urge them to come forw

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UK - Star Events Group has announced a 50% increase to the rigging capacity of its 20m and 25m span VerTech roofs, used at many major UK festivals. New high tensile steel trusses enable this increase within the existing roof architecture.

Each load bearing span across the stage can now carry up to 7.5 tons UDL at 25m span. Additional spans can be located in the 20m and 25m systems at 0.62m centres. Roof capacities of over 100 tons are now easily achievable.

Pete Holdich, director of stages for the company comments: "We trialled a few sections of this new truss at several festivals in 2010 and have now made a big investment to enable us to allocate several uprated spans to each roof in 2011. This puts our VerTech system in the upper echelon of world class heavy duty roofs for tour and festival use."

(Jim Evans)

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UK - Saville Audio Visual has published a new-look catalogue, featuring a wide range of unified comms solutions, boardroom installations, interactive technology and new display products including Christie MicroTiles.

The 2011 edition highlights integrated AV/IT systems with Apple iPad, AMX, Crestron and Extron control plus extensive signage networks in retail, tourism and educational applications. Also featured are new projector ranges from the leading manufacturers and a variety of bespoke videoconferencing solutions.

Communicate 2011 is the twenty third edition of the annual publication and amongst other new products, introduces the extensive and exclusive Saville Academy furniture range comprising high quality lecterns, cabinets and bespoke furniture designed specifically for professional presentation environments.

(Jim Evans)

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UK - Rental specialist PSCo has added the 3D capable 103 "and 85" Panasonic Plasma to its rental fleet, enabling their customers to hire these Active 3D screens for events, conferences and exhibitions.

Active 3D technology is billed as the most immersive way to watch 3D content, with viewers using high-precision active shutter glasses triggered by an infra-red imager built in to the screen bezel. This enables both eyes to view Full HD resolution images. The 103" and 85" offer big screen 3D experiences on a high impact scale.

PSCo's range of 3D plasmas are available on the bespoke Screenlifter system, an in-flightcase lifting solution which makes manoeuvring them into place by one man, simple and quick. The screens are accompanied by a selection of accessories including 3D glasses, and 3D compatible Blu-Ray players.

PSCo's managing director Stuart Holmes s

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The Netherlands - Alcons Audio reports that it enjoyed a most successful ISE, with the event's 3D Theatre demonstrating to many the kind of performance that the company's pro-ribbon systems produce.

In addition to the company's own stand, Alcons provided an audio system for ISE's 3D Theatre, a co-operative venture by a number of 3D technology manufacturers, including screens, projectors, media-servers, audio systems and acoustic panels. Featuring hourly presentations from the different equipment suppliers about 3D related topics, visitors were informed about the latest technology and it gave company co-founder Tom Back and his team the opportunity to demonstrate how their systems enhance the 3D experience.

Back conducted a daily Alcons presentation, explaining the specific challenges for audio systems in 3D cinema applications. These range from the effects of long speaker cabl

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USA - Luxury Swiss watchmaker Breitling hosted a VIP event for the grand opening of its flagship store. The event, organised by global Marketing and PR agency Centigrade, saw a host of celebrities and Breitling enthusiasts come together to celebrate the launch of its New York boutique. The 4500sq.ft store is located a stone's throw from 5th Avenue and showcases over 900 timepieces.

Three hundred guests, including brand ambassadors John Travolta and Wayne Gretzky as well as hockey player, Mark Streit and NFL star and broadcaster Boomer Esiason attended the event in Manhattan on 15 January.

The sidewalk outside of the boutique was transformed in to a VIP reception area. Truss structure provided by PRG was erected housing a red-carpet area for staff to meet and greet VIP guests and the media. GDS LiteWare UL wireless battery uplighters were incorporated in to the design of the st

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USA -TMB and LumenRadio have announced the immediate availability across North America of the entire range of CRMX wireless lighting control products.

LumenRadio's proprietary CRMX products are available in a variety of form factors and feature levels to meet the requirements of the entertainment and architectural lighting markets alike. All products provide Lumen's proprietary automated cognitive coexistence; error correction; synchronization; encryption; deterministic latency of 5ms; and outstanding range and reliability.

Protocol support includes DMX, RDM, DALI, Art-Net, sACN, ETCNet2, ETC Net3, Strand ShowNet, and Pathport. Two consecutive PLASA Awards for Innovation and accolades from industry experts and the industry at large, as well as a very impressive reference list of high profile installations and events, have firmly established LumenRadio as the undisputed wireles

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USA / Germany - Riedel Communications is now a promoting member of the AVnu Alliance, the industry forum dedicated to the advancement of professional-quality audio/video networking by promoting the adoption of the IEEE 802.1 Audio/Video Bridging (AVB) standards over various networking link-layers.

"We have always understood our products as open platforms for integrating standard protocols such as AES, MADI, SIP and now, AVB. Especially MediorNet as an open platform backbone technology with bandwidth capacities suitable for numerous 3G video signals, will be helping to expand AVB network installations beyond their current possibilities," saysHenning Kaltheuner, product manager at Riedel Communications. "We are looking forward to actively participating in the AVnu Alliance for providing an in-depth integration of AVB systems into our MediorNet backbone product."

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UK - Dermot Murnaghan is back to host another season of the prime time quiz show Eggheads.

Lighting designer Martin Kempton continues to originate the show, lights are provided by Richard Martin Lighting and supported by TSL Glasgow. This season was operated by BBC board operator Julia Smith.

The design specification includes Stage Zoom 1200s, Stage Profile Plus's, MAC 250s, MAC 600s and Chroma Banks.

(Jim Evans)

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Russia - After the Olympics, the Universiade (World Student Games), which takes place every four years, constitutes the largest multi-discipline sporting event anywhere in the world. The venue for the upcoming 27th Universiade in 2013, which will feature the most talented student athletes in the world, is Kazan, the capital of the autonomous Russian republic of Tatarstan.

Some indication of the scale and importance of the event is given by the official figures: 12,000 athletes from 170 countries are scheduled to compete in 26 sporting disciplines spread between 64 different venues. As well as the many millions around the world following the event on television, around 100,000 sporting enthusiasts are expected to visit the Russian metropolis at the time of the event.

Preparations in Kazan are already in full swing for the high-calibre event. The venue for the swimming competiti

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UK - London-based restaurant chain Itsu is synonymous with chic-yet-accessible Japanese eating. The company, co-owned by the founder of the Pret A Manger chain, was keen to bring a new excitement and visual prominence to their Heathrow Terminal 5 outlet. They turned to creative aluminium structures specialists Litestructures, part of the Prolyte Group, to help them achieve this.

Cinimod Studio, architecture and lighting design specialists, commissioned Litestructures to realise the next incarnation of their designs inspired by Itsu's butterfly motif. The original concept had already been brought to life as bright and animated sculptures across a number of its London outlets. The new brief challenged Litestructures' design and fabrication team to come up with something far more spectacular. The finished structure comprises a floating, twisting sculptural form that creates a strik

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UK - Clay Paky's Alpha Beam fixtures featured on Squeeze's UK Spot the Difference tour which covered venues ranging from the 100 Club in London to the O2 Manchester Apollo.

Lighting designer Daniel Bocking designed the production with video projections and a rig dominated by 18 Alpha Beam 700s positioned in clusters of three to create a classic rock and roll feel for the band. The lighting was designed and programmed around bespoke video footage developed by content designer Colin Rozee of R2 Digital Productions and projected onto sails suspended from the rear truss.

"I needed really tight beams because I didn't want to throw too much light around and risk washing out the video," says Bocking. "The Alpha Beams were brilliantly effective - just so narrow in the beam. The fixture creates highly defined, parallel beams that are clearly visible against other

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UK - Orbital Sound, the leading sound and communication systems specialist for the theatre, event and broadcast markets, recently supplied a new d&b audiotechnik Q7 system to the Theatre Royal Bath, one of Britain's oldest theatres.

Selected elements of the sound equipment were upgraded in the 800-seat capacity Main House, as part of a 6-month refurbishment programme in the Main House auditorium.

Orbital's relationship with the Theatre Royal pre-dates this project, previously supplying the Theatre Royal's egg theatre for children with its d&b Q7 system during 2010.

Theatre Royal Bath's Technical Manager, Joe Wright, detailed the refurbishment programme: "The Theatre Royal Main House is principally a receiving venue, handling a wide variety of different live entertainment genres, from stand-up and the spoken word, through live bands and playback, to full-scale musicals.

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UAE - AV Concepts, a Dubai rental firm focusing on corporate and live performance events has purchased HK Audio CT108 compact touring cabinets from Melody House. Distributors of HK Audio speaker systems in the United Arab Emirates, Melody House has already supplied 50 units of the popular cabinet to various rental companies across the country.

"Everybody we have demonstrated to have been impressed with the CT108s output," commented Dino Drimakis, business development manager at Melody House. "Its compact nature is the icing on the cake as it allows companies like AV Concepts to use them in various manners for different kind of events."

(Jim Evans)

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UK - Events, production & communication specialist, R&B Group has welcomed Paul Borthwick back to their projects team. Following a brief spell exploring other avenues, Paul made the decision to return to R&B. He will slip back into the team in a very similar role to before, looking after the delivery of events from start to finish. The appointment comes just in time, as R&B Group's workload really picks up as a busy Spring arrives, says the company.

Also recruited is a new member of the creative team. Phil Chapman joins the group as a full-time video production technician, to support the constant demand for high-quality business television programmes.

(Jim Evans)

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UAE - Dubai based Showtech Rentals has recently acquired a wireless communication system from ClearCom's UAE distributor Nicolas Kyvernitis Electronics Enterprises. Distributors in the United Arab Emirates for the Live Sound market segment, NMK has supplied the rental firm the new Tempest wireless intercom system. The deal includes the 2.4GHz base station, five belt stations and a number of CC-95 headsets.

"Showtech are one of Dubai's most active rental firms, with constantly being in and out of different venues the need for a flexible yet reliable system is paramount," commented Richie Hiranandani, marketing manager. "The system also seamlessly integrates with their existing wired intercom systems, hence a clear choice for Showtech."

(Jim Evans)

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