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Arts Funding Update - A reduction in the number of grants awarded by the Arts Council could spell the death knell for many cultural organisations across the country, according to a report by MPs. The size and the speed of the cuts threatened the long-term viability of many facilities but spending on arts had ballooned to unsustainable levels in recent years, said the paper by the parliamentary Select Committee on Culture.

"We are entering a difficult period for the arts," said committee head and Tory MP John Whittingdale. "They can't be excluded from the general need to find spending reductions and that does mean there'll have to be cuts."

Wednesday is funding judgment day, when 1,300 organisations across England will find out - in an email between 7.30 and 9

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UK - A new screening room has recently been opened at Universal Pictures London headquarters, where an Alcons Audio system was chosen to deliver the sound.

The screening room needed a system that satisfied exacting requirements, notably unsurpassed sonic detail. With a huge variety of films passing through the facility, finding a system that could cope equally well with every one was a challenge for audio consultant Laurence Claydon of Cinefilm.

"UPI deals with many foreign language dubs. Being able to determine if, for example, a dialogue insert or edit is acceptable is difficult on all but the best systems - sometimes the only clue is a slight shift in background reverb on the track," he says.

"Quality control for digital cinema also has its own particular requirements. Digital Cinema Packages (DCPs) are split into 20-minute 'reels' of picture and audio, joi

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UK - Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds first took to the stage back in April 2006. Several tours later, UK audio production company RG Jones Sound Engineering supplied a Synco by Martin Audio W8LC and W8LM system for last summer's run of dates, but with the arrival of the MLA (Multi-cellular Loudspeaker Array), audiences over the winter period were "treated to a radical new aural experience".

"Although the W8LC is a fabulous sounding system, nothing had prepared me for the new MLA," stated RG Jones' head of sound, Simon Honywill, who was piloting the system. "This is the most revolutionary product in the audio industry that I have yet encountered, bar none."

The tour itself featured 36 members of the British Philharmonic Orchestra string section alongside a 10 piece ensemble, the narration of Richard Burton and various w

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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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Germany - The new Max Aicher Arena in the Bavarian resort of Inzell recently celebrated its grand opening with the Single Distances World Championships in speed skating, which ran from 10-13 March, 2011. Work on the conversion of the old open-air stadium into the futuristic indoor arena that graces the site today began in September 2009 and cost 36mEuros.

The Parkstetten-based firm of TRE Professionelle Audiotechnik was responsible for the installation of the sound reinforcement system in the thoroughly renovated stadium. A complex task, since in addition to the low ambient temperatures inside the new hall, the architecture of the building made the high level of intelligibility demanded by the client a tricky objective to attain.

"The system we were asked to provide had to offer homogeneous and high-quality sound reinforcement as well as multiple input stations," say

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Finland - The city of Kangasala in southern Finland with its natural beauty and mineral water springs has been a popular travel destination for centuries. When it was time to refurbish the street and public area lighting it was also an opportunity to put an inviting face on the entrances to the city. The task was given to lighting design firm Valoa.

The freezing Finnish winters presented lead designer Arto Heiskanen with many practical challenges, but also with a white canvass of snow that he painted with colour using custom designed RGB LED fixtures to augment the monochrome utility lights. These fixtures, together with LumenRadio's CRMX units, were integrated into a large number of lighting poles and bollards spread along the streets and intersections located on the perim¬eter of the city to give visitors a warm welcome and a pleasant good-bye to remember.

"Inspiration

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Czech Republic - Innovason distributor and systems integrator, MusicDATA, has successfully completed their most difficult project of the year to date and delivered a new OB Van to national broadcaster Czech Radio. Furnished with the latest equipment, including an Innovason Eclipse digital mixing console, the project was completed ahead of schedule.

A MusicDATA team of some 15 people worked for two months on the transformation of the VW Crafter, installing the latest digital technology from Innovason. Now the most modern vehicle on the fleet, the OB van will be used by Czech Radio Ceske Budejovice to broadcast some of the Czech Republic's most prestigious events, such as the Ceske Krumlov International Music Festival, around the world across the EBU network (European Broadcasting Union).

The technology of the new OB and recording vehicle is built on an EtherSound backbone which

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UK - PR Lighting fixtures have been out in force on the musical theatre tour, Three Phantoms.

The brainchild of Ginger Boy Productions' Earl Carpenter - who himself appeared on the West End stage for many years in the cast of Les Misérables - the concept of their tours is to bring stars from the popular West End and Broadway musicals - such as Phantom of the Opera - to local stages around the country.

Carpenter himself , as well as appearing in the show , has a long relationship with Christchurch-based Complete Production Solutions (CPS Group), and they in turn have been working with PR Lighting products for the past decade (building many of the of the Chinese manufacturer's PLASA Show stands).

To complement in house generic lighting systems CPS supplied six PR Lighting XL1200's, four Sunstrip Active effects and lighting control in the form of an

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Italy - Following the success of the Xpress colour scroller, LDR's Fabiano Besio has told LSi Online that LDR will introduce a new lighting accessory at the forthcoming ProLight&Sound exhibition in Frankfurt - the Oscura 19.

Oscura 19 is a DMX512- and RDM-controllable motorised dimming shutter, designed to provide a smooth control of light intensity on non-dimmable discharge fixtures. It features an extremely quiet and precise operation and ensures no alterations of the colour temperature, say LDR.

"Oscura 19 is the first in line of a generation of mechanical dimming shutters specially designed for the professional theatre and the TV market. It's a perfect balance between design and technology, offering more than the average dimming shutter," says Besio.

Weighing just 2.5kg and producing less than 28dB noise level, the Oscura 19 differs from other products "be

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USA - J. R. Clancy has completed and passed its triennial ISO 9001 recertification audit. This is an intensive three-day audit of J. R. Clancy's Quality Management System. The audit was performed by SAI Global, Clancy's registrar.

"This is a very challenging standard, focusing on customers," said Clancy president Mike Murphy. "All of the elements are about quality - not just in manufacturing, but the complete customer experience. It's important that all our partners, from specifiers and rigging installers to end users, get a system that is on time, complete, and correct."

Murphy continued, "ISO 9001 is a set of quality management requirements with an emphasis on customer satisfaction. Our ISO 9001:2008 quality management system addresses design, installation, project management, and quality. It requires that top management be actively involved and that

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UK - The assets of ES Group, which recently went into administration with unsecured debts totalling almost £7million, have been acquired by new owners. The non-trucking assets of the Group were sold to three new shareholders and will operate under the name ES Global. ES Global's three shareholders are Steven Corlfield Moore, Shane McCarthy and Tony Nobbs, who owns 50% of the company.

At the same time, the assets of ES Trucking arm of the company were sold to Transam Trucking. All 37 employees of the company have been transferred to either ES Global Limited or to Transam Trucking.

Founded in 1974, Edwin Shirley Group was one of the UK's biggest event suppliers, providing staging and logistics services to music tours and events across the UK and Europe. A succession of problems has been blamed for the failure of ES Group including, most recently, late payment issues relati

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Germany - DiGiCo's new Remote Record Interface, part of the DiGiCo Solutions range, is due for launch at Prolight+Sound 2011.

The Remote Record Interface provides a remote recording solution for all applications in native Mac or PC formats. It allows you to work directly with your preferred DAW and is made up of two parts:

DiGiCo-Control software. This is free of charge and compatible with both Mac and PC. It allows you to control and setup SD Racks or D Racks via USB. When used in conjunction with the Dante DMI, it also allows control of the SD or D Rack via the standard Ethernet port on a computer.

The Dante DMI (DiGiCo Multichannel Interface). This is a Cat 5 solution which connects onto a high speed FPGA buss, allowing you to plug an SD or D Rack into a router/switcher, which can then be plugged into a computer (Mac or PC) Ethernet port. It not only allows you to control

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Nigeria - Construction has begun on Delta Leisure Resorts, a tourism and leisure facility which is being built in the Warri and Asaba cities of Delta State, Nigeria, and will be the first of its kind in West Africa. Sarner PFM (Africa) and Sarner UK are working together to design and create the leisure resorts which will cover over 150 hectares in each city and is estimated to be costing £167.4m.

The main park, located just 20 minutes from the airport in the Oleri village, will reflect the culture of the area while providing "a place of escapism, enjoyment and fun" and is set to include a water park, hotels, luxurious chalets, casino, golf course, historical attractions, family entertainment centre, children's area, sports facilities, spa and retail stores. The Oleri bridge, which is currently under construction, will link the park to the main road network for ea

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Japan - The founder and chairman of Korg Inc, Mr. Tsutomu Katoh, passed away on 15 March 2011 after a long fight with cancer.

Tsutomu Katoh was born in Showa-ward, Nagoya City in Japan on 28 August 1926, and after graduating from Nagoya Shogyo commercial high school in 1943, joined the navy and served among the crew of the submarine 'Koryu' (meaning dragon) during WWII.

After the war, he held a position at a trading company, and eventually went on to become the proprietor of a nightclub in the early 1960s. Tadashi Osanai, a noted Japanese accordionist, performed regularly at Katoh's club. Katoh told Osanai, who was also an engineering graduate from Japan's prestigious Tokyo Imperial University, that it would be nice to have a rhythm machine to keep the beat. Katoh and Osanai teamed up to create and market the world's first disk rotary rhythm machine. While working on the proje

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Germany - Adam Audio is announcing the launch of a new AX monitor at Prolight + Sound 2011. The A77X features the company's X-ART tweeter, new woofers and amplifiers, and completely re-designed speaker cabinets.

Adam's AX-Series used to include four high performance systems, ranging from the ultra-compact and fully professional A3X, to the high performance A5X, A7X and A8X systems. All models feature the new X-ART tweeter. In addition, the woofers and amplifiers have also been re-engineered from scratch, with larger voice-coils and more powerful amplifiers for greater linear excursion and more output.

The A77X is equipped with the same advanced technologies as the A7X. It therefore is very similar to the two-way speaker. The A77X, however, distinguishes itself by much higher, compression-free maximum sound pressure levels and dynamics. Due to its power and radiation characteri

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Germany - At ProLight + Sound 2011 in Frankfurt, Proel will present the latest addition to the Flash series of compact loudspeakers - Flash 5.

Flash 5 is the most compact model in the series, and both an active (5A) and a passive (5P) model are available. It features a 100w Class D bi-amplification module and precision-designed crossover filter.

Proel's R&D team designed a two-way system with studio-grade transducers in a small-sized trapezoidal polypropylene cabinet to allow use as stage monitor. Flash 5 also features three M6 flying points and a practical handle for easy transport.

Its dome tweeter, coupled with an elliptical waveguide, combined with a 5" woofer provides optimal high-frequency response and deep low frequency performance.

Available accessories include 2 mic stand adaptors, a metal C-bracket and a plastic bracket rotating on two axes (only for the pas

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Germany - Spain-based Lynx Pro Audio will be be presenting the new LX-V12 Line array at Prolight + Sound. The new cabinet includes two 12" LF woofers, four 6.5" MF transducers and two 1.4" HF compression drivers with individual wave guides. The self-powered line array cabinet includes 4000W of class D amplification with PFC (Power Factor Correction) and delivers 143dB peak.

Each cabinet has its own DSP integrated with equalisation, filtering, alignment and dual RMS & peak compression. Also on board is the company's inclinometer, a feature which means the box automatically knows at which angle it is tilted, follows where in the line array it is located and uses this information to adjust for long, medium or short throw sound dispersion. The cabinet also offers Ethercon connectivity for live monitoring.

A new cardioid sub-bass has also been designed to accompany t

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Germany - Elation Professional's booth ProLight + Sound will feature a spread of products that cut across all lighting categories, from new hi-res LED video panels to its most powerful Platinum Series moving head spot fixture to date, the Platinum Spot 15R Pro, which delivers 700-watt brightness, but is one-third smaller than a 700-watt moving head and consumes one-half the power.

EPV 762 MH is a high-resolution 7.62mm pitch LED moving head video panel that can rotate just like a moving yoke light fixture. Its pan of 540° and tilt of 265° give video displays maximum exposure at shows and events. Equipped with 4,096 tri-color (red, green and blue) SMD LEDs and featuring 2,000 nit brightness and high contrast levels, this versatile screen will create eye-popping videos, graphics, text messages, special effects or any other image.

EPV 6 - another member of the EPV (Elatio

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Germany - The new Freedom and Liberty lighting control desks from ADB Lighting will be highlighted at ProLight+Sound. ADB will also show the latest developments for the ALC4 multi-purpose LED luminaire, the Eurodim Twin Tech dimmer, and the compact, quiet running MIkapack 30 dimmer.

For theatre, opera, television and many other applications, Freedom can support up to 2,048 channels and 32 universes, while Liberty supports up to 1,024 channels and 16 universes. Up to four external touch screens (Freedom) or two (Liberty) can expand the capacity of the built in touch screen. An array of interfaces makes working simultaneously with different network protocols simple.

The desks provide fully integrated management of scrollers and gel strings, while the motion section's push wheels and dedicated keys make programming hundreds of moving lights intuitive and flexible. Freedom also bo

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USA - - Based upon the technologies inside two of their most in-demand fixtures, Philips Vari-Lite has announced the new VLX3 LED Wash, VL400 Spot, VL440 Spot, VL770 Spot and the VL880 Spot luminaires.

"We constantly strive to strengthen our product portfolio. Over the past few years, we received numerous requests to create smaller and more affordable versions of our most popular fixtures," said Bob Schacherl, Philips Vari-Lite vice president of sales and marketing. "Since we are generally recognised as the pioneers of the modern automated luminaire, we knew we could not sacrifice any of the performance qualities expected with the VARI*LITE brand. After listening to dealers and designers from around the world, we identified the characteristics they wanted and created what we feel are four fantastic product lines."

Based on the VLX Wash luminaire technology,

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Germany - At ProLight+Sound in Frankfurt, Meyer Sound will offer visitors an intimate, hands-on experience of its comprehensive audio system solutions. Working products that will be demonstrated include the D-Mitri digital audio platform, a range of loudspeaker and system integration tools, and the Constellation acoustic system, a 2011 MIPA Award nominee. On Thursday, 7 April at 16:00, the Meyer Sound cocktail reception will provide show guests an opportunity "to socialise with industry friends while enjoying the best hospitality at ProLight+Sound".

Visitors to the Meyer stand will be treated to the sound of saxophonist Sarah Underwood and Adrian Brett, flautist for The Lion King in the West End, as they demonstrate Constellation's ability to recreate the acoustical characteristics of venues from an intimate recital hall to a cavernous cathedral. Through a range

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UK - Manchester-based lighting rental house, DBN Lighting has just completed another purchase of Chroma-QTM Color ForceTM LED fixtures to keep up with increasing demand for the range from its customer base.

The latest investment saw DBN take delivery of 30 fixtures - a mix of the 30cm wide multi-purpose Color Force 12 and 1.2m/1.8m Color Force 48 / 72 battens -doubling their existing stock and bringing their total count to over 60 units, currently the largest in the UK.

DBN was also the first rental company in the UK to buy these Chroma-Q fixtures when they launched in June 2010. Since then they have proved extremely popular, being used on numerous shows and events. Says DBN's Nick Walton: "Color Force is a hugely versatile product, we use the fixtures constantly for our shows, we all really like them and they are in great demand with our customers."

(Jim Evans)

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