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UK - This year's ABTT Show saw Philips Entertainment Lighting (PEL) showcase a raft of lighting solutions from its flagship brands Philips Selecon, Philips Strand Lighting and Philips Vari-lite.

The Philips Entertainment team was out in force at the Royal Horticultural Halls to demonstrate the latest developments in LED and intelligent luminaires alongside its dimming, control and distribution solutions.

The Show opened hot on the heels of recent news that Philips Vari-lite has realigned European product distribution, parts, and support services. Since June, Philips Vari-Lite has assumed direct control of its relationships with its dealers, previously taken care of by European Master distributor PRG Distribution. Philips Vari-lite will now provide its dealers with goods and serv

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UK - MSL Professional has launched a special summer promotion that enables UK customers to evaluate TL Audio products in the comfort of their own home or studio prior to purchase. Participating TL Audio dealers will arrange for time-limited loans of selected products over the summer.

MSL Professional's Simon Lowther commented, "The sound quality and warmth of TL Audio products really does have to be heard to be believed. So what better way for customers to experience this than by trying the outboard on their own tracks in their own studios. We look forward to running this particular promotion throughout the summer."

(Jim Evans)

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Spain / Italy - D.A.S. Audio has announced the signing of an exclusive Italian distribution agreement with Parma-based Audiosales.

"We are delighted to have Audiosales on board in Italy," says D.A.S. Audio's business development manager, Claus Behrens. "We have developed a very close rapport with company owner Stefano Rocchi during the past few weeks and it is clear to us that Audiosales is the perfect match to develop our business in Italy. Their focus on the D.A.S. Audio brand will benefit D.A.S. Audio's broad base of existing Italian customers and provide an unparalleled level of sales and service for the future. We see the market for D.A.S. Audio products expanding greatly from its already strong position."

"D.A.S. Audio wanted a more specialized and dedicated approach to the sound reinforcement and installation businesses in Italy," notes Ste

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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 - As the members of the German band Phrasenmäher announced their plans for a 2011 club tour and CD release, sound and event company LR. Audio was busy designing the sound system for the band to take on the road. Hired by Phrasenmäher to run the show, LR.Audio chose an Aviom Pro64 Digital Snake "to ensure quality sound for each performance and to eliminate the hassle of interfacing with the fixed gear of each venue at which the band typically plays".

In order to provide a better control of the audio mix, LR.Audio utilises two Aviom 6416m Mic Input Modules to run audio to the Yamaha LS9 front of house console. The engineer then has the ability to create crisp sound mixes, which are distributed to the venues' speaker systems through an Aviom 6416o Output Module. Two 6416Y2 A-Net Interface Cards serve as the I/O to the console and give the engineer control of the

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Isreal / West Bank - Philips Vari-Lite is proud to announce that effective immediately Protouch Ltd. will take control of the distribution and service of Vari-Lite automated luminaires in Israel and the West Bank. Protouch will direct their Vari-Lite luminaire sales and service operations from their home office in Petah Tikva.

"We are very excited to be working with Protouch as our authorised dealer for Israel and the West Bank," said Bob Schacherl, Philips Vari-Lite vice president of sales and marketing. "I am confident they will bring a renewed focus and energy to the sales and support of Vari-Lite luminaires."

"Protouch is very honoured to now be an authorised dealer for Philips Vari-Lite," stated David Melloul, Protouch import manager. "Vari-Lite luminaires are known throughout the world for their unmatched quality and performance. At Pro

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Singapore - MA Lighting Asia Pacific is hosting a Wireless Solution W-DMX Seminar on Monday, 11 July 2011 at their Singapore office. More details are available from infoasia@malighting.com.

"W-DMX seminars are a very valuable tool," says Niclas Arvidsson, CEO of Wireless Solution, "People can learn what to do and what not to do when it comes to wireless DMX technology, plus get hands-on experience. MA Lighting is extremely competent when it comes to W-DMX and they have a very strong presence in Asia Pacific."

"Training is very important and having a partner like W-DMX who pioneers not only wireless but also RDM at the same time, we hope to bring these two topics to a wider audience as it will impact the industry very soon," addss Jens Poehlker of MA Lighting.

(Jim Evans)

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UK - Chauvet reports that UK production company VME has recently added 60 fixtures to their rental inventory of Chauvet lighting gear. The additions include 24 COLORado 1 IP, 12 COLORado2 IP, 12 COLORado Batten 72 Tour and 12 COLORdash Accent.

Sales and marketing manager for VME, Ben Hyman, commented, "The COLORado series fixtures are very adaptable and can be used on nearly every job. They are of good quality and price-appropriate. We're thrilled to have them as part of our inventory and have already seen a quick payback on the investment."

Some recent applications by VME include private parties, including a Parisian-themed event at Tatton Park , a street party held in Altrincham during the recent royal wedding, as well as one-night club events at 53 Degrees in Preston.

(Jim Evans)

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Europe - Lighting designer Derek Jones recently finished the European leg of the current Yusuf Islam (formerly known as Cat Stevens) world tour, finding it a good opportunity to try out the new Jands Vista v2 software running on his own Vista S3 lighting console.

Jones invested in his Vista S3 desk for a Cliff Richard & The Shadows tour about 18 months ago and it hasn't stopped working since.

"Vista v2 has definitely taken the platform to another level," says Jones, who is impressed with the new software's power and simplicity. He added, "v2 makes it even faster to get a basic show up and running. It's so quick to create your cues, yet allows you the power to control the details."

The tour rig featured Martin Professional MAC 700 Profile moving lights in the roof and MAC 2K and 250 Washes on the floor. A Catalyst media server was also triggered from the V

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Canada - Martin Professional's M1 lighting console gave peace of mind to Brad Helzer, lighting designer and programmer for Christian group Starfield, at Youth Conference (YC), a large-scale three-day Christian event held at Rexall Place in Edmonton, Alberta, and Canada's largest youth convention.

Having just finished a three-week tour in May, Starfield was booked to play a set on the main stage at this year's YC, but Helzer was unclear whether he was going to be allowed to patch in the M1 to operate the rig.

With less than a week until the event, he was cleared to patch into the rig and received the plot and patch from the design firm. He then went to work drawing the rig in Martin's lighting and set design software, Martin ShowDesigner (MSD), which allowed him to visualize the programming before the event.

"Since we had just come off the tour run, the band wanted their

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India - Following a highly competitive tender process, the Shri Saibaba Sansthan Trust of Shirdi in Maharashtra India, has engaged Laservision to design, develop and install a large scale multi-media attraction at the Sai Garden Centre in Shirdi.

This high-tech spiritual theme park will display interactive teachings of Sai Baba's Life, drawn from the Shri Sai Saicharita, the holy book that is the basis for the life and teachings of Shri Sai Baba. The holy messages will be portrayed to the millions of devotees who complete the journey to this sacred location through an array of mediums including aqua screens, high-powered Laservision Light~Ray laser systems, HD video projectors, surround sound and a variety of special effects.

The Shrine at Shirdi is internationally renowned as being the location of the Samdhi Mandir (mausoleum) of the saint, and over 20,000,000 devotees comple

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The Netherlands - Developing a close bond with its partners and customer community has always been a main driving force of the Prolyte Group operations. Organising yearly update trainings for the product managers of its distributing partners is part of that philosophy.

During two days, "crammed with information", the participants are expected to take in all the product and technical information, which is later tested in hands-on sessions and an examination.

Sergey Rybinskiy, managing director of ModifiC comments, "First of all let me say a huge thanks for everything you have done during the training time. It looked like Prolyte is a happy family and I was very glad to be the small part of that. Every step of training was carefully thought trough, very efficient and useful, we found time to discuss our working questions and future goals."

(Jim Evans)

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UK - Northern Light has announced the arrival of Phil O'Halloran to head up the company's hire and events division.

O'Halloran - a well known industry player who has worked in technical production all over the world - comes to Northern Light from Gilded Balloon Productions where he held the post of production manager for five years.

As well as being an iconic Edinburgh Festival Fringe venue operator, Gilded Balloon Productions is responsible for a huge variety of other events and a number of national tours. Prior to his role with Gilded Balloon, O'Halloran worked in a wide range of technical management roles, including spells with the National Theatre of Scotland, Revolutions International Theatre Festival, the Grid Iron Theatre Company and Essential Show Products.

O'Halloran comments, "I've been working within the technical theatre and event industry for more than 12 y

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UK - Used-trussing.com is a new online portal dedicated to supplying a wide variety of used and new trussing solutions to the entertainment industry. The new site is co-ordinated by A.C. Entertainment Technologies

Available through used-trussing.com are quantities of new, as new, ex-demo, ex-installation, ex-rental, ex-tradeshow and second hand truss sections and associated accessories, including corner blocks and connection sets, plus a selection of other rigging equipment.

Many leading trussing and rigging brands are represented on used-trussing.com, including Litec, Prolyte, Slick, Thomas, TFL and Trilite. In addition to the diverse selection of trussing available, visitors can also find Lodestar electric chain hoists, motor controllers and rigging equipment - basically anything that is needed to get a truss floating in the air.

Despite items being sold at heavily discoun

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Australia - Innovative Production Services has been acquiring quite an arsenal of Spotlight fresnels including 18 Combi 12 F 1.2K and 12 of the Combi 05 F 650 watt models.

"The build quality of the Spotlight fresnels is fantastic especially for a fresnel at the price point that the Spotlight gear is," remarked Jeremy Koch, director of Innovative Production Services. "The barn door build is exceptional which is important as if anything is going to break over time it will be the barn door. The design is simple and very classic - they're not trying to do anything too fancy. It's a simple aluminium box that is clever with its dissipation but doesn't try too hard. It does what it does and does it well. There are no bells and whistles and sometimes that is just what you want in a lighting fixture."

Innovative's Spotlight fresnels were the only lighting fixture re

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UK - Chauvet has announced the appointment of Michael Brooksbank as general manager for UK and Europe, based in Nottingham.

Brooksbank has been instrumental to the success of the Chauvet UK branch, launched in 2010. His responsibilities now include after-sales operations - shipping, technical service and inventory management - for all of Europe.

A 20-year veteran, Brooksbank has firsthand experience with specifying, installing and selling lighting fixtures as well as managing upstart businesses.

"Under Michael's stellar leadership," said Albert Chauvet, CEO of Chauvet, "the UK venture has grown from a fledging operation into Chauvet Europe. This is only possible through the hard work, dedication, and vision of the entire U.K. team he has created and manages."

(Jim Evans)

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UK - Systems integrator IVC Media was back at Wimbledon this year, supplying support services for its TV and signage distribution system.

"IVC Media was originally associated with the All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC) way back in 1995 when the company installed the original analogue video over Cat 5 structured cabling and RF over coax," explains John Smith, managing director of IVC Media. "Since then, in 2007, the club worked with us to implement new IPTV technology across their updated high speed data network and each year we have staff on site to support all the TV distribution of the whole tournament."

"Where realtime coverage is required for commentary booths a Mediastar system works alongside the IPTV system," continues Smith. "RF and IPTV distribution of channels to public/private areas within ground include the referees' tower, comm

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World - Iron Maiden are currently touring the planet to promote their new album The final Frontier". An important element for a succesful show is drummer Nicko Mc Brain's HK Audio ConTour Series drum-fill system that has been part of his backline already for more than six years.

Comments McBrain, "Once I have found the equipment that suits my needs best, I like to keep using it as long as possible: I have been using Premier Drums and Paiste cymbals for a very long time and I am very happy with their equipment. Since 2005, HK audio has joined the little group of suppliers I work with. I use two ConTour Series CT 112 monitors and an SL 218 2x18" subwoofer as my drum-fill system.

"We're quite a loud band on stage as you can imagine, so I need a system that has lots of power and headroom. With vocals, three guitars a bass player like Steve Harris and the amo

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UK - QHotels, the award-winning collection of 21 hotels across the UK, has announced a £1.7m investment into its IT facilities, making it the only hotel group in the UK to offer a massive 90 megabits per second (Mbps) dedicated bandwidth for conferences. The investment will also see all guests provided with free, unlimited internet access.

David Kelly, Director of IT at QHotels, said, "This investment gives us an incredibly strong IT product that really is the cherry on the top of our Total Meetings Package. With the explosion of video conferencing, our ability to offer 90Mbps bandwidth is a real point of difference for us, especially for international clients who require high definition video conferencing facilities.

"We now have a very distinct, unique selling point, which I am confident will help us to attract and maintain conference business. Indeed,

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Denmark - Recording engineer and producer Henrik Nilsson has recorded and mixed a variety of high profile live concerts for broadcast, including Metallica, Jean Michel Jarre, Massive Attack, Robbie Williams, the Roskilde and Skanderborg festivals. He recently bought Audiotruck dk to provide a versatile OB service.

Following a May refit, the truck's audio infrastructure is to the highest standard, handling digital audio via both MADI and Optocore. Two DiGiCo D-Racks are optically connected to the SD10B console. Meanwhile, MADI signals are routed via the truck's MADI splitter system to the SD10B.

The console is used to mix the show for live broadcast, routing up to 256 channels of digital audio to a Macintosh-based recording system running Steinberg Nuendo.

The equipment was installed by Danish audio specialists Soundware in less than a day, as the company's Kim Johansen repor

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Europe - As ETC continues to expand in Europe, the lighting, dimming and control manufacturer has recently made changes to its marketing management roles in Europe.

Sarah Clausen, who has served ETC as a controls product manager since 2004, is now the market manager for ETC GmbH. In this position, Clausen expands her focus to the full range of ETC products being sold in the German, Austrian, Swiss and Eastern European markets. She is responsible for developing market strategies and coordinating product needs and feedback from customers and dealers.

In her new role at ETC GmbH, Clausen will work closely with ETC European promotions and advertising manager Rosi Marx to plan product launches and promotions. She will also retain her responsibilities as product manager for the Congo and SmartFade control product lines.

Erik Larsen, who has been ETC's market manager for Europe sin

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UK - Roland products have, for the second year running, taken centre stage at the Glastonbudget festival, a well established tribute act festival which takes place every year in Wymeswold, Leicestershire. With four stages and over 130 acts, the event has grown to attract over 7000 visitors over the May Bank Holiday weekend.

Working closely with event production and rental company OneBigStar, the team from Roland Systems Group (RSG) put together a combination of products which covered all areas of the festival. This year saw the new M-480 live mixing console play a key role in the event, with one console controlling both FOH and monitors for the large outdoor stage and one console FOH in the big top tent, plus a Digital Snake set up on each of the four stages.

RSG took the opportunity of Glastonbudget to demonstrate the new M-480 digital console in the UK and to emphasise its c

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