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Fringe Record - Sales of tickets at this year's Edinburgh Fringe are up by 3% on last year. According to figures released by the Fringe Society 1,877,000 tickets were sold by its box office over the last three and a half weeks. It is another increase on the record breaking sales achieved in 2010. Poor weather during August and a greater concentration of venues in one part of the city did not appear to have had an adverse effect on ticket sales. During the Fringe this year there were a record-breaking 2,542 shows, with about 21,000 performers presenting 41,689 performances in 258 venues.

Off Broadway - Broadway shows were cancelled on Saturday as New York braced itself for the full force of Hurricane Irene to strike. They included Cirque du Soleil's Zarkana at Radio C

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UK - Anyone interested in what today's LED luminaires have to offer should make sure they see the STLD LED Shootout at PLASA 2011.

Among the luminaires being put through their paces will be ETC's new broadcast-specific Selador fixtures: Studio Line D40/D60 (an IP66 version of the D40 provides for ENG use), Studio HD, Studio Tungsten and Studio Daylight. Being debuted at PLASA, these bright, high colour rendering, energy efficient fixtures are earning praise for their ability to blend beautifully with conventional tungsten and HMI colour and light in today's greener hybrid lighting rigs.

ETC's Selador LEDs blend seven colours and the company is using the Shootout to also demonstrate Desire Lustr+ and Vivid. Its existing Selador Classic Lustr, used in studios for its broad spectrum whites and tinted colours, and Selador Vivid-R, optimised to produce high output colour, can be se

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UK - Specialist lighting solutions providers Architainment Lighting will be showcasing a range of LED technology at stand 1-E47 during this year's PLASA exhibition in London.

On show and available for demonstration will be fixtures from Philips Color Kinetics including the new ColorBlaze TRX, ColorBlast TRX, iColor Flex MX, iColor Flex LMX, iColor Accent MX Powercore, and the PL3 from Philips Selecon.

The ColorBlaze TRX is a versatile, linear RGBAW LED fixture and the latest fitting available from Architainment Lighting. Designed for concert, theatre, television and stage lighting, it incorporates red, green, blue, amber, and white LEDs to achieve an expanded colour palette. The ColorBlaze TRX is bright with an output of over 7,000 lumens per 2' fixture and can be controlled in 4" increments in 8 or 16-bit, via DMX or Ethernet.

Architainment Lighting has recently suppli

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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 - The Cygnus Incite LED Profile from Wybron will premiere at this year's PLASA on stand 1-B12. Following a successful sneak preview at ABTT, the launch will feature hands-on demonstrations of this rlighting instrument at TMB's stand 1-B12. Also featured will be the complete range of Wybron Cygnus LED Wash fixtures, both RGBW 'Theatrical' and all-white 'Film and TV' fixtures.

Wybron Cygnus will also participate in the STLD LED Shootout at stand 1F-60, represented by Cygnus Studio Series medium and narrow flood fixtures. The Shootout provides an opportunity for objective comparison of fixtures from various manufacturers in a hands-on 'studio' setting, every day throughout the show.

Cygnus Studio Series all-white wash fixtures are bright and feature variable colour temperatures of 2800K-6000K, using a combination of cool and warm white CREE LEDs. Suitable for flicker-free film

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UK - Philips Entertainment will showcase a selection of its most innovative and successful products at this year's PLASA show on stand 1-F50.

Two of the most revolutionary products on display are the Philips Selecon PL1 and PL3 LED luminaires. Driven by the Philips Vari-Lite VLX LED light engine, the first light source to deliver full control of beam colour composition irrespective of intensity, the PL1 and PL3 feature an adjustable beam spread from 15-55 degrees, smooth colour mixing and stepless fades; ideal for any entertainment lighting application.

Philips Selecon's new generation of tungsten halogen ellipsoidal luminaires - the SPX range has been called 'evolutionary' and 'outstanding'. They lead the way in energy efficiency enabling customers to reduce electrical consumption by as much as 60 percent compared to prior generations of ellipsoidals. SPX features two zoom ra

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China - Hangzhou is famous for its natural scenery and its West Lake. This thriving city is also home to the Dongpo Theater, the flagship theatre of Gold Coast Culture Development, better known as the Gold Coast Company. As one of the top entertainment theatres in China, the Dongpo Theatre offers two performances nightly year -round Night of West Lake for the tourists and the Gold Coast Entertainment Show for local citizens.

Sound quality is a major consideration for all who perform at the Dongpo Theatre, which is considered a cultural and entertainment landmark. This is why a new sound reinforcement system drawn from the catalogue of D.A.S. Audio was recently placed into service.

Ms. Jie Han, Gold Coast Company's project manager, comments, "As the largest theatre chain in China, the Gold Coast Company operates over 50 theatre productions at its 14 theatres

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Namibia - One of Namibia's rapidly blossoming and emerging brands Omalaeti continues to impress in the events arena with their HK Audio ConTour Array system purchased from authorised distributor ProAudio.

"The CTA's have received a fantastic response from the local market with the brilliant sound that the system produces and the production crew rave over its ease of use and versatility" said Andrew Sorrill, audio specialist at ProAudio. "We are expectant that the HKAudio brand will have a greater presence in the live sound market of Southern Africa because of this immense reference."

Tawanda Munyawiri, operations manager at Omalaeti Events has enjoyed HK Audio's sound and versatility through the years, having worked on all of their products, including the concert audio HK Cohedra Line Array system when he was in Zimbabwe. "With HK Audio products, I hav

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Poland - Wireless Solution Sweden has its award-winning W-DMX technology proudly on display at Warsaw's most prominent building, the Palace of Culture.

The Palace of Culture and Science (Pa?ac Kultury i Nauki, or PKiN) is the tallest and most dominant building in Poland, constructed between 1952 and 1955 as a gift from the Soviet Union to the people of Poland. The 231m-tall building currently serves as an exhibition hall, office complex, radio and television broadcasting centre, plus it holds cinemas, theatres, museums, and a conference hall for up to 3,000 people.

The main attraction of the Palace of Culture is its observation deck on the 30th floor, from which the whole city can be viewed on a clear day. In 2010, a new lighting installation on the building was begun in order to revive the city skyline with a colourful centrepiece - a project developed with financial support

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UK - Techno DJ and producer, Dubfire, has been touring with Allen & Heath's new Xone:DB4 DJ FX mixer.

Formerly of duo, DeepDish, Dubfire's latest solo technical set up comprises the Xone:DB4 at the centre of two X1 controllers running Traktor and an iPad controlling Maschine and Ableton.

"The DB4 has been amazing. It's portable and lighter than other mixers and allows me to travel with my full DJ set up, including portable speakers, so I can even play with different parameters and experiment with my set up and build a good FX library in my hotel room. It's been fantastic," explains Dubfire.

"It's much easier having access to functions like FX and filters on the actual DJ mixer, whilst external devices are inside the software. I'm using the delays a lot because they sound so good, and I'm able to change the delay time so quickly. The A&H filtering, of course, i

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USA - Running on a mere 189 watts of electricity, Elation Professional's new Platinum Beam 5R DMX ACL beam effect isn't an obvious choice for lighting up large outdoor concert venues. But this little moving head, powered by the Philips MSD Platinum 5R lamp, recently proved it had the beam brawn to illuminate, not one, but two shows in big open-air spaces: the L.A. Rising concert at the Los Angeles Coliseum, headlined by Rage Against the Machine; and Coldplay's performance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, which was staged in a tennis stadium and shot from overhead by a blimp.

Todd Roberts of Visions Lighting saved the day at L.A. Rising by substituting the Platinum Beam 5R, after the festival's original lighting proposal turned out to be too costly to execute. "I had a proposal for the L.A. Rising show that called for a lot of larger, higher-powered fixtures. But a week out, th

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UK - Set to launch at PLASA 2011, Quadhorn from Flare Audio couples the sonic energy of multiple Flare loudspeaker drivers through individual sound channels contained within a compact enclosure. This creates one coherent sonic force at the acoustically open front. This coherent surface area increases in size as additional Quadhorn are added, increasing lower frequency sensitivity even further.

"The result of this coherent force produces lower frequencies external to the enclosure that are truly accurate and contain no sonic resonance or transient decay. This external coherent coupling enables Quadhorn to have an incredible frequency response of 18 Hz - 850 Hz producing infrasound, sub bass, bass and low mid frequencies from one loudspeaker," the company says.

Material of any genre can be played on Quadhorn without the alteration or enhancement of sub bass frequencies

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UK - The deadline for entries into the 2011 PLASA Awards for Innovation has been extended to Tuesday 6 September. If you are a PLASA 2011 exhibitor with a product or products that meet the criteria of the prestigious awards, don't miss out on your chance to enter and give them a platform on which to shine at the industry's major international launch pad for new products.

The PLASA Awards for Innovation recognise products which advance the industry by demonstrating a new style of thinking, improving technical practice or taking a key step forward in terms of safety.

Extended deadline for nominations - Tuesday 6 September

Visit the web address below for all the details you need.

(Claire Beeson)

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Russia - This month sees pro audio and musical instrument distributor SLAMI appointed to represent dBTechnologies' wide range of rental, installation and professional sound reinforcement equipment in Russia.

With its headquarters in Moscow, SLAMI offers an full range of MI products, via an extensive network of music shops called 'Mir Muzyki'. Located in many of the largest cities in Russia including St Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan and Samara, more outlets are being opened every year. SLAMI also operates a comprehensive dealer network for both its MI and pro audio products, collaborating closely with over 300 companies across the territory.

Segey Korzh, chief of the pro sound department comments, "The SLAMI music company team intends to make every effort to further contribute to the success of dBTechnologies. We needed a brand like dBTechnologies which really meets t

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Brazil - rental company and L-Acoustics certified provider Loudness deployed a KARA WST modular line source system for a show starring Brazilian singer/songwriter Erasmo Carlos at the Teatro Municipal, Rio de Janeiro.

The system featured a central cluster of eight KARA cabinets, with two further KARA and two SB28 subwoofers per side as in-fills.

Onstage, the band was using L-Acoustics 115XT HiQ active stage monitors.

"I have spent all my career in recording studios mixing top Brazilian and international artists," says Carlos' engineer, Flavio Senna. "For live sound it's pretty hard to find the same quality we have in studios due to the environment of the different venues. L-Acoustics K1 and KARA are the systems that come closer to the sound we have in the studios, and make my mixing job much easy. The Loudness guys, Celson and Fernanda, did a great sound desig

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UK - The Society of Television Lighting and Design (STLD) is to host a seminar on the BBC Low Energy Lighting Guidelines for TV Productions publication on its stand (1F-60) at PLASA 2011.

The event, which is open to all PLASA 2011 visitors, will be held on Tuesday 13th September 2011 from 6:00pm to around 7:30.

The BBC recently launched the first release of its Guide and has hosted sessions at Television Centre to explain its findings and the steps being taken by different organizations to help quantify the output characteristics of LED lighting fixtures when used on TV Productions.

The event's schedule and speakers are:

6:00 PM - Paul Middleton (STLD) - Introduction

6:05 PM - Mariam Ali (BBC) - Low energy lighting at the BBC

6:15 PM - Francesco Anselmo (Arup) - Low energy lighting performance comparison

6:25 PM - Karl Ruling (PLASA) - BSR E1.41 - 201x, Recomm

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Australia - Organisers of the long running, biennial industry tradeshow ENTECH, Exhibition and Trade Fairs (ETF), have announced a second event under the ENTECH portfolio.

ENTECH Connect will be a condensed two day industry showcase held in Melbourne in July 2012. Part tradeshow, part seminar, ENTECH Connect will provide an informal environment for all members of the live entertainment industry to be informed, inspired and get their hands on the latest industry technology.

Building on the success of ENTECH's seminar programme, ENTECH Connect 2012 will feature industry leaders from Australia and overseas presenting on key industry and technology developments, as well as allowing up-close 'ask the experts' opportunities.

ETF recently commissioned research into the national market, and results clearly indicate Melbourne, and the broader Victorian market is ready and waiting for

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UK - MA Lighting and Clay Paky have jointly announced that from 1 September both companies' product ranges will enjoy comprehensive UK support from London-based Ambersphere Solutions Ltd. Emerging from the team at MA Lighting Ltd, the company is already known for the outstanding support given to MA Lighting products in the UK. Now, from 1 September 2011, Clay Paky's UK customers will be able to enjoy a similar level of attention from a dedicated UK team.

Ambersphere's managing director Glyn O'Donoghue comments: "For the past six months I have been working closely with MA Lighting and Clay Paky in the UK and the synergy is fantastic. Both companies make high quality innovative products and they deserve the best support services available. Through this alliance, we'll be able to offer total UK support for both product ranges. Later this month we will be moving into larger pre

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UK - According to data released recently, the eurozone economy has slipped closer to stagnation and there are growing fears of a double dip recession. Financial reports show that the region's manufacturing sector has contracted for the first time since September 2009 and growth is slowing across the board, however many companies in our industry report healthy order books and busy diaries.

Against a background of such uncertainty, PLASA CEO Matthew Griffiths suggests there has never been a more important time to talk to each other. "When financial experts are sceptical about future economic growth, we have to take note and be prepared for market changes. Fortunately, this is a strong industry that performs well and understands how to innovate. It's also thankfully one that believes in openly discussing issues, so it's encouraging that people want to discuss what the next 12

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USA - A book signing was held Monday, 22 August for A Theatre Project, a new memoir written by Richard Pilbrow with David Collison, edited by David Barbour, and published by PLASA Media. The event, held at PLASA's new offices in the Film Centre Building in New York's Theatre District, was well attended by the theatre and entertainment technology community.

Copies of Pilbrow's book were available for purchase, which he personally signed throughout the evening. The catered reception also served as a successful networking event, and was attended by well-known designers including Ken Billington, Imero Fiorentino, Hugh Hardy, Natasha Katz, Stan Pressner, and Jennifer Tipton. PLASA Members and staff connected with their industry peers, Pilbrow's family and friends, and fans and students of his work.

Pilbrow will also sign copies of his memoir at the PLASA show in London, Tues

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France - Two weeks in July heralded the 51st edition of the International Jazz a Juan, one of Europe's coolest jazz festivals, held beachside in Antibes Juan-les-Pins in the south of France. It was here, with the glittering Mediteranian Sea as its backdrop, that DiGiCo's SD Ten console made the music of Herbie Hancock, BB King and Santana sound just that little bit sweeter.

Jazz a Juan is the longest running jazz festival in Europe and is organised by Jean-René Palacio, artistic director of the Société des Bains de Mer (SBM), based in the principality of Monaco - also the organiser of the Monte-Carlo Jazz Festival, which DiGiCo has sponsored for the past four years.

Palacio's desire to produce not only the best, but something a little different, stretches across every event he organises, both in terms of artistic line up and all aspects of production. In a

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USA - Situated on 60 acres in the heart of Pennsylvania, the Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex & Expo Centre is an impressive venue whose immense 11-building complex includes three arenas, seven exposition halls, and a banquet hall, all designed by Bala Cynwyd, PA-based Converse Winkler Architecture.

With nearly one million square feet of indoor floor space, the flexibility of the complex allows it to host a wide range of premier events. In addition to accommodating its namesake Pennsylvania Farm Show, the venue serves as host to more than 200 exhibits and trade shows, numerous meetings and conferences, proms and graduation ceremonies, concerts, sporting events and rodeos, even monster trucks.

With space for up to 5,000 large animals and 10,000 or more visitors at any given time, a powerful, high-quality sound system is a necessity for the complex. Incorporated into the venue is

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