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Spain - Spain became the first testing ground for the new Adamson 'Project Energia' beta launch. Adamson distributor Seesound together with sound provider Fluge arranged the first E15 system in Europe to premiere at the Low Cost Festival in Benidorm, featuring Mika and Ok GO! among many others. Now ready for a full tour, Fluge is putting the E15's to the test with the Spanish metal band Los Marea.

The tour begins in Arnedo, in La Rioja province in the North of Spain on 5 November, and finishes the year on 30 December in Madrid, starting the new year with a date on 14 January in Zaragoza. Their tour then continues to Argentina, Chile and Colombia in February 2012.

El Grupo Industrias Orquestales, the parent company of Fluge is a leader in the Spanish live production market and fa

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Germany - With over seven million visitors, white-knuckle rides galore, and a convivial atmosphere in the gigantic beer tents strewn out over the vast Theresienwiese (the Meadow of Therese), the Munich Beer Festival (or Oktoberfest) this year once again lived up to its reputation as one of the largest and most spectacular festivals in the world. The two-week event kicked off, as ever, with the broaching of the first barrel in the largest tent: the Schottenhamel Marquee.

No less important, of course, was the quality of the sound reinforcement for the 10,000-odd revellers, which is why for the third year running the organizers commissioned StereoMike Veranstaltungstechnik of Straubing to look after the sound.

"Given the worldwide fame of the festival, expectations for sound quality are extremely high," says Michael Wittenzellner, StereoMike's managing director. "O

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Belgium - Ethersound-based audio is now used on live events of all sizes, aided by the ease with which it can be integrated with Yamaha's digital mixing consoles. Belgian company Swing is the latest rental house to invest in Yamaha equipment and take advantage of the many benefits of completely digital audio systems.

Based in Merelbeke, near Gent, Swing owns two Yamaha M7CL-32 consoles, which are in high demand for a range of events. Company owner Dany de Letter was keen to invest in an Ethersound 'digital snake' solution to enhance the audio quality of Swing's productions and so purchased two Yamaha SB168-ES stage boxes, plus two MY16-EX and two MY16-ES64 interface cards.

In addition, an LS9-16 plus a further SB168-ES and MY16-ES64 have also been added to the company's rental stock.

"TheM7CL was in great demand and I knew that Ethersound could be easily added via Yamah

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

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Finland - The charity concert Elämä Lapselle (Life of a Child) in the Hartwall-Areena, Helsinki, raises funds to help Finnish children in need. It has been staged annually since 1995 and has since been aired on MTV3. For this year's event, lighting and visual designer Mikko Linnavuori and lighting designer Eero Helle used two grandMA2 light, a grandMA full-size, a grandMA light and three MA NSP (Network Signal Processor).

"grandMA and grandMA2 are the only usable solutions when you need full tracking backup and a multi-user control platform", commented Eero Helle. "This is very important for us when we are working on live TV shows. The reliability of the MA network is so good that all of the lighting team were completely confident."

"One main reason for choosing a grandMA2 console is the excellent GUI for the framing shutters" said white light o

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South Africa - "When I first looked at The Durban Playhouse Company tender we'd won, I had to wonder if we would complete it," says Dan Riley, head of sales for Philips Distributor in South Africa, DWR. "It was a major job and the client had put in clauses stating that the theatre could not close and that shows must go on as normal. A tall order given DWR had been commissioned to change all the dimmers in the building! However I'm delighted to be able to say that the DWR boys pulled it off, on time and on budget."

DWR's Bruce Riley headed up an installation team that included JC Du Plessis, Gedeon Mpofu and Michael van Dyk. "The installation comprised: 11 x Philips Strand EC 21 96 way dimmer racks with full reporting capabilities, explains Riley. "Six have been installed in the Opera Theatre (originally they were MCM Dimmers), four in the Drama Thea

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France - LumenRadio and Philips Electronics lit up the Black Eyed Peas during a three-day event at the Stade de France as part of the group's The Beginning tour. The 80,000 capacity stadium was filled to capacity all three nights.

Fergie and the rest of the Peas wore costumes developed to showcase Philips latest LED and OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) technology and incorporating LumenRadio's CRMX wireless technology. The costumes were designed by Philips Lighting's chief design officer, Rogier Van der Heide in cooperation with B. Åkerlund, the Black Eyed Peas Los Angeles based lead costume designer & stylist, who has frequently working with music acts ranging from Lady Gaga to the Rolling Stones.

Rogier Van der Heide, and his design team in collaboration with the BEP production team developed the technical concepts and facilitated the practical integration of the

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Australia - The Australian Institute of Music has grown into a major player in education and training for the Australian music industry, performing arts and entertainment management fields. Recently this industry institution purchased two ETC Element consoles - one for the Pilgrim Theatre Sydney, for their Dramatic Arts programme, replacing the Jands 48 channel ESP, and one for their multipurpose 220 seat auditorium in Foveaux Street replacing a Theatrelight Scenemaster 24.

The ETC Element control console is designed expressly for modest rigs and maximum hands-on fader control. It is based on ETC's Eos control operating system but with a simplified feature set in an all in one package.

Jands conducted a training day for the students, with Rod McKinnon at the helm, and students were amazed at how quickly they could learn to operate the ETC Element console.

"The training

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USA - Outline reports that its Mini-COM.P.A.S.S. powered line array speakers were chosen as the centre stage, primary front-of-house speakers for the Broadway hit Relatively Speaking, playing at the Brookes-Atkinson Theatre in Manhattan.

The play, directed by actor/director John Turturro and penned by Ethan Coen, Elaine May and Woody Allen, consists of three one-act plays that deal with the topic of family relationships. As each play is essentially dialogue-driven, clarity is of great importance for the success of the production. Mini-COM.P.A.S.S., with its Double Parabolic Reflective Wave Guide (DPRWG) technology and integrated power amplifiers, allows for extremely directed high frequencies, ensuring intelligibility throughout the main audience areas, says the company.

"The challenge for designing the audio system was finding a speaker/amplifier system capable of

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USA At the AES convention in New York this week, DiGiCo is debuting the SD10-24 console. The SD10-24, like the original SD Ten launched at ProLight+Sound earlier this year, is a console that "boasts features and benefits that i distinguish it from the others in the SD Series and every other digital console on the market, just in a more compact package".

"When we introduced the SD8-24, which was primarily designed with the corporate market in mind, it was an immediate hit," says James Gordon, DiGiCo's managing director. "The SD10-24 is based on the same thinking; to provide a smaller footprint console for a particular segment of the market, but with no reduction in functionality or number of inputs and outputs.

"With the SD10-24 we have smaller venues in mind and, because we also have the SD10-B broadcast specific product, we are producing an SD10B

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USA - Clear-Com is exhibiting the new HME DX210 at this year's AES 2011 in NYC. The 2.4-GHz-band wireless intercom system delivers "exceptional sound clarity and reliable, interference-free connection to audio professionals that need to communicate with their production team". With two communication channels, improved wired system connections and simple-to-use operations, the HME DX210 provides great flexibility and value for fixed installations and tour productions, says the company.

The HME DX210 is a robust wireless system with a rugged-yet-lightweight design. With two channels of communication, it provides users with the option of a single- or dual-channel intercom system. In single-channel mode, up to four 1RU base stations can be linked together to support 16 full-duplex and 44 half-duplex beltpacks and/or wireless headsets. The advanced wireless system is also b

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USA - Acuity Brands is introducing the newest Pathway Connectivity DMX-over-Ethernet product, the Pathport Quattro. This product provides real-time, interoperability solutions between sophisticated lighting control systems. A compact, four-port node, the Pathport Quattro product runs on Power-over-Ethernet, making it suitable for truss, desktop or wall mount installation, as well as 19" rack mounting. Recently acquired by the company, Pathway designs and manufactures electronics that enable lighting control systems to communicate with intelligent lighting fixtures and power devices, even when those products utilize different communications protocols.

Like other members of the Pathway Pathport family, the Quattro supports all standard DMX-over-Ethernet protocols, including E1.31 streaming ACN, Strand Shownet, Art-Net and Pathport Protocol. It also provides an E1.20 Remote De

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USA - Italian lighting manufacturer LDR will celebrate the sale of its 1000th Canto followspot in the US market next week at the annual LDI tradeshow.

LDR introduced the Canto followspot to the US market thorough Ballantyne Strong in 2006. Five years on, and 1000 units later, the Canto followspot has set a new standard in the medium-throw followspot professional market, says the company.

"A special thanks goes to Paul Rabinovitz and John Luhrs from Ballantyne Strong and to all of the Strong team that has contributed to reaching this milestone " says LDR's co-founder Fabiano Besio. "With all the positive feedback from the US market, we are inspired to continue with further improvements to the existing models and to study new ideas for us to provide to our valuable customers new solution for their future lighting challenges."

To see who is honoured for sell

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Albania - Ermal Gashi, owner of Diesel Hall in Tirana, was looking for a cost effective but high-quality wall-grazing fixture to dress up his popular bar-lounge. The fixture would need to include a colour mixing system and be able to project effectively up to three metres.

Kliton Gjika, sales manager at Prosound, Martin Professional's distributor in Albania, suggested the Martin Easypix linear strip light to fulfill the task.

Twelve Easypix wallwashers were installed to light the venue's interior façade in a variety of shades. The illumination, which complements naturally the surrounding architecture and interior, has created a more luxurious environment and lifted the venue visually.

(Jim Evans)

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Russia - The rebirth of Russia's Bolshoi Theatre this month will serve as the premiere for the world's largest installation of Oeko-Tex 100 certified stage drapes from ShowTex.

After six years of work by a cast of thousands, the Bolshoi Theatre is just days away from reopening night, with President Dmitry Medvedev concert on 28 October.

The black velvet velour fabric used for all acoustic panels, stage borders, legs, and backdrops was selected by the project's main contractor Rexroth in a blind test.

There were several requirements for the Bolshoi's new drapes, from fabric weight and colour, to density of weave and flame retardant certification level. In the end, the Molière cotton velvet developed by ShowTex stood out as the truest black that can be achieved in a staging environment. In fact, all three of the Ultrablack velvet velour fabrics from ShowTex absorb more than 9

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UK - Nick Gray of London- based creative lighting practice Renegade designed lighting for the main British Fashion Council (BFC) space in Somerset House and other rooms, along with numerous off-site shows in one of his busiest Fashion Weeks to date.

The off-site shows included Mulberry, Julien Macdonald, Temperley, Emilio de la Morena, Hardy Amies, Rocksander and others, all staged in an assortment of venues from Claridges Hotel to the British Museum atrium - engaging Gray and his team in a relentless week of activity - utilising four main lighting rental supplies - Neg Earth, Panalux, Shok London and White Light and over 50 crew.

Gray brought his own style and creative edge to the proceedings, together with his very individual approach of treating each space as a special environment into which the lighting and production should blend and harmonise.

For the BFC Tent at Somer

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UK - The University of Oxford's Sheldonian Theatre was Sir Christopher Wren's first building design and is therefore of tremendous historic importance, having been started in 1664. Adapting a Grade 1listed building for 21st Century use, while at the same time not losing any of its historic magnificence, has been a complex process. But a K-array audio system has meant the 343 year old theatre can now meet all those criteria.

The iconic structure is arch-shaped in plan, surmounted by a cupola and is one of the most photographed buildings in the city of dreaming spires. In addition to being used for lectures by invited guests, matriculation and graduation ceremonies, it also sees many thousands of tourists every year.

Peterborough-based B+H Sound Services was appointed to supply and install a new audio system, which would satisfy all the modern needs of the venue but not impact o

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UK - Up For Hire, the live interactive show about unemployment and job seeking, hosted by Richard Bacon and Tina Daheley, aired on BBC3, invites Industry experts to share their knowledge and each episode a celebrity guests comes in to share their stories too. Alongside this, Radio 1 DJ Scott Mills will also be running an Up For Hire theme in the breakfast show.

Roger Williams designed the lighting supported by Richard Martin Lighting (RML). Alpha Beam 300's are the main focus of the show. The rig is completed with Robe Robin 600 LED Wash's and a small LED package provided by EasilyLED.

(Jim Evans)

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Ireland - Production Services Ireland (PSI) energised its Northern and Southern Irish facilities in a massive operation to provide lighting, rigging and technical services for the 2011 Arthur Guinness Day celebrations.

This featured multiple events worldwide and in Ireland, incorporating major live stages in Dublin, Belfast, Cork and Limerick - plus a myriad of organically flowing pub-based live music gigs and celebrations in all those towns and throughout the entire country.

The main venue for the whole event was the Guinness Hop Store at the St James's Gate Brewery, where PSI supplied a new eight-legged Litec ground support and trussing system that was purchased for this event. They also supplied all lighting, trussing and over 60 points of rigging.

The performance line up of the Stereophonics, Paolo Nutini, The Saturdays, Yasmin and more was recorded and the highlights br

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USA - At AES in New York, Outline highlighted the GTO-DF, the newest member of the GTO (Grand Touring Outline) Series of line array speakers. First introduced at PLASA 2011, the GTO-DF is designed to provide exceptionally high-quality sound to the first several rows of the audience at an event, filling the sonic gap often experienced by event attendees who are seated near the stage.

"The GTO-DF rounds out the performance coverage of the highly regarded GTO line array speaker systems," says Tom Bensen, senior vice president and managing director of Outline North America. "In the past, the front several rows of the audience could be slightly off axis to the main FOH arrays, leading to an audible reduction in coverage, especially in the critical high-end frequencies that are responsible for intelligibility.

"The GTO-DF, with its bottom-mounted constant directi

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USA - Following the popularity of ETC's iRFR application for Apple's iPhone, iPod touch and iPad, ETC has developed a similar application for Android devices - the aRFR. The aRFR offers the same functionality as the iRFR and at the same price.

The app allows users to turn any mobile device into a touchscreen-based remote controller for Eos- and Congo-family control desks, Eos and Ion Remote Processor Units (RPUs) and the Congo Light Server.

Any user can download the programme without factory hardware. Security controls provided in the app prevent unauthorised access to lighting control systems.

Like the iRFR, there are two versions of the aRFR: one that supports Light Relief (UK) and one that supports Behind the Scenes (US and Canada/The ESTA Foundation). Both organisations provide aid for entertainment-technology workers faced with difficulties like medical emergencies. All

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USA - At AES 2011 in New York, Renkus-Heinz unveiled two major enhancements to its family of digital beam steering loudspeaker products.

The IC8R-II is "a major evolutionary update" to the Iconyx range, introducing significant performance improvement over its predecessor, the IC8R, combining a new Triple Tweeter High Frequency Array Coax with the equally new RHAON [Renkus-Heinz Audio Operations Network] v1.8 beam steering module.

The new Triple Tweeter design creates a continuous, close spaced high frequency line source that pushes the onset of gradient lobes out past 10Khz, while the new RHAON v1.8 beam steering module offers a host of new features to make setting up and commissioning Iconyx arrays faster and more consistent than ever, says the company.

Senior vice president, Ralph Heinz, comments, "This new Triple Tweeter configuration represents the pinnacl

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