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USA - City Theatrical's SHoW DMX SHoW Baby won the Best Debuting Product in the Widget category at LDI 2011. Widgets are simple or inexpensive products that lighting users find indispensible in hanging their shows.

SHoW Baby is a wireless DMX transceiver, meaning it can be either a transmitter or a receiver. As the LDI judges pointed out in the awards ceremony, SHoW Baby has the easiest user's manual around. "For a Transmitter, plug DMX in, for a Receiver, don't."

SHoW Baby utilizes a clever DMX input jack that senses when a DMX cable from the lighting console is plugged in, and configures itself to be a Transmitter. Without sensing DMX in, it configures itself as a Receiver. There are no other user choices to make and SHoW Baby is entirely plug and play, with no butto

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UAE - Launching at IFSEC Arabia in November, Baldwin Boxall's new CARE2 range will be demonstrated to visitors at INTERSEC, Dubai (15-17January 2012).

CARE2 is an Emergency Voice Communication System which includes firefighter telephones, roaming telephones, disabled refuge points and disabled toilet alarms on one system. The new radial wired system is simple to install and operate.

Also on the stand will be the popular CallCare Assistance Call System and the well established VIGIL EVAS voice evacuation rack system.

(Jim Evans)

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Australia - LSC Lighting Systems in partnership with Open Clear have been busy finalising the development of a range of new powerful consoles that will "finally offer the market a real alternative for the world's most demanding productions".

Following the successful preview of the smallest console in the range - Clarity LX300 - at the PLASA 2011 show in London, LSC showed the other end of the spectrum with a preview of the flagship LX900 at the LDI show in Orlando, Florida.

The range features three Clarity models, the LX300, LX600 and LX900 all with touch screens, multiple programmers, unlimited undo/redo, Fader Ident for playback mode indication, media server integration, LED pixel mapping and innovative Rig Schematic patching, which allows importing of rig or venue images to overlay patched fixtures making your fixture selection quick and easy. In addition all fade

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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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USA - The world's biggest basketball preseason show turned to Bandit Lites in 2011 in order to have the most dynamic show possible for what promises to be a National Championship season. The event is held every year at midnight on the first day of practice. Kentucky always sells out the event, 25,000 rabid fans strong. The coaches, players, fans and celebrities pack Rupp Arena for a three-hour show. The event has gained such stature that it is shown live on ESPN. Because of the NBA strike, the house was full of former Wildcat NBA stars, such as John Wall.

The evening was electric as the arena was bathed in Kentucky Blue all night while the crowd was entertained by speeches from Coach John Calapari, player introductions, cheerleaders, dance teams, celebrities and finally, an inter squad scrimmage.

Bob Stoops, technical services manager of Rupp Arena and David Haney of SGSP/ Sho

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UAE - Dubai-based NMK Electronics, Midas distributor of the year and distributor of Midas and Klark Teknik products in the United Arab Emirates, has seen a surge in sales on the back of a year-long programme of training and support initiatives. This culminated in last month's bi-annual Midas Academy event held at the inaugural InfoComm Middle East and Africa (IFMEA) trade show.

NMK has long supported clients with one-to-one training and demo sessions at its headquarters or on location. But the Academy event, launched two years ago, allows for a number of pro audio professionals to compare multiple Midas offerings in one space.

"The Middle East is a market where there is real demand for the latest technology but a limited number of professionals with the relevant experience," explain NMK's business development manager Chicco Hiranandani. "One of our core strength

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Czech Republic - There were in two stages for the Brutal Assault heavy metal festival at Josefov Castle, the Metalshopand the Jaegermeister - and both sported identical d&b audiotechnik J-Series systems provided by leading Czech rental house TD Promo.

"The international reputation of d&b systems was one of the main aspects that we took into account when choosing a new system for our company," said Tomas Dvorak director of TD Promo. "We find d&b is one of the most preferred systems in technical riders and we are the only company in the Czech Republic with the J-Series, giving us an undisputed advantage."

"The local audio guys from TD Promo were very helpful," said Arnie Annables from Motorhead. "When I arrived they had the PA system set up as just a left right system. So with no fuss they quickly changed it to left right and subs, it is very i

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USA - ZZ Top and Lynyrd Skynyrd have teamed up since the summer of 2011 to deliver maximum rock n roll to legions of fans across the US. Bandit Lites has served as illumination vendor on the sold out package, which continues into 2012.

Designers Steve Owens and Chris Stuba combined their ideas and delivered a system that was large and afforded each act a separate and distinct look. VL 3000 Spots, VL 3500 Washes, GLP Volkslichts, Martin 301's, Atomic Strobes, 2 Lites, 8 Lites, Source 4 Lekos and ACL's all were brought into play on the show. Stuba used a Grand MA console while Owens preferred a Maxxyz Plus.

The show is a combination of LED technology with the new moving lights from Martin and GLP with the tried and true VL's, strobes and such. Owens and Stuba worked many days at the Bandit Venue 1 rehearsal hall, as well as in Bandit's virtual suite in order to prepare their pro

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USA - For the past four months pop rock band Train has been out on a double headed tour of North America, alongside Maroon 5. Always on the lookout for new products and equipment, Train's lighting designer Brock Hogan wanted a wall of light at the front of the set while at the same time creating an entrance for the band from the centre piece.

Brock discussed his ideas with Craig Mitchell at LMG Touring, who took up the challenge to find a low resolution video product that allowed the band and crew to walk through it. When Brock was shown G LEC's Solaris+, he knew he'd found the right product.

Brock says, "I wanted to position the wall of light at the front of the set so that backline techs would be hidden from the audience, yet able to see their musicians. My idea was to keep the look simple for this particular show and Solaris+ allowed me to select subtle single layers o

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UK - Abbey Road Studios' new Studio 52 is "wired for perfect sound", boasting all-Van Damme cables and connectors, supplied by VDC Trading. The install follows hard on the heels of an all-Van Damme cabling refit at Abbey Road's Studio 2.

The former production room has been transformed into a studio and is home to Abbey Road's newly purchased SSL Duality SE console. The studio has been created in line with all of the studio spaces at Abbey Road to fully accommodate the recently launched Abbey Road Online Mixing service.

Along with the Duality, Studio 52 is equipped with a Pro Tools 10 Native HD system with extensive plug-ins, a selection of classic analogue outboard gear and B&W and ADAM monitoring. The studio selected Van Damme cables and connectors, distributed exclusively by VDC Trading, to provide reliable connectivity and high quality signal transmission.

Van D

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UK - BASCA (British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors) has announced a partnership with JAMES (Joint Audio Media Education Support), the organisation which accredits higher and further education music and audio-related courses. BASCA will be joining the Association of Professional Recording Services, The Music Producers Guild and the UK Screen Association, who are already represented by JAMES.

JAMES will be expanding its scheme to music performance courses throughout late 2011/12 and BASCA will assist this process by providing professional songwriters to help with the assessment of song writing modules.

It has been confirmed that professional songwriters/composers Tim Fraser, Megg Nicol and David Stoll - all of whom sit on BASCA executive boards - will take part in the scheme.

BASCA COO Vick Bain says, "Working with JAMES on accreditation is just the sort of

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USA - Following their success at this year's PLASA in London by winning an Innovation Award, ELC Lighting's Green-GO digital show communications system designer Joost van Eenbergen and sales manager Silvio Cibien have returned from LDI in Orlando with a second award: the LDI 2011 Best Debuting Product of the Year award in the sound category.

Silvio Cibien said, "After winning the PLASA Innovation award in London we were delighted to pick up another award in the USA. We have attended every LDI since we started the company back in 1998, but this has been the best one for us. There was great interest in Green-GO, especially after we won the award, and because of this we started signing up regional distributors in the USA on the booth."

Green-GO is a new intercom system that provides high quality digital voice communications, as well as optional and messages with cue li

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UK - The Institute of Broadcast Sound (IBS), the industry body founded in 1977 to represent professionals working in the field of audio for broadcast, is to rename itself The Institute of Professional Sound. The change will take effect from 1 January, 2012.

The new name for the IBS reflects the shifts in the audio and broadcast industries over the last 34 years, and also the changes in the Institute's own membership and working practices, says the organisation. Where once sound people working in broadcast had staff jobs with the BBC, ITV or independent local radio, most IBS members are now freelancers. Of necessity, the Institute's members also now tend to operate in more than one field in the audio industry; for example, they may work on radio ads one day and a TV sound dub the next, while a location sound recordist might work on TV dramas, documentaries, corporate video or liv

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USA - When composer Joseph Bertolozzi and sound engineer Ron Kuhnke chose Tannoy Di 8DCs for an outdoor, site-specific art installation on the Franklin D. Roosevelt Mid-Hudson Bridge, they knew the speakers were going to take some punishment from the elements.

While he knew the speakers would have to function in some fairly nasty weather, he never expected they'd have to stand up to a storm like Irene. "It rains, it gets cold, but we actually take the speakers down from 31 October to 1 April," he says, "because conditions on the bridge in winter are like being in the North Atlantic."

First conceived in 2004, Bertolozzi's Bridge Music is composed exclusively from sounds created using a variety of mallets to strike the bridge's guardrails, girders, spindles and ropes - virtually every possible surface with the exception of the road - essentially transf

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UK - In the fifth annual International Series match at Wembley Stadium in, the Chicago Bears enjoyed a successful trip back to the UK by beating the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 24-18. A crowd of almost 77,000 enjoyed all the traditional glitz and glamour of American football, including pre-game shows from the GooGoo Dolls, Noah Stewart and Katherine Jenkins.

Britannia Row Productions deployed an extensive Outline loudspeaker system, comprising 12 arrays of Butterfly, each stacked four high on a pair of Outline Subtech subwoofers, to handle sound reinforcement for both the various entertainments and the in-match commentary.

The project was headed up by Britannia Row's Dan Orchard, with Kieran Walsh supervising radio, Sergiy Zitnikov handling speaker technician duties and Stefan Krista managing the stage audio for the pre-match entertainment. An additional four BRP technicians dealt wi

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China - UK-based Studiomaster and Carlsbro exhibited at Music China this year, unveiling several new and improved product ranges. Immediately after the exhibition, both companies hosted a joint international distributor conference at the Ningbo HQ of their Soundking Group parent company, south of Shanghai.

Studiomaster and Carlsbro exhibited together with their national distributor Highsun Audio, showing new products, including first sight of the new Carlsbro VAC series valve guitar combo and an electronic drum kit, as well as newly revamped and uprated Stingray, Sherwood and Colt amplifier series.

International sales director Andrew Bishop stated, "Carlsbro VAC is the first series in a range of amplification which meets requirements, advised to us by our international distributors, for affordable, high performance backline amps. The styling, specification and tone of the

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UK - Recent developments and expansion at LS-Live have seen the company invest in a new website.

Over the past year, LS-Live has grown to become a one-stop-shop resource for the staging and rehearsal needs of any event, with the largest stock of staging equipment in the UK and an expanded rehearsal facility.

"The re-design of our online portal reflects the various services and capabilities that our company offers to the world of live event production and entertainment," said general manager Ben Brooks.

The website, www.ls-live.com, allows visitors to easily navigate between the four main areas of the business: Studio; Staging Structures; Set Construction; and Equipment Rental.

"Following the sale of aluminium truss manufacturing brand Litestructures to Dutch company Prolyte last year, and the subsequent re-branding of our studio and staging rental business f

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Europe - Eclectic British musician, Patrick Wolf, has embarked on another European tour with a Dante-enabled Allen & Heath iLive digital mixing system managing both FOH and monitors, supported by PA company, Britannia Row.

FOH Engineer, Fabrizio Piazzini, selected an iDR10 MixRack for monitors, digitally split using Dante to an iDR-16 for FOH, with an iLive-144 Control Surface at FOH and iLive-80 for monitors. A third MixRack, an iDR0, will provide the I/O for live recording via the Dante network, controlled from FOH. No additional hardware is required as Audinate's Dante virtual soundcard is installed on laptops to run multi-track recording software, Reaper.

"Patrick has a very elaborate style, so it's great the iLive system has a lot of headroom and you can really drive the inputs. Even if he goes nuts and plays really hard, it's not going to start distorting. With othe

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UK - Liverpool-based Adlib's audio division supplied an L-Acoustics K1 sound system and crew for The Specials most recent tour.

It was Adlib's second Specials tour and the first for monitor systems engineer Marc Peers who jumped at the opportunity to be onboard. "It's an absolute privilege to get to work with one of the best and most original bands of that era," he enthuses.

With up to 13 musicians and performers onstage at peak times, monitor world was quite frenetic. Peers was working alongside Specials monitor engineer Pete Abbott, who has been with them since 2009, like Adlib, coming onboard via tour manager Mike Darling.

Adlib supplied 16 d&b M2 wedges, powered by D12 amplifiers, which handled a total of 12 mixes. Lynval Golding, Neville Staple and the flute player used IEMs, together with the string section so a mix of Sennheiser G3 supplied by ADLIB and G2 o

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UAE - Martin Professional's award-winning MAC Aura wash light is quickly finding its way into lighting rental company inventories around the world. As a leading supplier to the event production industry in the Middle East - and following a visit to the PLASA trade show in London - Dubai-based Eclipse Staging Services has made an investment in the new Aura which won a PLASA Award for Innovation.

Darren Hodge, Eclipse Dubai's GM, who made the decision to purchase the lighting fixtures, says, "Eclipse has been very happy with the Martin MAC 301s; they are constantly in use by our team and requested by clients for their versatility. I was very impressed with the new Aura light and had no hesitation in being the first company in the region to add these units to our extensive lighting stock. They have just arrived and are already being used by our team at the Live Nation DXB Beac

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France - Adamson Systems Engineering has announced the addition of MPM France to the list of Project Energia beta partners. France is a key European territory for Adamson, with more than 30 vendors carrying the Y-Axis and SpekTrix series.

Brock Adamson, president and CEO of Adamson Systems Engineering, comments, "MPM has been a strong partner for many years. They are a dynamic organisation working on regional and international work. With more than 500 Adamson cabinets in their inventory, we could not ask of a better partner to lead the way with Project Energia in France. We look forward to their input as Energia progresses."

Marc Morosini, director general of MPM visited Canada last autumn to listen to one of the first finished prototypes of the E15 system. Morosini comments on Project Energia, "This system offers more power than any other cabinet, in a smaller

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USA - PLASA Focus: Austin welcomes a raft of new exhibitors as the two-day event expands its floor plan yet again. The new style of regional event, to be held 22-23 February 22-23, 2012 at the Renaissance Austin, Texas, has doubled its footprint in the past week, with over 25 companies committed to taking part and as many applications being processed.

Joining confirmed exhibitors ETC, Barbizon, Philips Color Kinetics, Doug Fleenor Design, Strong Entertainment Lighting, Chauvet, A.C.T Lighting, Global Design Solutions, CommuniLux Productions, GLP German Light Products, Daktronics Rigging, Total Structures, Arri, Rosco, Rose Brand, Robe, High End Systems, Secoa and Clay Paky, amongst others, are new exhibitors; Elation, White Light, LSC, James Thomas Engineering, Creative Stage Lighting, Inlight Gobos, Mainstage Theatrical Supply, Martin Professional and TMB.

PLASA Focus' much t

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