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USA - Registration is now open for Focus: Tech, the live event production workshop running alongside PLASA Focus: Austin 2012, at the Renaissance Austin, on February 19-22 2012.

The 4 day hands-on workshop offers a limited number of aspiring lighting designers, sound engineers, and video designers the chance to design and run a live concert, which will be performed in front of Austin's entertainment technology community, at PLASA's first North American regional event.

Beginners and professionals at the early stages of their careers are invited to take part in the event, which will see industry experts Richard Cadena, Brad Schiller, Chad Yeary, and Damon Lang pass on their tips and tricks for success to Texas' new talent, with prizes for the best designs.

Eminent production man

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Tunisia - Housed in the Maison Blanche hotel in Tunis, Le Madison is a well-established bar and lounge. Centrally located, it is notable for the excellence of its service and the opulence of its interior design, which has a distinctly French flair - a combination that makes Le Madison a popular meeting place for both tourists and businessmen around the clock.

Tunis-based company Acoustic Design and Broadcast (ADB) were responsible for the planning and installation of the bar's new sound system. ADB's sound specialists opted for systems from Dynacord. The following components formed part of the September 2011 installation: D-Lite series loudspeakers systems (comprising 16 D8W cabinets and four Sub 118 bass units); two DSA 8212 amplifiers and a DSP 260 signal processor plus a compact, 10-channel CMS 1000-3 mixer.

"The Dynacord systems convinced our clients with both their s

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Indonesia - LumenRadio's wireless CRMX technology played a major part during the opening ceremony of the 26th biennial South East Asian Games (SEA Games) held in Jakarta and Palembang, Indonesia. The games featured athletes from 11 nations competing in almost 600 hundred events in 44 disciplines ranging from well known international sports such as football, cycling, and tennis to regional favorites like Pencak Silat, Sepak Takraw, Vovinam, and Wushu.

The opening ceremony at the Gelora Sriwijaya stadium in Palembang on 11-11-11, the date chosen for its special numerical sequence, was held in front of more than 40,000 spectators in addition to the hundreds of millions viewing the live broadcast. The official presentation of the athletes and speeches by government officials and other dignitaries were accompanied by extensive segments of lively entertainment designed to display the

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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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World - Mongolian band Anda Union are using DPA microphones on their current world tour to provide a powerful live sound for a large and wonderful variety of acoustic instruments. The band, who hail from Hohhot in China, formed in a mission to discover and perpetuate their Mongolian musical heritage, and have been performing worldwide for the past eight years. The mics were supplied by DPA's UK distributor, Sound Network.

"The main instrument I needed microphones for is the horse head fiddle, which is like a smaller, two-stringed version of the cello," explains the band's engineer, Tim Pearce. "One of the main problems I had using a mic on a stand is that they are so energetic it was impossible to keep them close to the mic. With up to eight of these playing at any one time, that is a lot of open condenser mics picking up a lot of ambient sound.

"The perfec

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Germany - Theatre Bonn, a large repertory venue in the former German capital, has taken delivery of 50 of ETC's newest LED fixture - Selador Desire - and 10 Selador Classic Lustr LED units as part of a massive refurbishment project.

The fixtures complement around 900 fluorescent fixtures in various sizes and colours; 900 PAR cans; 70 moving lights, 50 HMIs with shutters and scrollers.

Max Karbe, head of lighting at the theatre, explains,"The first time we worked with Selador products was for the Brazilian contemporary dance company Grupo Corpo. They brought a large number of Lustr fixtures with them; we could see that they worked really well, and were really impressed. We had already decided that we wanted a high output, energy efficient LED fixture for our rig.

"Ludwig Krauss, ETC's regional sales manager for the German speaking area, arranged for us to test 10 Se

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UK - The colourful world of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers is currently bringing its Art Deco delights to audiences across England and Scotland, in the first ever stage adaptation of the 1935 film Top Hat. With some of Irving Berlin's most famous songs alongside full ensemble tap dance numbers and perhaps the biggest collection of hats ever seen in one production, sound designer Gareth Owen chose a pair of Yamaha PM1D digital mixing consoles for this complex production.

"I like to use the PM1D for classic, older style musicals," he says. "It sounds really good for this kind of show which, in this case, is very cinematic in its sound design. By cascading two PM1Ds together, it was also the only desk with which I could get the required number of input channels."

The show's high channel count stems from three main reasons. The first is that the18-piece

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UK - Two Welsh theatres have recently installed DiGiCo SD9 consoles. Milford Haven's Torch Theatre is a multi-function venue that combines main and studio theatres, an art gallery and café, it caters for plays, films, live music, dance, conferences and much more.

The Torch has also joined a growing trend in regional theatre of showing live and recorded transmissions of high profile stage shows, such as those by the National Theatre and New York's Metropolitan Opera.

Supplied by Stage Electrics, the SD9 has transformed the theatre's experience with digital audio, which began on a less than auspicious note.

"The SD9 isn't our first digital console," says the theatre's technical manager Andrew Sturley. "Previously we had a 24 channel digital desk from another manufacturer and went through four in a year, so it wasn't a great start. We ended up without any

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Czech Republic - Two of the Czech and Slovak Republic's most talented visual creators - director of photography Philip Havelka and lighting designer Martin Kubanka are collaborating closely to produce a dynamic visuality for Barrendov TV's newest popular live music production, To Je Nas Hit (What is My Hit).

Robe moving lights are the main fixtures being utilised - including Robin 600 LEDWash units - which along with over 100 other new Robe fixtures are among the latest Robe investment by Bratislava, Slovakia based rental company Q-99, which is supplying all the show's lighting, scenic LED and video elements.

The show is broadcast live every Monday night from Studio 2 of the Barrandov Complex in Prague. This is one of the largest film studios in Europe and also one of the oldest and most famous, dating back to 1933.

(Jim Evans)

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USA - Sports bars have come a long way from the dingy, smoky, male-orientated establishments of the past. The most successful ventures today are big, bright and highly family oriented with casual but generally upscale décor, full lunch and dinner menus, scores of imported beers on tap, and multi-room, high-end audio and video systems.

P.J. Whelihan's is a prime example of today's sports bar with all the right elements. First opened in 1983, the chain now covers 16 locations in the Philadelphia and southern New Jersey region, including the most recent addition in suburban Downingtown, PA. It's a multi-use venue that can handle not just day-to-day sporting broadcasts but parties and live events as well.

"They've got a stage set up at one end of the main room for live performances and DJs," says Bob Schermerhorn of Allentown, PA-based Entertainment Service Group

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UK - SGM automated lighting and new generation strobes have been used exclusively to provide the high octane dancefloor effects in a new five-storey leisure complex in Lincoln.

Operating under the 'Home' umbrella, the new complex boasts six different trading themes (and two outside smoking areas) - starting with The Lounge Bar & Kitchen, a ground floor restaurant / bar with all-day trading. But it is on the second floor - in the space which originally served as a NAAFI Ballroom - that six SGM Idea Scan 250, four Idea Beam 300 and six Idea Wash 575 heads have been imaginatively designed into the overhead rig by SGM UK's Ian Kirby and installed by Over Audio of Liverpool.

These are joined by four of the new SGM X-5 LED strobes about which resident LD Richard Whiteley comments, "I couldn't wait to get my hands on these - and I can see what all the fuss has been about. This p

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Europe - Outline has announced the appointment of The Audio Specialists b.v. as their exclusive distribution partners for Benelux and Germany , with immediate effect.

TAS is the brainchild and property of former E-Audio Benelux managing director Axel Nagtegaal, under whom the company "achieved spectacular results for a number of leading pro-audio brands in Benelux , including Midas, Klark Teknik, Electrovoice and others". Nagtegaal and his team pioneered the concept of 'service hatch' distribution in pro-audio, where a territorial distributor effectively becomes the local office for the manufacturer(s) they represent. This model was instrumental in his prior successes in Benelux and will be re-applied to his new distribution venture.

"The Outline product portfolio contains a whole raft of innovative and relevant technologies that really make it so much more than

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UK - Entertainment lighting specialist White Light recently welcomed two new companies to the White Light Family of exclusive manufacturers - Core Lighting and Interactive Technologies.

Core Lighting manufactures a range of fully weatherproof, battery-powered, wirelessly controllable LED uplighters designed to allow rapid deployment by removing the need to run cables to fixtures, as well as removing the ugly clutter and safety hazards of those cables.

Core's fixtures range from 1200 lumen to 2500 lumen output using efficient LED light sources - either red-green-blue-white for a vibrant range of colours, or white only when the maximum possible light output is required. The fixtures use lightweight but powerful lithium polymer batteries and integrate wireless control with Wirelesss Solution W-DMX systems; water resistant to IP65standard, they are suitable for parties, weddings,

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UK - Blitz is sponsoring the UK Event Awards, to be held at Wembley Stadium tonight (30 November). The awards are now in their second year and aim to recognise and reward the very best event organisers, industry suppliers and event marketers in Britain.

On the night, guests will also try and break the Guinness World Record for The World's Longest Relay Cheers!

Blitz is supplying all the event technology including sound and lighting, G-LEC LED wall, and ViewLite modular set system complete with custom graphics panels.

Munir Samji, Chairman at Blitz, commented, "As one of the UK's leading Staging and AV Rental Companies, we feel that recognising and celebrating excellence in our industry is important and we are proud to be sponsoring the UK Events Awards. It looks set to be a great and fun-filled evening."

(Jim Evans)

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France - Opened in 1998 for that year's FIFA World Cup, Stade de France in Paris has recently undergone a €1.5m upgrade to its audio system, with a major Yamaha and Nexo system.

Famed for staging rugby, football and athletics, Stade de France also hosts concerts by many of the world's biggest artists like the Rolling Stones, U2, Muse, Madonna, Prince and the country's iconic Johnny Hallyday. When constructed it was equipped with a Nexo Alpha audio system but, over a decade on and with considerable advances in digital audio technology, it was felt that a new system would improve the intelligibility and listening comfort for stadium users.

A number of companies were invited to tender for the contract. After a successful demonstration of a Yamaha/Nexo solution, Nantes-based Melpomen (the company which installed the original system) was the chosen supplier.

Featuring a Yamaha M

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Czech Republic - When the Czech hard rock band Kabát toured to promote its latest studio album Banditi di Praga, the band continued their long association with Clay Paky and used the Alpha Beam 1500 and Alpha Spot HPE 1200. The rock show was built around a 360-degree circular stage, which toured the Czech and Slovak republics.

The centerpiece of the stage was a massive industrial chandelier constructed from 192 par cans. Positioned around the edge of the circular stage were 15 Alpha Beam 1500s dispersing massive beams of light like spokes from the hub of a wheel. Also part of the rig were 20 Alpha Spot 1200s, while Shadow 1200 long-throw followspots were used to track the band on stage.

Lighting designer Petr 'Panki' Volek from Prague-based production company Pink Panther has been with the band for 12 years and knows their requirements. He explains the reasons why the

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UK - London-based hire company, Neg Earth included Robert Juliat spots in its inventory of lighting equipment on a number of large-scale musical events across Europe this year.

Take That's well publicised Progress Live Tour, designed by Es Devlin and Kim Gavin, spent two months on the road with no less than 10 Robert Juliat Lancelot followspots. Specified by lighting designer Patrick Woodroffe, the 4kW HTI Lancelots were chosen for their ability to handle the size of the stadiums and the long throw distances involved.

Two more Lancelots from the Neg Earth stock accompanied George Michael's Symphonica: The Orchestral Tour on 45 shows across 35 European cities before Michael's severe illness forced the cancellation of this year's remaining dates. Designed by Bas Halpin and Ken Watt, the tour included songs from George Michael's 30-year career, re-worked and re-arra

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UK - A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET)'s audio division has supplied a new Nexo speaker system for the Performing Arts Centre at Downe House - one of the UK's leading boarding schools for 11 - 18 year old girls.

An integral hub of activity on the school campus, the multi-purpose space is a former barn, originally converted into a venue during the 1950s. The building is in constant daily use, not just for stage plays, dance and drama shows, bands and live music, but also for lectures and presentations.

It features a very distinctive hydraulic floor, which can be raised up to transform the flat floor space into a raked seated auditorium, which immediately changes the point of focus for sound and all the related acoustic characteristics of the space.

The time had come for the former sound system - installed about seven years ago - to be replaced. Joe Hilton, Downe House's

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World - It's been doing the rounds in one form or another for years, but it's not going away and companies are still at risk of being taken in by it. The 'Expo Guide' scammers send forms which appear to be from a trustworthy source - in this case the PLASA Show organisers, PLASA Events Ltd - and encourage companies to complete and return the form to validate their data with the event organiser.

Harmless enough, you are supposed to think, but the small print will tell you that by signing and returning the form you are agreeing to have your details listed on the Expo Guide website at a cost of 1271 euros per year for the next three years. And if you don't pay, they will pursue you.

In the past the scam has been run from a number of different countries; the latest forms to come to our attention have been sent from Mexico. All the mailings include a pre-paid business reply envelop

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Latvia - One of the most popular restaurant chains in Latvia and the other Baltic states, Gan Bei has a variety of establishments across the region, all of which are revered for both the quality of the food and the surroundings in which it is served.

When fitting out their new Asian restaurant Gan Bei City, located in the shopping centre Galleria Riga in the Latvian capital Riga, the restaurant owners were keen to continue the tradition of quality with a classy interior that had echoes of the Orient, but at the same time was sleek and ultra-modern. And they needed an audio set up that fitted in with that ethos.

Owner of the restaurant Oleg Arup called in audio specialists Unique Ltd to give them a system that wouldn't interfere with the design aesthetic of their new restaurant, but would still offer the quality and flexibility they needed.

Rihards Rubenis, CEO at Unique, sai

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Poland - At the Musical Theatre in Gdynia, where the hit musical Shrek recently opened, green is much more than just the colour of the lovable ogre's skin. It's where Philips Selecon's distributor for Poland, TEATR, completed Europe's largest permanent installation of Philips Selecon energy efficient, high output PL3 LED luminaires.

The triple light engine PL3s have been installed specifically for the Broadway production of Shrek, which premiered at the Musical Theatre on 8t October 2011. These were complemented by a number of Vari-lite VLX LED fixtures (the moving head version) for LD Peter Kuchta's recreation of Hugh Vanstone's original lighting design.

Kuchta used the PL3s and the VLXs for a number of effects as he explains, "The fixtures were used as the sidelight and overhead washes. I'm in love with these fixtures; they are now replacing standard halog

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UK/Singapore - UK-based broadcast mixing console manufacturer Calrec Audio have expanded their office in the Asia/Pacific Rim region with the appointment of Mr Ace Yip to a full-time technical sales and support position.

Calrec has had a permanent presence in Asia to support its distributors in the region since mid-2009, following a period when all sales and support was administered directly from the company's headquarters in the UK. Now based on the prestigious Alexandra Techno Park development in Singapore (also home to the local headquarters for Hewlett Packard, Nokia and Sennheiser), Calrec's Asian office is run by Graham Murray, who attributes the company's healthy and expanding sales in the region to having a local office in the right time zone for business in the region.

"We've had an increase of more than 250 percent in annual sales turnover in this region since o

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