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Web Triumph - Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, written by U2's Bono and The Edge, has taken the highest single-week takings of any show in Broadway history. The musical, which was plagued with problems from its inception, took $2.9m (£1.8m) over nine performances last week, according to The Broadway League. The Edge said it was a "proud day" for everyone who has been involved.

The show, which cost $75m (£48m) to make, is the most expensive Broadway show to be produced. Initially the production was beset with problems, which included injuries to some of the cast members, opening night delays, poor reviews and unpaid royalty claims. "For all the problems, there was magic on the stage," Bono said.

"Things did get chaotic and messy after our

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UK - Hoist UK has decided not to exhibit at any of the national or international trade shows this year. Instead they have decided to open a demonstration room and teaching facility at their new premises on the Wirral.

"We feel that our clients deserve to be given the time to thoroughly understand our products and services" says Tony Dickson, director of Hoist UK Ltd. "This new facility will allow a lot more one to one time to be spent with our clients than we could ever get at trade shows, and let them get a working knowledge and understanding of our products and our team so that they can be confident in what they are specifying or buying."

The demonstration room will house the full range of HUK products, as well as products from partners JR Clancy, Niscon Inc. and Verlinde, all of which will be installed and fully functional including some motion control p

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The Netherlands - UK-based Clockaudio is launching the CW-200 dual channel wireless conferencing system at ISE. The company is showing the new system along with its current range of microphone and microphone management solutions, for conferencing and AV, at the forthcoming exhibition.

The CW-200 provides "an affordable, easy to deploy and operate solution for elementary, occasional or portable conferencing applications". The system comprises two boundary microphone transmitter units and a dual channel UHF receiver. Receiver and transmitter are operable over 32 selectable frequencies for each channel, and feature auto scan and lock to provide transmission on an available interference-free frequency. Adjustable 'Noise-Lock' squelch and RFI shielding technology negate environmental RF noise and signal interference.

The transmitter units are of die cast metal constructio

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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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The Netherlands - Ibbenbüren-based t&mSystems will be exhibiting for the first time at ISE 2012. In addition to showing a selection of products from its range of electronics and loudspeaker s, the German manufacturer is launching a number of new competitively-priced audio electronic products for the installation market, including the ProjectMix818, ProjectMix241, Project1240Z, Project120MP and Project240MP.

The ProjectMix818 features 4 line and 4 mic/line inputs that can selectively be switched as the source for any of the output zones. A further mic input can also be sent, with level control, to any or all zones in addition to their selected source. The unit also has two inputs for t&m paging mics.

The ProjectMix241 is a stereo rack mixer with two microphone and four line inputs. The microphone inputs can be switched to line for maximum flexibility. The output section offers

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UK - Due to continued demand for its lighting console training courses Cooper Controls has increased the number of UK training sessions for 2012. Taking place every Thursday, the first six months of training sessions are now available for booking:

For ORB Series Training - based in the factory in Cwmbran: 2 February, 1 March, 5 April, 3 May, 7 June; For Solution Series Training in Cwmbran: 12 January,9 February, 8 March, 12 April, 10 May, 14 June; For Jester Series Training in Cwmbran: 19 January, 16 February, 15 March, 19 April, 17 May, 21 June; For ORB Series Training - based at the Phoenix Artist Club in London: 23 February, 22 March, 19 April, 24 May, 21 June.

Scheduled Zero 88 courses are free of charge and include a light lunch. Attendees will receive a training certificate at the end of the session. Cooper Controls also offers onsite training on request. These tailored

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Poland - Warsaw's Royal Castle is one of Poland's most famous and historic buildings, its 90m long façade and three spires leaving the city's residents in no doubt as to its importance. Nowadays a venue for major events like official visits, state meetings and concerts, the recent installation of a digital audio network has seen Yamaha equipment entrusted with audio mixing and system processing duties.

It took nearly 50 years for the building to be completely restored and nowadays its magnificent 300 seat ballroom is the setting for events of national importance, while a 180-seat concert hall hosts lectures, conferences and live music performances. In both venues, high speech intelligibility is an essential requirement. This is complicated by the ballroom's restored 18th-centurygrandeur featuring a polished wood floor, mirrored and marble surfaces and many windows.

Leading Po

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UK - Black Light has worked with Graham Construction and North Lanarkshire Council to install a full package of stage lighting, sound, audio visual and recording studio equipment at the new Coltness High School in Wishaw, North Lanarkshire. This is the first of six similar projects Black Light is involved with.

"Black Light did an extremely professional installation," said Derek Johnston, head of music and drama at the school. "The entire system looks incredibly neat and tidy and operates in an extremely effective and flexible manner."

To achieve the required outcome for the end users at the school, Black Light developed a detailed project proposal that completely met the requirements of the Local Authority. The company's installation team then carried out the on-time and on-budget full package installation. The new facilities allow the school to make high

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Poland - Jagiellonian University in Kracow is Poland's largest university and one of the oldest and most celebrated academic institutions in the world. Founded in 1364 as Studium Generale, the university - named after Poland's Jagiellonian dynasty - numbers Nicolaus Copernicus and Pope John Paul II among its alumni. Since August, a number of new sound systems have been installed in a variety of the university's lecture and concert halls.

The Kracow and Wroclaw-based branches of Tommex Zebrowscy Sp. J. were responsible for the design of the sound systems. In the case of the Kotlownia lecture and exhibition hall, the firm's specialists attached particular importance to finding a loudspeaker system capable of delivering both a very high level of intelligibility and precise control. They opted for a solution featuring equipment from Dynacord.

VariLine VL 262W two-way loudspeakers

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UK - Lighting designer Grum Leesmith recently showcased PixelRange's new SMART technology luminaires on Example's latest tour. The rig included six PixelSmarts and six SmartLines from the new intelligent range.

Grum Leesmith states:,"The new PixelSmart is special. Being able to take control of every cell on the PixelSmart allowed me to give texture to what would normally be a flat wash. The addition of the narrow beam, warm white LEDs gave me an alternative to a traditional ACL, two lights in one fixture, saving me weight and space both on the truss and the truck.

"I was also incredibly impressed with the SmartLine, having used PixelLine many times I was keen to see how PixelRange would improve on the design. The RGBW colour mixing blew me away, I was able to get a really nice warm white that worked together with my tungsten lights perfectly. Only at very low outputs

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USA - The leafy green hills west of Baltimore are home to First Evangelical Lutheran, one of the area's oldest churches. Established in 1874, the church has grown steadily over the years, moving to its current site in the mid-1950s. The campus is home to several buildings, including the Ellicott City Children's House, Montessori School, and the current sanctuary, dedicated in 1996.

The octagonal-shaped sanctuary is acoustically challenging. Designed to feature the church's pipe organ and choir, the building's wood and glass ceiling, brick walls and rock and tile floor create a reflective environment that wreaks havoc with spoken word intelligibility. As senior pastor Eugene Kern explains, the issue was one that was initially not easy to discern.

"Since my arrival to First Lutheran in early 2009, there were complaints passed on to me about the sound system," says Kern

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Germany - The 64th Frankfurt Motor Show (IAA) drew more than 900,000 visitors. The IAA has been one of the most important trade fairs for Gerriets for many years, and the company was again involved in creating the show's largest and most spectacular display - the Mercedes-Benz booth.

Over the past several years, Gerriets has supplied a variety of extraordinary ceiling coverings for the Mercedes-Benz booth. This year, the ceiling element consisted of more than 5,000 m² of custom-dyed blue muslin. Wrinkle-free suspension of the fabric was achieved by means of a custom-engineered and -fabricated 7-ton elliptical steel ring.

All components were precision-manufactured to ensure that despite the enormous dimensions there was no difficulty incorporating the ceiling element into the venue's existing steel construction.

Gerriets worked closely with Display International to help deli

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Belgium/USA - ArKaos will be bringing its successful new protocol, Kling-Net, to NAMM 2012. Kling-Net will appear in the new ÉPIX range of LED lighting fixtures from Chauvet - one of the first manufacturers to recognise the qualities of Kling-Net on its launch at PLASA 2011, and has collaborated with ArKaos to incorporate it into its pixel-based products, launching ÉPIX Bar and ÉPIX Strip at LDI 2011.

ÉPIX Bar is an independent batten-style fixture that incorporates 160 brilliant tri-coloured SMD LEDs for dynamic video displays. ÉPIX Strip is a 1-pixel wide strip of 40 SMD LEDs, designed for video and pixel mapping applications with countless of layout options. Both of these new products, and the ÉPIX Drive 640 power and data supply, are operated exclusively by ArKaos Kling-Net.

"We are very excited by Kling-Net as the protocol is

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UK - The PLASA 2012 free registration website is now live. Show organiser PLASA Events expects around 6000 visitors to take advantage of the special free registration offer over the next 48 hours, with early bookers saving £20 on the standard ticket price for this year's PLASA Show, which takes place at London's Earls Court on 9 - 12 September 2012.

All previous PLASA Show visitors have been sent the special offer via email, and free registration for new visitors is now live at www.plasashow.com.

"We have been offering free registration for early bookers for the past three years and each year the number of registrations soars," comments events manager Sophie Atkinson.

"PLASA 2012 will be the first show to take place after the London Olympic and Paralympic Games and it will be a celebration of our industry's contribution to this summer's events. We'll be

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USA - Electro-Voice's Jim Long retired in December 2011 after over 45 years with the company, during which time he became one of the pro audio industry's most familiar and respected personalities.

Long enjoyed a wide range of roles in EV marketing and sales over the years, most recently as a member of the product marketing management team, and contributed his technical know-how and communication skills to many aspects of the company's success, including the development of the 'PA Bible' - still a trusted reference guide today.

Long is well-known for his ability to relate engineering concepts in everyday terms, and his presentations educated hundreds of budding and seasoned professionals over the decades. For many, Jim's easygoing manner, tireless dedication to the industry and his customers, and attention to detail became synonymous with the Electro-Voice brand and its heritag

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UK - The Skills Academy's third Annual Industry Conference (www.nsa-ccskills.co.uk/annual-industry-conference-2012) will bring together professionals from the theatre and live music industries to address current challenges, and to discuss "how we can work better in collaboration with young people and education".

Say the organisers, "Together, we will explore the real return on investment in skills and what impact this is having on the sector. We will look at the issues we're facing, explore possible responses and focus on real, practical solutions. We will also be acknowledging and celebrating the inspirational achievements of the last year, and looking at how we can build on these for the future.

"This is no talking shop - come prepared to make decisions! Please join us for a crucial two days, as we prepare to move forward into 2012-13 and the challenges a

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Poland - Getting 2012 off to a great start, the city of Wroclaw hosted the country's biggest celebration and featured no less than six Yamaha digital mixing consoles.

Together with Ukraine, Poland is co-hosting the Euro2012 international football championships, so its authorities are aware that much attention will be focused on it throughout the year. Wroclaw always hosts a New Year's Eve (Sylwester in Polish) celebration in its Market Square, so this year there was an added incentive to show the country's celebrations at their very best.

Wroclaw's Sylwester event was hosted by TV presenters Gra?yna Torbicka and Hubert Urba?ski and featured over 15 different live bands from across Europe, who played in front of an enthusiastic crowd of over 220,000 and a televised audience of millions.

High profile Polish acts including Vavamuffin, Kayah, Zakopower, T. Love, LUC, Urszula Dud

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Czech Republic - An energy saving Anolis LED lighting scheme designed by Petr Kolma?ka has been installed to highlight the famous City Hall Tower in Ostrava, the third largest city in the Czech Republic and the administrative hub of the Moravian-Silesian region.

The city has a strong commercial heritage based on the heavy industries that grew up around its high quality black coal deposits, discovered in the late 18th century. More recently it has launched a big initiative to clean up the environment and control the many years of accumulated pollution, reinventing itself as the 'City of Colours', highlighting its equally rich history as a centre of innovation, creativity and education (as a major university city).

This, the city's first civic lighting scheme, is part of the process of helping to create a new cultural identity for Ostrava. Its numerous creative and entertainment

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Poland - Gerriets Joker 95 has been used for the Polish edition of Voice of Poland show. ARAM multimedia, one of the largest and most innovative event engineering companies in Poland chose two independent Joker 95 track systems for moving led displays curtains.

The system has four independent engines each controlled by Gerriets with DMX option. As Rafal Mrzyglocki, CEO of ARAM Group sad, "We have used totally 54m of track, divided into two rails. Each track has two engines and two controllers, but the front screen has four screen tiles while the back screen has only two screen tiles. After long discussions with Gerriets, we chose the rope-free system has proved a good choice". All automation has been operated from an Avolites Tiger Touch console.

(Jim Evans)

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USA - The ETCP examinations will be given at USITT's Annual Conference & Stage Expo in Long Beach, CA. All three examinations will be given at the same time and are scheduled for the morning of Saturday, 31 March. Candidates who wish to take more than one exam should contact ETCP. Interested applicants must submit their application, along with supporting materials and fee, to the ETCP office no later than 1 March 2012.

Candidate information, including eligibility requirements and applications, is available on the ETCP website (http://etcp.plasa.org), or if you would like the information mailed, please contact Meredith Moseley-Bennett, ETCP Certification Manager, at 212-244-1505 or etcp@plasa.org.

Can't make it to USITT? ETCP examinations are given daily at over 190 computer based testing centres across the US and Canada. After an application has been received and accepted, can

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Italy - Robe Robin MMX Spots, LEDWash 300s and ColorWash 575 AT Zooms were the core lighting elements for LD Paolo Firulli's eye-catching design for the recent Meraviglioso Modugno, a tribute show to Domenico Modugno, one of Italy's best known actors and singer/songwriters from the 1950s.

The show was staged in the new Teatro Petruzzelli in Bari, the largest theatre in the city and the fourth largest in Italy, well known for its stunning interiors and colourful history. It starred 13 different contemporary artists all of whom performed one of Modugno's most popular songs.

The main lighting challenge was to give each one of them a totally different look and feel for their performance for which was able to take advantage of the flexibility and scope brought to the occasion by using Robe fixtures.

There were 20 each of Robe's new MMX Spots and LEDWash 300s, plus 20 Color

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USA - Escondido, California based Sound Image, a leading provider of audio systems for touring and installation applications globally, is the second American company to join Adamson's Project Energia.

The significant investment in Adamson's E15 system was no surprise to Sound Image president, David Shadoan who comments, "Adamson kept us closely informed as Energia was developing. As soon as beta testing began, we confirmed that we would join in Phase One. The Sound Image philosophy is to deliver leading technology and to stay ahead of the curve. Energia was a simple choice. This system is progressive and a very powerful solution. We look forward to getting it on the road."

Sound Image has carried Adamson Y-Axis and T21's in their inventory since 2007 and the move to the Energia series was a natural step forward. Adamson Systems Engineering, president, Brock Adamson c

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