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The Netherlands - InfoComm International is to present the STEP (Sustainable Technology Environments Program) initiative for the encouragement of green technology projects for the first time in Europe at ISE 2012.

InfoComm's sustainability officer, Allen Weidman, who also serves as the executive director of the STEP Foundation, will be on-hand throughout the show to advise manufacturers, distributors, integrators, consultants and end-customers as to what role they can play in the advancement of the STEP initiative, and in the design of pilot projects that implement the STEP rating system.

While there are a number of industry schemes that rate the energy efficiency of individual products and a variety of ways in which architects and site owners can measure and ratify the 'greenne

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USA - St Paul's Methodist Episcopal Church (presently known as St Paul's United Methodist Church) in Cedar Rapids, Iowa is listed on the United State's National Register of Historic Places and is essentially the work of architect Louis Sullivan, the so called 'father of skyscrapers'. Sullivan's aspirations however, were high, beyond what the church's congregation could reasonably afford back in 1912.

The restraint exercised back then by architect W.C. Jones, when he re-drew Sullivan's plans under instruction from the church, meant that two years later Bishop William Quayle was able to dedicate the freshly completed St Paul's. The church building remains true to Sullivan's clean modernist design, sacrificing only his more elaborate ornamentation. In the intervening 97 years just the lightest of touches has been required to keep this building aligned to purpose, not least a new or

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UK - Officially launched in September 2011, and representing the powerful partnership of MA Lighting and Clay Paky products, Ambersphere Solutions offers quality products combined with a superior support network dedicated to the UK market.

In its first few months of trading, the company has reported the addition of an impressive number of new customers whilst continuing business with long term customers of the MA and Clay Paky brands.

"We want to remind our existing customers of the commitment we have to ensuring they maximise their investment in our products by offering excellent after sales service, training and support from our base here in the UK," states Glyn O'Donoghue, Ambersphere's managing director.

"At the same time, we want to reach out to those rental and production companies who may never have thought MA and Clay Paky products were accessible to t

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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 - Audio visual specialist QAV has announced its purchase of an L-Acoustics Kiva Kilo line array system to add to its rental department's already substantial stock.

The company, based in a custom built HQ in Cambridgeshire, works with clients in the UK, Europe and worldwide, primarily in the corporate events and conferences market, with audiences ranging from 100 to 2000 attendees. Co-founder and director Ed Noble comments,"We were looking for a modular line source system capable of handling larger corporate events. The fact that Kiva Kilo is modular means we can use the system in a wide range of event situations."

The L-Acoustics system, he adds, was chosen after trialling several similar line array products. "We were very impressed with the overall quality of the Kiva Kilo system. Its clarity of sound as well as the quick and efficient rigging system were th

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The Netherlands - TM Audio has completed a major audio upgrade at the GelreDome arena in Arnhem, the Netherlands, replacing the original amplification and control network. Nearly 70 Powersoft 3904 two-channel 1U amplifiers now drive the GelreDome's main audio system, with a new MediaMatrix NION system in control.

In the 13 years since it opened as one of the Netherlands' premiere multipurpose venues, GelreDome has hosted events from the Euro 2000 tournament to the annual Symphonica in Ross. Seating up to 35,000 for concerts, this versatile arena's dual design as a football arena also makes it the 26,000-capacity home of Dutch premier league football club Vitesse. Event specialists The Production Factory act as technical consultants for shows playing in the GelreDome, as they did during its original design phase.

Those 13 years had taken their toll on the original PA sys

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UK - LEE Filters has announced that its new website is now live. "The site is the result of extensive research undertaken with lighting professionals to find out exactly what our customers want from our website," the company says. "The feedback we got played a crucial part in the design, navigation and content of the site. We hope you like the improvements that we have made and that the site becomes an invaluable working tool for you."

(Lee Baldock)

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UK - "Kids are used to the high production values of Lady Gaga. You can't fob them off with something else." So says Suzi Digby, internationally renowned choral director and conductor explaining her innovative new scheme, Vocal Futures, which she hopes will prove that youngsters from any background can form a life-long bond with classical music.

To prove the point, Vocal Futures recently created their first production, a staged version of Bach's St Matthew Passion performed in Ambika P3 - an old concrete laboratory in the University of Westminster on the Marylebone Road in Central London - featuring actors, singers including opera star Sir Willard White, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment plus 300 young Londoners aged between 16 and 22 who not only attended performances but also recorded a 'virtual choir' for the production.

Tasked with br

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The Netherlands - For the second year running and underpinning the technology's appeal, the ISE trade show's Rooms E105 and 106, adjacent to Hall 10 features a 3D Theatre. Having supplied a highly praised system in 2011, Alcons Audio has been invited once again to provide the 3D Theatre's sound system.

The ISE 3D Theatre will feature a daily presentation by Alcons co-founder Tom Back on the company's latest 3D audio technology. Taking place each day, the presentation will demonstrate how Alcons' proprietary pro-ribbon transducer products enhance the 3D experience.

"There is a real upward trend for Digital Cinema and Alcons systems are proving to be very popular," says Back. "With 24-bit resolution and up to 16 channels of non-compressed audio, the demands are much greater in terms of dynamic capabilities, frequency response and transient response."

Alcons

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UK - Anglia Lighting has announced the promotion of Mark Pinkney to divisional marketing manager, to lead the business into its next phase of growth. Anglia Lighting, the UK distributor for Cree, specialises in energy efficient LED lighting for commercial and domestic buildings, including hotels, retail premises, restaurants and vehicles.

Pinkney sees significant opportunities to grow Anglia Lighting in a sector that has been relatively unaffected by the downturn. "Anglia Lighting will double its turnover this year, and I expect to see it double again next," he said.

"LED lighting is extremely attractive, as it saves cost and carbon emissions, but is also quite complex. Anglia Lighting offers customers a "wall-to-light" solution backed by an exceptional level of expert support. Working with us, customers can implement a lighting system that maximises l

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UK - Green Hippo has announced Adrian Gilby and Philippe Levieux as new members of the software development team.

Levieux will be joining Green Hippo's programming team under the title of researcher and software developer, aiding the production of new features in up and coming releases of Hippotizer software.

Gilby is a programmer who also works under the title of software developer, using his experience of a variety of languages and APIs. He has concentrated mainly on realtime rendering and 3D graphics using C and C++. For most of his career he has worked in the games industry or for middleware companies. Adrian will be working on specifying, designing and implementing new features for Green Hippo's existing range of products as well as for any new products Green Hippo release.

"I'm very excited." says Gilby. "Hippotizers are stunningly powerful and flexible;

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UK - Production Resource Group are pleased to announce that Andrew Strachan has joined their UK team as a senior account manager.

Strachan previously ran the lighting department of a leading rental company in Dubai, recently relocating to the UK to be based at PRG's Longbridge, Birmingham base.

Having worked in the Middle East for the last 11 years, Strachan's specific experience of the region is an important addition to the skills of PRG's 21 strong UK account management team, where he will

be primarily focused on television, corporate and special event projects in the UK and globally.

PRG UK has also announced that Luke Jackson has joined their event services team as an event services coordinator.

Experienced from working in PRG's Production Technicians Team since early 2010, Jackson's new role sees him working for Rich Gorrod as part of the team representing PRG onsit

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USA - Audinate has announced Dave Anderson as the new director of sales. Anderson brings a very successful career of sales leadership in the professional audio and video industries to his new position. During his 18 years with Avid, Anderson held various sales roles establishing professional audio, video, storage, and asset management technology products in the marketplace.

"I'm thrilled to be joining Audinate." Anderson says. "Audinate is well positioned for significant growth as customers recognize Dante as the market leading solution for digital media networking while de-risking their future by providing a elegant migration path to upgrade to new standards such as the IEEE Audio Video Bridging (AVB)."

Focused primarily on Avid's professional audio business, Anderson aggressively grew sales and helped establish Pro Tools as the market leading solution for

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The Netherlands - In addition to presenting an expanding range of products for the professional installation markets, ISE 2012 sees Yamaha is giving a European debut to its new DXR series of active loudspeakers and the new MGP series of audio mixers.

The DXR series comprises four full-range models - the DXR8, DXR10, DXR12 and DXR15.Each features a high-efficiency, 1100W Class D amplifier, providing an SPL of up to 133dB and delivering deep bass, clear mid-range and accurate high frequencies. Further features include FIR-X tuning and D-CONTOUR dynamic multi-band processing.

Suitable for a wide range of applications, including installation in commercial and public premises, churches and schools, the DXR series was designed in conjunction with Nexo.

Also on show will be Yamaha's other ranges of loudspeakers, amplifiers and audio processors, including an array of its MY series I

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UK - London's Harold Pinter Theatre, formerly the Comedy Theatre, had retained its original wooden grid and manual hemp flying system for over a century. The intervening years had taken their toll on the grid, with heavy steel-framed sets and moving lights causing major operational challenges for the theatre staff.

In 2009, the theatre's owners, Ambassador Theatre Group, commissioned Theatreplan consultants to prepare a detailed report on the existing flying system, and to suggest a new support arrangement to accommodate modern scenery loads. The task was complicated because of the presence of six large early wooden drum and shaft mechanisms, which had been listed; English Heritage and Westminster City Council wanted them to be retained.

Theatreplan produced a comprehensive 'heritage' report, a service in which Theatreplan's partner Roger Fox specialises. He said: "We stu

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UK - When Brixton Academy was built in art deco style during the cinema boom of the late 1920s, it never expected to be hosting high-octane rock bands like American supergroup, Chickenfoot (led by former Van Halen frontman Sammy Hagar).

Within this Grade II-listed building ghosts of its cinema past remain, and the bulging balcony fascia has proved the downfall of many a sound system, returning the fire power off the stage, and bouncing the sound waves back at the band.

But Martin Audio was able to pull off a rare feat when their Multi-cellular Loudspeaker Array (MLA) made its debut there (via Capital Sound). To the amazement of FOH engineer Michael 'Ace' Baker, Martin Audio's Jason Baird and system tech, Mark Edwards, simply notched out this chunk of the coverage pattern in the dedicated optimisation software.

"Chickenfoot is one of the loudest bands that have played th

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UK - When the Royal Opera House installed Unison architectural lighting control for the stage and side stage areas as part of the original 1999 refurbishment, it was recognised that lighting control systems will be eventually replaced as new and better products are developed. When senior lighting manager Nick Ware and his team members decided it was due for replacement, they looked first at the updated version of the product: Unison Paradigm.

Lighting systems Manager Paul Hornsby explains, "The system has remained on 24 hours a day, seven days a week for the last 11 years, and has served us well. But it was time to consider replacing it.

"We talked to colleagues at other venues across the country, doing extensive research into the systems they were using and discussing whether a different system might serve our needs better, but always came back to ETC's updated arch

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Reasons To Be Cheerful - The UK music industry is celebrating after the Live Music Bill passed its third reading and report stage in the House Of Commons. The Bill, introduced by Lib Dem Peer Tim Clement-Jones and promoted in the Commons by Bath MP Don Foster, should now proceed to Royal Assent.

As a result, small venues wanting to host live music events will no longer need a local authority entertainment licence - cutting bureaucracy and expense, and making it easier for pubs and clubs to host live performances.

Jo Dipple, acting chief executive of UK Music, the UK commercial music industry's umbrella body, said, "This is a great day for music. The Live Music Bill will make a real and positive difference to lives of musicians. There is no doubt that the current Licensing Act has created needless layers of bureaucracy - making it complicated and expensive for pubs and oth

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Russia - Innovason has confirmed the appointment of Imlight LLC as the brand's new distributor in Russia. Headquartered in Kirov in north-eastern Russia with offices in Moscow, Imlight is one of Russia's premier manufacturers and distributors of professional sound, lighting and staging equipment. They also have a large systems contracting division as well as a major rental division that handles some of the biggest tours and events throughout Russia.

Imlight has already got off to a flying start with Innovason with a number of concerts using Eclipse GT already under their belts and many more planned. Some of the biggest include a tour with one of Russia's biggest (and most controversial) singer/songwriter pop stars, Philipp Kirkorov. Imlight's rental department handled the sound requirements for the part of the tour that went through their region. According to Imlight's Pavel Zau

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Spain - D.A.S. Audio has announced the introduction of the Action Series loudspeakers. Available in both active and passive designs, the new Action Series includes a comprehensive collection of models including floor monitors, free standing loudspeakers, and subwoofers that "redefine versatility" for today's musicians and DJs, and they make an equally compelling choice for small A/V and presentation systems, says the company.

The Action Series loudspeaker line includes six models - in both active and passive configurations. These include a dedicated 12" floor monitor (the Action M12 and powered Action M12A) as well as the Action 12 and powered Action 12A. These 2-way, compact models are comprised of a 12" LF transducer and a 1" HF driver.

The Action 12A and M12A are driven by integrated 500 watt RMS power amps with a peak power handling capacity of 100

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USA - The Angus Bowmer Theatre at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF) in Ashland has taken delivery of three Robert Juliat Lucy 1200W HMI followspots from Musson Theatrical, Inc. of Santa Clara, California. The OSF's recent emphasis on musical theatre prompted the acquisition, which expands the company's followspot inventory. OSF previously purchased a pair of Robert Juliat Super Korrigan 1200W HMI followspots for its Elizabethan outdoor theatre. The outdoor theatre seats 1200, and the Angus Bowmer Theatre seats 601.

"The superior brightness and optics of the Juliat spots made it easy to decide to go with the Lucy followspots for the Bowmer Theatre," says master electrician Noah Beauregard.

Lighting and video department manager Michael Maag worked closely with Musson's director of sales and marketing Dinna Myers to specify the best fixture for the job. "Every

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USA - Following unprecedented interest at the recent LDI Exhibition in Florida, Dirty Rigger Gloves and Accessories are now available for the first time in the USA.

Minneapolis based Monkey Wrench Productions have taken stock of the entire DR range, including the brand new Kevlar Protector Glove and the Compact Tool Pouch.

Dirty Rigger's export manager Matt Every says, "I couldn't be happier to announce Monkey Wrench as the first US stockist for Dirty Rigger - there's been so much interest in the USA from individuals and businesses it's great to now have somewhere to direct them.

"The DR range is produced using some of the most innovative materials in the world, designed from scratch by a team who use gloves and tool pouches day after day. With the new items expected for release in 2012, the USA rigging world really has something to get excited about."

(Jim

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