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UK - Christie has announced that UK distribution partner, Audio Visual Material (AVM), will add MicroTiles into their existing portfolio for the UK fixed AV installation market. AVM currently distribute Christie's full ranges of LCD, 1-chip and 3-chip projectors as well as Christie Spyder range.

The move is described by James Belso, Christie UK sales manager, as a "natural extension to the Christie range AVM already handle very successfully. They are consciously focussed distributors, have embraced the value of the Christie brand and established themselves as an extension of the Christie unit to their own extensive partner channel."

Joe Graziano, EMEA market development manager, MicroTiles, Christie, explains, "MicroTiles was first introduced into the market three

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UK - The new SRT Rigger Glove from Dirty Rigger was officially launched today. The SRT rigger glove boasts silicone embossing on key areas for a confident performance in all-weather working environments.

High density knuckle padding and finger guards to protect against impact, combined with micro perforated inner fingers to help keep your hands cool even in the toughest of environments.

The SRT is a result of collaboration between Dirty Rigger and nationally recognised crew service suppliers Crewsaders.

Designed to withstand vigorous manual labour in all weather conditions, be comfortable, look good, comply with relevant EN specifications and most importantly of all, be affordable enough to be used in high volume, says the company.

Crewsaders health and safety director Pat Fellows says, "Seventy per cent of our onsite injuries are to hands. I am confident that being h

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USA - - Barco has added three heavy-duty and high-definition three-chip DLP projectors to its rental portfolio. The new HDF-W22 offers 22,000 lumens light output, the HDF-W26 clocks in at 26,000 lumens and the HDQ-2K40 generates no less than 40,000 lumens.

Additionally, Barco's HDX-W18, HDF-W26 and HDQ-2K40 projectors will be available with a unique adjustable brightness feature later this year. Thanks to this 'light-on-demand' technology, rental partners have full flexibility to tune the light output of their projector to the specific needs of their customer's event, says the company. Barco will unveil the new HDF-W22, HDF-W26 and HDQ-2K40 projectors at InfoComm in Las Vegas this week.

(Jim Evans)

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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If you had the chance to mould the future, what would you do? The Audiothinktank is designed to spread new and radical sonic ideas. It is built as a forum for you and your fellow audiophiles to gather together and talk about the future; where our industry should be going, why it should go in that direction and how it can be achieved.

The Audiothinktank will be presented by Dave Swallow (La Roux, Imogen Heap, Amy Winehouse), Chris McCarron (Biffy Clyro, Maximo Park, The Pigeon Detectives), Chuck Knowledge (Dizzee Rascal, Jay Sean, Modestep, Nero, Tinchy Stryder, Tony Andrews (Funktion-One), Luke Ramsay (Julie's Bicycle), on Monday 10th September at PLASA 2012. Come spread your idea - Dave is taking suggestions for topics through his website now, go to www.dave-swallow.com then click the link on the side entitled Suggest a Topic.

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This year PLASA and the National Skills Academy for Creative and Cultural will be running Student Insight Tours. These tours offer students the option of having a tailored introduction to a number of exhibitors at the show.

They are a great opportunity for students to come together for pre-arranged demonstrations, discussions and Q&A's. If you are interested in arranging a Student Insight tour for your students, please contact Will Hahn at the National Skills Academy who will arrange this for you; Will.Hahn@ccskills.org.uk

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USA - Music Group announced at InfoComm this week the acquisition of UK-based loudspeaker manufacturer Turbosound. The addition of Turbosound allows Music Group to round out their professional and touring sound offerings alongside Midas and Klark Teknik, says the company..

Music Group founder and CEO Uli Behringer comments, "Since the acquisition of Midas and Klark Teknik we have been pursuing a loudspeaker brand that complements the consoles and processing offered by these historic brands. Throughout our search Turbosound have stood out as the ideal match because of their extensive IP, sterling reputation and a first-class team of people. I am very proud to welcome Simon Blackwood and his team to our family."

It is expected that Turbosound will benefit from Music Group's extensive infrastructure while retaining their own manufacturing, sales, marketing and distribut

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UK - A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET) Ltd.'s Lighting division will be hosting a dedicated open day event in conjunction with Zero 88 to showcase the UK manufacturer's latest innovative lighting control technologies, including the recently launched Orb XF and Solution lighting consoles, the ZeroWire CRMX series of wireless transmitters and receivers and Ethernet / DMX splitter solutions.

The open day will be held on Wednesday 4 July in Leeds at AC-ET's demo facilities. As one of the major UK distributors for Zero 88, AC-ET is inviting interested parties to pop in to the informal all-day event, which runs from 11am to 4pm and is geared towards all levels of user.

Zero 88 has been designing and delivering innovative entertainment lighting control solutions for over 40 years which have been hugely successful in professional and amateur theatre, education and rental markets

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Sweden - LumenRadio was last week honoured with a visit from the Swedish Ministers in The Commission on the Future of Sweden (Framtidskommissionen). Sweden's Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, Minister for Education and Science Jan Björklund, Minister for Enterprise and Energy Annie Lööf and Minister for Health and Social Affairs Göran Hägglund were the most prominent visitors. The purpose of the visit was to discuss how innovation, new technology and entrepreneurship can be encouraged and how Sweden can use new innovative technology like CRMX for energy savings and reliable communication.

The Commission on the Future of Sweden aims to identify major societal challenges that Sweden faces in long term towards 2020 and 2050. The Commission on the Future of Sweden is chaired by the Prime Minister and consists of party leaders in the government and nine individuals with differen

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UK - Edinburgh Lighting & Sound School selected Allen & Heath's MixWizard3 16:2 as the main training console on its new Production and Technology course, and an iLive digital mixing system was used for training purposes on one of the modules.

First year students on the year-long course have just graduated, and all 15 graduates have received job offers, including one student who has been employed by Autograph Sound, and is currently working on Damon Albarn's new Dr Dee opera.

"The Edinburgh Lighting and Sound School is delighted to be working with Allen & Heath as a training partner. Allen & Heath has a reputation for high quality products and we are pleased to have a relationship with a British company which has a personal touch and understands the UK entertainment industry," comments George Tarbuck, director at the Edinburgh Lighting and Sound School.

(Jim

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Azerbaijan - Battling it out for Europe's highest vote, Green Hippo's Hippotizers were at the core in pulling off a spectacular show at the Eurovision song contest 2012.

Eurovision, known for its epic, weird and remarkable performances didn't fail to entertain us once again as contestants competed, not just with their voices but the effects, lighting and imagery that supported them. This year Europe's guilty pleasure came back bigger and better, with a huge stage, catwalk, six giant LED screens and an enormous lighting rig.

Hippotizer's PixelMapper and VideoMapper components took each performance out into the seating area, bringing the whole 'land of fire' theme into the hall.

Crystal Hall holds up to 20,000 people and the event was witnessed by 125 million people worldwide. The LED screens created an immersive environment for the performances - using all of Hippotizer's aw

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UK - The new 'Lightweight' project from Impossible Arts is a portable, four-metre diameter translucent sphere which achieves 360-degree imaging from four internally-mounted projectors. The imagery is mesh-warped to counter the distortion caused by the curved surface and graded masks allow the separate images to merge and create a single moving image that seamlessly fills the globe.

It can handle a range of content including video effects, short films, 'streamers' (sets of images which dance and spin around the entire surface), giant satellite images of the earth, 'lumi' (music, sound and simple light effects operating in harmony) and even live Twitter steams.

The extraordinary visual impact of Lightweight required an audio system capable of delivering the same quality but which could be deployed unobtrusively. Pro Audio Systems supplied a Meyer Sound setup comprising six MM4-X

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UK - Revolutionis the name of a West End dance show featuring some of the UK's finest commercial dance talent. Twenty hand-picked performers, fronted by Sky 1's Got to Dance judges, Kimberly Wyatt and Adam Garcia, performed on six consecutive Sundays (from 6 May - 10 June 2012) at the Theatre Royal Haymarket.

The Show's futuristic storyline and hard hitting soundtrack required some big-impact lighting and visual effects. But how were the producers (Iron Sea Productions) going to achieve this when they could only access the theatre in the morning of each Sunday show? Not to mention the fact that a full lighting rig for the long running National Theatre production of One Man, Two Guvnors was already installed at the venue.

Cue lighting director Nigel Catmur and a well drilled ELP crew led by Mark Gardiner. "The technical and logistical challenges were t

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Europe - Equipment manufacturer Audient has once again joined forces with Prism Sound, to help present more of the popular creative and technical Mic To Master workshops which are being held in Germany this month. Focussing on recording techniques, mixing and mastering, visitors will have the chance to engage in discussion and learn expert tips and tricks of the trade from experienced audio craftspeople, including Echo award-winning producer, Alex Silva.

Participants will hear keynote lectures from creative professionals and top manufacturers, and Audient's very own Simon Horn will be discussing the concept of the 'ideal' recording process.

Adding even more value to the event, all registered attendees are automatically entered into a draw with the chance to win any one of a range of prizes including Audient's MiCO dual mic preamplifier with A/D conversion, with winners to be a

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UK - PLASA Skills have been asked to work with SOLT/TMA (Society of London Theatres/Theatrical Management Association) to help create a database of training currently offered within our sector. This information is to be made available to the theatre industry, but will also provide PLASA with a clear understanding of the training capability of our members which will be used to inform queries from those wishing to enter the industry.

Being part of this database will help increase awareness not only of training you provide, but also the wider services provided by the PLASA membership.

If you would like to participate, please enter the details of courses you provide on the document available for download at the web address below - and return to skills@plasa.org by Monday 25 June.

(Michele Enright)

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UK - As part of their on-going commitment to providing "quality products with total support", and following a sold out schedule of courses during the spring, Ambersphere Solutions is set for a busy summer, offering training for the MA Lighting products that they distribute exclusively throughout the UK.

Ambersphere hosts a fully equipped training centre at their West London based facility, and there are courses available for users at all levels.

"Our entry level courses are open to people who have a working knowledge of DMX and lighting systems, but we also offer advanced courses, and courses specific to the theatre, rock n' roll and TV sectors," states Chris West, training and support manager for Ambersphere Solutions.

Forthcoming courses cover general use of the Grand MA2 and the new, one-day, onPC command wing introduction course.

"The training

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USA - The OCA Alliance has announced the completion of the OCA 1.0 specification, marking a significant milestone in its drive to create a standardised control and monitoring architecture for professional AV networks.

Open Control Architecture (OCA) defines a flexible and robust system control and monitoring standard that covers the entire range of professional media networking applications, from the smallest to the largest.

On 4 May, 2012, the OCA 1.0 specification was released to OCA Alliance Observer Members for comment. The OCA 1.0 specification will be presented to a public standards development organization for rendering into an open public standard.

OCA is not a media transport technology, and does not replace evolving media transport standards such as IEEE AVB. Instead, it is intended to complement such standards by providing a reliable and rich system control enviro

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USA - Meyer Sound has named Antonio Zacarias vice-president of worldwide sales, a newly created position to supervise the company's growing sales activities and support the international and regional sales managers in servicing Meyer Sound customers around the world. Formally director of Latin American Sales at Meyer Sound, Zacarias has been instrumental in the fast expansion of the Meyer Sound Mexico office that he has headed since 1998 and will continue to oversee in his new position.

Reporting to Helen Meyer, executive vice president of the company, Zacarias is charged with all aspects of leading Meyer Sound sales managers and partners across the globe, including setting sales goals and forecasts, developing consistent pricing and distribution policies, and evaluating and communicating new product requirements and business opportunities. Zacarias will also collaborate with th

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Germany - Arcus Lighting, exclusive distributor in Germany for High End Systems supported Die Happy and LD Rolf Wenzel. Die Happy, a German rock band, played their 1000th concert in Ulm. They started in 1993 and have toured all over Europe. They recently celebrated their 1000th concert at the Roxy club in Ulm, where they played their first concert in 1993. They gave two different concerts during to mark the special occasion. First, they played an acoustic set and then they switched to their full rock set.

LD Rolf Wenzel has worked with Die Happy for many years, designing many of their concerts and tours. For the commemorative concert Wenzel specified 24 Technospot automated luminaires, one Road Hog Full Boar, two Wholehog Playback Wings, two DP8000 DMX Processors, one Hog IPC and an Arcus Lighting Hog Switch 8A as the Main/Backup Switch.

The Technospot fixtures were his first

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Poland - The Karol Szymanowski University in Katowice not only boasts one of the most famous music faculties in Poland but is also among the oldest and most highly respected educational institutions in the entire country. Since 1929, the university has been able to offer excellent learning and training conditions for its 850 students - not least because the governing body has evinced a determination to ensure they are provided with the finest possible equipment with which to work.

The sound systems in particular have been chosen with a view to ensuring the closest possible correspondence between the studying environment afforded the university's aspiring musicians and sound engineers and the environment they will encounter in their day-to-day work after graduating. Aside from the technical education, the declared objective of the new Sound Engineering degree of the Department of

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UK - When Glasgow's 'Horse' McDonald needed a PA for her recent tour, FOH Andy Jackson chose Funktion One. "Working as both studio and FOH Engineer for Scottish singer/songwriter Horse McDonald for nearly 10 years, I've experienced many, many sound reinforcement systems, from the big festival line array systems to the most intimate of small venue systems - some good, some bad ," says Jackson.

"A colleague (David 'Steedsy' Stevenson) was installing a system in a Glasgow venue, and suggested I'd take a listen. I was blown away. The system was loud! We all know just turning up the volume does not make things better (refer to the loudness wars here!). Although it was loud, I couldn't believe the definition, detail, and more importantly, the headroom that the system had. It was then decided I had to get one of these rigs out touring.

"I had a couple of gigs comi

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USA - The submission deadline for the fifth annual Rock Our World Awards is only weeks away, all nominations must be submitted by 1 July 2012. The awards, which recognise ground-breaking achievement by PLASA Members, were designed to acknowledge the genius of both the creator of technology and the designers or integrators who apply it. The awards were originated by ESTA and are now expanded as a worldwide program under PLASA.

Submissions can range from the simplest problem-solving product to unusual or complex uses of technology to projects that highlight the collaborative nature of our industry. If you've seen something that's impressed you in the last year, now is your chance to tell the world. It could be a piece of equipment you worked with, something you saw at a trade show, read about in an industry magazine, or an event you experienced. It could also be something your com

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