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USA - The Kauffman Centre for the Performing Arts is the centrepiece of Kansas City's downtown revival. The futuristic 285,000sq.ft, $413m project links the city's downtown centre with its landmark Crossroads Arts and Power & Light Districts, and is home to the Kansas City Symphony, Kansas City Ballet, and the Lyric Opera of Kansas City.

The two performance spaces - Muriel Kauffman Theatre and Helzberg Hall - were designed by renowned architect Moshe Safdie. Both were created using ultra-modern, sound-isolating building-within-a-building construction; a foundation, walls, and roof surrounded by fully independent foundation, walls, and roof.

The 1600-seat Helzberg Hall, home to the Kansas City Symphony, offers seating in a semi-circular 'vineyard-style' configuration that surroun

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Canada - Kid Koala has adopted a compact iLive system to mix his new Space Cadet live project. Touring venues such as planetariums, biospheres and space museums, Kid Koala performs a live rendition of his latest album, Space Cadet, and each member of the audience is equipped with their own set of headphones installed in individual inflatable 'space pods'. The show uses an iDR-16 MixRack and an xDR-16 expander unit to cater for the large number of mixes required.

"The show format requires a 32-channel mixer, which ordinarily would take close to 4 hours to set up venue to venue. However, with this Allen & Heath iLive system, we are essentially bringing our own console everywhere we go and it fits into two 3 rack space bags. We can even take them as carry-on luggage when we fly," comments tour manager, Ryhna Thompson.

iLive enables Kid Koala to store all o

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USA - Fox TV's American Idol 2012 season finale on 22 May declared contestant Phillip Phillips the winner. Then it was time for the after show bash at the Event Deck at L.A. Live in downtown Los Angeles. Kinetic Lighting was in charge of the party ambience, providing a rig that included 200 lights and a half-dozen effects fixtures, controlled with a High End Systems Road Hog console.

The Event Deck at L.A. Live is a 106,000 sq. ft. space that includes a 42,000sq.ft tent. Kinetic's Project Manager/LD Rachel Miller and Programmer Eric Barth worked together as the lighting team for the night.

Their choice of console began with the design brief, Miller says. "The Idol finale party called for dark, moody effects. The ability to physically see every color on the screen in front of us on the Road Hog was helpful in creating my palette."

Miller chose the Road Hog co

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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 - When FOH engineer Billy Huelin first began working with Darius Rucker, it was 1992 and Hootie & the Blowfish was a popular bar band on the Carolina college circuit. "It was a band in a van with a trailer, playing a lot of fraternity parties and building a following," he recalls. "I hadn't even mixed on my first Midas console yet."

Fast-forward 20 years and Huelin is still at the helm for Hootie frontman Darius Rucker, working with monitor engineer Joel Stickrod. Both are mixing on the Midas PRO6 digital console. "I was one of the last to go digital," says Huelin. "I was always happy with my MIdas XL4, and never heard a compelling argument to change, because none of the digital consoles sounded as good. But all that changed when I heard the Midas digital."

With sound quality as his primary focus, the PRO6 passed Huelin's ear test. &

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UK - When the eyes of the world are upon you, you need to be shown in your best light! And what higher profile could you have than the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Concert, held on 4 June 2012 outside the gates of Buckingham Palace before an audience of over 10,000 people and broadcast to millions of viewers worldwide?

On a stage designed by Mark Fisher with a backdrop of the palace itself, lighting designer, Durham Marenghi, worked his magic to create a spectacular lighting show worthy of the occasion, balancing the light from 240 moving lights, 36 20K projectors, and a wrap-around LED backdrop.

Marenghi specified five Robert Juliat Lancelot 4000W HTI followspots as the main stage key lights to pick out the performers and presenters on stage. These included a variety of artists from the past 60 years, from relative newcomers, Ed Sheeran and Jesse J, to veterans such as Cliff Richa

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Spain - XL Video supplied LED screens, cameras/PPU, mapping and projection for the recent International Music Summit in Ibiza. Working together with The Shop Ibiza & IMS, XL Video provided two Barco O-Lite 510 curved LED screens which greeted delegates in the reception of Ibiza Gran Hotel, Marina Botafoch, as they arrived for the conference.

For the Gran Finale show, XL Video was tasked with providing a spectacular projection on to the Cathedral above Dalt Vila.

Unlike the usual preparation for a projection mapping project, the mapping had to be done based on photographs and on-site measurements, and then line-up and programming were done on location in Ibiza by XL Events' technical director, David Mulcahy.

Special permissions were required to turn off the architectural lighting on the buildings and a set of custom masks were applied to ensure the projections didn't spread t

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Israel - Waves Audio has announced that it has become a new member of the AVnu Alliance, an industry forum dedicated to the advancement and certification of Audio/Video Bridging (AVB) devices. As part of this relationship, Waves will be a presence at AVnu events and will encourage industry adoption of AVnu's standards campaigns. By associating with AVnu, Waves is joining Avid, Cisco, Dolby, Gibson, GM, Harman, Intel, Meyer Sound, Sennheiser, Texas Instruments, Yamaha and many more.

AVnu promotes the adoption of the IEEE 802.1 Audio/Video Bridging (AVB), and the related IEEE 1722 and IEEE 1733, standards over various networking link-layers. The organization works to create compliance test procedures and processes that ensure AVB interoperability of networked A/V devices, helping to provide the highest quality streaming A/V experience.

Specifically, Waves is planning to collabor

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Hot Tickets - Roger Waters' tour has topped worldwide concert ticket sales for the first half of 2012. The Wall Live, based on Pink Floyd's hit 1970s album, took $158.1m (£102.3m), beating Bruce Springsteen and Madonna. Waters sold 1.4 million tickets according to Pollstar magazine. Springsteen, whose ticket sales stand at $79.9m (£51.7) currently, could overtake Waters by the end of the year.

"While Waters still has a few Walls left to build on his itinerary, Springsteen also has a long way to go before the end of the Wrecking Ball tour, and still could finish with the year's top outing," wrote the magazine.

In the US so far this year ticket sales for the 100 largest concerts are up 1.2% thanks to big stars like Lady Gaga, Madonna and Paul McCartney all touring there. However Pollstar said "today's economic realities"

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Malaysia - Resorts World Genting, the Fun City above the Clouds and a popular destination for entertainment, welcomes over 20m visitors annually to the highlands of Malaysia. Its primary entertainment centre, the 45,000sq.ft Arena of Stars amphitheatre, has just commissioned a new Nexo Geo T line array installation, replacing its original Nexo Alpha sound reinforcement system from 2000.

Genting's Arena of Stars, a 5300-seat venue, has staged over 1300 concerts since its conception 12 years ago. The venue has welcomed top international performers such as Sir Elton John, Sir Cliff Richard, Kenny G, Black Eye Peas, Vienna Boys Choir from Austria, Kitaro, Jacky Cheung, Andy Lau, Aaron Kwok, Sam Hui and Sammi Cheng.

When it was first opened in 2000, one of the first venues of its kind in the region, the amphitheatre was equipped with a state-of-the-art audio system from Nexo - the

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Switzerland - Barix AG has appointed Frank Frederiksen as vice-president, product marketing and strategy, effective immediately.

Frederiksen has held a variety of senior management positions in programme and technology management, which has given him broad experience and insight on how to develop and market products. Among other positions, he has served as strategic marketing and innovation manager for Philips, and product and technology manager for ST-Ericsson.

"I have been involved in the development side, but have also had time in front of customers. I hope to bridge the two sides at Barix," said Frederiksen. "What is important in any market is to bring innovative technology to the customer at the right time and price."

(Jim Evans)

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South Africa - The new Soweto Theatre in Johannesburg has been fitted out with over 200 ETC Source Four luminaires, including 72 Source Four Fresnels.

Supplied by Johannesburg-based ETC dealer Prosound, the Source Four luminaires provide the workhorses in the main auditorium and almost entirely account for the overhead rigs in the two studio spaces.

"ETC Source Four Fresnels were a late entry into the competition," says Denis Hutchinson, theatre consultant on the project. "ETC flew a unit out to South Africa for me to test and I was very pleasantly surprised. To the eye at least the output is comparable to a 1200W Fresnel and of course you are only running 750W, so from the green perspective it's a better unit. They are very nicely and solidly built and the way in which the lamp is housed is very solid.

"I think they will work very well for this venue; an

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UK - The multi-million pound retailer QVC made its first broadcast from its new purpose-built Media and Commerce Centre in Chiswick, London on 7 June. The company has invested £33.6m in the move from its previous base in Battersea. Six hundred Staff made their last broadcast from the Battersea building at 2am and then had a quick turnaround to be on time with the first broadcast in Chiswick at 9am.

QVC UK is the largest TV shopping channel in Britain, and broadcasts 24 hours a day, 365 days a year with 17 hours of live programming each day from two studios.

UK company Light Emissions were chosen by LED design consultancy LED Poison to supply a dynamic video visual product for this unique install, while LED Poison also provided and installed all LED lighting and visual elements for both studios.

Managing director of LED Poison, Simon Deary, comments: "The area in w

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South Africa - Robe moving lights have been specified and installed at the new Soweto Theatre. The Robes - 30 Robin 300 LEDWashes and 12 Robin 600E Spots - were specified by lighting designer Denis Hutchinson, who acted as lighting consultant for the whole project which has been three years in the making.

The fixtures will be used in the Theatre's three performance spaces - a 420 seat main pros arch auditorium and two studio venues of 180 and 90 capacities respectively. Says Hutchinson: "Robe is a very solid and reliable brand in my experience, and units certainly need to be robust in this environment, where they will be in almost daily use for many different scenarios."

Day-to-day, the new lighting system is being looked after by house Lighting Technician Nkululeko Mazibuko, who trained at Johannesburg's landmark Market Theatre, and has had considerable experience a

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UK - Ambersphere Solutions has recently worked with Entec Sound & Light to supply a number of GlowUp fixtures used for a premium jewellery product showcase.

The showcase, which took place at One Marylebone, London, was one of the first times that the Clay Paky GlowUp has been specified for a UK event. Since then, these fixtures, supplied by Ambersphere Solutions to Entec, have been chosen for use on several other product launches.

Entec's customer Seen Presents, a London based creative events and experiential agency, who produced the jewellery showcase, were quite clear about what kind of lighting fixture they required. "The team at Seen Presents was very specific' states Ryan Brown from Entec. "They wanted battery-powered, easily controllable uplighters." Armed with this knowledge, Entec quickly came to the conclusion that the new lightweight portable Clay Paky

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UK - BAE Systems created an immersive and engaging set to bring their key messages to life at Farnborough International Air Show using the world's largest flat panel display, the 152" Panasonic Plasma.

Farnborough International Air Show took place on the 9-15 July, welcoming both trade and consumer visitors. Digital production company Mediastation worked alongside BAE Systems' event partner Rapiergroup and trade AV rental specialist PSCo Rental to design the content and manage the logistics for this iconic screen.

Mediastation ensured that the 152" plasma was used to its full capabilities, designing 3D and interactive 4k resolution content using the Hummingbird platform to transform the screen from a static display to a gesture recognition hub.

Doug Fidler, creative director of Mediastation explained, "Nothing like this has ever been seen before in the defence

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USA - Two days of packed seminars, a host of new product launches, and buzzing booths established PLASA Focus: Nashville as a triumphant landmark event for Tennessee - 668 attendees and over 50 of the biggest brands were boosted by an additional 20% of sign ups on site.

New products making their regional debut at Focus Nashville included: Martin Professional's new MAC III AirFX; MAC Viper Profile; M2GO, M2PC VC; d&b audiotechnik's E4 and E5 loudspeakers; Elation Professional's IP65-rated RGBW wash; Clay Paky's A.LEDA LED moving head range; Chauvet's new PVP S7 high-res video panel, new moving yokes Q-Spot 360-LED and Q-Spot 460-LED, Legend 412 pixel-mapping moving yoke lights and MVP 12 modular video panel - and many more.

The free to attend Professional Development Programme attracted over 1000 registrations for sessions that ranged from The Green Scene: Recycling Sets

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Germany - Sixty Four Robe MMX spots were used on the largest show of the German Neonsplash Paint Party tour, a new concept from Miami that fuses the best dance sounds and DJs with the visual spectacle of dancers stilt walkers, aerialists, all wrapped up in one super adrenalized party vibe.

The highlight of the evening comes when the audience - in white dress code - are splattered with UV-active paint via a series of compressed air canons placed around the room to provide the colour as the scene changes from monochrome to glorious Technicolor.

Event producers for the German leg of the tour included Whateversclever from Hamburg and technical solutions provider Rec-Tec SFX & Technic Solutions from Sinzig who joined forces to present Nonsplash at the 10,000-capacity Essener Grugahalle.

Taking the party out of clubs and into large arenas called for a completely different concept

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Mexico - L-Acoustics certified provider distributor VARI Internacional, based in Mexico, has supplied a Kudo system to the Pepsi Centre, a new multipurpose arts venue owned by WTC Mexico City and operated by PRG Mexico and OCESA. The two production companies have worked together for several years to provide L-Acouistics systems for their events.

PRG and VARI Internacional collaborated as technical advisors to the Pepsi Centre, which will host national and international productions including concerts with Mexican singer Alejandro Fernandez Bob Dylan, Megadeth, Yes, Meat Loaf and others. The 14,000sq.m, 7,500-capacity venue was constructed with flexibility in mind, with the option of functioning in auditorium or arena mode. As well as hosting musical concerts and performing arts, the venue is also suitable for conventions and sporting events.

This flexibility extends to the soun

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World - Ayrton reports that more than 65 Wildsun 500C automated LED luminaires are being used on Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band's Wrecking Ball world tour.

Award winning Lighting Designer, Jeff Ravitz, of Intensity Advisors in Los Angeles and Morpheus Lights, the Las Vegas based lighting production company, selected the Wildsun 500C from Ayrton after extensive testing and comparisons to other automated LED fixtures.

"It's a strikingly different look for our show - the warm white baseline, vivid colours, smooth movement, and remarkable intensity of the Wildsun 500C are truly unique" says Ravitz.

The Wrecking Ball tour began in Atlanta, Georgia in mid-March and continues in European cities from mid-May through July 2012. It then returns to the US for additional Stadium shows in August and September.

(Jim Evans)

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UK - Sapsis Rigging played a pivotal role in the aerialist event held in London on 5 July, 2012. The event, titled One Extraordinary Day, was commissioned by the Mayor of London and involved performances by Elizabeth Streb and her Action Heroes troupe at the Millennium Bridge, City Hall, Trafalgar and Paternoster Squares, the National Theatre and the London Eye.

Sapsis Rigging provided design consultation and rigging equipment for all performer harnesses. Sapsis also provided onsite supervision at all venues.

"It was, to say the least, a very exciting day," noted Bill Sapsis, president of Sapsis Rigging. "Each of the locations provided a unique set of challenges, but it was the London Eye that demanded the most attention."

The performance on the Eye, which began at 10:15 pm, involved performers completing a serious of acrobatic manoeuvres while han

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USA - Fans of the NFL's Tennessee Titans will return to LP Field in Nashville, Tennessee, this season to find a completely renovated stadium featuring a new distributed sound system using all EAW components. What they won't realize is that the entire system was specified, manufactured and delivered in record time, only months before scheduled completion of the renovation in mid-July, just in time for pre-season games.

Basing the system on the design by Dallas, Texas' Wrightson, Johnson, Haddon & Williams, Inc.

(WJHW), EAW worked closely with WJHW to provide the customised system for LP Field, meeting an extremely tight deadline. The WJHW-designed distributed system replaces the stadium's former point-source PA.

Over the course of the project, EAW was able to schedule manufacturing and delivery of components, including 96 TT12Si-T64-PL-WP custom-engineered enclosures; over 36

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