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UK - Rock Solid Technologies has introduced RockLink, a high performance Gigabit/Fibre Optic Ethernet Switch for the professional entertainment industry. Thanks to its Neutrik etherCON and opticalCON connectors and redundant network with failover abilities, it offers reliable and fast data distribution specifically designed to the requirements of the professional entertainment industry, says the company.

RockLink is equipped with eight Neutrik etherCON ports, optimised for lighting, video or sound network applications and 2 fibre optic ports with Neutrik opticalCON QUAD connectors with rugged sealing cover. Its fibre ports support the OM4 fibre standard, which allows cable lengths of up to 1,100 meters between two switches.

Designed for the professional entertainment market, muc

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UK - The Ballgowns: British Glamour Since 1950 exhibition at London's Victoria and Albert Museum features over 60 gowns designed for private parties, royal balls, state occasions and opening nights. The newly renovated Fashion Galleries showcase these gowns, and are supported by giant projected images to celebrate over sixty years of a strong British design tradition.

The exhibition was designed by an external designer, Emily Pugh, and the projection system was engineered and installed by Electrosonic.

The exhibition is spread over two floors; the lower level presents the gowns from 1950 to the early 2000s including Princess Diana's 1989 'Elvis Dress' designed by Catherine Walker and a Norman Hartnell gown designed for Elizabeth the Queen Mother; and the upper level displays gowns by contemporary UK-based designers including Roland Mouret, Giles, Erdem, Roksanda Illinci

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Germany - Robe moving lights were utilised on the Main and Gemini Stages at the 2012 Melt Festival, one of the most highly rated indie electronica-meets-rock festivals in Europe.

The event is staged amidst the stunning environs of the Ferropolis peninsula, Gräfenhainichen, an open air museum featuring a selection of giant 20th century industrial machines, like coal mining diggers, that provide a unique skyline.

Lighting equipment for the Main and Gemini stages was supplied by Berlin based TSE AG.

Their brief for the production lighting design was to create rigs that were very flexible and could cater for the vast array of bands and DJs performing over the three days, many of which brought their own lighting designers and specials packages and also hooked in to the 'house' rigs.

TSE AG decided to spec Robe as it is one of the premium brands in their rental inventory, and b

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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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Australia - Tantrum Theatre, in association with the Australian Theatre for Young People, recently staged Grounded, a commissioned piece set against the backdrop of one of the most intriguing events in Newcastle's recent history, the grounding of the Pasha Bulker. Playwright Alana Valentine was commissioned to create this new work, which celebrates Newcastle's identity and the significance of the working harbour to Newcastle's culture.

Lighting designer Lyndon Buckley has been a user of LSC Lighting's Clarity software control for four years now and chose to use it for this production.

"I'm very comfortable with Clarity and it was particularly ideal for this production," he said. "I purchased Arkaos Media Master Pro to use alongside Clarity as it integrates seamlessly."

Lyndon also used Clarity to trigger audio cues explaining that the production ha

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UK - As the Torch Relays made their way around the UK this summer, DPA microphones were at the heart of the festivities, providing loud and clear audio at a total of 70 evening celebrations and the daily lighting of the cauldron ceremonies.

Among the items on the extensive sound, lighting and power equipment list for the Torch Relays were DPA d:fine headset microphones, supplied by DPA's UK distributor Sound Network. These were used at every one of the 70 locations to mic a wide range of dancers, actors, presenters and TV presenters.

"We chose DPA d:fine headset microphones for their discreet profile and sensitive capsules," says sound engineer Doug Maddison, who was responsible for the on-stage sound at the evening gigs. "We specified the cardioid version to try and reduce spill and feedback from the monitors and the PA. This was important as the presenters wer

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UK - With over 91m passenger entries and exits between April 2010 and March 2011, London's Waterloo is easily Britain's busiest railway station in terms of passenger throughput.

With so many passengers to take care of, it's important that any announcements made to the public are both clear and concise and can be heard by everyone who needs to hear it, whether it is travel information or emergency information being issued.

Traditional transport hub structures and building materials meant that this station suffered from poor intelligibility, with the reflective surfaces such as marble and glass causing high reverberation times. However, passengers are now enjoying crystal clear audio thanks to a recently completed overhaul of the audio system, which included installation of Tannoy's new VLS Series. The major upgrade to the PA system was handled by Glasgow-based TG Baker who were

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The Philippines - Adamson Systems has installed their first sound reinforcement system in the Philippines. The University of Santo Tomas in Manila celebrates its 400th year, and in honour of their anniversary they've constructed a multipurpose gymnasium aptly named the Quadricentennial Pavilion.

Replacing the university's aging sports complex, the new pavilion is not only home to the university's sports teams, but it also accommodates a dance troupe, fencing-, badminton-, judo-, and taekwondo clubs. The ground level is home to retail space for businesses such as banks and restaurants, the first floor houses a 2-level fitness center adjacent to a gymnastics room, while the third level features a two-lane oval track around the inside perimeter of the building.

The crowning feature of the Pavilion is a 5014sq.m gymnasium with gallery seating large enough to hold 5,792 people. The

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The Netherlands - Nadja Knauss has joined the ADJ Group to take on the main administrative jobs and assist the team in Marketing.

Nadja works from ADJ's European Headquarters in Kerkrade, The Netherlands.

(Jim Evans)

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UK - On Sunday 30 September, a full scale 'emergency' training exercise took place at the Etihad Stadium in Manchester. The stands were filled by volunteers playing the part of the panicking crowds. Fake smoke, mock injuries and people looking for loved ones set up a challenging role for the Greater Manchester Firefighters and Police.

The VIGIL voice alarm system was activated, triggering pre-recorded messages to inform and guide the crowds. The systems emergency and fire microphones were used to broadcast live information ensuring everyone was up-to-date with the situation and how they should react.

Dave Unsworth, Northern sales person for Baldwin Boxall, was at the event and, seated in the control room, had a full view of the unfolding exercise and reports, " I took part in a staged major disaster at the Etihad Stadium home of Manchester City FC and can report that the

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Switzerland - Schertler is now shipping LaFaro, the latest addition to its Deluxe range of acoustic amplification systems. The two-channel, 280W bi-amplified combo has been specifically designed for use with the double bass, whose natural sound is notoriously difficult to reproduce with true accuracy and musicality. (It was this very challenge that inspired bass player Stephan Schertler to develop his first non-piezo bass pickup during the 1980s.) Dedicated to jazz bass legend Scott LaFaro, Schertler's new amplifier represents years of research and experience in a quest to create a specialist amplification system for bass players that offers unparalleled sound quality and versatility both on stage and in the studio.

"The support of the international double bassist community has been extremely important in helping us develop new products that have changed the playing of this

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Serbia - Leading Serbian rental company Studio Berar purchased 50 new Robe Robin 100 LEDBeams initially to meet a spec by lighting designer Andy Hurst for maverick electro rockers The Prodigy, and their Main 'Warriors' stage headline performance at the recent Warriors Dance Festival.

The mega popular one day event was staged at the Kalemegdan Fortress in Belgrade, an exceptionally atmospheric location dating back to the first century AD.

Studio Berar provided full technical production for the Festival which also included the 'Take Me To The Hospital' stage and the 'Invaders Must Die' stage .... All featuring a stellar line up of international and national artists to sate anyone with a serious dance music habit.

Andy Hurst has been using LEDBeam 100's for Prodigy's 2012 summer festival world tour wherever possible, which kicked off at Download in the UK back in May, where the

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USA - Free registration is now open for the PLASA Focus: Stamford 2012 Professional Development Programme, a two-day programme of free educational seminars and workshops, running alongside PLASA Focus: Stamford, on 12-13 November 2012.

The programme will give visitors a unique opportunity to broaden their specialist knowledge and take part in discussions about innovative projects and cutting edge techniques.

Technical editor, Richard Cadena comments, "It's always been a dream to host a show like this in the Tri-state area, and with so much talent on our doorstep we've literally been spoiled for choice when putting this seminar series together."

Media, sales & marketing director, Jackie Tien adds, "Sharing knowledge and expertise is vitally important to the development of technology, techniques and talent. We wanted to produce a program that features current, h

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China - In celebration of Martin Professional's 25th Anniversary, Martin Hong Kong has been touring the company's latest innovative products across China with stops in Guangzhou, Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong.

Stops in Guangzhou, Beijing and Hong Kong have already been held successfully with upcoming stops planned for the Prolight + Sound exhibition in Shanghai 11-14 October 11, and Chengdu and Wuhan in late October.

The Guangzhou seminar was held at the Guangdong Drama Troupe on 10 August with about 100 people attending from the entertainment, engineering, broadcasting and performance sectors. The emphasis was on two of Martin's award-winning lights - the MAC Viper Profile and MAC Aura LED wash light- along with the M2GO and M2PC lighting consoles. Dozens of Martin moving heads were installed on the Drama Troupe stage with a brilliant light show and music entertaining betwe

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Kazakhstan - Astana Hz. Sultan Mosque is one of the distinguished buildings in Astana, capital of Kazakhstan. It features an incredible worship area of over 60.000m2 to allow for 10.000 people to pray at the same time. The main hall has one main and eight smaller cupolas, of which the main has a diameter of 28m and a height of 43m.

All floors are covered with specially woven carpets, resulting in a fair absorption on the higher end. Most surfaces expect for the floors are covered with marbles and encaustic tiles from Iznik, Turkey. This unparalleled beauty has a price to pay acoustically, making the halls extremely reverberant especially on the lower end, thus making the electroacoustical design the ultimate challenge.

A Complete structure was modelled in EASE4.3 and the exhaustive design process started, adding and removing lots of speakers so as to keep the intelligibility a

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UK - The Avolites Media Sapphire Media Infinity video control system has been awarded the prestigious PLASA Award for Innovation.

During this year's PLASA show at Earl's Court in September, 47 products were judged, 'live' in front of show visitors, as an independent panel of expert judges toured the show floor, camera crew in tow, to view presentations about each product.

"Nominees are asked to demonstrate a new style of thinking, an improvement in technical practice, an aid to safety, energy-saving or sustainability benefits, or new technology, materials or techniques," explains one of the judges.

Designed and manufactured in the UK, Avolites Media's Sapphire Media Infinity represents the next exciting step in Media Server technology, says Steve Warren, managing director of Avolites Media. "The powerful unit contains an incredible 8 Full HD outputs and conven

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UK - Chauvet is participating in three exhibitions produced by Stage Electrics this October in Manchester, Tyneside and Wales.

Attendees can see a wide variety of gear, suited for multiple applications. Fixtures on exhibit are: Chauvet Professional Q-Wash 436Z-LED and Q-Spot 360-LED moving heads, COLORado 1-Quad Tour, COLORdash Batten-Quad 6, COLORado Déco Quad-1 Tour and COLORado 2 Zoom Tour static wash lights, Ovation E-190WW and Ovation F-165WW LED-fitted theatrical fixtures, PiXPar 24 pixel mapping wash and LED Followspot 75ST. Additionally shown is the new trussing line, TRUSST.

The technical focus of the exhibitions allows manufacturers to show product that attendees can get their hands on and have their technical questions answered. The variety of products includes the latest technology in lighting, audio, video and trussing equipment for schools, theatres, broad

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New Zealand - PA company, Tomcat Production Services, road-tested an Allen & Heath iLive-T digital mixing system on the first leg of New Zealand's Got Talent audition tour.

Comprising an iDR-64 MixRack and iLive-T112 Control Surface, the system managed all of the three FOH speaker systems, the main performance PA, the small distributed speech PA, and the judges' near field monitor system.iLive also took care of the stage monitor system - approximately two to sixsends - and Tomcat used it as part of the audio department shout comms system.

"NZGT's audition tour is an audio marathon, comprising 35-40 acts a day with practically no sound checks and you are dealing with anything from a 60 piece choir to a singing basset hound," explains Andy Tait from Tomcat Production Services. "iLive coped with everything I threw at it without a hitch and of course the snap

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USA - "It's the first time I've used the Auras and they are spectacular!" Thus exclaimed lighting designer Susanne Sasic of Martin Professional's versatile MAC Aura LED wash light. Using a nearly all Martin rig on the David Byrne & St. Vincent Love This Giant North American tour, the LD, who also handles production design and lighting direction on the tour, has teamed the MAC Aura with Martin MAC 101 LED washes and MAC 700 series fixtures.

"I had heard about the Auras from other designers and programmers and speced them sight unseen," Sasic says, who uses them as floor fixtures set along the downstage edge of the stage as footlights, audience blinders, and to cast shadows of the performers on an upstage scrim and backdrop. "With a scant six fixtures the wide zoom creates a beautiful even field of color that fills the stage and covers all of the pe

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Hong Kong - Following a demo of Martin Professional's MAC 101 and MAC 350 Entour LED fixtures, Charles Chau of Mella Club in Hong Kong, responsible for lighting design and decoration, was so impressed by the fixtures' rich and variant colors that he immediately placed an order.

Located in the heart of Hong Kong's central district, Mella Club is the newest resident in the city's busy Lan Kwai Fong nightlife scene. Opened in July, the club's focus is on design with an impressive dance floor light show courtesy of MAC 101 and MAC 350 Entour fixtures supplied by Martin Professional Hong Kong.

In a raised VIP room at one end of the club, customers overlook a spacious dance floor lined with compact MAC 101 wash lights.

Encircling the club's streamline bar counter, MAC 350 Entour LED profiles splash gobos and ever-changing colour onto adjacent walls and floor with the occasional pr

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World - Stadia, arenas and open air venues across Asia, Europe, North and South America are hosting Madonna's 2012 MDNA World Tour with all featuring a large Sennheiser microphone and RF system. Madonna has six Sennheiser SKM 5200 mics for each show, which, as monitor engineer Matt Napier explains, get tested to the limit.

"The 5200s get a real battering. The whole first section of the show is highly stylised with an almost comic book aggression. There is, a lot of staged violence and the microphones get hurled around and are frequently being thrown to and from dancers and onto the floor," commented Napier. "We're going through a new microphone every 10 shows or so. But given that the 5200 is not a microphone designed for such abuse, I think they are standing up remarkably well. Of course we have a whole drawer of spares from Sennheiser," he concluded.

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UK - Registration for the Panasonic System Communications Company Europe 2012 Visual Experience Road Show is now available. Road show attendees will be amongst the first to witness next generation innovative visual solutions from Panasonic.

A series of visits to major UK and other European cities has been announced during November. Solutions on display include the PT-DZ21K series projectors which debuted at the London 2012 Olympic Games Opening Ceremony. Also on show will be the PT-RZ470/RZ370 series lamp-free projectors and the latest Digital Link connection and HDBaseT technology plus LED/Laser-combined 1-chip DLP projectors with 20K hours of lamp life.

Also on display will be TH-65PB1 interactive display and the full Panasonic education range including the UB-T880 interactive whiteboard - one of the most advanced IWB systems on the market.

(Jim Evans)

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