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The Netherlands - The hugely popular Votown Allstars has held another concert in the Netherlands to raise money for their local football club FC Volendam - and three Midas digital consoles were deployed.

As The Votown Allstars - Jan Smit, Nick & Simon, and 3JS performed, a Midas XL8 took care of monitor duties while a Midas PRO2 and PRO6 could be found FOH. A Klark Teknik DN9696 High Resolution Audio Recorder was also used to provide a virtual sound check to ensure that the audio was clean and intelligible in every corner of the stadium.

The concert, held at the Volendam Stadion, was hugely successful and 100% of the fundraising revenues went to FC Volendam.

The annual event was established when FC Volendam's main sponsor fell victim to the current economic crisis and was forc

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USA - The Red Hot Chili Peppers I'm With You World Tour features Clay Paky Sharpys and Alpha Beam 1500 luminaires.

The rock band's tour began last fall and extends into 2013. In support of their tenth studio album, I'm With You, the tour is playing dates across North America this summer with shows in stadiums and arenas.

Lighting designer Scott Holthaus of Happy Machine specified 96 Sharpys in a full octagon grid for the band's indoor shows, 78 for the stadium shows plus a compliment of Alpha Beam 1500s for the outdoor performances. The lights were supplied by Premiere Global Productions.

Holthaus says he uses the Sharpys "to fill the arenas with chopsticks of light - it's a really cool effect. I don't use smoke in the stadiums and the trick for working outdoors is to get any beams from the lights. With the Sharpys I can also cover the audience at great di

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Canada - One way that World Vision raises funds for its African relief programmes each year is to stage a tour across Canada with an international pop star from Hong Kong. This year's headliner was Alan Tam who performed shows beneath a Martin rig of MAC 101 and MAC 700 series moving heads.

Vancouver-based Canton Productions has extensive experience in this market and once again called upon Jason McKinnon from Electric Aura Projects (EAP) to design the lighting for the tour.

McKinnon describes the event, "Being a charity event, I need to squeeze every penny out of the budget with so many factors to consider. The show is in theatres with very limited setup time and there is no possibility of travelling with equipment due to distances between show and the turnaround times. This means I need to maximize each theatre's existing inventory and use local rentals for the tour lig

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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 - Le Mark's self-adhesive, high-gloss studio flooring was shown off at its best during this weekend's live seven-hour broadcast for Children in Need's 2012 appeal.

With action-packed performances from some of the UK's biggest names including Girls Aloud, Little Mix, One Direction and many more, Le Mark's self-adhesive studio floor once again stood up to the demanding non-stop requirements of a live show, says the company.

Le Mark's Leanne Baker commented, "It's amazing how much our Studiotak flooring can withstand when applied in situations just like the Children in Need event. Even after a considerable amount of dancing and performing over 7 hours the floor still looked impressive at the end. An incredible achievement from a floor less than 0.2mm thick. Even if the set designers used additional layers this is still a very impressive outcome. Studiotak is an excellent

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UK - An underground sewer lair was created in London recently to celebrate the launch of the next generation of popular children's series.

Nickelodeon and Viacom Consumer Products (NVCP) invited over 350 guests to Shoreditch, London to announce their plans for well-known characters; Dora the Explorer, SpongeBob SquarePants and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles including films, toys, apps and programmes.

To stage the launch, event production and audio-visual specialists, Anagram was tasked to create an environment that would replicate the underground sewer lair the Turtles inhabit in the series including a giant concrete sewer pipe stage. This included a projection onto one of the venue's external walls to enable LA-based artist, David Flores to paint a 120m² mural of the Turtles. Inside the venue, Anagram provided all AV support, sound system, LX and video projection together

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New Zealand - Christie digital projection systems have been chosen for the premiere of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey presented by Warner Bros. Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures (MGM), and New Line Cinema. To do justice to Academy Award-winning director Peter Jackson's vision, Christie has been chosen to supply the digital cinema/HFR projection technology for the world premiere, to be held at the Embassy Theatre in Wellington, New Zealand, on 28 November 2012.

Two top-of-the-line Christie Solaria CP2230 series digital projectors will flood the screen for the highly anticipated film premiere with more than 12 foot lamberts (ft-L) brightness, revealing astonishing detail in the scenery, costumes and expressions of the characters. The current standard for 3D light levels on screens is 3 to 4.5 ft-L, while 2D light levels are standardised at 14 ft-L. The Christie®

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UK - After walking the red carpet at the gala premiere in LA on Monday, Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner jetted straight over to London for the much-anticipated UK Premiere of The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2.

The event was held at London's biggest and best premiere location, Leicester Square, where the cast appeared for their final film farewell last Wednesday evening.

PRG lighting designer Neil Harvey and senior account manager Jay Call supplied (heart) productions with a comprehensive rigging and lighting package that spanned most of Leicester Square.

The design incorporated a mix of generic fixtures to illuminate the red carpet, with the support of GS beams, Color blast's, Big lights and Alpha Beam 700's that were used to create a vivid backdrop to the event.

For the rigging, Jay supplied and installed a self-climbing ground support ba

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UK - Brilliant Stages has designed and constructed the staging and spectacular suspended pyramid feature for Muse's current tour, Second Law, which tours Europe until Christmas before moving to North America in January 2013.

Brilliant has worked on several stages for Muse including the highly successful 2009 Resistance tour and subsequent 2010 stadium tour, and the band's inspirational stage design for their Reading and Leeds anniversary shows in 2011.

Oli Metcalfe's design for the Second Law tour incorporates a semi-circular stage with a straight leading edge, from which projects a full width fore-stage and thrust, and which is inset with circular polycarbonate panels housing lighting effects. Tech bunkers flank each side and a curved runway circumnavigates the upstage edge. LED panels and moving heads feature heavily in the Brilliant Stages' design which

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Iceland - Sigur Rós has earned their reputation for exploring an often bleak musical terrain that echoes the barren landscape of their native Iceland. Using their projects to promote this vision, not only in music but also through the visual media of video, staging and light, the band clings to a minimalist aesthetic style. On their 2012-2013 tour, Sigur Rós uses a custom lightstix design to offer a stark yet interesting element to the stage.

"The idea was to create a three-dimensional star-cloth around the musicians, rather than have the light source come from outside their world," describes Willie Williams, show designer. "I always like to insert fixtures in and around the performers. The tungsten was important to complement the lo-fi feel of the projection. In the past I've used everything from truck brake lights to bedside lamps, so it was nice to have these

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UK - Though we might argue the paucity of proper theatre on the West End stage these days, it's rare indeed that a show presents honestly, as totally without drama. Even so, the Beatles theatrical concert Let It Be at the Prince of Wales theatre has received excellent reviews for precisely that candour.

The show's sound designer, Gareth Owen, offered a rational explanation of why this might be: "Let It Be is very different from the typical juke box musical to which we've become accustomed; think of it more as a proper concert. There is no contrived knitting together of lyrics to weave a narrative; however it would be wrong to say it is without drama. The drama comes from the mix of a faithful live rendition of original material coupled with video footage of the band."

Owen was first approached by producer Jamie Hendry just over a year ago; he has been w

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South Africa - A line-up of Philips Selecon and Philips Vari-Lite fixtures have been praised by well-known south African lighting designer Joshua Cutts for providing the punch and power needed for a concert described as 'the largest Afrikaans music performance of the year'.

Cutts - who has worked on some of the country's biggest events including Idols SA and the South African Music Awards - rig comprised Vari-Lite VL3000 Spots, Vari-Lite VL3500 Spots, Vari-Lite VLXs, and Philips Selecon SPX Profiles for the Huisgenoot-Skouspel Festival, which saw a collaboration of 60 artists performing 80 songs in a three-hour period.

"The Philips Vari-lites worked well and were very bright," commented Cutts, who has lit the annual concert for the last six years. "The crisp beams that provided the punch and the zoom on a Vari-Lite always impress me. You get a sized gobo without

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Switzerland - Behringer reports that their X32 Digital Mixer, S16 Stage Box and P16 Monitoring System have been selected by the noted Swiss Christmas show in Zurich, Switzerland for their annual production. This world-renowned event weaves acrobatic performance with live music and theatre into an interpretation of a classic Christmas story that becomes the centrepiece of Zurich's storybook Christmas season.

Set in a massive tent city on the outdoor velodrome in Zurich-Oerlikon, the annual show attracts visitors from all over the world. This special location requires a stable and reliable audio setup that also delivers premium sound quality and the fast pace of the show demands a superior workflow. The X32 system provides front of house mixing, digital transport between stage and FOH position and a complete personal monitoring setup.

Swiss Christmas FOH sound eng

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USA / Australia - When country trio Lady Antebellum wrapped the North American leg of its We Own the Night World Tour earlier this summer the band had played to a total of more than one million fans. Two dozen Clay Paky Sharpy fixtures helped light up the successful tour, which recently concluded with three dates in Australia.

Lady Antebellum debuted their third studio album, also called We Own the Night, in September 2011. It debuted atop The Billboard 200 making it the band's second No. 1 release. It went on to top the magazine's Top Country Albums and Canadian Albums charts.

For the tour, creative director and designer Baz Halpin along with Chris Nyfield of Silent House delivered the band's concept of a fan-centric experience by creating a stage which placed a portion of the audience inside the center of the stage area so Lady Antebellum could "immerse th

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UK - The Board of Stage Electrics has unanimously endorsed the recommendation of David Whitehead (founding partner and majority shareholder) and Dan Aldridge (MD) to appoint Trevor Smallwood as the new Chairman of the Board.

A company statement says, "This appointment enables Stage Electrics to benefit from the wisdom of Trevor's highly successful career to date as an entrepreneur and business leader including roles as Chairman of transport operator First Group and Bristol International Airport.

"Whilst receiving treatment for cancer over the last year David has continued in the role of Chairman, advising and guiding the senior management team. The appointment of Trevor as Chairman at this time facilitates David's wish to spend more time with his family.

"As the majority shareholder, David remains fully committed to the continued success of Stage Electrics and

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USA - Total Structures has recently invested in a large quantity of parts for the Columbus McKinnon (CM) range of electric chain hoists.

The Ventura, CA based CM distributor is now fully stocked with parts for both classic and new style Lodestars as well as the smaller Prostar unit. Parts that are carried on the shelf are available for immediate shipment from CA, with any non-stocked items available for dispatch directly from CM's own factory in VA. The parts now compliment Total Structures' existing large stock of Lodestar & Prostar hoists that are custom prepared for their customer's requirements at the Ventura facility.

(Jim Evans)

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France - DX5 is the latest addition to the Dispersion Series of multipurpose, monitor speakers from French loudspeaker manufacturer APG. Little brother to DX15, DX12, and the recently launched DX8, DX5 is "the ultra-compact, light weight model that everyone has been waiting for". There is now a DX Series model for every conceivable application.

Like the rest of the range, DX5 is a coaxial loudspeaker. The coaxial arrangement of the drivers provides a wide and perfectly coherent sound field even in nearfield applications. The choice of a 'pure' coaxial configuration (no horn) and acoustic baffling with no side flanks limits distortion and diffraction. As a result the DX5 features a very high level of sonic accuracy and optimized gain before feedback for "studio monitoring" type performance.

Characterized by its ultra-compact format and exceptional performanc

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Australia - The Footy Show, an award-winning Australian sports television programme shown on the Nine Network, is dedicated to the Australian Football League (AFL). The Grand Final edition of the show is broadcast live from Melbourne's Rod Laver Arena annually on the Thursday night before the AFL Grand Final, in front of a crowd of 12,000.

This year, the show saw The Good Charlotte, Grinspoon and Ricki-Lee perform live whilst also including the AFL Players Revue, where players dress up and dance to themes.

Lighting designer for the event was Rohan Thornton who had no qualms about using a full range of LSC Lighting's Clarity for control of such a prestigious and totally live television event. His control package comprised of a LX600 console, two LX300 consoles, a LSC Clarity for Mac, a LSC VX20 Wing and two Nexus 5 Nodes for control merging.

"I have been a very ha

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Belgium / Columbia - Creative lighting design practice Painting With Light collected third prize in the 2012 City.People.Light Award for its creative lighting of the C-MINE development in their home town.

The Award was collected by Painting With Light's principal light designer Luc Peumans and Luc Dullers, deputy Mayor of the City of Genk in Medellin, Colombia.

The competition, hosted by Philips and the Urban Community International Association (LUCI) and now is its tenth year, attracted world class entries from around the globe.

The Awards recognise the efforts of cities and communities to transform and develop their environments with the creative application of lighting and visual elements. Awards are given to the cities that best integrate an appreciation of contemporary urban living needs with notions of the 'city', 'people' and 'light'.

C-MINE was a massive undertakin

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UK - Xirrus has formally announced a partnership DB Systems. The partnership enables DB Systems' Event Networks division to deploy Xirrus' expanding range of high capacity wireless arrays when providing IT infrastructure services at large scale indoor and outdoor events around the world.

Since it was founded in 1994, DB Systems has built an award-winning track record of delivering bespoke AV, IT and networking services at exhibitions, conferences and other types of events worldwide. The company's Event Networks division was founded in 2009 to specialise in providing enterprise-scale AV and IT solutions for major events. With high performance wireless now a critical success factor at such large scale forums, being able to provide a network that can handle high densities of mobile devices is just as important to the company's ongoing success.

According to Oliver Richardson, DB S

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Australia - Sydney Theatre Company's new bar, aptly named 'The Bar at the End of the Wharf', is a busy little hot spot for Sydney's inner city crowds in the know. As the name neatly implies, the bar is found at the end of the Wharf just past the Wharf 1 Theatre. It is now the owner of a new DiGiCo SD9 console.

With the 500+ capacity bar now being an extension of STC's operations it is capable of hosting any number of acts and performances such as opening nights, season launches, media calls and monthly live gigs.

When the time came to choose the front of house console that could be utilised in both the bar and the Wharf 2 theatre STC's head of sound, Ben Lightowlers, was quick to go with DiGiCo, based on his prior experiences with the two SD8 consoles in use at Sydney Theatre. With both the SD9 and SD8 featuring the same audio processing and software interface, users could mov

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The Netherlands / USA - Duran Audio BV recently announced the reorganization of its US sales strategy, distributing directly the AXYS brand through its growing network of AXYS preferred partners, & regional rep firms.

Max Lindsay-Johnson, sales & marketing manager for Duran Audio USA commented, "The US market is of vital importance to Duran Audio. We believe this new approach to the region will not only allow us to offer direct support to contractors, but will also offer Duran Audio a better understanding of our US customers requirements. It is our aim to strength the existing network of brand representatives throughout the US during the coming months.

"The introduction of the AXYS preferred partner network will also offer customers the expertise regionally that is required by contractors in order to successfully complete any project. We eagerly anticipate the launch

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