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USA / Europe - 2012 has been a banner year for the Meyer Sound MINA line array loudspeaker, the smallest and youngest member of the MILO family line array loudspeakers, the company reports. Dozens of new installations in small- to medium- sized theatres have come online around the world, and MINA's exceptional power-to-size ratio has made it a highly adaptable workhorse for Meyer Sound rental companies in a range of applications.

European AV companies including PRG, POOLgroup, Creative Technology Germany, Dushow, and Blue Noise have deployed MINA as the main, front-fill, side-fill, and under-balcony systems in their work of all genres and scales. To name a few examples, MINA has been used during an auto show in Paris, symphonic showcases, a soccer season opening, numerous corporat

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Australia - Music Group has announced the appointment of Galactic Music as their distributor for Behringer, Bugera and Eurocom products in Australia. Effective immediately Galactic will assume all responsibility for sales, distribution and service to a network of dealers across the country. In order to better serve their dealers, as of 14 January, 2013 Galactic will relocate to larger premises in Melbourne.

"We remain fully committed to providing our customers in Australia with outstanding service and support, and the appointment of Galactic Music will allow us to provide a 'best practice' customer experience," commented Music Group's VP of sales David O'Kelly. "Having served the Australian market directly for the past decade, we want to ensure the smoothest possible transition; and with Galactic we feel we have made the very best choice of successor."

Gene

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Slovenia - Slovenia welcomed the 2012 Festive season in huge style at the Red XMas Party, the country's largest and hottest dance event, headlined by Armin Van Buuren, staged at the Arena Stožice, Ljubljana by Black Pony Entertainment and enjoyed by 12,000 wildly enthusiastic fans.

At the core of the lighting rig - a design based on a plot by Van Buuren's LD André Beekmans, and operated by Michael Seeverens both from Dutch based company The Art Of Light - were 70 Robe moving lights supplied by Slovenia's largest lighting rental company, Event Lighting.

The Robes were positioned all over a series of 12 trusses hung above the stage and comprised Robe Robin 600 LEDWashes, Robin 600 Spots and ColorSpot 1200E ATs.

As well as forming a dynamic nucleus for Van Buuren's high energy set, they were the workhorse lights for the other DJs in the eight hours of non-stop performan

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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 - Clay Paky Sharpy fixtures are living up to the name of Kelly Clarkson's Stronger Tour with their punchy performance on the road. "With their very bright concentrated beam and fast effects, the Sharpys hold their own for such a little light," reports lighting designer Roy Bennet. "They really add another layer to the picture."

Clarkson has been headlining her fourth tour in support of her latest studio album, also called Stronger. She has played dates in North America, Europe and Australia.

Bennet equally divides his complement of Sharpys in the air and on the floor upstage in vertical racks. "I use them primarily for effects," he says. "I key people with them to play around with the prism and the frost, which is an interesting effect on people. The overall look of the show is very clean; there are a lot of soft goods on th

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USA - California's San Mateo Union High Schools District is currently in the process of remodelling - and, in some instances, totally replacing - the theatres of six of its high schools: Aragon, Burlingame, Capuchino, Hillsdale, Mills, and the flagship San Mateo location. Theatre consulting for each of the venues was provided by San Francisco's Shalleck Collaborative, which specified L-Acoustics loudspeaker systems throughout.

Two of the projects - the new 614-capacity Aragon venue and refurbished 90-year-old Burlingame space with 593 seats and reopened balcony - have already now been completed. Both rooms feature left and right arrays comprised of six Kiva elements flown beneath a single SB18 and driven by LA4 amplified controllers.

The remaining four theatres are all scheduled for completion prior to the start of the 2013-14 school year. Two of the schools boast nearly 800 s

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USA - For the upcoming January sweeps of ABC's new hit series Nashville, fading country star Rayna Jaymes (Connie Britton) and rising country ingénue, Juliette Barnes (Hayden Panettiere) find themselves on a co-headlining stadium tour.

Since Bandit Lites provides concert lighting for some of country music's biggest stars, including Carrie Underwood, Jason Aldean, Keith Urban, Rascal Flatts, Miranda Lambert and Blake Shelton, it made sense that the producers of Nashville trusted Bandit Lites to provide the rig used at the Bridgestone Arena for the country rivals' concert.

Earlier episodes took place at The Grand Ole Opry, country music's most famous stage, and the historic Ryman Auditorium. Bandit provided both venues with permanent installation systems and fixture packages for their in-house lighting systems.

Viewers will have to wait until the show returns 9 J

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UK - London-based projection artist Ross Ashton, returned to Gateshead's Saltwell Park for the Enchanted Parks 2012 event, with a large format show Glass House celebrating the work of Victorian stained glass artist, William Wailes.

The six and a half minute piece was projected on to the front face of Saltwell Towers, Wailes' magnificent former home in the grounds of the Park, and ran every evening for the duration of the after dark experience.

It was accompanied by a soundscape created by Karen Monid and the whole work was designed from the start as an integral visual and audio narrative.

A single PIGI 6Kw projector with a double rotating scroller was used to project the images, fitted with a 25cm lens and located 35 metres away producing a 20 metre wide picture.

Challenging environmental conditions included temperatures down to -5ºC and 15 cm of snow on the ground

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Canada - CAST Software has released WYSIWYG R30, the latest edition of its industry standard lighting design and pre-visualisation suite. R30 is available to download now from the Members Only Area of the CAST Website: www.cast-soft.com. The release follows a phenomenally successful beta-testing period which saw one tester put the new software to use on an undisclosed high-profile project, says the company.

wysiwyg - 'What You See Is What You Get' - is an award-winning software suite that is the graphic application tool used by production professionals to create stunning pre-visualisations of lighting and video designs at home or in a studio, without having to spend time and money programming at the actual venue. The software gets its name from its ability to deliver renders that are identical to what the designer can expect to see at the event itself, helping users become more

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UK - The same 20K ANSI lumens PT-DZ21K Series projectors that helped deliver a spectacular performance for the London 2012 Olympic Games Opening Ceremony have been selected by AtoV, an industry leading AV solutions and rental company based in Manchester.

Having been providers of leading edge AV staging technology since 2002, AtoV provides its customers with quality end-to-end Full-HD projection, display and video equipment solutions. A total acquisition of 12 PT-DZ21K and PT-DZ770 Panasonic projectors will refresh AtoV's rental fleet with most progressive projection technology available and clients will continue to benefit from AtoV's quality control structure.

"After significant research and bench-testing the latest projectors, we selected Panasonic. As projection specialists we pride ourselves in creating the most impressive visual presentations for some of the UK's hig

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USA - Elation Professional says it is making it "simpler and more affordable to produce high-quality visual content on LED video walls, projection screens and broadcast displays". The company has unveiled the Zeus Media Server, a full-scale media server with two full HD outputs and a powerful Arkaos Media Master Pro engine that lets you easily programme and play smooth visuals from any DMX lighting desk, MIDI controller or as a stand-alone unit.

Designed for live concerts and productions, theatre, clubs and houses of worship, Zeus is designed for quick and easy setup, and is especially suited for applications that call for precise, real-time visual displays. It features Arkaos MediaMaster Pro 3.0 software, including Arkaos' patented Kling-Net protocol, which automatically configures and distributes real-time video data to remote display devices by pixel. With Kling-Net

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China - Recording at high altitudes is not something most sound engineers tackle every day, so when Danish producer and engineer Hans Nielsen, of Focus Recording Studios, was asked to record a choir of 500 monks in a Chinese temple that was over 4,000m above sea level, he knew he would need a very resilient microphone to cope with the challenging conditions.

"I've always been a big fan of DPA Microphones and have used them regularly for over 25 years," Nielsen says. "When I realised this project involved recording at high altitude I knew I had to take my DPA microphones with me because they were the only mics I could rely on to capture the high quality sound I wanted in such extreme conditions."

Hans Nielsen was recording the album with internationally acclaimed folk singer and song writer Sa Ding Ding. A mix of Han and Mongol ancestry, Sa Ding Ding sings i

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Australia - As the big international acts start to head down under for the busy summer season there is one thing many of them have in common - Vari*Lites.

Elton John's lighting designer Kevin 'Stick' Bye, a former Vari-Lite technician, prefers to use Vari-Lites and for this run he preferred to have around 52 VL3000 and 12 VL2000 washes. Lighting was supplied by PRG.

Nickleback's lighting designer Butch Allen also used PRG's Vari-Lite 3000 fixtures as well as six VL2500 washes with Chris Maeder in control.

The most talked about concert was Coldplay's Mylo Xyloto World Tour where lighting designer Paul Normandale used Vari-Lite VL3500 Wash FX units to create a lighting experience to perfectly complement the band's ultraviolet spectacular.

"The band wanted a vivid ultraviolet feel, with a sphere of energy that could transform from small to massive," explained

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UK - A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET) have restructured their specialist Rigging division into separate Sales and Servicing departments, and are in the process of expanding their rigging sales team in response to increasing customer needs.

Under the new restructure, AC-ET's UK sales director, Jonathan Walters is now heading up the Rigging Sales department. Rigging sales executive, Matthew Millward is supporting Jonathan in the day-to-day running of the department, as well as dealing with sales enquiries, quotations and demonstrations.

In addition, AC-ET are currently recruiting for another rigging sales executive for their Leeds office.

Tracie Young has moved into the new role of rigging services manager, where she is now overseeing the in-house specialist Rigging Services department - including their vast quantity of popular spare parts in stock for CM and other bran

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UK - Dartford-based 8point3 has strengthened its team with the appointment of Terry John as technical specification manager.

John, from Woolwich Arsenal, South East London, has many years' experience in technical and specification sales, with a broad range of customers up to board level.

With a track record that includes experience in the lighting sector, he will lead on technical specification for 8point3, which manufactures and installs LED lighting systems, predominantly for industrial and commercial clients.

"LED lighting makes perfect commercial sense for businesses as it brings with it energy savings of up to 80 per cent, cost savings and a reduced carbon footprint," said John.

"More and more businesses are waking up to this and it is a real growth industry. Just as importantly, LED offers the lighting designer a real opportunity to produce innovative

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Europe - Deep Purple lighting designer Louis Ball has just given Martin Professional's new MAC III AirFX lighting fixture a thorough workout on the definitive rock band's November / December arena outing across Europe.

A classic rock 'n' roll show it is, complete with guitar and drum solos and row of on-stage Marshall amps. Once recognized by The Guinness Book of World Records as 'The globe's loudest band', Deep Purple can still put on a powerful, energy-filled show, and that goes for the lighting rig as well.

Deep Purple's latest tour may not be as ear-splittingly loud as year's past thanks to sound exposure limits but there are no limits on how bright or active a lighting rig can be. And Louis Ball takes full advantage.

"They really take a hammering," he says of the 1500-watt moving head fixtures, supplied for the tour by TDA Rental. "The show is evolving ev

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USA - Mixing veteran Jeff Peterson wrapped work recently on two high-profile gigs: Spike TV's Video Game Awards and CNN's Heroes: An All-Star Tribute. Peterson mixed both the production elements and live bands on an SD5 console provided by Hi-Tech Audio in conjunction with ATK. Peterson landed 112 inputs from two 56-pair splitters into two DiGiCo SD racks, with signals traveling to and from the consoles via an Optocore fiber optic network. Two 56ch ATK splitters were used on both shows to split signals between the SD Racks, monitors (in the case of CNN) and the broadcast trucks.

"On CNN Heroes, I had the only DiGiCo console," Peterson recalls. "Monitors were handled on a PM5D. On The Video Game awards, my FOH SD5 and a [stage monitor] foldback SD10 shared two DiGiCo SD Racks backstage for 112 inputs and 64 outputs divided between the two consoles. Wh

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UK - Carl Skeats has joined the LMC Audio team London office in Technical Sales.

Starting his career working in the technical department of his local youth theatre in Salisbury as a teenager, Skeats went on to study a diploma in Performing Arts, Technical Theatre at Southampton City College and then a Live Event Technology degree at the University of Glamorgan. Throughout his studies Carl gained all the production experience he could, working part-time at both the Mayflower Theatre and Nuffield Theatre in Southampton and, later, at Buxton Opera House.

More recently, his experience includes stage crew at the Hexagon Theatre in Reading, production coordinator at HTB Church in South Kensington and freelance sound engineer for, amongst others, Kensington Temple in West London. He also recently spent a year with SFL in Reading working as trainee production engineer.

Carl joined L

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UK - Nearly New AV (NNAV) has appointed Liam Norris as business manager. As of January 2013 he will take responsibility for business performance, strategy development, and buying and selling of the full NNAV portfolio.

Norris joins NNAV from PSCo Technical Distribution, and brings eight years of sales, marketing, business development and client networking experience in technology-focused industries such as AV, business communications and converged mobile voice and data solutions. His remit as NNAV business manager will include the support of trade partners to buy and sell all types of used AV equipment with a focus on the UK, Europe and US, as well as emerging markets, including United Arab Emirates (UAE), Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states, Brazil and India.

"This is a fantastic opportunity to take part in building a new business in such a fast-moving industry,"

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UK / Venezuela - Wisbech UK based 5 Star Cases has supplied a substantial quantity of cases to OB specialists Megahertz.

The cases form part of a shipment of eight vehicles that have been dispatched from Ely, Cambridgeshire based Megahertz to South American broadcaster, Vision Venezuela (ViVe), a government owned cultural broadcasting organisation.

The project comprised two complete Mercedes 2532 OB trucks and two 2532 Tender vehicles which carry all the flightcases containing the 'loose' gear, plus four further vehicles, two for satellite news gathering and two for production - all built on Toyota Land cruiser bases.

Megahertz has been using 5 Star for at least the last 10 years for its case requirements. Megahertz Production Manager, Bill O'Flynn comments, "5 Star are excellent, always reliable, the products are well made and quality engineered while the turnarounds a

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Europe - The Nitro Circus Live show is an action fuelled performance led by Freestyle MotorX star Travis Pastrana. It features a star studded array of like minded friends who push the envelope of freestyle trickery. Recently the show was back touring Europe. Lighting designer Paul Collison relied on two grandMA2 light consoles to control the show's lighting.

Collison commented: "The biggest advantage of the grandMA2 platform on this project was the simplicity of the networking. Being able to have a control surface on the floor and one in the arena grandstand really helped manage the plotting. The show is viewed around 270° and covering the riders evenly from both sides on the ramps was of paramount importance. Having control surfaces on both sides of the arena also really helped with achieving this in the short timeframe. The show producers wanted a really simplistic lo

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USA - Free registration is open now for PLASA Focus: Orlando 2013. The first PLASA Focus show to hit the Sunshine State, it will bring the world's latest entertainment technology to a local Florida audience, taking place on Wednesday 15 May and Thursday 16 May, 2013 at the Wyndham Orlando Resort, Florida.

Companies already signed up to exhibit at the show include Elation, Group One, CAST Software, A.C.T Lighting, Chauvet, Robe, Tomcat, SEAL, High End and TMB. With many other applications currently being processed, companies interested in exhibiting are advised to move quickly to secure their spot.

The show will play host to Florida's most talented production professionals and features game-changing technology, world-class speakers, live product demos, free training sessions and unparalleled networking opportunities.

Running alongside the exhibition is the Orlando edition of

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