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Egypt - Clay Paky's powerful pure-beam Sharpy luminaires dazzled fans as they enjoyed top-selling Arab singer Amr Diab's sell-out concert in Cairo recently. Lighting designer Walid El Hariry specified 66 Sharpys for the show at the 75,000-capacity Cairo Stadium where Egyptian singer Amr Diab - known as 'the Father of Mediterranean Music' - performed.

"My entire rig comprised Clay Paky fixtures," says El Hariry, "The Sharpys performed brilliantly. The strong beam they deliver give a really contemporary feel to the show. Also, by playing around with the prism, we created a variety of very distinctive looks for Amr."

Clay Paky distributor for Egypt, Cairo-based Audio Technology, which is well respected for its service and product knowledge in the Egyptian market

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UK - Manchester-based lighting and rigging specialists dbn created an elegant, bespoke, self climbing, ground support truss design to achieve the perfect positioning for key production equipment in The Pavilion Suite at Ascot Racecourse, Berkshire.

This allowed a conference and awards event to be staged in-the-round; ensured that all delegates in the room had a clear view of the proceedings with the installation of 16 plasma screens in strategic positions ... and maximised the very low and idiosyncratically shaped headroom of the space.

dbn's project manager was Nick Todd and the company was working for event producers, WRG.

The Pavilion Suite is a long rectangular room with a very low ceiling height of just under three metres down each side but up to five metres in the middle.

In addition to making this full ceiling area into usable space ... the other big challenge was a

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The Netherlands - Ampco Flashlight Rental BV has announced the appointment of Dennis van der Haagen, who has joined its board as commercial and operational director.

Van der Haagen, for the last 17 years the leader of one of Holland's most successful live entertainment production companies, Sightline Productions, brings his enthusiasm and commercial management skills to aid the growth of Ampco Flashlight, the leading technical production group in the Netherlands with expertise that spans audio, lighting, video, rigging and every related service.

Dennis van der Haagen commented, "Sightline Productions has grown to the level that, from the foundation of the company, we always had in mind. It's with a lot of satisfaction to hand over the daily management to the safe hands of a younger generation that has grown up within the company.

"And now, I have decided to work fo

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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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Germany - MilTec (UK) Ltd will be using the Prolight and Sound show in Frankfurt to launch their new Blakite and Blakite TR ranges of speakers.

The new speaker will be built entirely in the UK. "We wanted to help bring back manufacturing to Britain and to fly the flag for home grown products." said technical director Graham Gosden. "We will be using high quality materials and components with a hard wearing, professional finish. The speakers will be made from European birch ply and will be fitted with high quality drivers supplied by British and European manufacturers. Manufacturing in the UK will also enable us to greatly improve stock control."

The new speakers will replace the highly successful TP range which has been a standard fixture in clubs, bars, schools and rental companies for the past three years.

The Blakite mid/top speakers will all include p

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Germany - The annual trip to Frankfurt signals the launch of a brand new product for Audient this year. Breaking new ground for the British signal processing manufacturer and putting its young, creative R&D team to full use, the company is keeping the identity of the product under wraps until Musikmesse, when the unveiling will take place at the Audient booth: Hall 5.1 D73.

The company's 9500-strong Facebook fan base and 2000 Twitter followers will be kept in the virtual loop with clues, and a preview competition in the countdown to the show's opening on 10 April. "Show news and product information will continue to be beamed around the world directly from the stand during the four-day international trade fair, so Audient's clients, distributors and dealers will be fully informed. Whether they can't be at the show, or are tied up in meetings it's important that they don't mi

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USA - Usher, Diddy, Macklemore and Bun B is just a short list of acts that Allen&Heath consoles were used to stream the experience at this year's South by Southwest music conference, one of the world's largest music conferences, just concluded in Austin, TX and Allen & Heath digital consoles were used to stream the experience live to millions of fans around the world. Allen & Heath partnered with The Fader Fort and Dell to stream more than 50 acts during the South by Southwest (SXSW) Music Festival (12-17 March). The festival attracted an affluent crowd of music executives and aficionados, technology geeks and celebrities.

The Fader Fort presented by Converse and powered by Dell, has the reputation of being the spot to see live music during SXSW. This year it brought together a mix of today's most innovative and emerging artists as well as many notables including.

"We wer

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Canada - The CAST Group of Toronto, Canada and Rushworks of Dallas, Texas have announced the integration of the award-winning BlackTrax Solution realtime tracking technology with Rushworks' VDESK Integrated PTZ Production System, adding the extra dimension of robotic camera tracking control to the arsenal of BlackTrax tracking solutions. This integration creates a cost-effective, fully automated realtime video tracking solution for just about anything from live entertainment to houses of worship.

PTZ cameras (Pan, Tilt and Zoom) are typically controlled remotely by an operator using a joystick to "frame" a shot or follow the action ... although "following" is, in reality, more about reacting than truly tracking. Some controlling devices support the creation of presets associated with user-defined positions. Most hardware controllers allow the user to position

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UK - Students at Backstage Academy have undergone a series of live sound masterclasses delivered by sector-leading professionals as part of the training centre's mission to align industry skills and knowledge with education.

The Academy draws upon the insight gained through its links to the production rehearsal studio and set construction operation LS-Live, to promote the teaching of current working practices, methods and technologies in the entertainment industry.

The month-long Live Sound module on the Academy's Foundation Degree in Live Events Production (validated by The University of Bolton) was delivered by audio engineer, author and writer Dave Swallow, who held training sessions on The Science of Sound, Digital Sound, EQ, Dynamics, FX Live Sound mixing, and by Nigel Pease of Selva Sound who delivered Pro Tools 101 training.

The module featured training sessions by Fu

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Germany - Clay Paky has a formidable line-up scheduled for ProLight+Sound 2013.

Sharpy Wash 330 is an extraordinarily compact, lightweight 330 W washlight, with the luminous efficiency, graphic and optical performance of a 1000W fixture. It is extremely silent and quick, and fitted with a complete CMY color system, special colors, 6.5°-48° zoom, mechanical dimmer, beam shaping filter and motorized top-hat. It is an eco-friendly light, allowing considerable running and consumption cost savings.

The Alpha Profile 800 ST is the most modern moving beam shaper in existence today for use in theatres and studios. Clay Paky used highly sophisticated micromechanics to obtain a compact, light, silent unit with an extremely bright light and a zoom capable of producing an extraordinarily sharp, perfectly uniform beam.

Exclusive Features: miniaturized four-blade framing system, 1

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Germany - Czech Republic based moving light manufacturer Robe lighting is set to launch six new products at the 2013 Prolight+Sound exhibition in Frankfurt.

Topping the list is The Pointe. This and four other innovations are from Robe's multi award-winning Robin range and also new is the latest in Robe's DigitalSpot series - the DigitalSpot 7100DT.

The Robin Pointe is a new dynamic beam, spot and wash fixture from Robe - a small, super-bright and very fast 'signature' unit with an intense and sharp parallel beam .... plus a host of features making it a truly unique and versatile lightsource.

These include a 5 - 20 degree zoom with full focus control, variable frost, two separate prism effects, a rotating and a static gobo wheel and inbuilt colour wheel.

The lightsource is a 280W Osram discharge lamp making the Pointe a dynamic, fixture for using to create WOW factors on a

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USA - ETC has announced a new arrival in the Source Four family of lighting fixtures: the Source Four Mini.

At 23cm long and weighing just 740g, the Mini is the tiniest Source Four ever, but it still lives up to the family name. As Jim Uphoff, ETC Fixtures product manager, says, "Don't let the size of the Source Four Mini fool you. It may be cute, but it's a serious lighting tool. Its 50 watt lamp is brighter than you'd expect from an instrument of this size."

The Mini is designed with the DNA of the Source Four family, with crisp optics, crystal-clear image projection, a bright, even field, and user-friendly operation.

The size of the Source Four Mini means even more installations can have Source Four functionality. Joe Bokelman, ETC architectural market manager, explains, "The Source Four Mini is a perfect fit for small-scale installations, like low ceiling

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UK - As part of a £24m refurbishment project, the Allianz Park stadium in North London, brand new home to Saracens Rugby Club, now sports a concert-standard audio system designed and installed by Richard Nowell of RNSS Ltd. Working with audio consultant Roger Lindsey who was brought in by Saracens CEO Edward Griffiths, Nowell specified equipment from a number of manufacturers, including a significant amount of EM Acoustics equipment for the new East stand.

The brief from Griffiths, who has driven the project from its inception, was quite clear. He felt that rugby fans deserved better audio than that delivered by the often aging systems seen in many rugby grounds. His view was that expectations are higher now than they used to be thanks to the influx of technology into peoples' homes and better, more sophisticated systems in most music venues. He wanted to be able to offer

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USA - LA pop rock band Maroon 5 has begun its Overexposed world tour and grandMA2 is along for the ride. Maroon 5's new North American tour is in support of the band's eponymous studio album released last summer. Since its debut in 2002, Maroon 5 has sold over 10m albums in the US.

As always, noted production designer and artistic director Demfis Fyssicopulos took an innovative and forward thinking approach to his design philosophy for the tour, which entailed utilising the grandMA2 full-size. "It's the most advanced control surface in the market," he says. "In addition to the lighting for the show, a plethora of media servers and custom Control Freak System solutions are all controlled from the grandMA2 full-size. Centralised control ensures coherence and a show that looks well put together."

On the video side of the tour the grandMA2 full-size cont

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UK - Artistic Licence, industry experts in architectural lighting control and data distribution, will be bringing their latest innovations to PLASA Focus 2013.

PLASA Focus will see the official launch of sunDial, the new range of smart modular dimmers that present a universal control solution.

General purpose lighting now comes in many guises, from halogen to LEDs. Taking a holistic, eco-friendly approach to dimming, Artistic Licence has developed sunDial to enable lighting fixtures to be controlled in a more intelligent manner. With DALI and DMX inputs, high channel counts and dimming to suit every fixture from incandescent to solid-state, sunDial is the embodiment of intelligent lighting control.

The stand (N-D13) will demonstrate sunDial's mix-and-match concept, combining DMX and DALI controllers to drive a range of sources, including mains-powered lighting and the latest

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UK - The GLP Impression Spot One and Wash One are now available from PRG's rental stock. The Spot One was the first fixture of its kind to be released to the global market, closely followed by the Wash One and both incorporate ground breaking LED technology. By harnessing the raw power of numerous LED sources and running it through an advanced optical system GLP has created an even beam for RGB color mixing, and has produced two very versatile fixtures.

The Spot One offers bright RGB LED output; even light distribution; full, crisp colour palette; clean white range of 3000K-8000K with high CRI, Instant colour bumps and sharp image projections

The Impression Wash One boasts a 400W RGB LED light engine, and the same groundbreaking technology as the Spot One, the fully-featured luminaire is able to deliver delicate colour changes or instantaneous colour bumps over a wide, careful

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UK - Black Light's 2013 Open Day saw over 200 people and over 30 companies come together for a very successful trade show. The annual event, which took place on the 15th of March, was also an opportunity to celebrate the success of Black Light, which was founded by Gavin Stewart thirty years ago.

"The Open Day went really well," said Black Light's Head of Company Development, Phil Haldane. "We got more people through the door than ever before, had an excellent range of exhibitors, met lots of old friends and said hello to many new faces."

The Open Day was an opportunity for lighting, sound and stage professionals from across Scotland to meet with product manufacturers. Among the innovative new products on demonstration were the ilumo range of LED Spots (which are designed and manufactured in the UK by Lumonic Ltd). Among the companies that exhibited were Av

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UK - Following a deep strategic review in mid-2011 the ALD is changing and growing with greater focus on member benefits, public and industry engagement. A significant investment in resource has already been made consisting of a new office in central London and a permanent management post.

ALD chairman Peter Mumford said, "We had a clear mandate from the members at the last AGM to get on with developing the ALD through expanding and advising the professional membership, and promoting the art of lighting design more widely. The Executive came up with several key initiatives, which included marketing ourselves better, more help for recently graduated designers- we call them 'emerging LDs' - and increased levels of support for professionals working in lighting. It was obvious that we needed someone working full-time on this project, in an office that would be available to a la

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USA - How do you control 28 four-foot lighted spheres suspended above award winners "fun" at the 2013 Grammy Awards? Easy - with LumenRadio Receiver Cards inside each sphere, and a LumenRadio Flex transmitter located backstage.

Conceived and produced by Moment Factory of Montreal, with content by Hubert Gagnon of Blackout Design, the fun. set was designed and built by Quebec-based Teksho. Featuring illuminated spheres rising from the stage floor like gigantic champagne bubbles in slow motion, the number climaxed with an actual on-stage rainstorm. LEDs inside each of the orbs were controlled by a grandMA2 at FOH, driving an NPU backstage, sending DMX to the LumenRadio Flex Transmitter. The Flex Transmitter sent wireless DMX to each of the frosted-white spheres, with continual control feedback of the entire wireless system.

"Our team imagined a story line for the

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Italy - Is now the time to challenge the traditional concepts of how to mix a live concert? Igor Fiorini of VDM Studio in Rome certainly thinks so and he is not alone. For some years now, the recording industry has used DAWs to record critical concerts with admirable reliability and Pyramix has already been used on Olympic opening and closing ceremonies with no issues at all; so why not mix a concert live with the same technology.

Not only does this reduce the size of the rig needed, it also introduces many less obvious advantages. It opens up the opportunity to use a huge array of plug-ins, offers large channel counts without taking up any more space in the auditorium and offers higher resolution DSP than is generally available with a conventional live mixing console.

The concert in mid-February that gave the opportunity to put theory into practice featured the renowned Frenc

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Brazil - In Southern Brazil, on the coast of Santa Catarina, sits one of the world's largest Art Deco statues. At the top of Morro de la Cruz (Hill of the Cross), the statue of Jesus Christ stands overlooking the city of Balneário Camboriú, with one arm outstretched, welcoming visitors from near and far, and the other carrying a symbol of the sun.

Measuring 33m in height (including the pedestal) and 22m wide (from fingertip to fingertip), the task of lighting this majestic tourist attraction at first seemed less than straightforward. However, when Mario Luiz Pretto of Cristo Luz (Christ Light) contacted SGM's Brazilian distributor, João Alonso of LBO Lighting Comercio e Importação e Exportação Ltda, requesting a more powerful lighting output than the former installation could provide, João Alonso proposed the SGM P-5 wash light featuring 44 high power 10W RGBW LEDs per u

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Germany - German electronic musician and actor, Paul Kalkbrenner, has embarked on a pan-European tour, with Berlin-based Complete Audio fielding a Martin Audio MLA PA system to provide coverage for up to 10,000-seat arenas.

André Rauhut's company first introduced Martin Audio's multi-cellular loudspeaker array system to the artist's production back in 2011, when the two operations started working together. "We first used an MLA/MLX rig for a big outdoor show," remembers Rauhut. "They really loved how the system sounded, and as a result, they have since continued to work with us. MLA has become vital to the quality of the live sound."

For the current Guten Tag tour, which takes in most European countries, Complete Audio are providing a total of 26 MLA enclosures, two MLD down-fills, 16 MLA Compacts and 18 MLX subs (scalable to suit the venue).

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