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UK - Yamaha Commercial Audio (UK) has announced the appointment of Stephanie Halstead to the position of commercial audio sales and marketing support.

Previously working for Yamaha's Central Operations division, Halstead's new role includes daily contact with Commercial Audio dealers and customers, as well as logistics, stock management and providing backup to the Commercial Audio sales and technical support teams.

"My previous role involved being in contact with hundreds of Yamaha dealers, whereas in CA I will be working with a smaller network of customers on a more personal level," she says. "It will be good to be able to build closer professional relationships, to properly get to know the people on the end of the phone. I'm here to help them in any way possible

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Europe - Hi energy UK drum 'n' bass duo Chase & Status has taken the European festival circuit by storm this summer, with a lightshow designed by Neil Carson, based on a floor 'specials' rig of over 160 lights - with 60 x Robe LEDBeam 100s at its core!

Forty of the LEDBeams are attached to two custom pre-rigged trussing dollies wheeled onstage for lightning-quick deployment behind the band, forming a retina-burning 'wall-of-death' effect.

The other 20 LEDBeam 100 fixtures are rigged ten each on two 5m high towers positioned either side of the stage flanking the LEDBeam dollies in the middle

The high-impact effects that Carson has created with the LEDBeam 100 wall have impressed everyone, particularly in relation to the miniscule size of the units, which make them ideal for being toured in large quantities whilst taking up very little truck space.

The design also utilises e

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China - As part of Creative Technology's (CT) commitment to offer the latest and most innovative equipment, CT's Asia Pacific operation reports that it has just placed an order for Barco HDX W20 Flex Projectors. This investment is a subsequent order following the delivery of the Barco FSN system earlier in the summer.

The Asia market - in particular mainland China - is demanding a similar level of quality of equipment as that in the European and the US markets and CT is aware of a noticeable rise in the amount of incoming events into the region, says the company. With CT's Asia Pacific operation offering full service of video, audio, lighting and rigging, the in-house team of Western and Chinese engineers and project managers provides total solutions to our clients.

(Jim Evans)

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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 - Utopium supplied festival lighting rigs for 11 stages at this year's Boomtown Fair held at Matterley Estate near Winchester, 8 - 11 August 2013.

The fifth instalment of Boomtown Fair, a live music and arts festival, attracted audiences of around 30,000 each day to see performances from headlining artists including David Boomah, Dub Inc., Mad Caddies, Babyhead and Slamboree.

For the third consecutive year Utopium supplied lighting and rigging installations for the elaborately themed and creative Boomtown Fair. This year Utopium was approached to provide festival lighting rigs for the large stages, including Lions Den, Town Centre, Devil Kicks Dancehall and Circo Baile.

Will Howie lighting designer and production manager for Utopium commented, "Boomtown Fair was a very unique project for us. The festival was split into 12 districts, each one its own theme to represen

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UK - LSi Online has learned the sad news of the death of Derrick Saunders, for many years one of the best-known figures in the UK's professional lighting industry. Derrick passed away on Friday 16 August after a long illness. As sales and marketing director of Pulsar Light of Cambridge, Derrick was a familiar figure from 1970 through until his retirement from the company in 2000. Even in retirement, he remained actively involved with family business Adda Super Cases, alongside his wife Monica.

Derrick's funeral will be on 30 August at St. Andrews Church, Oakington, Cambridgeshire, CB24 3AN. All who knew Derrick are welcome to attend. The family has asked for donations in lieu of flowers to be sent to St. Andrews Church fund.

(Lee Baldock)

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UK - Having developed its revolutionary new JT30 and JT40 trusses at the start of 2013, James Thomas Engineering has announced the launch of its complete JT Truss range. The original JT30 and JT40 square configuration has been extended to include triangular and ladder truss options and an ultra-convenient 'out of the box' arched roof system.

JT Truss is a high-capacity, light-weight truss system aimed at the permanent installation market. Unique universal male/female forks allow versatility of connection and are held together by specially designed tapered pins which ensure fast, easy removal and form clean, strong joints.

Off the shelf lengths are available from 0.5m - 5m with a choice of solid corners or gates, 2- to 6-way corner options and a 3-way T-corner connection. Custom lengths are available to order, as are James Thomas Engineeering's (JTE) project consultation servic

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Sweden - This year's Eurovision Song Contest production featured a design element requiring very special lighting; an element that demanded "the brightest LED fixture on the market: The Solaris LED Flare".

Flanking the sides of the main stage, extending overhead to meet above centre-stage, were two eight-ton, 46ft tall super-arches. The arches, located midway between up - and down-stage, required internal illumination to achieve proper depth perception. Exterior lighting just wouldn't do. Layers of plexi/acrylic sheets in each arch were toned and darkened for effect, which posed additional problems: the illumination had to be bright enough to blast through the layers with potency, even on camera.

Ola Melzig, Eurovision's technical director for the last 11 years, explains, "The arches were intended to have stand-alone value, independent of external lighting. We t

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Sri Lanka - PR Lighting fixtures were out in force at the recent Derana Veet Miss Sri Lanka 2013 pageant in Wadduwa.

Held at the five-star Blue Water Hotel luxury hotel overlooking the Indian Ocean, the ballroom stage was imaginatively lit by technology company, The Lighthouse (Pvt), who handle the lighting each year for this event.

The company's Dinusha Perera based his lighting plot entirely on LED and discharge fixtures from PR Lighting, which form the core of Lighthouse's rental stock, to complement the opulent stage set conceived by Madawa Madawala from Derana TV.

Chosen for their bright output, advanced featureset and good colour referencing, Perera selected 16 XS1200 Spot, with their fast and intense beams, and 13 XR200 Beam, a high output moving beam light - along with some LED washes and par cans. These were used stridently and dynamically, under the control of an A

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Europe - Bruno Mars has been out on the road supporting his platinum Unorthodox Jukebox album - one of the fastest selling albums in 2012.

His production design team once again on this arena tour is Cory FitzGerald and LeRoy Bennett, who have worked with the artist since the 2011 Hooligans in Wondaland tour.

Stepping up to larger arenas this time around, production has upscaled accordingly, and Fitzgerald has again turned to GLP's impression LED moving heads. Having had wide experience over a number of years, this time he has built 27 of the impression X4's, supplied by VER of Glendale, into a retro-style set redolent of the '70s & '80s, including a 6ft mirror ball.

The designer has worked through several generations of GLP's premier LED fixtures down the years - starting with the original impression 90 and RZ 120 zoom. The profile of these was raised when they

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UK - Calibre UK is celebrating 25 years of success in the electronics design, creation, manufacture and delivery of innovative processing, image scaling, scan conversion and LCD electronics products to market.

Tim Brooksbank, chairman at Calibre UK commented, "Achieving this milestone has been immense fun. We've sold a lot of great products and have built some valued relationships. Here's to the next 25 years."

Founded on 8 August 1988, Calibre UK established itself as a small business in the technology and software sector and quickly built a reputation for electronics excellence.

Calibre UK originally designed and manufactured custom test equipment for CRT monitor and television factories, primarily for automated picture analysis and calibration on production lines. This spun out initial product lines such as I2C-Bus development and associated test tools. In the e

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Italy - Located at the heart of Milan's fashion district, the new Spazio Gessi showroom has literally been dug in underground between two historical mansion houses on Via Manzoni. The concept of showroom and meeting centre is itself revolutionary, but revolution is nothing new to Gessi.

Home to the design and manufacture of what the company calls, 'bathroom solutions,' Gessi's interior designs might more readily be termed high art. The company has built a world class reputation for innovation, style, and the successful marriage of commercial enterprise and great design; skills they readily impart through their acclaimed Academy Gessi seminar programme.

"The project was to create a space destined to be much more than a traditional showroom," said architect Luca Bresciani. "So when it came to thinking about sound and how to relay information we knew we would need

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Japan - Sound reinforcement specialists, SEPT+1, who became the first user of Martin Audio's revolutionary MLA system back in 2011, have now taken the system on another high profile tour.

Sound engineer Shigenori Funahashi chose it for famous female Japanese pop singer, Ayaka Hirahara's latest 10th Anniversary Concert Tour 2013, typically using six MLA enclosures per side and three MLX subs, all ground-stacked.

Explaining his decision to use MLA, Mr. Funahashi said, "I needed to improve many issues regarding the sound for this tour - and the most important challenge was contending with the singer's vocal reflections. Because of the increasing use of in-ear monitors many of today's singers do not listen to their voice acoustically and don't hear the entire auditorium sound, including reflections bouncing off the venue walls.

"However, Ayaka does not like using IEMs

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USA - Nashville-based rental provider Morris Light & Sound has one of the world's largest inventories of Nexo's new STM Series modular line array. This month, the company completes its first major tour with the system, the No Shoes Nation tour by best-selling country artist Kenny Chesney.

Kenny Chesney's 46-date tour, which began in March at the Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida, has seen a major change to its stadium line array. Morris Light & Sound (Nashville) has provided a new Nexo STM modular system for the 2013-2014 tour. The system layout is configured with 74x M46 for mains, 74x B112 bass cabinets, 48x S118 flown subs, 16x RS18 ground subs, 12x PS10s for front-fills, 14x GEO S1210s and 2x GEO S1230s, 22x NUAR amp racks, and two Yamaha DME 64 digital mix engines with LAKE Mesa EQ cards for system tuning and console switching.

Morris Light & Sound was an ear

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USA - Calling a nightclub Light can be risky business. You're basically telling clubbers they should expect a mind-blowing illumination experience every time they step through its door. Setting the visual creativity bar this high could be perilous for some, but not for developer/partners Cirque du Soleil and The Light Group, or for John Lyons Systems (Hollywood, CA), which provided the lighting design for this new nightspot at Mandalay Bay Hotel.

Judging from the reception it's getting from Las Vegas nightlife reviewers, Light doesn't have to worry about living up to its name. Part Cirque show and part dance club with 38,000sq.ft. of space and a 35ft high ceiling, Light features acrobats spinning overhead and world-famous EDM DJs spinning up front. To add to the multi-layered sensory experience, video is everywhere; 6mm video panels line the club's massive walls, its ceiling and

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Mexico - Ampere Manufacturas Electronicas S.A.De C.V. has supplied and installed a new outdoor sound system for The Mandala Beach Club in Cancún, Mexico, utilizing Community iBOX and WET loudspeakers.

The Mandala Beach Club is located on a narrow spit of land off the Cancún coast and is one of the region's top clubs. It enjoys the idyllic setting of a soft sandy beach lapped by the clear blue waters of the Caribbean. The beautiful setting does, however, have a major drawback for sound equipment as the system is fully exposed to the elements.

As a result the club has previously had numerous bad experiences, with well-known brands that could not survive the humidity, high temperatures and winds that carry sand and salt. Even with being covered at night, previous systems were unable to endure the conditions. What Mandala Beach Club needed was a system that could provide high qu

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UK - Lighting designer Declan Randall has used ETC Source Four LED Lustr+ to light Dennis Kelly's Love & Money, starting at the Chapter Arts Centre in Cardiff before going on tour.

"The Source Four LEDs were invaluable in creating the look of the lighting," says Randall. "I used them both as a backlight and as an front-of-house fill, and their ability to subtly mix colour and shift from a cooler tone to a warmer one was incredibly helpful. It meant that I was able to achieve a seamless blend between the projections and the lighting for each scene.

"They also offered me the ability to adjust the colour balance during the scenes to be able to underpin the emotional tone of the scene by making small colour adjustments, with the changes almost imperceptible."

ETC's range of LED fixtures, which includes Selador Classic and Desire, as well as Source

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China - SWIT Electronics Co is a high-tech enterprise, specialising in developing and manufacturing products for the broadcast industry occupying an area of 16,660sq.m , in Nanjing National Level Economic and Technological Development Zone.

SWIT has gained a great reputation worldwide for their outstanding and innovative products over the years and with their passion for technology, they've showed great interest in supplying Green Hippo products.

"Green Hippo has firmly established their position within the areas of broadcast, live events, architecture and more, with a strong product line and a supportive technical team. We are very excited to represent Green Hippo in China, and to introduce Green Hippo's range of products here in China. We will help new users to discover the power, flexibility and the system's ease of use," says William Xiao, SWIT president.

SWIT

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UK - Leading European flightcase manufacturer 5 Star Cases is to re-launche its popular 'Speed Challenge' on Booth K10 at the 2013 PLASA exhibition at ExCeL in October.

5 Star will also have British Touring Car Racing driver, reigning Air Asia Renault Clio Cup Champion and UK motorsport rising star Jack Goff on the stand for three of the four days of the exhibition (He's racing on the Sunday). Jack - sponsored by some of the industry's highest profile companies and brands - will be providing support for the Speed Challenge

The booth features a new stand - designed and built by the 5 Star Group - to showcase their top products and coincide with the exciting move of PLASA - the UK's premier entertainment technology showcase - to a new venue this year.

5 Star's Speed Challenge was initially inaugurated at PLASA back in 2006 to celebrate 5 Star's landmark 25th anniversary. By po

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Mexico - GLP German Light Productshas appointed Rocketerias Distribuidores S.A de C.V. as its exclusive distributor for Mexico.

Rocketerias has offices and facilities across Mexico, including in the capital Mexico City and in the Yucatan peninsula, which hosts one of the country's largest tourist destinations.

Peter Hald, GLP's sales director for Latin America, said, "We are very happy to have Rocketerias become our distribution partner in Mexico. They have a very focused and dedicated team of people. As the GLP range has grown and become more successful, we have been looking for the right partner to work with and Rocketerias fits the bill perfectly."

Hald will work closely with Rocketerias director, Alejandro Barbosa Calderon, who said, "It is great to add GLP to the range of brands that we represent in Mexico, and we look forward to bringing them to the mark

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Switzerland - DiGiCo's five year involvement in the Montreux Jazz Festival has brought many benefits to performers, engineers and audiences. It has also made such a positive impression on audio supplier Tonspur AG that the company has been appointed DiGiCo's exclusive Swiss distributor.

"We have been coordinating the audio for Montreux since 2007 and our first experience with DiGiCo was when they became the official console sponsor in 2009," says Tonspur owner Hansjürg Meier. "We immediately realised that there was an enormous difference in sound quality, compared to other digital mixing desks. We were also really impressed by the flexibility of the consoles and the use of the latest technology, like FPGA processing, which minimised the physical footprint."

DiGiCo made such an impact that Tonspur began selling the consoles to the Swiss and Liechtenstein ma

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In The Open - A new performing arts consortium formed from six outer-London venues has been launched to tour large-scale outdoor productions within the venues' resident boroughs. The Albany theatre in Deptford, Artsdepot in Barnet and Millfield Arts Centre in Enfield have joined forces with Watermans in Hounslow, Harrow Arts Centre and Tara Arts in Wandsworth to create Circulate, the new consortium. Arts Council England has provided the group with a three-year grant of around £500,000 from its strategic touring programme, which aims to bring more shows to areas in the UK with limited access to the arts.

The group plans to take one major show annually to six high street locations close to each venue, which will be free for audiences to attend. For its first year, Circulate has commissioned London-based Emergency Exit Arts, which specialises in site-specific work, to create

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