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Elton Honoured - Sir Elton John has won the first ever Brits Icon award, in a gala concert which marked his stage return after surgery for appendicitis. The musician was presented with the prize by Rod Stewart, who described him as "the second-best rock singer ever". Sir Elton said he was "flattered" by the award, given to artists who have had a "lasting impact" on UK culture.

Speaking to Dermot O'Leary on stage during Monday's show at the Palladium, he added: "It's been a hell of a summer. I'm glad to be rid of the appendix - it was a pesky little bugger." He said he would not curtail his touring schedule. "I've played 92 countries, and I want to play 100," he said. "That's just the way I'm programmed."

X Factor

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Australia - New start-up company, Entertainment Technology Australia (ETA) provided a spectacular launch for the new-look SGM brand in its local territory at this year's ENTECH 2013 trade show in Sydney.

The reaction was positive, with ETA reporting a flood of enquiries about products such as the LB-100 and LT-100/ 200 - coupled with a continual stream of positive comments, many from Australia's lighting industry leaders. One renowned LD, Rohan Thornton of Firelight, stated: "Seeing the new SGM range was refreshing. In a time when we are seeing more of the same, there were a number of SGM products which definitely caught my eye."

Dave Croxton is the man behind ETA - which began trading on 1 July. It had been a chance meeting with SGM representatives in Jakarta, Indonesia, which originally set the ball rolling. Croxton was there working for another manufacturer. "

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UK - International LED specialist displayLED has appointed Paul Langridge as business development manager to help expand the company's presence in public display signage.

Langridge has worked in the display business since 1990, initially with a US-based company which manufactured LCD tablets for the presentation market, before moving into the AV business where he provided bespoke video solutions. His role at displayLED will include developing relationships with highways and retail clients.

"displayLED's success in global markets allows me to look at business opportunities on a much larger scale, as well as within the UK," says Langridge. "I'm looking forward to researching the needs of international clients and providing them with effective solutions."

Guy Horrigan, commercial director of displayLED, adds, "Paul has a long and proven track record of

featured content

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 - This year is Astera LED-Technology's year of market expansion and they have marked this with the release of new products, increased software developments, opening an office in the USA, and now with a new, visually attractive and knowledge-filled company website (www.astera-led.com).

Designed by Muze Studio of Israel, the website splits into two business divisions, just like the company itself; wireless event lighting and architectural lighting. The site features Astera's new corporate colours and new logo, and has generally de-cluttered the information on display from its previous web offering. The new site features extensive downloads for the company's wireless range, and a comprehensive support section built up from years of queries and solutions. All of the core products are displayed on the site with data, images and accessories for each product listed alongside.

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UK - Liverpool based Adlib was supplied complete visual & sound design and equipment packages to four high profile arenas at Creamfields 2013. Adlib again worked closely with creative and technical production specialists LarMac LIVE on the event, staged at Daresbury Estate over the August Bank Holiday Weekend.

Adlib's Chris Neary evolved and interpreted the initial visual briefs for the massive Cream Arena, the hyperactive Skream & Benga Arena, emerging talent in the Annie Mac Presents Arena and the Hospitality area.

There is a strong local and regional affinity between Adlib and Cream, the night club that began as a cool house music experience in the heart of Liverpool in 1992 and grew into the vibrant, global brand it is today which includes staging the annual Creamfields UK event.

Chris Neary designed lighting and co-ordinated visuals for all four arenas based on the fund

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Denmark - Providing an output of more than 2.5m lumen in the beautiful atmosphere of scenic forest surroundings, SGM's P-5 RGBW wash light made the green landscape even greener at Smukfest 2013. This summer festival is characterised by its location - in a forest by the lake - and thus justifies the description as being 'the most beautiful music festival in Denmark'.

As a part of sustainability initiatives, the 100 P-5s were chosen to replace conventional lighting fixtures in the illumination of the tree crowns around the stages and the audience sites. This replacement enabled the number (and variety) of fixture to be substantially reduced from three or four types used previously, and a total of nearly 250 pieces, to the sole use of 100 P-5s.

Danny Tranekaer of Future Production, the person behind the design, was more than satisfied with the performance of the powerful wash lig

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New Zealand - The owners of the luxury yacht Genevieve approached Entertainment Lighting Solutions of Auckland to inspect and provide solutions on how to "warm up" their interior lighting and re-programme the current control system on the yacht as they were unhappy with the button choices.

Initially, 90 Halogen MR16 fittings had been installed throughout the yacht and these had been replaced a couple of years ago by a Spanish boat refurbishment company. They installed a specialist marine lighting control system designed around low voltage lamps and load circuits (12-24V). Unfortunately the system did not have the capacity to carry the load of all the installed fittings so they bodged the dimmers and installed some rather unsavoury 1w 3200k LED fittings that were cold and did not dim well.

The boat itself was built by Alloy Yachts in the mid-90s in Auckland for an Ame

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Sweden - DM Audio's Lars Wern has the distinction of having mixed sound for the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra's (RSPO's) legendary summer outdoor concerts for the past 25-plus years.

He therefore has intimate knowledge of the field outside the Maritime Museum in Gärdet, where the concert takes place, and has provided a constant evolutionary stream of PA systems over the decades to try and tame reflections off the large monument that overlooks the performance area, and attempt to eliminate slapback and sound bleeding back into the orchestra.

Last year, for the first time he turned to Martin Audio's Multi-cellular Loudspeaker Array technology in the form of his newly purchased MLA Compact. This year - in front of an audience of 37,000 - he experienced results even superior to 2012. "It was just fantastic," he enthused.

Part of the reason was because he was

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New Zealand - The Hawke's Bay Opera House situated in Hastings, New Zealand is one of the Southern Hemisphere's most impressive examples of Spanish Mission architecture. The Theatre, with its extravagant Art Nouveau interior decorations, is the keystone of the complex. Originally known as The Hastings Municipal Theatre, Hawke's Bay Opera House was built in 1915 for £12,000 - a considerable sum for the day, reflecting the community's support for performing arts.

Under recent new management, the theatre has been undertaking a refurbishment plan that included the replacement of their lighting console with a new LX600. With the main stage and house lighting dimming, wall plates and DMX distribution already LSC products, LSC reliability and ease of use was already well known to the venue and operators alike.

Henry Norton, technical operations manager at the theatre commented:

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Europe - Twenty-five years after he started running a mobile disco with his brother, Theo van Workum now owns Rent-All, one of Europe's major technical production companies. Committed to investing in the most modern equipment, the company recently purchased six Yamaha CL series digital consoles.

With four offices across the Netherlands and Germany, Rent-All is an integral part of many theatrical productions and live production tours for Dutch artists, including Sensation, Frans Bauer, Toppers, Andre Rieu and Waylon.

"We always want to have the most modern technology available in stock and, because we work on many different types and sizes of production, when the CL series was launched we took the decision to invest in all three sizes of console," says Theo.

Rent-All purchased three CL3s, two CL1s and a CL5, along with three Rio3224-D and six Rio1608-D i/o units. Wi

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UK - In 2009, with its lighting rigs growing increasingly complex and more diverse, London's National Theatre decided to use several just-launched ETC Eos desks for its three stages. The staff quickly became dedicated to the Eos family of controls, adding Gio and Ion over the years. So when ETC debuted the Eos Titanium (Ti) desk - with even more powerful hardware and software than its predecessor - there was no question that the National would upgrade.

Eos Ti provides the bold features and increased control capacity that the iconic venue requires. "The demands of the National Theatre's large rigs and the scale of our productions mean that we are always pushing the boundaries of what a lighting desk can do, both in terms of processing power and usability. The Eos Ti provides us with a much-needed boost in processing power," explains National Theatre lighting control sup

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South Africa - Lighting designer Declan Randall wove Robe moving lights into his intricate lighting design for the epic roller-skating Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Starlight Express staged in The Mandela venue at the Joburg Theatre complex in downtown Johannesburg.

Randall was part of a Johannesburg Theatre production team including director Janice Honeyman, producer Bernard Jay, designer James MacNamara, choreographer Karen Bruce and musical director Clinton Zerf, who were given creative licence to produce a new and exhilarating version of this classic hi-energy piece.

It was the first ever non-replica interpretation of Starlight Express ever licensed by Lloyd Webber's Really Useful Theatre Company since the show's inception in 1984, which brought an additional edge and frission of excitement to the production.

In the overhead lighting rig were 18 x Robe Robin

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UK - PLASA London 2013, which takes place at ExCeL London from 6-9 October 2013, is proud to reveal the first audio sessions in its hotly anticipated Professional Development Programme. The packed programme offers four days of free sessions that give visitors a glimpse of the technology behind the world's most spectacular live shows and most talked about events and venues.

All sessions in the audio streams are presented by leading experts in audio technology, with separate programmes on Live Sound and Installed Sound in the new AudioLab Theatre, and a pro audio laboratory - AudioLab Interactive - that will push audio technology to its limits - and beyond. Visitors can register their interest in their preferred sessions at www.plasashow.com/education

The AudioLab Theatre features programmes on Live Sound, Installed Sound and The Sound Business. Highlights in this theatre includ

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South Africa - PR Lighting has changed its South African distribution arrangements, appointing Prosound, with immediate effect as sole reseller for its extensive range of LED and automated discharge solutions.

With price sensitivity an ever increasing issue in today's market, Prosound were seeking a quality product range that could also meet the demands of the House of Worship market.

Commenting on the decision, Prosound's GM, Ian Blair, said: "The PR brand has proven itself as one of the most respected Chinese manufacturers - the company has developed and maintained its reputation for quality over the years."

PR Lighting's SA sales manager, Lawrence Mao, replied, "The South African market is very competitive and we believe that Prosound has the experience and contacts to promote PR Lighting in this market extremely well."

The Johannesburg based lightin

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Belgium - Lighting and Visuals Designer Peter Vervloesem has just joined Bass Events, one of the most proactive organisers of EDM events in Belgium, as their 'house' production designer. Peter has previously worked in the same capacity on several Bass Events' projects as a freelancer.

Bass Events believes in offering their audiences the very highest production values, hence their desire to have a production designer on-board to oversee continuity and focus just on this element of their live events. Peter is also a keen Robe advocate. In June, he specified a selection of Robe moving lights for the massive Bass Events Outdoor Stage at Sunrise Festival, staged at the fabulous recreation area De Lilse Bergen, which kicked off their 2013 summer season.

With 3 days, 11 stages, more than 300 international artists and 24 different hosting partners, the Sunrise Festival experienced gre

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UK - Vaughan Sound has completed the installation of AV systems at Gocompare.com's new head offices in Newport.

The British financial services comparison specialists, founded in 2006 and based in the south east Wales city, required a number of new audio-visual products as well as the decommissioning of existing TVs and their relocation to their new premises within the adjacent Imperial House.

Vaughan Sound was invited by Paramount Interiors to specify, supply, install and commission audio-visual systems to 13 key areas at Gocompare.com's new location; including several offices, meeting rooms, the Boardroom and Reception.

Three 46" Smart LED TVs were specified and mounted to walls within the Reception area and two other spaces.

Various floor box connection plates with VGA, HDMI, USB and PC Audio capabilities were fitted throughout a number of the meeting rooms, whilst

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UK - More industry experts have been confirmed to speak at the 4th annual PLASA Rigging Conference which takes place on 7-8 October 2013 at its new home, ExCeL London. Topics include control system design, truss design criteria and discussing structural collapse. In addition, the popular Riggers' Forum held on 6 October is now open for registration, the annual opportunity promising to provide informal and lively debate.

Scott Nachemann of Thornton Tomasetti managed the investigations into the failures of the supporting structures at the Indiana State Fair in 2011 and in Toronto in 2012. In this session Scott leads a panel of engineers, users and manufacturers in an account of the examination of the Indiana State Fair incident and a discussion of the lessons learned from the tragedy. The session will also look at initiatives involving the development of standards, regulations and

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South Africa - About 18 months ago Gearhouse South Africa's Ofer Lapid and Tim Dunn accompanied Bruce Schwartz (Entertainment Lighting Manager, Electrosonic SA) on a trip to Aarhus, Denmark, home of Martin Professional. Their mission was to check out Martin's new range of automated fixtures: after eight years of faithful service, Gearhouse SA's Martin MAC 2000s were starting to take strain.

Peter Skytte and Peter Dahlin from Martin Professional treated Ofer, Tim and Bruce to a sneak preview of the Viper series. Back then there were only two early prototypes - and these units were still some way from completion; the two Peters had to be careful not to damage the fragile mock-up on the bench. The preview was a success, and Ofer and Tim were delighted that they'd found a worthy replacement for their treasured '2ks'.

The only problem for Ofer and Tim was that they would have to wa

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UK - Focusrite Audio Engineering Ltd. will be showcasing RedNet, their latest range of Dante powered audio networking interfaces, at PLASA London 2013 on stand C55.

RedNet is Focusrite's high quality range of break-in / break-out boxes for any Dante digital audio networking system. Designed with multiple audio applications in mind - from live sound rigs to theatre, education and commercial installations, RedNet brings studio-grade Focusrite analogue and digital I/O, as well as next-generation Focusrite remote controlled preamps to the Dante audio network.

On show at stand C55 will be RedNet 1 and RedNet 2, which offer eight or 16 channels of line-level analogue in and out, with Focusrite's precision 24-bit A-D and D-A conversion; RedNet 3, which interfaces your digital audio systems and components to the Dante network via AES/EBU, S/PDIF and ADAT connections; RedNet 4 which ad

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UK - LMC Audio is staging the Inspired Audio Listening Event, taking place at Aylesbury Waterside Theatre on Tuesday 24 September 2013. Attendees will be able to meet Chris Scott, design director at Inspired Audio, and the team from LMC Audio at the state-of-the-art Aylesbury Waterside facility, where you will be guided around the multi-purpose space and invited to listen to the Inspired Audio range in an assortment of must-hear configurations.

LMC says: "An interactive delivery will explain the design approach adopted by Inspired Audio and the value to the end user of this integrated package of system amplifier, enclosure and networked system control, that is central to the Inspired philosophy. We will aim to not only deliver clarity of sound, but also clarity of control options that enable connection via, USB, Ethernet, WIFI or via a Dante enabled network."

The eve

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USA - Elation Professional has introduced the Protron LED Strobe, an ultra-powerful LED strobe that comes housed in a conventional par-style case. Utilising 576 pieces of white 6,500K LED diodes, this fixture produces an impressive 28,000 lumens of output - for unmatched punch and brightness in a strobing effect, says the company.

Adding to its powerful strobe light effect, the Protron LED Strobe's LEDs are also split into four 'pies' which can chase to create 'eye candy' effects. A rugged die-cast aluminium case allows the LEDs to run at full output as well as to be a floodlight/blinder, and it is rated at IP65, so it can withstand wind, rain and other inclement conditions, making it ideal for both indoor and outdoor use.

Whether illuminating stages, concerts or nightclubs, buildings or landscapes - or any type of entertainment or architectural element - the versatile unit wi

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