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UK - Over £2.5 million in seed finance has been released to fund approximately 400 new start-up businesses in London over the next 12 months. The cash, available through Start Up Direct, a direct delivery partner of the Government's Start Up Loans scheme, will help make the dreams of budding entrepreneurs in the capital a reality in 2014, as the hiatus in bank lending continues. The scheme is targeting the TV and Events sectors.

Start Up Direct, which has recently established a base in the heart of London's Tech City, is targeting talented individuals who wish to start a business but lack the capital and often the experience to make it happen. As well as offering loans of up to £15,000, Start Up Direct matches every entrepreneur with a mentor who will be on hand to hel

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USA - DJ and dubstep producer Excision, the champion of bass music and sensory overload, has begun his 2014 tour of the US and Canada with powerful Clay Paky A.leda B-EYE K20- LED-based moving lights and a cadre of Sharpys.

The Excision tour, featuring Dirtyphonics and ill.Gates, has been called a "virtual apocalypse of twisting and morphing sounds" that encompass a full range of genres. Excision is accompanied by a new 150,000-watt bass system from PK Audio and his Executioner video and light production.

The tour marks the first time that Light Action Productions has supplied B-EYEs, which have quickly become indispensible to lighting and laser designer Dave Hauss of Double Surface Designs LLC. "They're my go-to light right now," he says. "When I have to cut down the rig, B-EYE is always there. They are an all around great fixture, and artists love th

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Italy - To ensure the audience a hard-hitting "live" sound for a preview 4K screening of Muse live at Rome Olympic Stadium, described by the band itself as its best concert of the year, UCI Italia, the country's cinema market leader, chose a sound system by Outline for its UCI Bicocca venue, one of only 20 theatres selected throughout the world for the high profile event.

Rock concerts have been identified by UCI as being among the most successful alternatives to traditional films and, after investigating the possibility of offering key venues audio quality on a par with live concerts, their collaboration with Outline enabled them to achieve this, enhancing the screening of the Muse show, recorded in ultra-HD before a 60,000-strong crowd in July 2013.

Although frequently mentioned in the trade press for the use of its sound reinforcement systems by leading int

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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 - Each April teams representing the two oldest universities in England, Oxford and Cambridge, meet on the Thames for one of the toughest challenges in rowing. A very popular event, this year's race, which was covered by BBC Sport, saw Oxford claim an emphatic 11-length victory over their old rivals. Hire company Presteigne provided all the RF and special camera facilities, and enabled comprehensive coverage by implementing a new wireless mesh technology to route a large number of differing sources over one RF network.

The course, from Putney to Mortlake, stretches along 6.8km of the river in west London, and crowds pack both riverbanks to watch the action. CTV was the outside broadcast company charged with this year's television coverage, and needed to get fixed camera positions along the length of the course, plus a number of mobile cameras, back to the production vehicles n

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USA - When a group of cellists decided to blend their classical music skills with their love of rock 'n' roll, the result was a cello-rock band known as Break of Reality. Comprised of three cellists and a percussionist, the group has been performing for more than a decade. During that time, the quartet has experimented with a series of audio setups, including both pickups and microphones, but continuously fell short of finding an ideal audio solution. That is, until they discovered DPA Microphones' d:vote 4099 Instrument Microphone and its clip for the cello.

As the quartet takes to the road, the members praise their recently purchased d:vote 4099 setup for creating a new sense of comfort that previously did not exist when miking the cellos. The group has tested a variety of audio amplification setups, which evolved from an early dependence on pickups, and they say they can alre

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UK - Leading UK concert and touring sound provider Wigwam Acoustics, a member of SSE Audio Group, has announced the appointment of Joel Perry as Business Development Manager.

Perry brings 15 years of experience operating in the production industry to this new role at Wigwam. Most recently he worked as Commercial Manager at Total Production International (TPi). Long term Wigwam associate Simon Hall has also joined the company as an additional Project Manager, strengthening the division's resources in Heywood.

Wigwam Managing Director, Spencer Beard commented: "We have been lucky to secure Joel for this new role. He is already well known and respected in the industry and will fit in really well here at Wigwam."

He continued: "It's now a year since Wigwam joined SSE. We always felt it was key to maintain

Wigwam's unique identity so we are now embarking on a pro

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USA - Television Broadcast mixer Paul Sandweiss (the Academy Awards, American Music Awards, BET Awards, EMMY Awards, and Kennedy Center Honors, and founder of Sound Design Corporation), has chosen the RedNet 6 MADI-to-Dante Bridge to interface his Yamaha CL5 consoles with the rest of his systems on the road and in broadcast mixing situations.

So far, Sandweiss has used his system with the RedNet 6 units on the recent 86th Academy Awards (with longtime associate Biff Dawes mixing the music performances on the live broadcast), the BET Awards, the EMMY's, the American Music Awards, the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit 50th Anniversary Special, The BET Celebration of Gospel and an upcoming Conan O'Brien broadcast from the road in Dallas.

Sandweiss states, "I have flight pack systems, and the flight packs house a Yamaha CL5 console that works on the Dante network. To record from th

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Germany - The Bosch Group has started the new year with a good increase in sales. In the first quarter, sales grew by roughly 7 percent. After adjusting for exchange-rate effects, the increase was roughly 10 percent. For the current fiscal year, the global provider of technology and services expects its sales to grow 3 to 5 percent.

"We continue to move forward with our traditional business and are opening up new fields of business. In so doing, we are benefiting from our broad technological and industrial expertise," said Dr. Volkmar Denner, chairman of the Bosch board of management, at the company's annual press conference.

The Bosch Automotive Technology business sector continued its strong business performance of the previous year, growing impressively in the first quarter of 2014. "We have also seen clear growth in our other business sectors. With regard to

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UK - White Light has been named on the exclusive cross-palace supplier list for Historic Royal Palaces. White Light is now approved to supply lighting and event production services across all five extraordinary venues managed by HRP including: Tower of London, Hampton Court Palace, Banqueting House, Kensington Palace, and Kew Palace.

Stuart Crane, Head of Events for White Light commented: "It's always a pleasure to deliver unique experiences for events at each of these incredible venues - bringing them to life with just the right production elements. We're thrilled to continue this work at the HRP venues, supporting HRP's in-house events teams and working with clients to achieve the highest standards in event production."

The appointment continues a long relationship between White Light and Historic Royal Palaces with White Light providing lighting sound, AV, staging

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USA - Designed for the professional touring and production market, the new EPT9IP LED video panel from Elation Professional checks all the boxes rental companies require in a professional, touring standard LED display. Elation will be showing the new LED panel at the InfoComm trade show 18-20 June in Las Vegas.

Featuring outstanding image quality, the EPT9IP is an ultra-bright 9mm pixel pitch LED panel with 4,096 3-in-1 LED pixels per panel (64 x 64). It incorporates the latest dot correction technology for superior color and brightness uniformity and delivers an impressive 5,000 nits of brightness, more than sufficient for any indoor use and bright enough for virtually any outdoor application.

Integrated curving options from -15° to +15° allow designers to create a variety of seamless curved video displays, including convex, concave and even full circle designs, while

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UK - London-based event design and production specialist Eclipse Presentations designed and co-ordinated all the technical production elements - set, lighting, video and sound - for the prestigious annual miaList awards lunch event, staged this year at Church House Conference Centre in Westminster, central London.

The mia is a rapidly growing association for the conference, meetings and events sector that has been created by a proactive group of hotel and conference centre operators and their booking agent colleagues to "make a difference".

The lunch event in the Assembly Hall was attended by 250 leading industry professionals and the miaList 2014 was revealed, naming 10 of the most dedicated and hardworking individuals from the world of meetings and events.

Being involved in the miaList 2014 event was something very close to Eclipse MD Robin Purslow's heart as an

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UK - Artist Maria Rud and projection specialist Ross Ashton took their innovative AniMotion concept to Durham Cathedral - a blend of digital art and live music that enveloped the stunning architecture - with a performance by virtuoso percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie, flautist David Heath and music producer and DJ Dolphin Boy.

Rud's live painting was mapped to the wall of the Cathedral Library which borders onto the cloisters - the first time that this part of the stunning Romanesque architecture had been utilised for a projected artwork. It was also the first time that the public had been able to walk on the cloisters grass.

Rud and Ashton collaborated with Durham Cathedral to produce the AniMotion work which comprised nine pieces of original music some especially written for this performance and nine painted AniMotion sequences.

Rud's projected canvas measured 16 metres wi

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Chile - Viña del Mar, Chile-based Audiopro has invested in a Meyer Sound Lyon linear sound reinforcement system. According to Jorge Diez, owner of Audiopro, the purchase will extend his company's rapid growth in Chile's thriving concert and event production market.

"I have been using Meyer Sound loudspeakers since 1997, and they have been the foundation of my business," says Diez. "When I heard the Lyon demos in San Francisco, I knew immediately that I wanted this system. Its powerful, precise sound will appeal to a broad range of clients."

Introduced in January, Lyon incorporates the advanced technology of the Leo Family in a lighter and more compact package, extending the advantages of highly linear self-powered systems to a wider range of venues and applications.

The Audiopro order comprises 32 Lyon-M main line array loudspeakers, 16 Lyon-W wide-cover

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UK - On Sunday 13 April, the cream of the UK theatre industry gathered at London's Royal Opera House for the 2014 Olivier Awards. Sondheim's Merrily We Roll Along walked away with two of the illustrious prizes, recognition aided by the performance of the show's Sennheiser Digital 9000 series digital wireless system.

With sound design by the twice previously-nominated Gareth Owen, Merrily We Roll Along claimed more five star reviews than any other West End show in history. This was borne out at the Oliviers, with Gareth winning an award for Best Sound Design, while the show was also awarded the Best Musical Revival prize.

"Merrily was a really good test for the 9000 system because, with Sondheim, the trick is to make the show sound unamplified, but without losing the excitement. You tend to put so much effort into making a Sondheim musical sound natural that it's ea

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Europe - Creative Technology (CT) has made a number of changes to its European and Middle Eastern business structure in recent weeks.

These changes all form part of the Avesco Group's strategy to consolidate and redefine its operating businesses in response to the rapidly changing and developing market circumstances in the UK, Europe and around the world.

From 1 May all of Avesco's operations outside the UK will be united under the Creative Technology brand. Alongside this consolidation there are a number of significant management changes.

In Holland the JVR business will be merged with the existing CT Holland operation under managing director Jeroen Jongenelen. CT Holland, established in March 2011, has previously focused on major entertainment and sports projects, whilst sister company JVR have predominantly serviced the Corporate and TV markets. The merger of the two oper

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Russia - The Arena Moscow Club recently celebrated the 20th anniversary of the Russian Internet - and the first registered domain name - with an extravagant concert event featuring an array of famous musical groups and musicians, such as Lyapis Troubetzkoy, Vasya Oblomov, Smyslovye Galljucinacii, Bravo, and Samsara. The event also marked the first official live performance of Martin Professional's MAC Quantum Wash LED fixtures in the world. Russian rental company Laser-Kinetics provided the lighting system.

The lighting design featured 37 MAC Quantum Wash lights that were placed on the web of trusses to provide the main wash effect with wide, powerful and bright beams, and to create decorative effects throughout the show. Twelve of Martin's MAC Viper Profiles were also hung on the background and worked in tandem with 20 Martin MAC 700 fixtures that were placed on the top trusses

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UK - Award winning lighting designer Andy Bridge has utilised a range of Philips Vari-Lite luminaires, including VL3000Q Spot, VL3500Q Spot, and VL3500 Wash luminaires, to create his sumptuous lighting design for Italian classic La Boheme at London's Royal Albert Hall (RAH).

The show, which was staged in the round, presented some challenges in terms of lighting design.

"Working in the round at the RAH is a fantastic experience," says Bridge. "However, not only are you very near the action but in the gallery you are dealing with a long distance picture. My premise was to work on big bold strokes in all three directions with different colours, which gave the audience a guaranteed shape of cross light, backlight and front light."

Bridge mixed old with new to light the show, using VL2000 Wash and VL1000 T/S luminaires in addition to the VL3000Q Spots,

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Brazil - Over 500 Robe fixtures were in action for the stunning opening ceremony lightshow designed by Patrick Woodroffe to celebrate the official re-opening of the refurbished 56,000 capacity Estádio Beira-Rio (Riverside Stadium) in Porto Alegre, Brazil.

Woodroffe - who needs no introduction as a creator of internationally renowned lightshows - brought his vast experience of producing stadium events to Brazil where he collaborated closely with Sao Paulo based Lighting Designer Cesio Lima on the project.

The 531 Robe moving lights were specified and supplied by leading Brazilian rental company LPL.

The stadium - the second biggest in the south of Brazil, home to the Sport Club Internacional team and legendary in the history of Brazilian football - has undergone massive redevelopment at its picturesque location beside the River Guaiba to bring it in line to host key matches

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Poland - Clear-Com has announced that the Grand Theatre and National Opera in Warsaw, Poland, has extended its existing Clear-Com wired partyline intercom system with a FreeSpeak wireless system including two Basestations and 35 digital beltpacks. The new elements were supplied and installed by Profiaudio Ltd, Clearcom's authorized distributor in Poland.

The Grand Theatre and National Opera, built in 1833, is one of the largest theatres in the world. A Clear-Com partyline communication system had been installed in the theatre several years ago for the lighting team, but there was a requirement to enable the entire theatre staff to communicate throughout the venue, both inside and outside. Having considered other comms systems, the theatre's technical team decided instead to extend the existing Clear-Com installation with 35 additional beltpacks and two FreeSpeak Basestations.

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USA - Until recently, the 950-seat auditorium used by Wabash City High School and Middle School (Wabash, Indiana) featured a sound system that had not been updated in 30 years. That has all changed since a new RoomMatch sound system from Bose Professional Systems was installed there recently. Now, students, faculty and visitors to the schools can enjoy high-quality sound and increased intelligibility for everything from school band and theatrical performances to graduation and other ceremonies.

In the auditorium, Indiana-based AV systems integrator Circle City Audio installed a RoomMatch system composed of three RM9040 modules, two RM7020 modules and two RMS215 subwoofers, configured in a dual-hang arrangement at the front of the hall. These are powered by three Bose PowerMatch PM8500N amplifiers, with processing by a pair of Bose ControlSpace ESP-88 digital signal processors.

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UK - The anticipation that preluded the sixth PLASA Focus: Leeds delivered everything it promised, with two-days of packed show floors and seminar rooms. A total of 2107 visitors flooded into the Leeds' Royal Armouries, drawn by a showcase of professional sound, lighting, video, trussing and staging companies, plus an education programme that spanned the industry's expertise.

A mixture of quality, variety and enthusiasm combined to create the unmistakable atmosphere that the show has become renowned for. "We really enjoy PLASA Focus," says Michael Brooksbank, European General Manager, Chauvet Professional. "It's a small, intimate, networking show, it doesn't cost us a significant amount of money, which always helps, and we get instant returns."

Martin Professional's UK Sales Director, Mike Walker, adds: "It's an important show for us. The international

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