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The Netherlands - The well-known Sysdesk line of desk connection panels from German manufacturer Sommer Cable is getting bigger! These developments will be shown at ISE 2015 in Amsterdam at the Sommer booth (hall 7, booth D172).

New to the series are the retrofittable push-to-lift mechanism, the cable management tray for the Sysdesk09 & SysframeE50 desk connection panels plus the all new, cost-efficient Sysframe45 connection panels for the integration of Syswall45 clip-in modules, which contain all common connections of media engineering with an optimum spacing.

The push-to-lift mechanism can be retrofitted on all Ssydesk models delivered since 2012 and allows a very comfortable opening of the Sysdesk swivel unit. A simple push on the housing unlocks the interior part which will

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South Africa - Johannesburg based rental and production company Lucidity has just invested in its first Robe moving lights - with the purchase of six Pointes and six LEDWash 300s from Robe's Robin series. These were delivered by Robe's South African distributor DWR.

Lucidity - founded in 2000 by Paul Newman - also has a presence in Cape Town and Durban, and has built up a reputation for servicing a portfolio of high end corporate clients plus a selection of other premium live events.

Initially Lucidity's focus was on audio and AV, also acquiring rigging and trussing along the way. Although this was Paul's first major lighting purchase, his 25 years of experience which includes international touring and working in some of the country's busiest venues, he appreciates the value of buying quality.

The decision was prompted by increasingly paying for lighting cross rentals for va

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USA - Syncrolite has announced the appointment of Paul Rabinovitz of PMRi LLC as its director of product sales and marketing. In his new position, Rabinovitz is responsible for managing Syncrolite's new product sales and marketing on a worldwide basis. Using a combination of public relations, the web, traditional and social media outlets he will oversee marketing efforts in addition to being the main contact for the sale of new and used products.

"I feel like I am coming home," remarked Rabinovitz. "After spending so many years, first at Xenotech and then at Strong Entertainment lighting working with high-intensity Xenon lighting products I could not be more excited to join Syncrolite and continue that tradition. Clearly, Syncrolite is without a peer in this field and if you will pardon the pun the future looks bright."

"Paul brings with him a wealth o

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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 / Europe - Throughout his career, Lenny Kravitz has always insisted on accuracy in his guitar tone. "He works hard on getting everything just right, especially his guitar," says Alex Alvarez, Lenny's guitar tech of 23 years. "He's just insistent on his sound, which is why he never went wireless. Every time we would demo something, it would never meet his expectations."

But all that changed during production rehearsals for Kravitz's European tour in support of his latest album, Strut. After a demo of multiple high-end wireless systems arranged by Tour Supply, Lenny, Alex, and guitarist Craig Ross agreed that Shure Axient Wireless Management Network was the one system that could deliver his sonic requirements on stage.

"It started as a conversation with Lenny," Alex relates. "The subject of wireless guitar came up, and I told him there was

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UK - Star Events supplied the infrastructure for creative communications agency krow's spectacular Fiat 500x illusion at the Copper Box Arena in East London, which saw superstar magician Dynamo turn a 3D blueprint of the new car into the physical vehicle with the "Power of X".

The Star Events team worked to a brief from production company Lodestar. It required a complex rigging element throughout the venue and over 1,100sq.m of multi-level terracing, ramps and stairways to form the stage, an auditorium for 1,000 people, VIP and technical areas.

The whole set up was constructed on a sub-floor, laid not only to protect the Olympic standard sports surface, but to spread the significant loads generated by the event production, which included a small crane, squeezed into the venue to assist with the build.

Gavin Scott, Star Events' project manager, said, "Establish

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Croatia - The Arcus Cafè and Night Bar have a long and enviable reputation as one of Čakovec's premier hot spots for entertainment. Situated in northern Croatia, the town and its surrounding area serve a population of nearly 45,000. The club itself has been open since 1998 and has recently undergone a thorough refit. The owner, Mr Ivan Steficar, knew he wanted a top quality sound system to maintain and grow the level of customer satisfaction; so he turned to Davor Files from ELTEL, the sales partner for d&b audiotechnik's Croatian distributor, Sunflower.

Files explains the rationale behind the choice of loudspeaker, "The Arcus Cafè is quite an intimate space; in total no more than 90sq.m. The performance space for the DJ is in the centre of the room so we opted to incorporate the subs into the plinth itself. The choice there was for 18S-SUBs from the d&b xS-Series. T

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The Netherlands - The recently-launched System 10 PRO wireless system from Audio-Technica has been confirmed as the centrepiece of the company's showing at ISE 2015, with the new system receiving its European debut at the show. Also of key importance will be Audio-Technica's Dante-equipped network audio line-up - the ATND971 condenser boundary microphone and ATND8677 microphone desk stand.

Suitable for fixed-installations, House-of-Worship and education applications, the new rackmount-able System 10 PRO's half rack chassis can house one or two receiver units. These can be operated either within the chassis or removed, mounted remotely and connected via Ethernet cable - the design offers real flexibility in terms of installation and use, without the expense of adding an antenna distributor and corresponding cables.

Receivers can be placed up to 300ft away - even in separate roo

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France - Founded in 1368, the Bibliothèque nationale de France (National Library of France, or BnF) is one of the country's highest profile institutions, holding copies of virtually everything published in France. Nowadays one of largest and most modern libraries in the world, a Yamaha QL5 digital mixing console has been entrusted with supporting the BnF's programme of cultural events.

The library currently holds around 14m books and printed documents, manuscripts, prints, photographs, maps, plans, scores and many other artefacts. As well as acting as a hub for researchers, it also hosts exhibitions and cultural events in various spaces. A compact, easy to move mixing console was needed for these events, but the Yamaha QL5 also delivered much more.

Installed by Coulommiers-based MDS Audio, besides its size and portability, another key factor in choosing the QL5 was its combin

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USA - American rock favourite Phish recently played a string of dates at Miami's American Airlines Arena to ring in the New Year. The prolific band wanted to make a statement for the shows that tied in with their iconic imagery.

Enter DMDS7UDIOS, brought in to projection map the building's huge curved exterior with custom content using Ai and its new headline feature, Autoblend. The feature has been lauded by DMD principal Scott Chmielewski as "unbelievable" for its speed and accuracy in making a perfect blend on a difficult surface that looked to threaten the success of the project.

DMD are the first company to have been allowed to projection map on the AA Arena, and as Scott Chmielewski explains, "The arena is a complex building with very unusual throw distances and angles."

In order to accomplish the task, DMD used eight 40k Barco projectors to create

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South Africa - Lighting designer Francois van der Merwe will present Vectorworks Training during March at DWR Distribution, Johannesburg. There are four different courses to choose from, all of which will include training notes and lunch.

A Basic One Day Training course takes place on 9 March. Subjects include Basic Fundamentals, Layouts, Pallets, Basic Tools, Classts & Layers.

The Intermediate Two Day Training will be hosted on 10-11 March. Topics include Preferences, Workspace, Basic Spotlight, Basic Renderworks and Intermediate Tools. The cost is R1 500.00 incl. VAT.

The Advanced Two Day Training will be held on 12-13 March. Subjects include Working Planes, Advanced Modelling and Advanced Renderworks.

Alternatively, delegates may prefer attending all of the above-mentioned dates for Full Vectorworks Training Week held from 9-13 March.

(Jim Evans)

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USA - GLP could hardly have picked a more auspicious event than the Halftime Show at Super Bowl XLIX in Glendale, Arizona for its new X4 Bar 20 LED batten to make a spectacular North American debut.

For the duration of the 12-minute segment, at which Katy Perry headlined, experienced LD Bob Barnhart (of Full Flood) used 12 of the new X4 Bar 20, as well as 16 of another recently introduced fixture, GLP's large format impression X4 XL.

For Barnhart, who has used various generations of the impression at other high profile events over the years, this was his 17th outing at the Super Bowl Halftime Show.

GLP US's president Mark Ravenhill recalls his early conversations with the LD when he introduced the new X4 Bar 20, GLP's new zooming and tilting batten unit. "Bob was looking for something new for the upstage portion of one of the stages - a low profile fixture that would ad

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South Africa - Avolites Titan One Training will be hosted at DWR Distribution, Johannesburg, on 24 February 2015. Gareth Chambers will present the course.

The Titan One has proved to be a cost effective solution for lighting applications. It offers fast and intuitive control of intelligent lighting, dimmers and LED effects from one on screen console.

"The Titan One is a small but powerful lighting solution," commented Nick Britz from DWR. "Gareth Chambers hosts regular training sessions which are well received by the industry. He has a great knowledge on lighting and control, having formally worked in the rental market. He is also very passionate about sharing this knowledge."

"Once delegates have a better understaind of how the software works, it helps build confidence when running shows," added Britz.

Delegates are requested to provide lapto

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World - Engineering and automation specialists Wicreations is supplying flying and rigging solutions to the Ice Age Live - A Mammoth Adventuretour produced by Stage Entertainment Touring Productions, which continues to enthral audiences worldwide now on its latest third leg of an extensive touring schedule that started in 2012 and is currently scheduled until 2017.

The show, directed by Guy Caron and Michael Curry, combines ice skating, aerial arts, puppetry and film, offering a new story based on the first Ice Age film.

WIcreations has a long standing working relationship with Amsterdam based Stage Entertainment, and has been involved with various specialist rigging aspects of the Ice Age Live project from the start.

For this phase of the tour, the WIcreations team - project managed by Hans Willems - redesigned a ground support and 42m tracking system for the large upstage

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UK - Philips Entertainment has been announced as the main sponsor of The Fresnel Lecture - a special free event organised by the Society of Light and Lighting (SLL) that will take place on Tuesday 10 March at the Royal Institution of Great Britain.

The talk is to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Augustine Fresnel's Wave Theory of Light, which also coincides with UNESCO's International Year of Light 2015. Fresnel's findings are the basis for the lecture, which will discuss: '200 years of Fresnel: Why everything we light and look at today depends on what he said' and will be presented by Peter Phillipson.

"I am delighted that the Society of Light and Lighting Fresnel Lecture is being sponsored by Philips, alongside the International Association of Lighting Designers," says Phillipson. "Thanks to their support it means that 200 years of Fresnel's wave theory wi

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The Netherlands - Kramer Electronics has announced the release of the VP-772 8-input 4K Dual Scaler with seamless video switching and special effect transitions. The company will be showcasing VP-772 at ISE 2015 in Amsterdam as a part of Kramer's pro AV solutions for live events.

With Kramer's scaling technology, the VP-772 is designed for projection and display systems at live events, churches, auditoriums, conference rooms, boardrooms, hotels, and production studios.

VP-772 scales and processes video and audio inputs and outputs to independent preview and programme DVI-I outputs (VGA, DVI-D and HDMI) and two balanced stereo audio outputs. The dual scaler also features DVI-U inputs (with analog, DVI and HDMI support) and stereo-balanced audio signals. The preview output, featuring an on-screen display menu, lets you view how the program output will look on the live display.

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The Netherlands - TC Group's install, tour and residential brands - Tannoy, Lab.gruppen and Lake - will once again be bringing their extensive range of install and performance audio products to ISE 2015 this month, with Tannoy leading the charge with a host of new product offerings.

Making their debut will be two additions to Tannoy's award-winning digital beam steering column array system. Tannoy has developed the new QFlex Life Safety (LS) models as a cost effective solution for critical, life safety applications, a solution that balances complex power consumption needs with the high performance and intelligibility that is the core of the proven QFlex range.

The new models have an optimised driver placement and improved current draw, making them suitable for applications where emergency voice alarms or communications may be required. The QFlex LS will also herald an integrat

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USA - Lighting designer Betsy Adams, and her husband, theatre consultant Bob Murphy, are the newest members of the Ghostlight Society, the Behind the Scenes charity's legacy giving program. Betsy and Bob have made provisions to remember Behind the Scenes in their wills, thus ensuring their colleagues and the next generation of entertainment technology professionals will receive assistance if they become ill or injured.

Betsy and Bob commented on their reasons for joining the Ghostlight society: "We really believe in Behind the Scenes and wanted to do what we could to make sure the program thrives long into the future."

All members of the Ghostlight Society receive a beautiful sterling silver pin designed and handcrafted by award-winning, New York jewellery designer Susan Barth. Each pin is individually numbered.

There are several ways you may become a member of the

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UK - London-based audio consulting firm, RH Consulting, has completed its second annual count of networked audio products and released the full data as an iOS app called Networked Audio Data. Building on the research completed last year there are now over 700 networked audio products available. This does not include the 100 or so interface cards that simply enable products to be networked.

"We think that part of the increase in devices we have recorded is due us being more diligent with the research, but we have also noted a significant increase in product availability with very many product launches over the past year," remarked consultant Roland Hemming. "We included products that use custom protocols as well as looking at those that are AES67 compliant. For AVB we counted all AVnu members' products separately from those who use the underlying AVB technology for

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The Netherlands - The Royal Concertgebouw is expanding its Meyer Sound inventory by adding two Meyer Sound CAL 96 column array loudspeakers in the Main Hall (Grote Zaal). Amsterdam's architecturally resplendent and acoustically magnificent concert venue, The Concertgebouw now joins two other world-renowned orchestral venues, Vienna's Musikverein and Konzerthaus Berlin, both of which have installed Meyer Sound CAL systems within the last year.

"Here at The Concertgebouw we have been planning for some time to install a state-of-the-art permanent system for speech reinforcement," states Wouter van Poppel, head of technical services at the venue. "After listening to CAL demonstrations here on site and at the Musikverein in Vienna, we were extremely impressed with the system's clarity, speech intelligibility, and configuration flexibility."

The new Meyer Sound s

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UK - Collecting together his experiences working with technology as a programmer, writing about old technology in his Classic Gear column for LSi, and trying to save some of that technology with the Backstage Heritage Collection, Rob Halliday will be talking about the history of computers in entertainment lighting at the National Museum of Computing in Bletchley, near Milton Keynes on Thursday 12 March. Bletchley Park is perhaps most famous for hosting the World War 2 code-breakers. The National Museum of Computing houses a collection of historic computing equipment; perhaps in time it might provide a home to some of the Backstage Heritage Collection's historic memory lighting controls! Rob's talk is one of the museum's regular series that covers everything from the history of visual effects at the BBC to ultra-high resolution digital photography. He'll be focussing mainly on the

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USA - Following its successful run on Broadway, Rodgers+Hammerstein's Cinderella has also taken to the road, launching a new production that is now touring the USA.

To refine the lighting rig to the practicalities of touring, budgets and equipment availability, lighting designer Kenneth Posner and associate lighting designer John Viesta made some changes to the New York design for the road, switching the side ladder moving lights from Martin MAC 2000s to Vari-Lite VL3500s and replacing the overhead VL2500 Wash lights with LED par cans.

As ever with changes like this, the lighting data in the console show file no longer produced the correct lighting on stage, since each fixture type responds differently to the same DMX data. In this situation what is needed is clear, precise, accurate information about what the lights did in each preset focus and in each cue in the origi

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