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USA - A small spec on the map in the western part of America's 46th most populous state is hardly the type of place where one would expect to encounter a traffic jam. However, anyone who journeys to little Sturgis, South Dakota (population 6,900) during the first week of August will find that every street has been turned into a virtual parking lot, not of cars, but of motorcycles.

From 3-9 August this year, Sturgis was transformed into America's eleventh biggest city, ahead of such stalwarts as San Francisco and Boston, as an estimated 1m bikers and friends descended on the town for the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. At the centre of it all was a Sturgis landmark, The Knuckle Saloon, decked out for the occasion with a lightshow that featured close to 40 fixtures from Chauvet Profession

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USA - A long-established major player in the cable TV, internet and phone services sectors in the US, Comcast recently decided to create a new showcase store in Chicago. To ensure that the audio processing and distribution for the multi-zone outlet was of the highest possible quality, Comcast enlisted the services of New Jersey-based design and integration firm Diversified Media Group.

Among the priorities for the system design was to enable flexible signal processing and distribution throughout the Comcast store, which incorporates three 'studio' spaces devised to showcase Comcast services including cable TV and OTT (over-the-top) content. "The client was very specific about being able to switch sources quickly and easily, and as a long-time Symetrix user we were aware that their DSPs could provide the basis of a sufficiently robust system," says DMG senior systems en

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Austria / UK - The high-performance AV Stumpfl SC Master from Austria's AV Stumpfl acts as a central control system inside 4D theatres delivered to clients worldwide by Simworx.

"We are using SC Master to control show effects and ride functions such as seat drops, air blasts, water blasts and special effects, many of which run simultaneously and involve live audience interaction. SC Master runs independently of the system, so doesn't rely on software. It is purely engineered, bullet proof in design, and is robust," explains Andy Bates, project delivery manager at Simworx.

Simworx deployed SC Master Controller at Angry Birds The 4D Experience, the centrepiece of a new, 4,000sq.m Angry Birds Zone at Thorpe Park, UK. Owned and operated by Merlin Entertainments, the experience captures the fun of and humour of one of the world's most iconic games. The family frien

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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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China - The first Infinity Summer Festival took place on 8 August in Shanghai, being the first interactive carnival themed music festival there. The festival was EDM oriented, with a lot of house and trance music.

The laser show was a central visual element of the event, so the organizers decided to go for high end laser gear from Swiss and German manufacturers. Ten SwissLas PM-10.000RGB lasers as well as six RTI PIKO RGB 18 were used to make this festival more than spectacular.

This whole laser setup had an overall laser power of more than 200W laser power and worked well with the video walls and conventional lighting, as the power was more than sufficient to cover the whole festival area.

Featured artists included Roger Shah, Dzeko & Torres, Alvaro, Genix and Ben Nicky.

(Jim Evans)

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USA - Production Resource Group (PRG), the world's leading provider of entertainment and event technology solutions, today announced it will extend its branding in Germany and the UK to integrate the brand of the recently acquired XL Video Group. The integrated companies will be known as PRG XL Video for a transition period while the operations are being merged.

PRG will continue to use its brand name in all other countries across Europe and North America. XL Video teams in those territories will be immediately transitioned into the PRG family.

"Part of our decision to acquire XL Video was the premier value of its brand in many of our markets," said Jeremiah J. Harris, PRG's Chairman and CEO. "We recognize that the XL Video name and logo are synonymous with outstanding quality, customer service, and technical expertise in some of our territories, equal to that o

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Canada - Toronto-based contemporary dance company, Ballet Creole, marked its 25th anniversary with many events and performances, including their annual spring season at Harbourfront Centre's Fleck Dance Theatre. A.C.T Lighting, Inc., the exclusive distributor of Clay Paky fixtures in North America, helped lighting designer Brad Trenaman obtain a complement of Alpha Spot QWO 800s, which were not yet available from local rental houses. Trenaman also deployed Clay Paky A.leda Wash K10 and K20 fixtures during the season.

Ballet Creole's spring season featured world premieres of Agua Como Vida, Myth of Atlantis and Reflekson. It also included a remount of the company's very first piece, Fete.

"The theme for this year's season was water," says Trenaman, who has been with the company for just over half of its 25 years. "So I wanted a fixture

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Israel - High profile Israeli rental company KolOr Eli - based in Ceasaria and owned by Linda and Eli Avitan - are delighted with their investment in Robe BMFL Spots, 14 of which were supplied by Robe's Israeli distributor, Danor Theatre & Studio Systems.

The BMFLs were the company's first Robe purchase. However via Danor Rental, they have regularly used different Robe products over the last two years, all of which helped in making the decision to choose BMFLs when seeking a powerful and versatile multi-purpose light source.

KolOr Eli was founded as a lighting and sound specialist in 1988 by Linda and Eli and with business booming, a few years later became a limited company. By this time they had a well-established client base and were looking after the technical requirements of several major artists including vocalist Shlomi Shabat, band Caveret and singer Gidi Gov.

"W

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Asia - New dates and locations have been announced for Nexo's ETC training seminars, which are open to all interested engineers, system integrators and contractors. The confirmed dates are: Singapore 7-8 October; Japan 26-27 October and Vietnam 29-30 October.

ETC 2-day seminars progress from theoretical classes in general acoustics, line array theory and the case for point-source systems, to practical hands-on training with Nexo's different line arrays. Designed to help engineers and technicians achieve optimum performance from Nexo systems, the programme includes an in-depth look at networking and control software.

Anyone who would like to attend can contact their national Nexo distributor, or email training@nexo.fr for a full agenda and location details.

(Jim Evans)

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UK - Colour Sound Experiment has provided lighting kit to LD Alan King for his illumination of the castle at the antithetical theme park wonderland of Dismaland, a temporary, pop-up art intervention that turns the safety of simulacrum on its head - at the site of Tropicana, a derelict seafront lido in Weston Super Mare, UK . The experience is curated by graffiti artist and provocateur, Banksy.

The mangled, rusting, mean, grimy steelwork of the castle is a sinister visual centrepiece for the dystopian experiment, and has been constructed by art collective Block 9, known for their detailed, raw, edgy urban environments created at festivals and music events.

Alan regularly lights Block 9's scenic spaces, so they invited him to add some special hard treatment to their version of the sacred saccharinity of Anaheim's Sleeping Beauty Castle.

In keeping with the mean overall spirit

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Germany - The Domicil jazz club in Dortmund is regularly listed in the top 100 jazz venues in the world by New York jazz magazine, Download. It recently hosted two sold-out evenings to experience a live CD recording and video production for two young jazz bands: the six-piece instrumentalists, Filou who describe their music as a fusion between funk, jazz and hiphop, and the groovy string trio, Duck Tape Ticket whose trademark is jazz improvisation.

Producer Julian David took the very deliberate decision to ditch the PA in favour of wireless headphones in order to provide a completely immersive experience for the audience as well as the best possible conditions for audio capture and recording. The event was supported by DirectOut who provided much of the equipment to make the event possible.

In total, DirectOut supplied two Andiamo.MC microphone amplifiers, five B

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South Africa - Established in 2010 by Brian Chigwendere, rental company Puredeal is making waves in the entertainment industry and have taken ownership of a new Avolites Tiger Touch II to keep up with demand.

"We started off with an Avolites Titan One," says Chigwendere. He started the company after working at Gearhouse South Africa for eight years. "When I left I had a month's salary and my garage from which I operated," he says.

Hard work and good service has seen Puredeal grow in reputation and earlier this year saw Kgomotso Malbye join the team. "We were the first black rental company to do work at Vodaworld," commented Kgomotso Malbye.

The Avolites Tiger Touch II was purchased from Schalk Botha at DWR Distribution.

(Jim Evans)

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UK - Kent-based production company, Avenue Services, was appointed by The Salvation Army as one of the two production companies to provide technical production for its 150th International Anniversary celebrations in London's O2 Arena, selecting Allen & Heath mixers for all the venues that they covered.

Entitled Boundless 2015, the five-day event was staged across all of the O2's venues and attracted 20,000 visitors from around the world. Avenue Services provided full technical production for three of the venues and some support for the main arena too. Over a dozen different musical and dance groups took part in 18 performances across four venues - the main O2 arena, the Cineworld Sky Super Screen, Cineworld Screen 2, and Building 6.

"We provided a site wide implementation of Allen & Heath digital and analogue mixers for simple ease of use, quick turnarounds and fle

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UK - KV2 Audio returns to this weekend's PRO and BPM exhibitions with the launch of the Active VHD 4.21 ultra-low frequency subwoofer.

The VHD 4.21 is the self-powered evolution of the successful VHD 2.21 2x21" subwoofer. Housing two newly developed 21" Woofers and utilising new amplification technology, the VHD 4.21 Active can power an additional Passive VHD 4.21 and deliver 14,000 Watts of peak power whilst being plugged in to a standard 13A wall socket.

People attending the show will have the opportunity to hear the new VHD 4.21 in action as part of a complete VHD 2.0 System within the PRO Show Audio Demo Space.

(Jim Evans)

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Denmark - Martin Professional reports that the JEM ZR45 is now shipping. The JEM ZR45 is a high-end fog machine designed to deliver "superior and uninterrupted performance in demanding professional applications". With its enhanced and powerful 2,000 W heat exchanger, the JEM ZR45 produces an exceptional peak output suitable for major venues and stages in both install and rental markets.

The rugged yet weight-optimized JEM ZR45 also features variable output control for more subtle effects and is fully up-to-date with digital remote DMX and RDM.

The entire JEM ZR range is compatible with a wide range of JEM Pro fog fluids. As machines designed and built to last, the JEM ZRs will continue to perform with great output and low consumption.

"We have put a lot of effort into the new JEM ZR series with the goal of being able to quickly deliver a full family of profess

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UK - Elation Professional's new Emotion moving head digital luminaire will have its European debut October 4-6 at the PLASA show in London where a number of other top innovations will also be on display at Elation Stand A40, including the world premiere of the newest Satura Series luminaire, the Satura Profile.

The Emotion attracted a lot of attention at the InfoComm show in North America in June with its next generation technology and accessible price tag and now it's European lighting professionals' turn to get a closer look at the compact yet powerful moving head digital luminaire. Another highlight will be the first showing worldwide of the Satura Profile, a powerful new LED-based color-changing moving head with 440W LED engine, framing system, zoom and more.

Also showing at the ExCel exhibition centre will be Elation's powerful Platinum FLX hybrid moving head, a multi-fun

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UK - The London Studios on the South Bank are well known for hosting light entertainment and comedy shows. However, LD Martin Kempton was faced with a rather different challenge in studio 1 recently - a lecture on world poverty by Swedish statistician Professor Hans Rosling.

Despite sounding very dry, this was in fact surprisingly upbeat and a thoroughly entertaining presentation for BBC2 using a virtual reality graphics system called Musion. This state-of-the-art equipment enables the presenter to appear to be surrounded by objects, graphs, numbers and other images - all in a visually stunning way.

The LD had to avoid light falling on certain areas, whilst allowing the presenter the freedom to move almost anywhere. "Light levels were lower than normal but the production asked that the studio should not look dark on camera."

Martin requested that some set elements

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UK - Arcadia's giant fire-breathing spider landed in the Queen's Square in Bristol and unleashed the new Metamorphosis show - compete with three mini-spiders, Lords of Lightening, an eye-popping mixed-media and visual extravaganza with high energy performer and DJ line up for two nights - enjoyed by over 20,000 people.

Working closely with Arcadia's technical production manager Tim Smith, Central Presentations Ltd (CPL) supplied projection equipment and crew.

The CPL team was led by Richard Burrow, who commented, "We are all passionate about our part in bringing the Arcadia concept to life, and it was hugely exciting and challenging to work in a completely different environment from a green-field site."

The juxtaposition of the 50 tonne spider, created from recycled industrial waste and the brainchild of Pip Rush and Bert Cole, and the historical - much of i

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UK - The South West Four Festival (SW4) on Clapham Common's south side is the latest in a long line of events that has called on the expertise of Capital Sound and the advanced controllability of its flagship Martin Audio MLA loudspeaker array. This time it was needed to contain the high octane energy delivered by a host of world famous DJs and dance music specialists, on a site closely surrounded by residential buildings.

Promoter Andrew Mattle of Lock N Load Events had called in the London based production company and its MLA last year for main stage only, initially having being impressed with the production they had delivered with Martin Audio for one of his promotions at Alexandra Palace back in 2011. As a result, this year the use of MLA and MLA Compact was extended to other stages.

Recalling the background, Capital's senior project manager, Martin Connolly, said, "T

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UK - Avolites' consoles and servers controlled diverse rigs on 12 major stages and further smaller performance areas at this year's eclectic Secret Garden Party festival.

More than 20,000 revellers travelled to Mill Hill Field in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire to experience the atmosphere and hear headliners including Public Service Broadcasting, Roots Manuva and Kate Tempest.

London-based Colour Sound Experiment supplied a 22-strong team of LDs and operators to man numerous Avolites Sapphire Touch, Quartz, Tiger Touch II with Wing and Expert Pro consoles. Jonathan Ricketts was head of lighting for the festival, working directly with festival producer, The Dark Horses.

On the Great Stage, Frankie McDade and Chris Brown manned an Avolites Sapphire Touch, with a Quartz running as backup. An ART2000 touring rack and Power Cube powered the rig, which included Robe MMX Spots and 600

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UK - After the success of their previous UK dates, Penguin Media Solutions are providing another two day UK training course in association with AFMG to introduce professional users to SysTune, this time in Blackpool.

SysTune is the real-time audio analysis software by AFMG. It was developed especially for live sound applications and has been setting the standard for professional real-time measurement and display of impulse responses, transfer functions and other data. Today, SysTune is widely accepted not only in pro audio live sound but also by installed sound professionals as well as in the industry.

The course will be headed by veteran SysTune user and AFMG Instructor Pasi Kokkonen. Pasi will cover such topics as measurement fundamentals, SysTune setup, multi-channel measurement, virtual EQ, system alignment, phase and group delay.

The course will take place on Tuesday 22

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USA - The 13,000 people who came to Gunstock Mountain Resort every day for three days to participate in the SoulFest Christian music festival could count on seeing a lot of good things, like inspiring speeches and great performances by bands such as Third Day, Tenth Avenue North and For King and Country. Another thing that those who attended this popular event were certain to see was a differently configured video wall on stage every day.

At the end of each day's performance the festival's video wall, which was made of PVP X6IP LED panels from Chauvet Professional, was taken down, reassembled and repositioned to give the stage a fresh new look that fit the needs of the next day's headliner band. "It's a good thing the panels are so easy to rig, because we had to take them down and put them back up on a daily basis," said Tim Messina, owner of Events United, which suppl

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