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USA - At the DanceStar USA Awards post-show party in one of Miami's top club, the Mynt Lounge. Lord Touissant, president of the Florida-based sound company Infinity Audio, which was charged with responsibility for sound at the event, said: "With the Cobra, I feel that Dynacord has come to market with a mobile system solution that makes me a hero. Not only does the Cobra sound great - I mean really great - it's easy to set-up and virtually idiot proof. There's really no way to set the system up wrong, and given the stresses in this type of environment, that's something I've come to count on. It's a great club system, inside or out, and it saves a lot of time and money in set-up - it's really that fast."

The COBRA has become a real hit these days in Florida. Touissant estimates that in the course of the Winter Music Conference (6 - 10 March, 2004) something like ten syst

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UK - Harman Pro UK, a subsidiary of Harman International Industries, will exhibit at ABTT for the first time, reflecting the growing importance of the theatre market for Harman brands.

Harman Pro UK is the UK and Ireland's exclusive distributor for JBL, AKG and dbx products, and offer full technical and service support along with acoustic design assistance to its approved dealer and installer network.

The following JBL products will be shown: JBL VerTec Line Array speakers, JBL Control Contractor Speaker and from AKG the WMS4000 wireless microphones, the installed discreet microphones and the Performance microphones.

From dbx the Zone Pro 640 and the Dbx 260 DriveRack speaker management solutions. Harman Pro UK staff will be on hand to assist with all visitors enquiries on stand 26 in the Lindley Hall.

(Sarah Rushton-Read)

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Italy - A location sound recordist with a passionate, audiophile approach to his craft, Maurizio Argentieri, found the audio interface of his dreams two years ago when he read about Metric Halo's Mobile I/O 2882+DSP on the Internet. An audio engineer in the Italian film industry for over 15 years, the Rome native's recent English language work can be heard in Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ as well as Mike Barker's upcoming A Good Woman and Michael Apted's much anticipated HBO series, Rome.

Argentieri uses Metric Halo's MIO 2882+DSP and SpectraFoo metering software with MOTU's Digital Performer as the host application on his Powerbook G4. He commented: "I chose the Metric Halo interface because it was the only one to use Firewire bus power. In my application this is a very important characteristic, because we do not always have electrical power.

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UK - Many of this summer's largest outdoor music events the UK has to offer, including Glastonbury, V and Reading will feature a rack of Focusrite outboard on the mix tower of the main stages. Numerous Platinum Compounders will be used for compression and gating whilst Focusrite's latest offering, the ISA 430 MKII Producer Pack is primed for each and every lead vocal.

Currently, F.O.H. engineers for a variety of acts, such as Moby, Pink, Jools Holland and Pavarotti, all insist on Focusrite channel strips for signal processing throughout their live work. A fine example is Tori Amos, who is permanently accompanied by a full rack of Red Range processors at every concert. However, such an immense rack of Red Range processors is rarely an option for the average live engineer, with many having to settle for onboard processing alone. Focusrite will be loaning sixteen Compounders (1U du

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China - Being the first, independent school specializing in sports to be built under the auspices of the Ministry of Community Development and Sports, the Singapore Sports School aims to cater to student athletes who want to excel both in sports and studies. The seven-hectare school is a co-educational and residential boarding school that offers top-class facilities, training and full sports science support.

AUP Consultants were appointed to design the new sound reinforcement needed for the 700-seater indoor auditorium and Electronics & Engineering Pte Ltd (E&E Pte Ltd) was awarded the tender to install the system based on a design-build specification. Aside from the general use of the facility for indoor games such as basketball and badminton, the hall is also used for musical performance as it features a large theatrical stage with proscenium, curtains and lighting. A grandsta

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USA - Though as with all of these awards ceremonies, the voting is supposed to be completely impartial and independent from category to category, there is a sense that the technical Tony Awards, presented on 6 June at the Radio City Music Hall in New York, went to some productions that had perhaps done less well than expected in the show awards.

In particular, the spectacular musical Wicked, an alternative take on The Wizard of Oz story, was generally considered the favourite in the Best Musical category. Instead that award, and also the awards for Best Book of a Musical and Best Original Score, went to Avenue Q, the hilarious show perhaps best described as Friends meets Sesame Street, complete with human and puppet stars. Only the humans were nominated in the performance categories, though there they were beaten by Idina Menzel from Wicked<

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USA - Roadcases, the company established to chronicle the history of road exploits through the eyes of backstage touring personnel, has joined with TV documentary experts, Incue Productions. Incue is a Los Angeles-based production company specializing in HBO First Looks, behind the scene making of specials, and was created by brothers Scott and Dave McVeigh.

Recent credits include the 25th Anniversary Special Edition of Arnold Schwarzenegger's Pumping Iron, American Pie Revealed and a behind the scenes look into NYPD Blue, where Scott and Dave were granted phenomenal access to the show's set and actors.

Incue had already been looking to develop their own concept about life on the road until they heard about Roadcases from their other brother Greg McVeigh, VP of operations at Meyer Sound. "Greg was instrumental with the introduction of Roadcase

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Japan - Allen & Heath has appointed a new distributor in Japan for its award winning range of Xone DJ and club mixers. Tokyo-based High Resolution Co. Ltd has been established since March 2001, dealing with all major MI chain and DJ stores across the country.

"We have been distributing Ableton Live for three years now and are very excited about being the distributor for the A&H Xone series. We strongly feel Xone - especially the new Xone:92 - and Ableton Live are the perfect combination for electro DJ performance, which is growing fast in this country," comments High Resolution's MD, Tatsuya Nishikawa.

Bob Goleniowski, Allen & Heath's Sales Director added: "Allen & Heath is very pleased with the appointment of High Resolution as the new Japanese representative for the Xone Series. We wanted to join forces with a distributor that caters for high-tech performance

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UK - Plasmascreen Co provided its state of the art 84" plasma screen to 2Ci Sound to Light for the Homelands 'Strongbow Rooms', allowing dynamic visuals and branding to accompany the varied types of music.

The 2004 Homelands festival attracted tens of thousands of dance fans to enjoy a mix of live DJs and bands. This year they introduced the 'Strongbow Rooms' as the eighth performance arena, which hosted a diverse range of DJs including Jon Carter and MTV's comical and entertaining Cuban Brothers.

Strongbow maximized its branding on site, where enormous tents are the norm, by creating a club atmosphere and venue. Rather than large dark tents and grass for the floor, Strongbow created a higher quality experience for its visitors. Their marquee included its own DJ listing, outdoor terrace, bar and seated area, with wooden floors throughout, and it proved very popular with t

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UK - An imaginative use of LED lighting from the portfolio of Lighting Effects Distribution, has created a striking bar back display in the upgraded Loaf at Manchester's Deansgate Lock.

The former halogen colour-changers had fallen into disuse after problems with overheating, and the venue's owners, Mitchells & Butler asked Liverpool-based installers, Orritt Electronics, to provide a new look for the venue. LED technology provided the obvious solution, with its long lamp life, minimal maintenance, low heat emission and low power consumption. Orritt's redesign includes 18 Mood Light panels (split into two groups of 3 x 3 behind the bar, and running off the slowest setting). These are complemented by six Thomas PixelPar 87's and 12 Octopod 90 heads (divided into four groups). All were supplied by L.E.D. Ltd to create focal points and drama.

The Mood Light panels were deemed part

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UK - Birmingham-based SSE Hire has carried out an installation at the Oakengates Theatre, Telford, upgrading the equipment it supplied six or seven years ago with a Nexo GEO-S tangent array system.

The new PA will service the 600-capacity, multipurpose (and reconfigurable) venue, in which the bleacher seating folds back to allow it to operate as a dancefloor. The set-up comprises five S-805's and a single S-830 enclosure each side of the proscenium arch, with four groundstacked CD12 cardioid subs positioned under the hangs.

The GEO S-8 Series speakers are processed with the Nexo NX241 controller - which includes GEO settings - and powered by three Camco Vortex 4 (2 x 920W/8 ohms) amplifiers. The original speakers have been redeployed as stage monitors. The new Nexo/Camco combination was part of a full audio integration, including playback, processing, mixing desk, and radio mi

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USA - When Ford Motor Company revealed its 2005 Mustang at Ford Division's Spring Dealer Meeting in Las Vegas during the week of 26 April, a herd of Mustang horses galloped around the audience on giant video screens. PRG helped immerse the audience in the experience by using the TiMax system to synchronize the movement of sound with the images. The result was a wild rush of excitement befitting the car's namesake!

PRG helped the audience experience another rush of excitement as Ford's new super car, the Ford GT, was revealed. After providing dramatic audio support for the car's entrance onto the stage, PRG used speakers under the seating area to shake the audience as the Ford GT's engine was "revved".

Other support provided by PRG for the event included supplemental lighting and full sound reinforcement for the event's receptions, speaker presentations, and Q&A sess

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UK - TV Director Mike Christie - who's previous hits include the popular Jump London - approached XL Video to supply projection and screens for Channel Four's recent, highly acclaimed, Body Talk documentary.

The initial two-part series was written and presented by psychologist Peter Collett, revealing the subconscious power of 'tells' - the secret language and actions that reveal what people are really thinking! (the term 'tells' was originally appropriated by the gambling community).

Body Talk required a way of putting Collett and the archive footage being analysed - including politicians like Bush, Clinton, Blair, Brown and famous couples like Princess Diana and Charles, et al - together in the same shots. He didn't want to go the traditional 'talking heads' route, and instead came up with the idea of using a series of giant projection screens with Colle

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Romania - The Sala Palatului in Bucharest has a capacity of around 3,000 seats and a history that includes some of the most illustrious names in 20th century music. Architecturally the Sala Palatului harks back to the days of Communism, but the managers of Romania's largest concert hall are now looking only to the future. To that end they have chosen a COBRA-4 line array from Dynacord. Gerom International - supported by EVI Audio partners HSA Audio S.R.C. - was responsible for the installation with the acoustic upgrade including the following components: two hangs consisting of six Dynacord COBRA-4 top/far units per side, two X 4 Dynacord COBRA PWH subs per side, eight Dynacord MX12 front fills, 10 x Dynacord L2400 power amps, three Dynacord DSP-244 processors, two Dynacord AM-12 monitors, two Dynacord V12-60P central clusters plus a variety of Electro-Voice microphones

The firs

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USA - The Philadelphia Orchestra has chosen to install an Audient ASP8024 analog console in its new home in Verizon Hall. The 36-input, in-line recording desk is the centrepiece of the audio control room at the 2,547-seat concert hall, which was designed specifically for the orchestra and is located within the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, the internationally acclaimed performing arts complex in the heart of Philadelphia.

The Audient was chosen after a lengthy evaluation of analog and digital mixing console options side-by-side in the control room. "Whilst we were seduced by the recall and ease-of-use of the digital solutions, the sound of the Audient was a clear winner," offers Simon Woods, a former producer at Abbey Road Studios in London, and until recently, The Philadelphia Orchestra's vice president of artistic planning and operations.

"It was open

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UK - London-based contracting and installation specialists, Sound Division, has recently installed a Crown-driven Turbosound TXD system into what was one of East London's most notorious watering holes, the Royal Oak in Shoreditch. Originally made famous by the fact that the legendary Kray brothers used to drink there, the venue is now owned by independent entrepreneur Robbie O'Neill, who also owns three more music pub/bars across south and east London.

Of the four venues owned by O'Neill, Sound Division has installed systems into three of them, the other two being 19/20 in EC1 and The Bell in Wandsworth. O'Neill explained: "We're not a massive operator in this industry; we own four modestly sized bars, but the music element is an important part of their identity. I think one of Sound Division's strengths, and the reason we've used them across virtually all our venues, is th

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Switzerland - Outline's Swiss distributor, Stefano Trevisan of Musik Produktiv PA Licht, personally handled the installation of the first Butterfly Outline-array in the country, in Zurich's prestigious Icf-Celebration Hall, a modern recently inaugurated place of worship.

The Butterfly system installed is made up of two flown vertical line arrays, each with eight Hi-Pack C.D.H. 483 and four Low-Pack C.D.L. 1815 enclosures, featuring cardioid dispersion. There are also 2+2 floor-mounted Victor Live enclosures for the ultra-low frequencies. 2+2 Omnia Plus are used to cover the tiered side seating, whereas the stage monitoring is handled by two Bomber systems and six H.A.R.D. 212.

Head of audio at the Icf-Celebration Hall is Christof Mäder, known among local trade members for his 'golden ears' commented: "Honestly, I took it almost for granted that the system would have a v

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UK - Since February this year, Sound Division has been designing and supplying lighting effects to upmarket urban street and sportswear chain Diesel to light their display windows in their flagship stores in the King's Road and Covent Garden.

Sound Division's Chris Baxter who runs the company's hire and events division for whom Diesel is an extremely long-standing client, explained that this particular contract formed part of a campaign for a new style line for Diesel. Every three weeks Baxter is given a brief for the look and feel of the display, and he is required to design and implement the appropriate lighting scheme.

Baxter commented: "Our most recent design was definitely among my favourites and I have to say I'm particularly proud of what we achieved. We were asked to create an effect which gave the impression of being under water looking up to the surface and bein

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Netherlands - One of the Netherlands' most prestigious conference venues has installed a Nexo Geo S sound reinforcement system in its main auditorium, which regularly hosts events and meetings for the Dutch government and European authorities.

The venue is the largest of the halls in the World Trade Center Rotterdam, measuring 35m x 26m, with a capacity for about 1000 delegates. It has always been regarded as a difficult acoustic environment, being a very reverberant hall with marble floors. The installation was carried out in cooperation with Dutch Television Services by Frits Baan, owner of the in Huizen-based company STB, and supported by Iemke Roos, Nexo's distributor in the Netherlands. Bert Koenders of Iemke Roos explains how Geo S was snapped up: "Together with Frits Baan, we prepared a quotation using Nexo's Geo Soft package, and then did a demo on-site; the syste

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Belgium - A commercial centre located in Mons, approx 60Km south of Brussels, Les Grands Prés has had its façade lit. Whilst creative lighting of commercial structures is not a novelty in itself, the novelty of the Mons - Les Grands Prés project lies in the type of spotlights used: effects projectors that are able not only to diffuse the colour but also to project pictures and writings, or to draw precise and imaginative shapes with light.

According to the manufacturers Rain Spot 575 from Clay Paky is currently the only IP65 product on the market able to meet this requirement: it is provided with advanced optics, four interchangeable lenses with 18° to 46° beam angles, electronic focusing and an effects section consisting of four fixed gobos, four indexable rotating gobos, four rotating prisms, dimmer and immediate beam stop.

Koert Vermeulen, lighting and pr

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UK - Projected Image Digital will exhibit at ABTT for the first time, featuring Element Lab's Versa TILE and Versa Tube LED products and PixelMAD, a revolutionary matrix control system for playing back digital images as Quicktime movies via DMX-controlled lighting fixtures.

The newest Versa TILE product is Versa Tube, which can produce vibrant patterns to organic flows of coloured light. Versa TILE and VersaTube both use LED video display technology to produce a broad spectrum of rich, saturated colours.

Each Versa TILE is edge-lit by LEDs, giving a smooth light output. Like building blocks, tiles can be placed together in any configuration. Proven LED video display technology lets VersaTile produce a broad spectrum of rich, saturated colours - in addition to flesh tones, browns, greys and other colours normally unachievable with conventional lighting technology.

Each single

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USA - Production Resource Group LLC (PRG) and VLPS Lighting Services International Inc (VLPS) have jointly announced a merger agreement, under which a newly formed subsidiary of PRG will merge with and into VLPS, with VLPS becoming a wholly-owned subsidiary of PRG. The new PRG will operate as PRG Lighting, PRG Audio and PRG Scenic Technologies. Upon closing, the transaction will result in a fully integrated equipment rental and services company for automated and conventional lighting and audio systems, as well as scenery fabrication and automation technologies to serve the entertainment industry from facilities in 13 cities, worldwide.

The transaction, approved by the boards of both companies, is subject to the conditions set forth in the merger agreement, including the approval of VLPS' stockholders and completion of regulatory review. The holders of more than 50 percent of the

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Spain - MACs formed the core element of a city illumination scheme for the Spanish Royal wedding - The event was billed as Spain's 'wedding of the century'. On Saturday 22 May Crown Prince Felipe, heir to the Spanish throne, and Letizia Ortiz were married in the country's first royal wedding in nearly a century. The Prince of Asturias and newly crowned Princess of Asturias exchanged vows at Almudena Cathedral in Madrid's old quarter.

As part of the cultural festivities, the city of Madrid instigated a celebration of its architecture through a temporary City Beautification project. The project consisted of lighting a number of culturally important buildings and monuments including the Puerta de Alcalá, the fountain in the Plaza de Cibeles, monuments to Neptune and Apollo, the Correos building (Post Office) and Museo Nacional Del Prado.

Cinelux, Ecler, Martin - The experienced

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USA - After serving the high-end audio community with an enviable array of blue chip product lines, Transamerica Audio Group has changed its name to better reflect its corporate mission and organization. The company is now called TransAudio Group.

"As a name, TransAudio Group better implies our day-to-day operations and customer service when it comes to finding, selecting and implementing the finest audio products anywhere," notes Brad Lunde, TransAudio Group president. "Because our product lines are so diverse and target a number of segments in the pro audio arena, we wanted to ensure the name itself reflected our commitment to finding the right products for our customers."

At the same time, the organizational structure of TransAudio Group has been streamlined into three divisions: TransAudio Broadcast, TransAudio Recording and TransAudio Live. These three

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