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Australia - When Pete Koole, senior lighting director for Channel 10 NSW, had the job of relighting a totally new set for the channel's 5pm News and Late Night News shows, he wanted to add RGB LED changeable coloured lighting, so contacted CDA to see what was the latest available.

The set involved a lot of timber panelling which had thin perspex strips fitted into it. "I wanted the flexibility of having the RGB LEDs as I could not access these perspex strips once the set was placed together," said Koole. The perspex was lit and fitted with 600+ of CDA's Covelight 100mm RGB colour changing LED strips, running from DC-8 controllers.

Koole also used the CDA Trio 3W high powered luxeon 6° LED fixtures in yellow to high light some vertical equipment panels in the background of the Late Night News. In addition, he used CDA's Solar M100 RGB high-powered colour changers to

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UK / Dubai - LTM - Lift Turn Move, the company set up by John Jones in September 2004, will attend its second PALME show next week (24-26 April, Dubai), and will be highlighting examples from its comprehensive range of CM Lodestar motors. A range of lifting and rigging equipment is available for sale from LTM, including Lodestar and Prostar electric chain hoists. Lodestar is now the entertainment industry standard hoist and can be found on most tours, events and festivals and in many venues around the world.

High integrity hoisting systems are also available, including equipment to BGV C1 German safety standard. Special features include double brakes, load sensing and multiple limit switches. Variable speed units and manual or computerized controllers are available to monitor safety features and drive the equipment. LTM has more experience of BGV C1 than anyone else in the UK. L

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UK - Arena Structures supplied over 23,000sq.m of temporary structures to this year's John Smith's Aintree Grand National, with sister companies Arena Seating supplying 1,250 grandstand seats around the course, and Arena Events managing corporate hospitality packages. Arena Structures first became involved with the event 10 years ago, and projects director Ron Smith still oversees one of the largest temporary structures installations seen at any sporting event.

Arena Structures installed a number of structures at Aintree including The Aldaniti Pavilion, The Sky Pavilion, The Red Square Vodka Mood Bar, The Cottage Pavilion and The Aintree Pavilion. Each pavilion was individually designed and built to cater for different needs such as varying hospitality arrangements, preferred situation along the course and each companies individual tastes and corporate identity. The Aldaniti Pav

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UK - In a blaze of publicity, live music venue Koko in Camden was recently given a whopping technical refit. However, the last pieces in the jigsaw have now been put in place; new Midas consoles for front-of-house and foldback, including the first Siena to be installed in a live music venue.

"It's the comfort factor," says Santi Arribas, the technical manager at Koko. "Live promoters and engineers see the Midas desks and they know they are getting quality, it's very reassuring for them."

Midas dealer Glen Smith from GSA has supplied Koko with a 40-channel Heritage 1000 for front-of-house, and a 32-channel Siena for stage monitoring. Santi Arribas has had full responsibility for choosing and commissioning the new equipment, and says that both he and his clients are much happier now that the Midas boards are in place."Despite all the excitement about the

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Hungary - In Budapest, the Palace of Arts opened to international acclaim, featuring four Studer Vista digital consoles in both studio recording and front-of-house mixing applications.

The Palace of Arts is an arts complex that promises to change the landscape of Hungary's cultural life, and its technical specifications are world-class. Opening just in time to celebrate the 2005 Budapest Spring Festival, the Palace of Arts covers a ground area of 10,000sq.m in southern Pest, adjacent to the National Theatre. The centrepiece of the Palace is the National Concert Hall, the largest of its kind in Hungary, seating 1700 with standing room for an additional 200. Distinguished by outstanding acoustics and equipped to welcome international orchestras and virtuosi, its programming will also represent the wider scene of Hungarian culture, particularly its rich folk tradition.

The

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UK - Stockport-based LED lighting specialist Moodmaster Ltd reports that it has been inundated with requests for its LED dancefloor range. Using a Moodmaster LED Panel 600 system as its core, dancefloor contracts as large as 48 panels have recently been completed, say the company.

Moodmaster offers to dancefloor options - a four-panel module for rental and hire applications and individual floor modules for permanent venue installation.

The latest fixed installation is The Nightclub Company's brand new Bamboogy bar in Brighton, which has a 36-panel dancefloor provided by Bradford-based TMC. The Moodmaster dancefloor provides an eye-catching centrepiece for this, the first of a series of 70s-themed retro bars for the operator. Other venues using a Moodmaster LED dancefloor include two of Mitchell & Butler's latest 80s-styled Reflex bars in Preston and Newcastle-upon-Tyne, where

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UK - The networking architecture of Australian Monitor's DigiPage matrix switching system is proving a winning formula for AV company, Selecter, in its installations for health club group Holmes Place.

Set up two years ago, Trevor Montgomery's company has been upgrading, fitting out and maintaining the Holmes Place audio visual systems for over 12 months. He remembers finding a lot of custom-built equipment within the estate - "expensive to build and maintain, with a lot of relays which were highly space consuming and proving to be unreliable."

After experimenting with another system, his desire for something "more PA-oriented" led him to the 8 x 8 DigiPage zoning system; and it has remained his preferred matrix device ever since. "We first used it at Barbican, which was a difficult site, and required something reliable and robust," he said. "

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UK - Following a merge in the last quarter of 2004, Audiolight became TEC International. TEC International provides specialist corporate entertainments services, and are the sole dealers for the Aurora Whitelight, Emerald, Saffron and Aqua lasers, produced in the UK.

Rob Fisher, of TEC told us; "We looked at the corporate and consumer markets, and discovered that where other companies provide the mainstream sound, lighting and other associated equipment, that's really where it stops. We actually produce the whole event, from supplying the main equipment, through to high quality catering, and the final touches, such as gifts, and the exact colours for the table cloths and flowers!"

He continues; "We are focusing our attention in these market areas, because nowadays people have less and less time to spend on organizing and planning the finer details of a private (

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Australia - When planning for GTV9's StarStruck program was underway, several misconceptions about the availability of LED product were laid to rest, say Coemar DeSisti Australia (CDA). Lighting director Rohan Thornton and set designer Mark Dyson had previously had experience with other LED products, but what they wished to achieve on StarStruck appeared to be only possible via a very costly solution.

A number of ideas included the ability to create selectable colour changing in a variety of set pieces. These included very large pieces on either side, referred to as "waffle flats" which consisted of a matrix of lycra panels with webbing in-between. At the intersection points of the webbing, they wanted a "starry light" RGB effect. Fortunately, CDA was able to offer a unique, cost-efficient solution in the form of two custom ShowLED looms manufactured with 200

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Russia - The latest production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical Cats opened in Moscow's MDM Theatre on 18 March. Produced by Carmen Pavlovic with associate producer Sam Burgess, this is the first Russian language version, and has seen PRG Europe expanding its presence in the Russian capital, after recently providing the rig for We Will Rock You.

PRG Europe provided the lighting for the Madrid production of Cats, and as the show closed in January, the most practical solution for lighting the Moscow production was to use the same rig - albeit re-configured to suit the new venue. Under the direction of lighting designer Howard Eaton, the revamped rig includes 81 moving heads, a range of conventionals, six strobes, two hazers, two followspots, 72-way and 48-way Avolites dimmers and two Wholehog II control desks - one as a spare.

Alan Thomson, managing director

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UK / Worldwide - News from Funktion One, the British manufacturer of professional loudspeaker systems, which has informed PLASA Media of the addition of a number of new companies to its international distributor network: 100% Puro Design, based in Naples, is the distributor for Italy - contact Gino Passarella ; Macrosound Construction, based in Moscow is the distributor for Russia - contact Andrey Kremenchugsky, and Seesound in Barcelona is the distributor for mainland Spain - contact Nacho Alberdi. At the same time, Funktion One has also announced that it will be represented in Vietnam through Fantasie Show Light, based in Hanoi - contact Dinh Viet Hung.

Funktion One also rep

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Germany - Italian pro audio manufacturer Outline suffered a substantial theft of equipment during the break-down of its booth at the recent ProLight & Sound show in Frankfurt, on Sunday 14 April. A full list of the equipment stolen, together with the serial numbers where available, has been provided to the Frankfurt police. A copy of the list can be downloaded from Outline's website by clickinghere.

Outline's Giorgio Biffi says: "Obviously we'd like to warn the possible buyers of the risk incurring in buying this items . . . Fortunately very few items can be used, as they've been stolen without some essential parts, such as the Butterfly units, which are devoid of side bars and back side incremental bars, which are absolutely necessary for their normal use."

(Lee Baldock)

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UK / Sri Lanka - When the devastating effects of the tsunami struck the countries around the Indian Ocean over the Christmas period, the services offered by the entertainment production industry weren't those that were immediately required as part of the disaster recovery effort. Three months on, however, as the countries work to return to normality, the UK lighting industry has been able to offer assistance to colleagues working in Sri Lanka.

Production manager Alison Ritchie heard about the damage caused to the lighting, sound and staging equipment stock of her friend Thushan Dias of Mahinda Dias Engineers. MDS has supplied lighting sound and staging services in Sri Lanka for more than 50 years, and Ritchie knew Dias having worked with him when Shared Experience toured to Colombo in the 90s. After the tsunami, she contacted him to check that he was OK, and heard that though he

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Italy - On 26 February 2005 at the Salone delle Idee in Turin's Arsenale della Pace, a packed house attended the première of the concert Dal Basso della Terra by Ernesto Olivero and Mauro Tabasso, which was dedicated to the late Pope John Paul II. The concert, conducted by Salvatore Accardo - one of the world's greatest living violinists - was transmitted by Italian national state broadcaster RAI's channel 3 on 7 March 2005.

The audio rig for the event was from Outline, installed and fine-tuned by Bologna's Nuovo Service. It consisted of three arrays made up of Butterfly Hi-pack CDH 483 (6+5+6), two Victor Live subwoofers, four H.A.R.D. 212 monitors and four Micra enclosures, used for 'front-fill' purposes. The entire system was powered by Outline Series T power amps.

Nuovo Service's owner Willy Gubellini commented: "With artists of this calibre, it's the precisio

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UK - LightProcessor will show a variety of its core products at the A.C. Lighting North trade show next week, along with the latest innovations from sister company Lightfactor Sales -including products from Wireless Solutions, SGM and LDR.

The show will be the UK preview of the new LightProcessor Dimension 3000 dimmer, aimed at all touring applications. Available in 10 or 16A modules, it features an onboard 12-scene memory, all the standard dimming curves, individually DMX-addressable channels and many other elements. It's available in single- or three-phase versions, and has been designed practically with easy access for servicing and parts replacement, say the company. Also on show will be LightProcessor's series of DMX signal processing products, including the QDMuX, QStore, QMerge and QBuffer - the latter available in both truss and 19" rack-mounting version.

The awar

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Finland - Celebrity Cruises, a subsidiary of Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, is using FogScreen in its new central attraction, The Bar at the Edge of the Earth, created exclusively for Celebrity by Cirque du Soleil. Every evening, in the top deck lounges of Constellation and Summit, guests are invited to pass through a mystical gateway - created with FogScreens - and enter a world bathed in luminescent light, pulsating sounds and mesmerizing visual effects. This whole unique entertainment experience is currently available on select Caribbean sailings aboard Constellation and Summit with additional ships in the planning stages.

The installations of FogScreens on the ships is a first for the Finnish start-up company. "We are delighted to be able to work with these entertainment industry leaders, and welcome them as our appreciated clients", says CEO Mika Herpiö. FogScreen

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USA - The founders Pennsylvania's Sight & Sound Theatres, Glen and Shirley Eshelman have always pushed the technological envelope. As the nation's largest Christian theatre, Sight & Sound creates spectacular live events drawing hundreds of thousands of visitors from across the country to the magnificent 2,000-seat venue.

One of the latest additions to the theatre's extensive portfolio of professional live sound gear is the InnovaSON Sy80 digital mixing console which has been installed in the Millennium Theatre, the anchor of the Sight & Sound theatre complex, sporting three stages and more than 85 loudspeakers. The theatre produces elaborate stage events, which can include live animals, animatronic figures, life-size props and even helicopters that fly in. The sheer number of microphones, combined with the vast number of scenes and settings meant the mixing and recall capabiliti

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USA - Looking to broaden its appeal to national touring acts and corporate clients, Michigan-based Thunder Audio has bolstered its loudspeaker inventory with the addition of a Meyer Sound Milo high-power compact curvilinear array system.

According to Thunder Audio president Tony Villarreal, the extraordinary flexibility of Milo was the deciding factor in his purchase decision. "We researched all the line array products and found that Milo offers both the high-end clarity and raw horsepower we need for all the acts we work with. Let's face it, who's going to get louder than Metallica and Slipknot? Milo can go 'balls-to-the-wall' for them, but it also has the smooth, high-end clarity we need for clients like the Detroit Symphony."

Thunder Audio's new Milo complement includes both original Milo cabinets and Milo 120 high-power expanded coverage curvilinear arrays. To op

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USA - High End Systems' new Hog iPC console is making its touring debut with the band Garbage. Hog iPC is the industry's first hybrid console. It's designed to use Wholehog 3 software but is also backward compatible with the discontinued Wholehog 2 software.

Butch Allen is the production manager, lighting designer and lighting director all rolled into one so can speak from all perspectives when it comes to his specification of Hog iPC and Catalyst Pro v3.3 media server -supplied by XL Touring Video.

Says Allen: "If you know the Wholehog 2, the Hog iPC console will seem like an old friend - an old friend that 'had some work done,' so to speak. The new touch screen monitors are flawless and very responsive. I run a great deal of our show 'on the fly' and was afraid to do so before - but now, no worries. Hit a palette and it works. Cool."

Of the Hog iPC's features - i

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USA - Design firm Visual Terrain wanted a high impact, cost-effective way to brighten up the Morongo Casino and Resort, having seen the visual capabilities of the Versa TILE and after consulting with Element Labs and learning more about the product, they created a concept video to show to the Morongo Casino.

Dawn Hollingsworth, managing design principal of Visual Terrain, commented: "Visual Terrain was presented with a challenging design opportunity by the architect at Morongo Casino. The architect's desire for a visual experience to draw visitors from a distance as they approached the property meant we had to think of an extraordinary approach. Element Labs' Versa TILE was the perfect blend of light and image. We were able to create a solution that literally stopped traffic on Interstate 10 (without accidents) and presented the property with a unique identity. Element Labs

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Denmark - Global technology company 3M and Martin Architectural have formed a commercial cooperation that makes Martin Architectural's Exterior 600 colour changing luminaire the illuminator of choice for 3M's LPS150 (6") Light Pipe System in colour and colour changing applications worldwide.

3M Light Pipe is a transparent pipe lined with 3M Optical Lighting Film that is able to efficiently transport light up to 64 feet (20 meters) from a single point light source. The Martin Architectural Exterior 600 is an IP65 rated 575W lighting fixture with CMY colour changing technology capable of producing a nearly endless variety of colours.

3M also offers LPS50 (2.5") and LPS100 (4") Light Pipe Systems compatible with the Martin FiberSource CMY 150 and Martin Exterior 200 respectively. Additionally, the agreement makes Martin Architectural an authorized distributor of 3M

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UAE - Oasis Enterprises, provider of turnkey project services for professional and broadcast audio, video and lighting systems in the UAE, has been honoured with a prestigious award during CabSat 2005, the Middle East's electronic media and communications event.

Designed to recognize exceptional quality and service levels in key areas in the Middle East's broadcast industry, the digitalstudio Industry Leadership Awards 2005 ensured complete impartiality through nominations and consultation with a panel of experts. Oasis Enterprises won Lighting Installation of the Year for its work on behalf of broadcasters such as Dubai TV, Abu Dhabi TV, Al Jazeera in Qatar and CNBC Arabia.

Suhail Ahmed has known Oasis Enterprises for four years, firstly during his time at Dubai TV and now at CNBC Arabia, where he is lighting director. "Oasis Enterprises installed the lighting grid and p

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Spain - In keeping with its ongoing sound education and training program d&b audiotechnik will be participating in this year's European AES convention. John Taylor and Ralf Zuleeg from d&b audiotechnik will present a three part session entitled Loudspeaker line arrays, this will take place at the CCIB in Barcelona on Sunday 29 May from 10.00 to 14.00.

Taylor is an experienced presenter renowned in many parts of the world for his distinctive lively style, believing that if you are passionate about sound system design, then you need to make it sound good. He will begin with a presentation titled "De-mystifying audio techniques" embracing visual images, experiments and practical demonstrations. Discover what constitutes a well-behaved loudspeaker and how it affects what every listener in the house will hear.

Zuleeg has been involved in many d&b sound installation

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UK - The West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds has recently upgraded is radio mic systems with the purchase of Sennheiser 3000 Series from Bradford-based Pro Audio Systems. The system comprises 12 x Sennheiser 3000 series radio mic systems consisting of six 3532-U dual receivers, 12 x SK3063 belt-pack transmitters and two SKM3072 hand-held mics. This was augmented with an ASA3000 splitter and active antennae and included in the purchase were a number of MKE-2's for stock. The complete system was custom racked and wired by Pro Audio Systems and supplied with S-MCD3000HP monitoring software, which is being run via the multicore.

Discussing the purchase, West Yorkshire Playhouse head of sound, Glen Massam, said, "At the WYP we continually strive to produce the best in theatre which means using the best audio equipment available. For us, that meant Sennheiser for radio and micropho

  1. White Light @ PALME
  2. LED Screen Hire at the Urban Music Festival
  3. Court grants Color Kinetics' motion
  4. HME appoints Orbital as UK distributor
  5. New venue for Piccadilly Circus
  6. Turbosound for Volar in Hong Kong
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