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UK - Appointed by Jack Morton Worldwide, large format projection specialists E//T//C UK projected 30 giant portrait images of 'Heroes in London' onto the Shell Centre for London's New Year's Eve 2005 / 2006 celebrations, organised by the Mayor of London and Visit London.

The projections were part of a stunning pyrotechnic and lighting extravaganza designed to capture the spirit of London as the year rolled over. The photographic images, projected from 8 p.m. to midnight on the 31st, illustrated a wide cross section of heroes and heroines from 2005, encompassing Britain's great sporting achievements like winning the 2012 Olympic Bid and the return of the Ashes, to reflecting on poignant moments including remembrance of the London bombing victims.

The event took place along the Thames, encompassing the South Bank between Jubilee and Westminster Bridges, including iconic landmark

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The Netherlands - The Synco Europe Network, Europe's leading pro audio rental franchise, has grown to 10 members with the appointment this month of the Purple Group of Schijndel, Holland. The Purple Group has grown in 12 years from a small local service company to one of Holland's largest production rental companies, employing 42 people and supplying both sound and lighting.

Formed by Harry Zinken, Purple Group numbers among its clients some of the country's biggest artists and corporate clients. Among them is top Dutch rock band Kane, and the latter's rise from pub roots to arena-scale superstardom was one of the factors that spurred Zinken to sign up to the extensive rental resources and expertise of the Synco Europe Network.

Harry Zinken comments: "We had worked with Kane since they playing bars and clubs, and when they started to become really big their management, wh

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Saudi Arabia - HAV Productions managed the AV production of the recent International Business Forum (IBF), held at the Jeddah Hilton Hotel in Saudi Arabia. HAV selected a 48-channel Allen & Heath ML4000 live sound VCA console to manage all the audio requirements at the two-day event.

This ninth annual IBF was organised by the Islamic Development Bank, Organisation of the Islamic Conference, and the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry, hosting presenters and delegates including trade ministers from Turkey, Iran, Pakistan and the host nation, Saudi Arabia. Held in Jeddah's largest conference venue - the Hilton's main ballroom - HAV needed to provide an equally impressive sound system.

HAV installed a Tannoy speaker system, suspended from a truss mother grid. Stage coverage was handled by DPA lectern mics for the podium and panel discussion groups, and a Beyer radio mic syste

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UK - Dom Smith chose an Avolites Diamond 4 console to control the lightshow for Embrace's recent arena tour. The show was designed by Bryan Leitch, the tour's artistic director, who worked closely with Smith as lighting programmer and on-the-road lighting director.

It was Smith's first full production tour with Embrace following some DVD work in the preceding months, and the equipment was supplied by leading UK rental company, Siyan. Leitch completed the design after consulting with the band's lead singer Danny McNamara.

Specification of the control gear was left to Smith who chose his favourite console - the Avolites Diamond 4. Smith, one of the UK's leading young LD's, was one of the first to take Avo's most powerful console on the road - initially with the Stone Temple Pilots in 2003. Since then, he's not used another console.

Lighting wise, the stage started bare and dar

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UK - Carlsbro, the UK-based manufacturer of electronic equipment for live music performance since 1959, has signed country music singer Lucie Diamond as its first female endorsee. Diamond recently gained no. 1 in the prestigious European CMA chart, knocking superstar Faith Hill off the top spot and claiming the coveted Christmas number 1.

The full endorsement deal with Carlsbro provides Lucie with the brand new CMR 40 wireless radio microphone, which she will use at her major show in Berlin in February where she will perform to more than 8,000 people. Lucie is also using a Carlsbro Delta PA system with Powerline power amplifiers, in rehearsal for forthcoming shows in Norway and Germany.

Carlsbro's sales and marketing director Jon Gold has closely followed Lucie's career since hearing early tracks from her forthcoming solo album, Sweet Medicine, from a musician friend wh

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UK - The Royal National Theatre (RNT) on London's South Bank has refurbished the sound and communications infrastructure in its main Olivier Theatre, including a variety of products supplied by VDC Trading, the company reports. The permanent installation included a custom-built multicore cable system incorporating VDC Supaflex 18 core cable and an 8-channel Van Damme stage box. The cables were specially constructed so that both the Harting and Ceep "socapex" systems used by The Royal National could be integrated with one another.

"We've used VDC as our main cable supplier for many years now," says Rob Barnard, the theatre's technical manager. "The company gives us great service and its products are very reliable, which is why it is always our first choice."

Since taking delivery of this system, the RNT has placed an order for a duplicate set of ca

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Australia - With just a few weeks to go, the entertainment technology industry is getting ready to surprise visitors with the latest products and releases. The trade show will be held on 13 - 15 February with the conference commencing on Sunday 12 February. The Entech conference offers exciting training and education in broadcast, pro audio, lighting and vision.

Industry professionals should note that the fully accredited OH&S course is filling up quickly and will sell out again. There are three days of training taking place. To register, go to www.entech-tradeshow.com.

(Chris Henry)

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Australia - ARX Systems, the Australian-based professional audio manufacturer is to release several new product ranges at Entech 2006 (13-15 of February at the Sydney Exhibition Centre, Darling Harbour). In conjunction with its Australian distributor The Resource Corporation (TRC), ARX will be displaying several new additions to the ARX product range including the i-Switch line switcher, AV Stream audio/video zoner/switcher, and new models for the SPL range of self-powered loudspeakers and the AudiBox range of audio accessories.

TRC and ARX can be found at Entech on stand O22.

(Lee Baldock)

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UK - Lighting Technology Projects (LTP) has specified and supplied 19 Color Kinetics ColorBlast 12 wall washing LED fixtures and 128 pieces of CK wide angle iColor Cove NXT for the main reception of the new 'Patient Hotel' at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London.

To help create an environment that is stimulating, fun and friendly for patients, parents and visitors, a large colourful feature lighting scheme was proposed for the Hotel's pre-reception entranceway by Ove Arup. The lighting scheme was designed by Arup Lighting's design team. They then asked LTP's Terry Reeves to specify the equipment for achieving the overall effect. LTP has worked on previous projects with Arup including the award winning Plantation Lane 'Moonwall' at Plantation Place, in the City of London.

The six square metre tiled frosted glass floor runs the entire width of the entrance floor, and continues

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UK - For the first time, a Stage Technologies' Illusionist control desk, designed specifically to make automation accessible for plays and small venues, has been used to automate a West End production. The new stage adaptation of Agatha Christie's legendary bestseller And Then There Were None used the new product to provide simple and cost-effective control for the Art Deco sets designed by Mark Thompson.

The show opened in the West End's Gielgud Theatre in October last year and runs into the middle of January. The tale of crime is told against changing scenes with lounge sofas, coffee tables, dining room and patio furniture moving on automated trucks, sliding quickly and smoothly into position to completely changing the setting for the drama.

Stage Technologies' Illusionist control desk has been installed in many fixed venues in the UK and America but this is the first

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UK - Founded in 1882, the Royal College of Music is one of the foremost conservatoires in the world. Gustav Holst, Benjamin Britten, Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber, are just a few of the prestigious names on the college's roll of honour.

It therefore comes as no surprise to learn that producing the cream of the music industry's talent requires the very best tutors and the very best equipment. This is particularly true in the College's recording studio which recently took delivery of a Yamaha DM2000 digital mixing desk.

"We use the desk for everything - main session work, studio recording, video sync and screen work," said Joe Johnson, the College's Studio Manager. "I like its controllability and the fact that it works seamlessly with Pro Tools."

The College also has a Yamaha O2R mixing desk in control room two. "We've had it about six years and it's proved

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USA - Production Resource Group and Lightning Strikes have announced that PRG will be the exclusive distributor for Lightning Strikes' lighting products.

Lightning Strikes' technology provides the highest single-source output available worldwide (up to 500,000 watts from a single lamp) with near-perfect replication of sunlight, instant-on capability, and dimming to 3% of maximum power with consistent colour-temperature and colour quality. Its SoftSun continuous lights and Lightning Strikes intermittent lights have been used in the production of thousands of feature films, television series, and commercials, as well as concerts, theatre, sports, and other live events.

Jere Harris, Founder and CEO of PRG said, "We have had great success with the Lightning Strikes products on recent projects like the Coldplay and U2 tours. We're pleased to have formalized our relationship wi

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UK - Event secutiry specialist Showsec has begun 2006 with the addition of two new offices, expanding both north and south in the UK, in Newcastle and Exeter, increasing their national coverage to nine offices. The new offices are part of the company's plan to achieve full nationwide crowd management coverage by 'rolling out' to serve venues in those areas. This development will service events and venues based in Newcastle and Exeter with the professional service already experienced in existing areas across the country, supported by Showsec offices, say the company.

Showsec's northern development towards the end of 2005 saw them working in partnership with the Academy Music Group for the opening of the Carling Academy in Newcastle, training a new, local crowd management team to work at the venue. Simon Sinclair has been appointed as area manager, where he will use 10 years' expe

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UK - Canadian-born singer/songwriter Rufus Wainwright has a distinctive style of theatrical pop. His recent four week European tour took him to a variety of venues, not all of which had the most up to date audio systems that Wainwright's front-of-house engineer, Matt Manasse, could have wished for.

"Some venues were better than others," explains Manasse. "We played everything from nasty night clubs to beautiful concert halls and theatres, so we had to rely on local racks and stacks for the shows in Europe. It would have been really difficult to carry enough PA to cover such a variety of venues, and at this point it's just not cost effective.

"The DiGiCo D1 really helps where you don't have a consistent system. The output stage has got insertable processing channels (IPCs), so I could tune any system and time align it without having to carry extensive outboa

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Spain - One of Lighthouse Technologies' key European rental partners, Spanish audio-visual specialist Stereorent, ensured its stand was an eyecatching highlight of the International Madrid Broadcast Fair, by utilising a pair of large format Lighthouse LED video screens.

This, the 12th Broadcast Fair, was held from 15th-18th November in Madrid's Parque Ferial Juan Carlos I. Held biennially, the event is a key date in the calendar for Spanish audio-visual professionals, with manufacturers and service providers the key exhibitors.

The Stereorent stand's main screen comprised over 9sq.m of Lighthouse R6 6mm panels. In addition, the Barcelona-based company was exhibiting its SRL1012 vehicle, which carries a 12sq.m Lighthouse R10 10mm screen. Both were used to display a range of footage of events organised by Stereorent and other live events where the company has been an audio-visua

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UK - The latest incarnation of the Neumann KK capsule for use with Sennheiser's SKM 5000-N has made its debut on Natalie Imbruglia's Counting Down The Days tour.For mid-October rehearsals, the SKM 5000-N and KK 104 combination was made available to Mark Ballard, Natalie's FOH engineer and a long term Sennheiser UK associate.

After being assessed by Ballard the decision was made to go with the Neumann Sennheiser pairing. He said: "For me it's really important that the Artist is comfortable with any new equipment. Natalie immediately preferred the incredibly light-weight of the Sennheiser handheld, and was comforted by the Neumann name on the capsule as she uses a U87 in the studio. Within seconds of putting on her in-ears she commented on how amazing the mic sounded and I knew we were onto a winner."

The tour which has taken in Europe, Russia and the UK over th

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UK - Lumidrives, the UK based LED technology provider has seen turnover for 2005 rise 25% to £3.5m, following the launch of successful new products and strong export sales growth.

Founded in 2001, Lumidrives was one of the first companies to realise the potential of high powered LED technology in illumination applications. It specialises in the development of components to enable applications in solid state lighting, including power drivers, LED arrays and optics. The company also offers design services for LED based illumination systems.

Lumidrives' 2005 growth follows on the back of a doubling of turnover in 2004. Exports now account for 40% of sales with new customers located in Japan, Canada, Turkey, Hungary, Poland, Romania and the Czech Republic.

The company's technology is used in a wide cross section of applications ranging from high profile exterior and interi

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UK - XL Video UK supplied lighting and visual designer Andy Hurst with video equipment for A-Ha's recent UK arena tour, in an interesting design merging both mediums.

Hurst worked with video specialist Richard Shipman and XL's project managers Paul Wood and Des Fallon to get the video elements exactly as he wanted. From the outset, he intended using video as a lightsource blended together with the lighting cues. LED tech for the tour was Andy Tonks.

The tour's starting point was a massive show in Oslo, Norway (the band's home country) to celebrate the City's Centenary. With 120,000 attending, it was the largest show in Norway to date, and featured a 10 camera DVD shoot with lots of video onstage. Hurst wanted to continue the video theme on a scaled down version for the arena tour. He also wanted to separate the show into three distinct acts that could be "unfolded" t

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UK - Midwich, a leading trade-only distributor of AV and Home Entertainment products, has formed an alliance with True Colours Distribution, one of the UK's most respected technical solution providers, to organise a new AV event called Hi-Technology.

Hi-Technology consists of three consecutive roadshows on 4, 5 and 6 April 2006. The show will make its debut at the City of Manchester Stadium before moving on to Villa Park, Birmingham and RAF Hendon.

Stuart Mizon, divisional manager at Midwich said: "It looks like 2006 will be something of a landmark year for AV, so attendees can expect to see the latest in displays, digital signage, rental staging, system integration and 'HD Ready' home cinema technology from the world's leading brands."

Iain Campbell, sales and marketing director at True Colours, said: "The idea of distributors joining forces to promote AV pro

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Spain - Barcelona was the destination in November, for the team from scenic contractor Stage One, when production company, Crown Business Communications, brought them on board to build the set for Renault's Annual Dealer Conference 05.

Stage One's work included; building the core set for the main presentation area, masking flatage for the dining area and stage backing for a smaller presentation area.

Nick Murtagh designed the main set with a core emphasis on smooth, flowing lines, and Stage One was thus firstly tasked with constructing four juxtapositioned oval stages of varying heights, each carpeted in a different colour and with a painted facia. The company then built a series of white filled cloth flats, providing a backing for two rear projection screens, and a central logo panel.

The seamless nature of the set was emphasised as the central logo panel curved down

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UK - By January 1st, lighting supplier White Light had already supplied its first new touring show of 2006: the musical Footloose, which began its UK tour at the Millennium Centre in Cardiff.

Produced by Mark Goucher, Michael Rose and Tristan Baker, Footloose is directed by Karen Bruce, designed by Morgan Large with lighting by James Whiteside. White Light have supplied a rig that includes Martin Mac500 and Mac2000 profiles, Mac600 washlights and Clay Paky Alpha Halo washlights, as well as ETC Source Fours, Rainbow colour scrollers, Par Cans, 5kW fresnels, L&E battens, Coda-4 floods, Unique haze machines, and White Light's fully-rated LOLER lighting ladders.

The rig is fed from Avo touring dimmer racks, controlled by a Strand 520i console programmed by Rob Halliday. The show's production electrician is Jeremy Duncan, with Simon Gooding the production manager.

T

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UK - How do you describe a live set by Prodigy? As one reviewer put it, "Sheer, eardrum-destroying blasts of raw noise that has such unbelievable force it's as if your internal organs are being shaken." And just how do you mic up a Prodigy live set?

Front-of-house engineer Jon Burton says: "At the beginning of this tour I had approached Sennheiser about radio systems. We had been very straight with them as we get through a lot of mics. It is a hot, sweaty, unpredictable show, and Mr Flint isn't averse to toe punting the odd mic into the crowd if it malfunctions. In a world tour lasting a year we have never completely lost a mic. Also, the radio side has always been spot on, all around the world, from South America to Russia."

Burton adds: "We were using a rival popular kick drum mic, but as we had a kick drum with a solid front head, the mic needed mou

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UK - The UK Government's Department of Trade & Industry (DTI) is looking to the professional lighting industry for input into its future plans for the country's lighting technology strategy, and is holding a workshop meeting this month to begin the process. The output of this workshop will help to develop the Government's strategy for solid state lighting and photovoltaics.

The meeting will discuss photonic technologies, which have the potential to be used in both the generation of energy and its efficient use: in particular, photovoltaics have the potential for micro-generation of electricity without the use of carbon and solid state lighting technologies have the potential to make very large reductions in energy consumption.

The DTI says there are major opportunities for UK companies and other stakeholders in Energy Photonics. These opportunities include device development,

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USA - BSR E1.22, Entertainment Technology - Fire Safety Curtain Systems, is available for public review on the ESTA website until 28 March, 2006. The draft standard describes the materials, fabrication, installation, operation, testing, and maintenance of fire safety curtains and fire safety curtain systems used for theatre proscenium opening protection.

It is a serious attempt to avoid offering a cook-book description of a fire safety curtain system and, instead, to specify how a fire curtain shall perform. That is, it doesn't tell you what kind of fabric to use for a fire safety curtain, for example, but instead tells you how strong whatever fabric you use must be and what abrasion and fire tests it must pass. The document may be accessed by visiting http://www.esta.org/tsp/documents/public_review_do

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