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Japan - The Japanese Automobile Manufacturers Association held their 39th Tokyo Motor Show - Passenger Cars & Motorcycles - at the Makuhari Messe complex in Makuhari, Chiba City from 21 October to 6 November 2005.

The theme of this year's show was "Driving Tomorrow! - from Tokyo" with over 1.5m visitors taking in the sights and sounds of the industry's most advanced technologies and designs.

Motor shows mean prodigious amounts of lighting, and the Tokyo Motor Show, with its 40,000sq.m of space, was no exception. Countless numbers of lighting fixtures were incorporated into exhibits from more than 200 companies, including 264 Martin products for exhibits by Toyota, Mazda, Mitsubishi Motors, Volkswagen, and others.

At the Toyota exhibit MAC 2000 Performances were painted silver-white to match the ceiling, truss, and walls while Alien O2 color changers were pai

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USA - After conducting 200 extensive surveys during PLASA and LDI, Wybron and Acromatics now begin the second phase of market development research on the performance lighting industry. The ongoing research program will consist of monthly online questionnaires, with access to surveys being as close as the nearest computer. The monthly surveys will cover a variety of subjects including industry hot topics and product usage habits, with results to be shared with the industry.

The first phase of research, sponsored by Wybron, was accomplished at PLASA2005 in London and ETS-LDI in Orlando. Executed by New York-based Acromatics, it involved a combination of one-on-one interviews and computer questionnaires. "The idea of the monthly online surveys was a result of the overwhelming response we got from the respondents in London and Orlando," says marketing guru Stuart Agres, wh

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UK - Lighting designer Ian Turner and his company, Southampton-based GLS supplied 24 Robe ColorSpot 1200 AT fixtures for Irish folk punksters The Pogues' recent UK arena tour. Turner has designed lighting for the band since their reformation in 2001. The hugely popular 2005 Christmas shows saw a re-release of their massive hit, "Fairytale of New York", with all royalties split between homeless charities and the Justice For Kirsty Campaign.

He chose the Robe fixtures for this tour - the first time he's used them on a full tour - as his main moving lights initially because of their "incredible brightness". He needed a moving light that would hold its own amidst the 200 Par cans and 24 Molefays on the rig, which was designed as a contemporary take on that classic rock 'n' roll pub-band-on-a-big-stage look. The 24 fixtures were distributed all across the three-tr

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UK - The TSK Group has completed its first implementation of Stardraw.com's new application, the aptly named Stardraw Control, at the Radisson Hotel in Birmingham. TSK's specialist communication environments arm has installed a comprehensive and sophisticated background music and presentation source routing system across five floors of the hotel utilising an EtherSound network controlled by Stardraw Control.

The cutting-edge system is part of a project that will see TSK breathe new life into the hotel's presentation facilities. The background music system is implemented across all five floors of the installation, which comprises two floors of bars and restaurants, two floors of meeting rooms and business facilities, and the eighteenth floor which plays host to the gym and the presidential suite. The presentation source routing system is concentrated on the two floors that form

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India - Rich Audio, one of Mumbai's oldest rental companies, has augmented its inventory with the acquisition of a Soundcraft MH2 48 channel audio mixing console. Speaking of the purchase, Rich Audio owner, Richie Braganza, states: "After looking at the products available in the market, we had no second thoughts in opting for the Soundcraft MH2-48. We considered the features, in particular the onboard VCAs, and excellent price point - and of course the availability of the product."

The console was available ex-stock from Cinetekk, one of the Harman Pro Group distributors in India. "The assistance provided by Sushil S. John, country head for the Harman Pro Group in India, made our decision very easy," concluded Braganza.

(Lee Baldock)

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UK - Arena Seating closed a successful year with over 100,000 people sitting on their seats at events through December. The milestone was crossed amidst an incredibly busy December with 100,003 people sitting on Arena Seating at events during the final month of the year. The range of events highlighted the diversity of Arena's products and logistical expertise.

In December, Arena Seating's well known red tip-up seats accommodated music audiences at the last of the shows at the temporary Wembley Arena Pavilion whilst fans also enjoyed Rod Stewart, The Foo Fighters, Coldplay and Duran Duran at the series of sold-out concerts at Earls Court.

Nearly 20,000 seats were supplied to a festival of Islam at and several school Christmas concerts and Christian celebrations of Christmas also employed Arena Seating. On the sporting front, boxing was the order of the day at ExCeL where 13,50

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UK - Two Gloucester DJ's, Jason Ayers and Steve Blake, have got their hands on a landmark Stroud venue, and lovingly restored it from near dilapidation over an 18-month period. Having secured Stroud's first late night licence back in 1969 the venue became The Marshall Rooms (hosting bands like U2 among others). But its recent history has been chequered and it eventually closed down.

When they were ready to convert it into the 425-capacity Riga, they contacted Contract Audio Visual (CAV) for their technology infrastructure. CAV's sales manager, Howard Williams, says: "They loved the power of the NEXO Alpha Touring System, in particular the heavy bass, and opted for that on a contract rental basis."

But power comes at a price, and being in a residential area the operators needed one hundred tonnes of concrete to provide the necessary sound reinforcement after CAV had c

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UK - The sleepy market town of Hitchin recently gave birth to a high-octane style bar.Locally-based tanning salon operator, Carl Barton, managed to complete the conversion of the former Grade II-listed council offices and library into Ivory, just in time for the Christmas season, thanks to assistance from Hitchin-based sound specialists Rossco.

Barton had planned to install the sound system on a shoestring budget until an inquisitive Ross Sharples, MD of Rossco, put his nose around the door during the site development to see what was going on.

"He convinced me that upgrading the quality of the sound system would pay dividends -and thank goodness I listened," says Barton, in his 400-capacity venue, with neon illuminated white façade.

Sharples runs Martin Audio touring boxes in his rental stock, but turned to the exquisitely designed, fast-fit AQ architectural boxes

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UK - PSL, the London-based event services company, has appointed John Mackie to head up a new initiative, providing AV services tailored for the hotel and conferencing market. Under the title of new business development manager (AV outsourcing), Mackie will be taking PSL's considerable resources direct to venue management, enabling them to offer more sophisticated audio-visual options to their own customers.

Mackie points out that PSL's breadth of resources is unequalled in the UK market, he says: "By outsourcing with PSL, hotel and conference venues as well as corporate organisations, can enhance their AV capability far beyond flipcharts, projectors and plasma screens, to take advantage of the set and stage design services, production capability, and event management expertise, which are all in-house here at PSL."

(Chris Henry)

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UK - Having already gained significant experience on a number of recent concerts with HK Audio's innovative COHEDRA Compact line array system, York-based pro audio specialist JSS Audio has opted to purchase a system for its own inventory. Acoustically compatible to the larger arena-friendly COHEDRA line array, the smaller COHEDRA Compact, with its versatile, extended nearfield projection performance, excels in medium sized venues, says JHS, HK Audio's UK distributor, allowing for optimal sound dispersion levels over the complete audience area.

Utilising integrated 3-point mechanics together with the flying or stacking frame adds to system flexibility, meaning that COHEDRA Compact can be easily adjusted to suit smaller venues with no performance drop-off.

A varied schedule of recent shows both indoor and outdoor, including the Redcar Festival, York University Rag Woodstock, Ali

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UK - EFX Audio specified an L-Acoustics Kudo system for the George Square Hogmanay show in central Glasgow on New Year's Eve. Comprising just nine elements a side the system covered the 12,000 audience perfectly with no noise complaints during sound checks or the show from the local residents.

Paul Nicholson from L-Acoustics UK takes up the story: "I designed the system well in advance of the show by extrapolating the site plans into a 3D Soundvision model. As usual there were a few minor adjustments to be made on the day regarding stage size and ground contours etc, but the system was flown and trimmed from single fly points within 30 minutes. I used a new factory preset for the event which I received by email the day before, and after walking the arena during listening tests no additional EQ was required. The system was extremely smooth in both the vertical and horizontal

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UK - Building on the successful collaboration between Martin Architectural and Philips Lighting, ARC 06 will provide the platform to showcase the lighting solutions offered by both companies. Martin Architectural and Philips say the companies will feature dynamic solutions in the areas of interior and exterior architectural lighting as well as in the growing sector of health and wellbeing. "As the demand for more creative solutions grows, Martin Architectural and Philips are ideally placed to offer a wide range of programmable lighting possibilities including exciting colour changing capabilities," the companies say.

Situated prominently on the mezzanine level, visitors to the adjoining stands M26 and M26a will have an ideal opportunity to see a whole host of interior and exterior lighting solutions, including LEDs, wash lighting, controls, track, and spot lighting to

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USA - During the International Pentecostal Holiness Church convention, all things lead up to what many consider the main event: night time worship services that bring celebration and joy to the gathering with a musical ministry supported by a large choir, high-energy praise team, and full band featuring drums, percussion, electric and acoustic guitars, bass, keyboards, grand piano, and violins.

This year, the services were so large they required all 32,000sq.ft of the arena at the Cox Business Services Convention Center. Facing the sizable task of managing audio needs for the room was Hooper Sound Production Services.

"The night services have a high sense of theatricality and plenty of sonic energy on tap," says Hooper Sound's Jerry Hooper. "Technically savvy in their own right, administrators from the church came to us with a clearly-defined set of needs center

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UK - Colin Pattenden of creative sound specialists' CP Sound Ltd, has revamped and revitalised the DJ box at Boujis - currently London's hottest hub for club and party loving A-Listers and aristocrats.

A few months previously, Pattenden had carefully removed the old amp rack at the famous South Kensington location, installed a new powerhouse of RSE amplifiers and a Cloud 28, complete with new crossover and graphic equaliser and totally re-tuned the existing sound system. That alone improved the audio quality so dramatically, that he was asked to advise on how the room's sonic vibes could be further enhanced. Boujis likes to keep moving with the times, so Colin suggested a complete re-design of the DJ booth.

The musical policy is a mixture of rap, house and R 'n' B. Colin soon realised that the booth needed an aesthetic as well as a technical boost. He proposed the design of a

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UK - Newfield King Ltd (NFK) is a specialist design and technical audio installation company headed by Bill Ward. Over the years NFK has worked with studios such as Abbey Road, Angel, Mayfair and Sarm in London, as well as Soho-based post production facilities such as 750 mph and The Production Factory.

NFK's list of clients extends from concert venues, educational institutions and law courts through to recording artists such as George Michael and William Orbit, for whom NFK has installed private studios.

According to Ward, one of the main factors in NFK's success is its relationship with key suppliers such as VDC Trading, through which is sources all of its cabling and connectors. "We always use the highest quality products because that's the only way to ensure first rate results for our customers," he says. "The staff at VDC understand the technical issues inv

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UK - Appointed by Jack Morton Worldwide, Summit Steel supplied eight of their 10m high SmarTmasts for London's "Heroes" New Year's Eve event staged along the Thames.

The SmarTmasts were used to hang seven V-DOSC and two dv-dosc cabinet line arrays supplied by Delta Sound. These were strategically placed along the Victoria Embankment in a sound scheme, designed for Jack Morton by Jim Lambert of Delta Sound, and used to amplify the chimes of Big Ben above the excited hubbub of the crowd as the 60 second pre-midnight countdown began. The PA was also used to amplify pre-show music and announcements before the spectacular fireworks, lighting, and projection kicked off on the stroke of midnight.

Summit's SmarTmasts are one of the most popularly used event PA mast structures in the UK. Delta specified SmarTmasts because they offer the most versatile solution to meet the log

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UK - Essex leisure entrepreneur Quilters Leisure has opened The Ivory Rooms in the affluent suburb of Billericay, a stylish meld of restaurant, bars and lounges with ample scope for private hire as well as club nights. Throughout the extensive facilities runs an integrated audio-visual system, which is one of the first in the UK to feature prominently the new loudspeaker products of the Spanish manufacturer Vieta.

Essex Sound & Light's Mike Glover found everything he needed to provide audio for this spacious and versatile venue in Vieta's catalogue, from super-compact full-range cabinets to ceiling speakers, and beefy PA systems for DJ nights and parties. Working closely with Andy Austin-Brown of KV2 Audio, distributor of Vieta products in the UK, Glover found that the Ivory Rooms were perfectly suited to Vieta's subtle design approach.

"Because it's located in a predomin

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USA - During post-production of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, a large number of DPA microphones were used by sound recordists and Foley editors, producing audio effects which contributed to the overall excitement of the film.

British editor and sound recordist Jon Olive worked on crowd noises, including those for the scenes set in a large outdoor stadium during the Quidditch World Cup and Triwizard Tournament. According to Olive, this presented quite a challenge in terms of loop group recording.

He says: "The normal practice of recording a loop group in a studio would not do these scenes justice, as the only way to convincingly get the sound of a large number of people in an outside setting is to record a large number of people outside!"

Olive, together with supervising sound editor Dennis Leonard and ADR editor Dan Laurie, decided to find a qu

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UK - Adlib Audio has provided complete sound systems for two leading venues on the university live performance circuit, with Soundcraft MH Series consoles in both. Manchester University has refurbished the sound system for its live venue the Hop and Grape, which is now to be known as Academy 3. Adlib Audio has equipped it with a new 40-channel Soundcraft MH40 at front-of-house, and a 24-channel Soundcraft MH3 for monitors.

MUSU has also opened a fourth live music venue, the Club Academy, in the newly-renovated cellar beneath the MU Student Union. For the 600-capacity space, Adlib has designed and installed a comprehensive sound reinforcement system, built around the Soundcraft MH4 FOH console which was requested by the University's own engineers, John Lyd and Tony Small. Powered entirely by Crown amplification, the system also features dbx processing, and a full dbx DriveRack re

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UK - Specialist cable company VDC Trading has supplied XL Video with various lengths of five way multicore video cable for use on the Little Britain Live tour of the UK.

This extremely robust cable features stranded type 1/3 coaxes laid up with textile fillers and oversheathed in a tough yet flexible black PVC jacket. It is designed to be very flexible and is ideally suited to heavy-duty applications such as theatre installs where the RGBHV signal needs to be distributed over longer distances.

The first leg of the Little Britain Live tour took place between August and December 2005 and was hailed as a huge success. The second leg starts in January and runs through to May. XL Video is also currently touring with Miss Saigon and Jerry Springer, The Opera.

Since its formation in 1996, XL Video has established itself in the field of video production f

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UK - Hitchin-based sound rental company, Rossco Ltd have extended their relationship with Martin Audio by embracing line array technology for the first time.

The company, run by former musicians Ross Sharples and Mark Donovan, have purchased 10 W8LM Mini Line Array enclosures from dealers, LMC Audio, along with two of the new W8LMD Downfill boxes. Sharples confidently predicts that a further six W8LX matched subs will provide the final piece in the jigsaw.

The new Line Array joins an inventory that already includes multiples of Martin Audio W8C/W8S, W2, EM15, W0.5 and WM0.5 (which doubles as a miniature stage monitor) as well as LE400 conventional band monitors.

The equipment services a broad work roster, which aside to the local annual Rhythms of the World Festival, recently included the public enquiry for relatives of the victims of the Tsunami (when the Olympia Aud

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UK - When the prestigious Radley College embarked upon a major project to develop a new theatre, they planned a blend of the traditional and modern; a proscenium arch stage and orchestra pit, with the added versatility of a demountable stage extension/pit infill. After seeing Maltbury's work at nearby Abingdon School, Radley's bursar, Richard Beauchamp, invited Maltbury to propose a solution.

The result was an orchestra pit that could be used to house extra seating tiers, or be filled out with decks and used as a stage extension. Early consultation between Maltbury, the school and the contractors, allowed vital decisions to be made and acted upon, say Maltbury, who advised that a series of bespoke Metrodeck units were the ideal solution to the theatre's needs. Sets of legs allowed the decks to be taken to different levels, giving the traditional theatre greater versatility. A be

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UK - The Nexo GEO T tangent array systems used by Oasis and Garbage have spent a very different month touring with the high-profile children's theatre production, CBeebies, produced by the BBC in line with their successful children's TV programming of the same name.

CBeebies has been playing to audiences of nearly 15,000 a day, in arenas all over the UK, laid out in the popular new 'academy' format, which sees the stage moved to the middle of the venue, and seats sold in the remaining U of the arena. With capacity for 4,500, the month-long production was playing three shows a day, spending two days in most venues.

SSE Audio Group provided the show, which is produced by BBC Worldwide and Telltale Productions, with a Nexo GEO T system. In nearly all venues, the system configuration featured 11+2 arrays of GEO T cabinets, flown left and right of stage, with 2x Nexo

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New Zealand and USA - D-Tools, the worldwide leader in system integration software, today announced that system integration consulting firm Audio Video Designs (AVD) has joined D-Tools Certified Partner Program to provide training and consulting services for D-Tools' award-winning System Integrator software.

D-Tools' System Integrator streamlines and simplifies the complicated design, engineering, management and reporting processes associated with custom installation and integration of residential and commercial AV, security, and networking systems.

AVD was established in 1994 by directors Charles and Caroline Speedy. AVD imports and distributes quality custom installation electronics into New Zealand. Brands include: ChannelPlus, Lutron, Middle Atlantic, Open House, SpeakerCraft, Ultralink, Universal Remote Controls and Xantech.

"We have been looking for a solution for

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