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UK - Electric Fly lighting designer Nick Jevons used Martin Professional's Maxxyz and Maxedia to control the lighting for Radio 1's The Chart Show Live concert at London's Shepherd's Bush Empire just before Christmas. The special event for Radio 1 ticket winners was hosted by various DJs from the station and featured mini set performances by top-selling artists McFly, Charlotte Church, The Pussycat Dolls, Hard-Fi and Sean Paul. The concert was also broadcast live straight after Radio 1's Sunday UK Chart Show rundown. All fixtures supplied by Bandit Lites UK, and included Chroma-Q Color Blocks, MAC 500 profile spots, MAC 600 washlights, Atomic Strobes as well as a Maxxyz console and Maxedia digital media server.

Jevons says: "It was fairly energetic evening, which I wanted to reflect in the lighting and set design, working with my business partner, set designer

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UK - West Country rental company ESP Production has continued its established relationship with Soundcraft - following the acquisition of a 32-channel MH2 from dealers, LMC Audio.

David Wynn, who set up the Yeovil-based company in 2001 by amalgamating his long established Climax PA business with local lighting company Nite-Lite, considered the purchase carefully when planning his current inventory overhaul.

ESP Production services the south of England - in both the concert touring and corporate sectors. In 2004 Wynn purchased a 40-channel Soundcraft MH3 and followed this up with a secondhand 32-channel K3.

"I was delighted with both the MH3 and the K3 but needed a multipurpose board for house and monitors to enable the MH3 to function more permanently at front-of-house. When the MH2 came out it was a godsend - as a dual function desk it provided the opportunity to have

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UK - Sound Division Group have completed a complex sound installation for a sophisticated, new-age bowling and leisure concept, set within a landmark London building.

Brothers Charles and Adam Breeden had contracted the technology specialists to fit out their award-winning Lonsdale in Notting Hill three years ago. So when they set out to plan All Star Lanes, within the regenerated Victoria House on Bloomsbury Square, the Breedens (in partnership with Mark von Westenholz) had no hesitation in returning to David Graham's company.

"They did a great job for us at Lonsdale and here they have met the acoustic challenges of the building head on," declared Adam Breeden. "In the areas where we have been able to overcome these obstacles they have delivered an incredibly crisp and excellent quality sound. It is enabling us to run the music fairly loud with the confidence t

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UK - Just three months after the successful introduction of new infinite seamless plasma walls into its large-screen display stock, PSL has doubled its inventory from ten to 20 panels.

PSL MD Gary Davis was always confident of the appeal of the PK4201M super-thin 42" digital display panel. "Our initial stock of 10 panels has proved so popular with companies right across the PSL client list, from conferences to promotional work. Not only is the picture clarity quite exceptional, but the virtually seamless multi-screen format provides great flexibility of presentation."

The seam size of the infinite PK420IMs is less than 4mm, so when the modular plasma display (MPD) panels are teamed together, the wall allows the picture to appear as a complete image, as well as offering multi-screen and multi-input display formats in 16:9 aspect ratio.

(Chris Henry)

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UK - Leading UK-based lighting designer Durham Marenghi specified Martin MAC 700 Profile spotlights for the first time for his recent Classical Spectacular shows, which played a series of UK area venues including the Royal Albert Hall and Manchester Evening News Arena.

Marenghi used 23 MAC 700s, eight of which were positioned on the floor, with the rest rigged on the striking above-stage trussing architecture. His new design for the shows was based on the core principals of "absolute synchronicity and sympathy" with the score, and also used over 80 other Martin fixtures including MAC 2K Washes, MAC 600 Washes, and MAC 300 Washes as truss toners. Marenghi comments that the MAC 700s "are incredibly bright. I specified them to be used for powerful profile type effects, which worked extremely well."

The biggest challenge in lighting a show of this nature

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UK - Screen Rent recently purchased 266 Barco DLite10 tiles complete with D320 and D310 processing and precision frames from displayLED. Screen Rent's need for a cost-effective solution led them to displayLED.

displayLED offers the most comprehensive selection of used screens for the rental market place. Its personnel have years of experience servicing AV companies, and as such can usually locate what a client is looking for within a matter of hours and establish pricing. As brokers displayLED understands the true market value of today's LED rental systems which ensures both buyers and sellers get true value and equitable pricing, says the company.

Screen Rent, one of Germany's leading AV rental companies, keen to expand its inventory approached displayLED's Guy Horrigan. Screen Rent's criteria for a tried & tested product with good cross-rental opportunities in mainland Europ

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Australia - Melbourne's Besen Centre has to be one of Australia's busiest theatres hosting over 620 shows a year. The venue can seat up to a maximum of 1000 patrons although the venue size can be modified to seat from as little as 360. The venue prides itself on its technical equipment, which is always state of the art, and all of the dimmers and the lighting consoles come from LSC Lighting.

January 2006 marks three years since the Besen Centre purchased a LSC maXim console and the technical staff are still delighted with its never-failing performance. "We use the maXim for all of our day to day shows, particularly those that have no rehearsal time, because we can busk so easily with it," said Brad Alcock, head technician. "The operators need to have access to lots of faders so they can get things done on the fly. With most theatre lighting consoles you can't do t

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Germany - The Berlin firm TSE (Technik und Service für Events) AG has invested in an extensive Electro-Voice Ultra Light Compact XLD line array system and a Midas Siena console. For years now, the company has been using an Electro-Voice X-Line system for large venues; the XLD will come into its own at smaller and medium-sized ones.

Explaining the advantages of the compact EV XLD system, Marcel Fery, TSE AG's executive director for equipment and finance, said: "It has a very good sound and is also very powerful and versatile. In addition to corporate events of all kinds, we will be using it for concert productions. With twelve units per side plus the requisite bass, it is even capable of providing coverage for really large events."

What Fery finds most surprising is the fact that the compactness of the enclosures is not achieved at the expense of power. "Natural

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UK - A.C. Lighting's Northern sales office has supplied over £70,000 worth of loose lighting and audio equipment to the newly fitted Carriageworks theatre in Leeds.

The Carriageworks houses two auditoria of 350 and 80 seats with state-of-the-art equipment, rehearsal and dressing rooms, and presents a vibrant mix of plays, musicals, film, community events, youth theatre and workshops. The venue is also the new home of the Leeds Civic Arts Guild, a group of amateur drama, opera and musical companies who will present an ongoing programme of performances.

Venue's technical coordinator, Peter Waddicor, awarded the contract to A.C.'s Northern sales office in Leeds due to the company's ability to provide a complete one-stop-shop solution and rapid response service to meet their needs.

Using the company's dedicated lighting and audio sales teams, large stockholding of entertai

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USA - The world-famous Walt Disney Concert Hall, winter home for the L.A. Philharmonic, and venue for a wide range of musical events, has added an innovative wireless microphone system manufactured by Lectrosonics to match the environment's exacting technical requirements. The nine-channel Venue receiver system comprises a modular UHF design that operates with Digital Hybrid Wireless transmitters, and/or a variety of analogue transmitters. The receiver utilises a mainframe assembly that includes an antenna multi-coupler, communications interface and mounting for up to six receiver modules.

Kevin Wapner, head of audio at Walt Disney Concert Hall, says: "We have a total of nine Lectrosonics SM Series belt-pack transmitters and nine UT400 Series handheld models equipped with AKG C5900 super-cardioid condenser capsules." The 18 Venue receiver modules are paired to offer ni

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Tunisia - Backstage Technology, one of Tunisia's few audio rental companies, has put its newly acquired Adamson speakers to use at the grand opening of a new theme park in Tozeur. Tozeur is the capital of Jerid, the southern part of the country, and is marked by its date Palm Oasis, in which over 200,000 palm trees are irrigated by 200 springs, and is considered to be the doorway to the desert.

Dar Cherait is a cultural tourism complex which contains a unique, private collection that took decades to gather. It includes The Medina, a theme park dedicated to The Tales of the 1001 Nights and 'Dar Zamen', which retraces 3,000 years of Tunisian history. The owner of Dar Cherait, Cherait Jallel, is also responsible for building the new geological and prehistoric theme park named Chak-Wak, on over five hectares of land which celebrates the different steps of the story of man's evolutio

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UK - Scottish audiences enjoyed an early preview of Electro-Voice's new compact line array, the XLD, deployed by FMX Rentals on Cash For Kids charity concerts. The events in Dumfries and in Ayr, could be described as commercial radio's answer to the Children in Need telethons.

With big chart names appearing at the events, such as Liberty X, Girls Aloud and McFly, the FMX team was looking for a bankable solution for their regular client. Setting aside their own Electro-Voice XLC system, "too large for this type of event", they chose EV's recently-launched (PLASA) XLD system, which sets a new standard of precise coverage and dynamic headroom for compact line arrays.The XLD was used as the main PA at the two venues.

With Shuttlesound's Jason Kelly in the supporting role of system tech for the shows, the PA was set up with 12 x XLD 218 and four x XS212 subs

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UK - Highlighting the growing trend to digital audio for the world's biggest music-for-TV shows, Richmond Studios' Toby Alington, contracted to record and post produce his 12th successive BRIT Awards, has confirmed that this year's show will go 'fully digital' for the first time and be recorded digitally for broadcast using Floating Earth's latest SSL C200-equipped recording mobile.

The event's production will see significant changes - the show will move back to the giant Earls Court 1 arena after several years in EC2. The move to digital in the BRITs' broadcast audio follows the successful transition to digital of the live PA sound by the long-standing team of sound designer Derrick Zieba and PA supplier Britannia Row Productions.

Describing the move as "an advanced way of recording a complicated, multi-artist show", Alington says, "we've constantly strived to

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UK - Midas has launched a unique new online service with a section dedicated to the sales of approved used consoles. The manufacturer is offering customers searching for a previously-owned Midas the chance to purchase consoles which have been factory-refurbished to the latest specifications, complete with a 12-month warranty.

In an era when constant investment is required in technology that can quickly become obsolete, the decision to buy a Midas console is an astute one. The entire Midas range is constantly in demand on riders and their infrequent appearance on the second hand market means they retain their resale value. For PA companies worldwide, the assurance that an investment will result in guaranteed rentals is invaluable.

(Chris Henry)

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New Zealand - An Allen & Heath iDR DSP system has been installed in Auckland's Tamaki College Community Recreation Centre to manage audio distribution for the Centre's busy event schedule.

"Until recently we had a system that was too complex for staff to use. The problem is that the venue is used for many events and has a large number of users who didn't understand how their actions could affect other parts of the building. On a regular basis, music would suddenly go on or off, be too loud or too quiet - staff didn't understand how to make the system work for them without a step by step instruction from the manager," explains the centre's manager, Lee Jones. "What we needed was a system that was simple and user friendly, and that's where installers, Jansen Professional Audio & Lighting, came in."

After discussing the problems and requirements of the centre,

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The Netherlands - Sound Leisure Retail (SLR) had its display products present on two stands at the recent Horecava Show in Amsterdam. Versatile Video Systems and Bubbles were supplied to the Budweiser/Guinness and Corona stands at the hospitality exhibition, which is held at the RAI International Exhibition Centre from 9-21 January 2006.

"Video and entertainment interspersed with video advertisements and overlay stills of the Budweiser, Guinness and Corona drinks were shown on both plasma and Bubble screens on the stands and attracted a great deal of attention," said Frans de Pater for Mazzo Nuovo, SLR's exclusive distributor in the Netherlands.

"We are really pleased to have supplied such high profile stands at a show that attracts over 50,000 professionals from the hospitality industry at this, the first specialised exhibition to target this sector," said

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USA - Never was the old adage about two heads being better than one more true than on New Year's Eve, when Mike Pappas, chief engineer of KUVO-FM in Denver, put two Neumann KU 100 "Fritz" binaural microphones into action during National Public Radio's 26th annual Toast to the Nation. The 12-hour coast-to-coast live music special, hosted from the legendary Tipitina's Uptown nightclub in New Orleans, was broadcast in 5.1 surround sound for the second straight year.

"We needed to record a brass line, the classic New Orleans funeral procession," explains Pappas. "I wanted to be able to do that in Conventional stereo and 5.1 surround, so the easy solution was to use a Neumann KU 100." Also known as "Fritz", the KU 100 is a model human head with microphone elements located inside its replica ears that produces highly realistic binaural st

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Italy - The popular HBO/BBC co-production, Rome, will shortly be going into production on its second series, which is scheduled to air in 2007. Having proved the advantages of his Metric Halo Mobile I/O-based hard disc recording system during the debut season's yearlong filming, Italian production mixer, Maurizio Argentieri will once again be using the setup to capture location sound for the show's second season.

Argentieri is a six-year veteran of location sound recording whose credits include: The Passion of the Christ, The Island and A Good Woman. He says of the Metric Halo Mobile I/O 2882+DSP digital interface: "I still haven't found an interface that sounds as good as this. Plus, when I bought it, it was the only interface that could be powered by the computer. For someone who works the way I do, this is very important."

According to

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Belgium - Martin's Maxedia Digital Media Composer was used on one of Belgium's biggest televised musical events of 2005, the TMF Awards. Held at the Sportpaleis in Antwerp, the show's visual elements included a combination of lighting and video effects designed by independent Belgian LD Michiel Milbou.

Besides controlling 73 PixelLine LED fixtures, the Maxedia was used to pixel map 24 automated lights located inside set-cubes on stage. Through DMX merge-channels a seamless crossfade was done from the ArtNet input of the Maxedia to the video pixel mapping of the Maxedia output. A total of 11 DMX universes were pixel mapped on the Maxedia during the four-hour live broadcast event.

"The Maxedia gave me the opportunity to integrate the whole set in one 'picture', says Milbou. "I used a large high resolution LED wall and custom built Mipix elements, and together with the

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Chile - The Estadio San Carlos de Apoquindo, in Santiago, Chile recently hosted Pearl Jam's first visit to the country in their incredible 15-year career. The 2-night Pearl Jam extravaganza, featuring Mudhoney as the opening act, took place on 22 and 23 November, each night attracting over 18,000 people.

In high demand by international tours, Cristian Olavarria Ltd, a sound rental company with 25 years of experience in sound reinforcement, took charge of the production. General Manager Cristian Olavarria, together with their Chief-Engineer, Jaime Zeballos, chose to use their Adamson Y-Axis system. This system has become the most popular rig in their inventory, which also includes EAW, Meyer, and others. To achieve the optimal configuration for this open-air stadium, Jaime used the Adamson Shooter software, which he finds "a breeze to do sound design with".

The main l

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Germany - When it came to specifying a sound system for the new Bowling Arena Spich, near Cologne, the choice was to prove to rather more difficult than first anticipated by the architects. The first thing that made this venue different was its size and the very nature of what it was designed for. The Bowling (which opened in December) centre boasts no less that 24 lanes, which when full (every night) creates a tremendous ground noise. Add to this that fact that venue changes its focus later on in the evening to become what's called a 'Disco Bowling Entertainment Centre' and you have the dream/nightmare acoustic situation.

Their initial response to this was to plump for a 'branded' sound system. But the problem there was that the system lacked speech clarity and directivity due to the lack of HF horns in the system. It was it this point that they turned to RCF and offered them t

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Sweden - Slingco has installed a CABLEnet tensioned wire grid system into the main auditorium at Helsingborg Theatre in Sweden - giving safe and flexible access to the overstage/above auditorium roof space. It's the first tensioned wire grid in Sweden.

Helsingborg was also the first town in Sweden to open a municipal theatre in 1921. Originally housed in a theatre built in 1877, its current building opened in 1976. Helsingborg Theatre is one of the leading producing and receiving houses in the country.

Rochdale-based Slingco - developers of CABLEnet, the leading product in its genre - was visited by architects Peder Lindbom and Torsten Nobling of Stockholm-based AIX Architects at the PLASA Show in 2004. The pair were leading a major refurbishment programme for the theatre, and were very interested in utilising the CABLEnet technology.

Discussions started in early 2005. Sling

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Japan - Originally completed in 1966, Fuji International Speedway in Shizuoka, Japan has hosted numerous national and international racing events, including F1 races. Fuji Speedway is regarded as the circuit most responsible for the development of Japan's modern motor sports. The speedway was temporarily shut down in September 2003 for a major upgrade and recently opened in 2005 as a certified grade 1 course capable of hosting F1 Grand Prix races.

As part of the renovation, Community R-Series loudspeakers were chosen for the main sound system in this state-of-the-art facility. Community R.5's and R2's mounted overhead provide nearfield, medium throw and long throw coverage in the main grandstand area. The sound system for the main grandstand area consists of 76 R.5-94TX's, 38 R2-474X's and 38 R2-694X's.

Community R-Series is the only all-weather product on the market that can

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UK - The nominees for this year's Laurence Olivier Awards, presented by the Society of London Theatres, were announced yesterday. White Light would like to congratulate lighting designers Paule Constable, Rick Fisher, Howard Harrison and Hugh Vanstone, along with the nominees in all of the other categories.

The lighting designers were nominated for Don Carlos at the Gielgud, lit by last year's winner, Paule Constable; Billy Elliot at the Victoria Palace, lit by Rick Fisher, Guys and Dolls at the Piccadilly, lit by Howard Harrison, and Mary Stuart at the Donmar Warehouse and then the Apollo, lit by Hugh Vanstone. Guys and Dolls and Billy Elliot were also nominated in many other categories, receiving a total of eight and nine nominations respectively.

Of the lighting nominees, two shows, Billy Elliot and Mary Stuart used li

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