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Korea - Recently built, the five hundred-seat Jung Sung Po Temple is situated on South Korea's second largest island, Keo Je Do, which is joined to the mainland by a bridge. The temple is part of the Chon Tae Order, a new Buddhist movement that promotes patriotism, Buddhism in daily life and the teachings of Buddha for the common man. The temple authorities approached d&b audiotechnik's Korean partner, Hak Kwon Kim, with a view to installing a d&b sound system to enable the congregation to fully appreciate the monks' Mass. "One of the monks, who was in charge of the PA installation, had previously heard a d&b system," explained Kim, "and hence the approach to us."

"We installed Max monitors and Ci80s on the altar immediately adjacent to the Buddha and used d&b E-PAC amplifiers to power the loudspeakers," continued Kim. "All the loudspeaker cabi

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UK - Large format projection specialists ETC UK supplied five 6Kw PIGI film projectors with double rotating scrollers and four Barco R18 video projectors for Music On Fire, a spectacular three-day mixed-media extravaganza and Firework Prom staged at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, Surrey.

ETC UK amalgamated its new OnlyView video control system with the Pigi large format film projection and control platform, OnlyCue, to bring the projections alive on the 150 metre wide by 10 metre high, cream painted, Old Academy building. This provided the graphic and pictorial backdrop to the two-hour event, which featured a two-act narrative and music from an amalgamation of several different military orchestras and bands, plus special guests, and pyrotechnics from Pyro Vision.

Music On Fire was devised and produced by Major Sir Michael Parker for the Army Benevo

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USA - DSS, Inc., has designed and supplied the UMB Bank Pavilion in St. Louis, with a new lawn delay system featuring JBL Vertec line arrays.

Live Nation, operator of the UMB Bank Pavilion, needed to upgrade the concert experience for guests who frequent the open-air venue to enjoy the many top-tier entertainment attractions hosted there. Shows booked for the 2006 season included Aerosmith, Dave Matthews Band, Sammy Hagar, Toby Keith, Tom Petty and Rascal Flatts.

After repairing the older, existing lawn-area sound system year after year, the decision was made to purchase a new, more capable system. Increased fidelity, improved output capabilities and acceptance by visiting tour sound professionals were design goals. DSS, a midwestern firm specialising in production technologies and sound reinforcement system integration with both event rentals and installation departments, was

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Norway - 3M Optical Systems reports that its Vikuiti rear projection display screens have played a successful role in the €200,000 Ladies European Tour, SAS Masters Golf tournament, which took place in Oslo.

According to Pål Berg, CEO of Norwegian integrators, Gobex, rear projection offered the most robust display solution to present the scores to spectators at several locations on the course. "We needed a display capable of producing bright and crisp images under challenging conditions, including long viewing distances, wide viewing angles, and high ambient light levels. The Vikuiti screen was also the only one of its kind with an integrated anti-glare surface, which has proved absolutely essential for the success of the GolfScore system," said Berg.

Gobex developed the GolfScore system for golf courses everywhere to collate scores directly using 3G mobile and Int

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UK - XL Video is supplying video playback, camera systems and crew for the current hi-energy McFly arena tour. Britain's most popular young nu-pop band continue riding the rollercoaster of success on the cusp of their third 'Motion In The Ocean' album - due for release in November.

XL has worked on previous McFly tours and the account is handled for them by Phil Mercer, who says: "We had a very specific brief in terms of the design and configuration of the upstage video element. With an extensive inventory of the latest LED technology, XL made this a tourable reality."

Peter Barnes was brought in by Production North as artistic director. He's created an innovative video design based around a large onstage screen amalgamating Barco S-Lite 10XP high resolution LED screen panels and Barco O-Lite low-res modules, arranged in a jagged edged chequerboard effect.

This is

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UK - Thorns Group was among Europe's winners as it supplied equipment and expertise to the hospitality facilities for this year's Ryder Cup at Ireland's K Club. The group was hired by event specialist Tapenade to provide a range of equipment for over 5,000 visitors to the club. Two separate Thorns Group divisions were involved in the assignment - with Thorns Furniture and Catering Hire supplying large quantities of furniture and catering equipment and Classic Technical Services providing lighting, power and sound services.

Paul Vesper, of Surrey-based Tapenade, said: "Thorns provided an integral part to this event, including the after-event party. Everything went as planned."

The Classic team, which was headed by Account Director Paul Seeney, distributed more than 10km of cabling and installed over 300 lighting units at the K Club for Tapenade. The division also prov

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UK - Integrated Systems Europe has announced that registration is now open for ISE 2007, which will take place 30th January - 1st February 2007 at the Amsterdam RAI, with the support of the three associations; CEDIA, InfoComm International and NSCA.

An innovation at ISE 2007 will be the multimedia conferencing pavilion, which will feature the latest products and technologies in video, audio and web conferencing. Integrated Systems Europe managing director, Mike Blackman comments, "While we can boast an unprecedented number of exhibitors signed up for the show, occupying the largest floor space in the history of ISE, we want visitors to come away with a feeling of a total systems integration experience that will motivate, inspire and excite. The support from our sponsoring organisations as well as our exhibitors, has been instrumental in being able to achieve these magnifice

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UK - Bandit Lites UK has renewed its acquaintance with lively rockers McFly, currently undertaking a nationwide arena tour. The overall lighting, video and integrated visual and set design was created by Peter Barnes, working closely with lighting director Graham Feast. The tour is being produced by Production North's Iain Whitehead.

The lighting contract is managed for Bandit by Lester Cobrin, who says "The design is based on three trusses, underpinned by the fundamental principals of rock 'n' roll lighting - keeping things fast, adrenalised, exciting and matching whilst complimenting the explosive energy levels of the band onstage."

The rear truss has six custom built trusses hanging vertically downwards from it, providing architectural definition to the higher part of the visual picture, and also framing the jagged edged video screens. Each vertical truss contains

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USA - A crowd estimated by police to be 500,000 strong celebrated Independence Day at and around Boston's Hatch Shell, an outdoor concert venue adjacent to the Charles River, by listening to the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra and Aerosmith rockers Steven Tyler and Joe Perry. Scorpio Sound provided concert audio services for the event, including JBL Vertec line array systems.

In addition to the massive onsite live audience, millions of viewers also watched the July 4th event with a one-hour television special broadcast over the CBS television network. "Production for this event is all about the TV show," explained Scorpio Sound's Kevin Delaney. "Offstage scaffolding towers are positioned to support the main concert arrays near the Hatch Shell, and these are fully draped to give a visually attractive presentation for the broadcast screen."

Scorpio's sound re

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Spain - There were celebrations in Barcelona last week, as Nacho Alberdi returned home from London with a special PLASA Award for Innovation to share with his Vieta team. The Award was given to Vieta for its revolutionary new wireless loudspeaker series, the So Line, and was one of only three awards given to audio product development.

The Innovation Awards are intended to recognise the essential quality of innovation in the fields represented by PLASA - lighting, sound, engineering, AV and staging for entertainment, presentation and installation. At the special Awards ceremony, attended by special guest Sir George Martin, eight awards were presented in recognition of the impressive design and development work going on across the industry.

The Award recognises the considerable achievement of the Vieta Pro team, led by MD Nacho Alberdi and product designers Jordi Hernandez and J

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USA - The Rolling Stones have invited hip-hop superstar Kanye West to join the first three dates of their North American tour this month. West will be bringing his unique rapping style and an AKG Acoustics WMS 4000 Wireless System to The Rolling Stones A Bigger Bang world tour for several dates.

Over the past year, Kanye West has been noted for using AKG Acoustics microphone products for his live show performances. During last year's Touch the Sky tour, West used an AKG WMS 4000 Wireless System with C 5900 M condenser capsule to deliver his high-energy performances.

West's debut album, The College Dropout has sold over three million copies and to date, he has won six GRAMMY Awards and has received a total of eight nominations.

(Jim Evans)

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Sweden - Lab.gruppen reports that it enjoyed "a truly stellar" PLASA 2006. Tremendous interest was generated by the introduction of eight new models in the Lab.gruppen line, says the company, with the FP+ Series catching the attention of a variety of potential customers from major sound rental companies to theatre and AV specialists.

The C Series line extension models also garnered compliments. The four new 8- and 4-channel models are designed for use as part of large C Series installations and in stand-alone mode for boardrooms, audio/visual presentations, cafés, exhibits, bars and in general for applications where lower power per channel with quality sound is desired.

The FP+ Series, includes, the FP 13000 (2 x 6500 W), FP 10000Q (4 x 2500 W), FP 7000 (2 x 3500 W) and FP 6000Q (4 x 1500 W), all ratings at 2 ohms. The new C Series models are, C 20:8X (8 x 250

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USA - Pro Sound Service installed JBL Vertec line arrays and AE Series loudspeakers at the Tweeter Center in Mansfield, MA for the 2006 summer concert and event season.

The Tweeter Center is a 19,900-seat outdoor venue with a covered, roofed section of about 7,500 seats with the balance in an open seating area. A wall at the back of the seating area separates it from the community. The new sound reinforcement system to serve the lawn area was designed and installed by Pro Sound Service, a 16-year-old firm that has been providing repair and maintenance on the venue's existing system for 10 years.

Until installation of the new system, there had been an ongoing noise-complaint issue from the neighbourhood located behind the back wall of the facility. A 16-foot high wall barrier had been erected to alleviate noise complaints after the town established a maximum allowable sound pre

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Canada - Robe moving lights have been specified for the Canadian premier of Cirque Niagara's spectacular Avaia show, staged in the 60,000 sq.ft Celestial Palace big top tent at Rapidsview Park, Niagara Falls.

Created by Russian circus impresario Mairbek Kantemirov and declared an instant classic, Avaia is one of the most anticipated and powerful productions of 2006, amalgamating rare and beautiful horses, acrobats and hair-raising theatrical performance.

The Robes were supplied to Soundbox Productions -who are co-ordinating and overseeing all the show's technical elements - by Robes Canadian distributor Intellimix Lighting and Ontario Sales Rep, Randy Segeren.

The fixtures were specified by Soundbox's lighting and design team of Tran Langford and Jeff Lavallee. A total of 18 Robe ColorSpot 1200 ATs and twenty-four ColorWash 575 AT fixtures are being utilised fo

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USA - The International Manufacturing Technology Show (IMTS) held at Chicago's McCormick Center in September featured a new booth concept from Swedish manufacturer, Sandvik Coromant AB. The 5,000 square foot booth (494 sq.meters) more closely resembled a mystical ice palace bathing in the Northern Lights than a regular tool display.

IMTS is North America's largest tool show, featuring 1400 companies and attracting over 85,000 visitors. While most exhibitors relied on standard overhead fluorescent lighting and basic displays, Sandvik employed Gyromedia and Spectra Stage & Event Technologies to create a dramatic theatrical lighting scheme.

Sandvik had 22 tons of ice flown in from Sweden's famed Ice Hotel for the booth, the first time the special ice has ever been brought into the US. A 6-ton ice bar was the main attraction, and 7-foot tall ice sculptures featuring the Sandvik lo

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UK - Formerly with Reuters, Matt Hassock has established Pixellent Display Systems, a company designed to provide complete solutions for a wide range of public display projects. "Buying a display isn't just about purchasing the hardware," explains Hassock. "The end result needs to be carefully planned so that there's a maximum return on investment for the customer.

"The traditional buying pattern is to purchase the display first and then work out how to get the required content onto it. My experience allows me to look at things in a different way. My approach is to find out exactly what the client needs the end result to be, and then source and engineer the best products available to do the job."

Hassock spent twenty years with Reuters news agency, where he oversaw its trading room displays and video systems and was the instigator of analogue systems f

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Belgium - Unit 4 - the specialist outside broadcast truck built around a DiGiCo D5 Live console by Belgian company DB Videoproductions - was enlisted to provide a live to air audio mix for Flemish radio station Q-Music's promotional tour.

Taking place in mid-August, the tour took in five Belgian cities in five days, visiting Sint-Truiden, Brugge, Gent, Mechelen and St. Niklaas. Featuring performances by a range of artists - including Level 42, Sister Sledge, ABC and heavy metallers Udo - each show was a free outdoor event and broadcast live on Q-Music.

DB Videoproductions and Unit 4 were brought in to provide a live mix for the live radio transmission, as well as making a multitrack recording. The show's live audio production utilised another pair of DiGiCo D5s on FOH and monitors, supplied by hire company Soundfield, with two stage racks and three local racks. Fibre optic mul

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USA - The 2006 VMAs night broadcast by MTV from New York's Radio City Music Hall featured coverage of the movie and music stars' arrival on the red carpet outside, with Coemar's iWash Halos, ParLite LED, SuperCyc's e Panorama Cyc's performing key roles.

Lighting designer for Light Action, Tom Kenny provided an eye catching show for fans, reporters and TV cameras.

(Jim Evans)

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The Netherlands - Pixlvision, the Netherlands' new centre for professional video distribution, sales, solutions, support and training, has opened for business with office and warehouse facilities located in Utrecht.

The new company, headed by video industry specialist Hans Denekamp, will focus primarily on the importing and distribution of high-end professional video systems. It also has a fully-equipped solutions and support department that can help integrators, designers and end users find solutions for every video application, from installation to rental. Clients include AV system integrators, broadcast facilities, rental companies and cinemas.

The first product lines to be confirmed are Analog Way, Doremi, Smart-AVI and JL Cooper, making Pixlvision the country's leading supplier of hard disk recorders, video matrix switchers, decoders and accessories.

Alongside its siste

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USA - Daystar Television Network is the second largest Christian television network in the US and broadcasts all over the world. Based out of Bedford, Texas, the network recently purchased a Martin lighting and control package for its Studio A which features the station's flagship production Celebration.

The package consists of MAC 550 profile spots, Maxxyz lighting console and a very recent purchase of Martin's Maxedia Digital Media Composer, all supplied by Gemini Stage & Lighting of Dallas. The network also plans to add MAC 700 Profiles.

Michael Cerione, television lighting director and lighting designer at Daystar, commented, "The Martin lights have done everything we have expected, and we have only touched the surface of what they can do. They give movement and really set the mood for the music portions of our productions, as well as helping create an atmosphe

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Sweden - Power amplifier designer and manufacturer, Lab.gruppen, celebrated the company's most successful year ever, and the launch of the new FP+ Series and line-extending C Series amplifiers, by inviting its worldwide distributors to Kungsbacka, Sweden, for the first ever Lab.gruppen distributor conference. The event was held pre-Plasa in early September and more than 45 distributors made the journey to the factory.

Attendees were treated to the unveiling of the new FP+ Series, which includes the FP 13000 (2 x 6500 W), FP 10000Q (4 x 2500 W), FP 7000 (2 x 3500 W) and FP 6000Q (4 x 1500 W) all ratings at 2 ohms, and the new C Series models C 20:8X (8 x 250 W), C 10:4X (4 x 250 W), C 10:8X (8 x 125 W) and C 5:4X (4 x 125 W) all ratings at 4, 8, 16 Ohms and 70V.

Lab.gruppen MD Tomas Lilja opened the conference during breakfast at the factory. Delegates were then split into four

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UK - The Prize Stage at the PLASA '06 After Show Bar once again proved a resounding success, attracting crowds at Earls Court 1's central bar on the Sunday and Tuesday evening of PLASA '06.

The Prize Stage was sponsored by nine of the industry's major players and on both evenings the main event was the £1000 prize draw. The two lucky winners were Gary Sales and Alex McEwan.

"The prospect of winning £1000 was an enticing proposition to make me go and look at all the participating company's products," said McEwan. "This is the second year running I've been to the PLASA Show and the Prize Stage was certainly a very welcome added bonus."

Mc Ewan explained that the money will go towards helping him set up his new business: "I've worked freelance for quite some time and have now set up a production company based in the Birmingham area, so I'm g

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Australia - Brisbane's North-South Bypass Tunnel (NSBT) is a massive project; a new road that will connect north-south traffic under Brisbane between Woolloongabba and Bowen Hills. This vital piece of infrastructure to the Brisbane community will open by 2010 and in the meantime a new permanent NSBT Visitors' Centre has opened in Kangaroo Point.

The Visitors' Centre is an initiative of the Brisbane City Council, Rivercity Motorway and LBBJV Consortium who, as part of Queensland's largest Public Private Partnership (PPP), has created a state-of-the-art information centre for Brisbane residents and visitors. The Centre features artist impressions, models of the finished tunnels, maps, photography throughout the construction and short construction videos.

Brisbane-based Iceworks Design was given only seven weeks to design the centre from initial concept sketch through to finished

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Australia - Jands Production Services (JPS), Australia's largest sound rental company, has made a significant upgrade to its monitor systems, including the purchase of 12 Clair Bros Audio (CBA) custom Dolby Lake Processors. The units feature proprietary software and custom CBA presets not available in the standard Dolby Lake Processors.

Additionally, JPS purchased 48 new Crown MA3600 amplifiers and added an extra 32 Clair Bros Audio 12AM monitor wedges to its already extensive CBA speaker inventory. The new monitor racks debuted in September on a national concert tour by the Australian electro-rock band, Rogue Traders. Monitor engineer Ben Shapiro commented: "This is the best monitor system I have ever heard. They sound absolutely fantastic. After I ran the 12AMs with the new Clair Dolby Lake Processor presets, I left my outboard equalizers back at the shop!"

The Dol

  1. Bandit on parade at London Fashion Week
  2. Stagecraft helps dinosaurs feed
  3. Shakira's Oral Fixation with Clay Paky
  4. LeAnn Rimes takes DL.2s on tour
  5. MA Lighting at the Ice Bar
  6. Adlib Audio with Scissor Sisters
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