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Italy - TV lighting designer Pino Quini has specified 12 Robe DigitalSpot 5000DT moving head projectors for the popular series Tutte Donne Tranne Me (All Women Except Me), a one man show starring actor/singer Massimo Ranieri with special guests. The RAI 1 show is broadcast live from Studio 15 of Rome's Cine Citta complex and is on air at 9 p.m. Friday - one of the channel's prime time TV slots.

The scenic design by Marco Calzavara includes a 360 degree white cyclorama which encases the whole studio set, including the seating stands and the stage. "It was an obvious artistic decision to make in filling this space with colour and texturing" explains Quini, but he wanted to go beyond just gobo and lighting effects to moving images and photographic impressions.

The twelve fixtures are being supplied by Di & Di Lighting & Truck SRL from Rome. They are rigged around

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UK - AKG, celebrating its 60th anniversary, and its British distributor Harman Pro UK are showing several of the company's latest products at Sounds Expo 2007 at Olympia.

Perhaps the best commemoration of AKG's heritage on display is the limited anniversary edition of the C414 large-diaphragm recording mic. Only 2007 of these mics are being made worldwide, and only during this year.

Two of AKG's biggest launches this year are the D5 and C5 vocal microphones. The supercardioid D5 is a hard-wearing handheld dynamic mic (also available as the D5S with an on/off switch), while the C5 is a rugged cardioid condenser mic. Both mics are designed for recording or stage use, and use some of AKG's most recently developed microphone technology, including a laminate diaphragm in the D5 and a 24-carat gold-sputtered capsule housing in the C5 as a protection against humidity and moisture bui

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UK - Harman Pro UK dealer Mersysound Productions has completed a project to install conference facilities and a performance Room at the Alima Centre in Liverpool, which is operated by the Novas Group community project.

The installation features a range of Harman products, including a Soundcraft GB4 24 channel mixing console; Crown I-T4000 and Xs500 amplifiers; DBX 260 Loudspeaker EQ & Management System; Lexicon MPX550 Multi-FX processor and a range of JBL Professional speakers including Control 25 Compact 2-way loudspeakers, VRXX932LA line array loudspeakers, an SRX7188 sub woofer and a JRX112M two-way wedge monitor.

The Alima Centre is a multicultural community venue that offers a range of services and educational and training facilities to community arts groups and schools. Its aim is to create a platform for local people to develop their individual, community and cultural a

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UK - Support and training organisation Britt Worldwide UK, held its winter conference at Nottingham Ice Arena under the banner 'The Start of a New Day'. Panda Hire provided and installed the lighting for the event where the aim was to design a flexible lighting rig that could be used for great lighting effects during the introduction and musical play-ons and static lighting for the rest of the weekend.

With this and time restrictions in mind, an all intelligent rig was put together comprising of Martin MAC 700 Profile and MAC 700 Wash units on the front truss and MAC 250 Entour and MAC 250 Wash units to the back truss and stage. Two Jem Glaciators were used stage left and right to create a heavy fog effect for the introduction and Jem Stage Hazers and a Magnum 2000 smoke machine to enhance the lighting.

Lighting designer, Panda's Paul White comments, "The MAC 700 Wash uni

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UK - St Bride's Church in London's Fleet Street - often known as the journalists' church - has taken delivery of some 50 ETC Source Four fixed focus spotlights as part of a refurbishment to replace worn out lighting.

Designed in 1672 by Sir Christopher Wren, the current St Bride's replaced a smaller church of the same name destroyed in the 1666 Great Fire of London. The 234 ft spire, added in 1701, was the tallest ever designed by Wren and was supposed to withstand both lightning and war. The tower's shape, which looks like three tiers, has led to it being dubbed the Wedding Cake Church. It has a traditional link with journalists and newspaper proprietors, who paid for it to be rebuilt after it was gutted by incendiary bombs dropped by the Luftwaffe in 1940.

Since then, it has acquired a reputation as not only a place of worship for traditional services, but also for concerts

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UK - After thirty years, the powerful drama Equus has returned to London's West End, with lighting designed by David Hersey and supplied by PRG Europe. Daniel Radcliffe, better known for playing the lead role in the Harry Potter movies, plays the part of a 17-year old who has a passion for horses, with Richard Griffiths as psychiatrist Martin Dysart.

Written by Peter Shaffer in 1973, the show, which is produced by David Pugh and directed by Thea Sharrock, has received rave reviews since it started previews on 16 February with a standing ovation for Radcliffe, surprising many of his critics. The lighting includes some 140 Source Four luminaires and over thirty moving lights, as well as a number of custom gobos produced by PRG Europe's Gobo Resource facility.

Production electrician for the show, which is being staged at the Gielgud Theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue, is Ian Moulds; p

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USA - Through a generous grant provided by GE Consumer & Industrial, Thomas Edison House in Louisville (KY) has installed new museum lighting. The project was completed in commemoration of Thomas Edison's 160th birthday. The inventor lived and worked in Louisville, and later became the founder of the General Electric Company.

Kevin Ruppelt, general manager of Water Products, GE Consumer & Industrial, and a member of the Thomas Edison House's Board of Regents, comments: "This was a great way to utilise GE's design, products and resources, and to give back to our local community. Thomas Edison would be proud of GE's advances in lighting technology and what we've done to highlight his inventions at the Museum. We are proud of our heritage."

The lighting installed at the Museum includes GE's new Diamond Precise track lighting designed for interior museum applications. Di

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USA - Super Vision International Inc is changing its name to Nexxus Lighting Inc, with effect from April 2007, and is relocating its corporate headquarters to Charlotte, North Carolina. These changes are part of the company's new strategic plan to direct its focus toward advanced technology lighting products and systems. The company's stock symbol will change from 'SUPVA' to 'NEXS' in April 2007, and trading under the new 'NEXS' symbol is also expected to start in April.

The company will focus its resources on the rapidly expanding market for LED lighting system technologies, fibre optic lighting technologies and other new emerging white light technologies through both new product development and potential strategic acquisitions. "Nexxus Lighting can be viewed as a brand new company with a solid foundation and a very clear vision," stated Mike Bauer, president and CEO.

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UK - Roadmender in Northampton is a long-established contemporary performing and visual arts centre which is now under new management and stages concerts including rock, reggae, hiphop, dance, world, jazz roots and experimental music.

The Fabtronic Group in Northampton was asked to provide an alternative to architectural LED lighting and colour-changing products. The new system was designed, programmed and commissioned by Chris Hobbins, events and special projects manager at Fabtronic. He says, "My solution was the CX-10 Extreme to provide colour change, morphing texture effects and gobo projection."

The venue was also refurbished during this project, using a good selection of Martin products which included, MAC 250s, Atomic Strobes, Martin Roboscan 218s, Martin Roboscan 518s, Martin Freekie, Jem ZR-12 DMX and Jem ZR-30.

(Jim Evans)

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USA/Japan - Analogue signal processing and mixing equipment manufacturer API Audio has appointed Mix Wave as its Japanese distributor.

Hide Suzuki, director, pro audio sales manager at Mix Wave says: "API manufactures some of the very best analogue equipment in the world. They've been making waves for decades, and with the industry's renewed interest in imparting an analogue sound on digital recordings, interest in API keeps increasing. For those customers who were clambering for API, we're happy to add them to our line card. For those customers who haven't heard of API's products, we're happy to let them hear what they've been missing!"

API's managing director, Gordon Smart, commented: "We're extremely pleased to have Mix Wave as our distributor in the important Japanese professional audio market, and we look forward to working closely with them."

(Jim E

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Sweden/USA - Wireless Solution Sweden AB and Illumivision, Inc. recently turned the Murray Lock and Dam Bridge in Little Rock, Arkansas into a spectacular tourist attraction. The newly constructed pedestrian and bicycle bridge over Murray Lock and Dam, dubbed the "Big Dam Bridge", recently held a special ceremony to show off its new look, bejewelled with coloured lights.

The bridge, which spans the Arkansas River, is 4,226 feet long, with a span over the river totalling 3,463 feet, according to the US Army Corps of Engineers. Billed as the world's longest pedestrian and bicycle bridge, construction was completed in August 2006. The addition of lights was completed a few months later.

Illumivision of Edmonton, Alberta, was responsible for the design and installation of the bridge lighting - 169 Illumivision Light Wave LX fixtures are installed at the base of the thirt

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Finland - For the Finnish Symphony Orchestra's Tapiola Sinfonietta, lighting and set designer Valo Virtanen used the Martin MAC TW1 because of its "quiet operation, power and functionality". Tapiola Sinfonietta wanted to deviate from the typical black suits and concert lights to create a story about musicians' fantasies, both happy and sad, by incorporating acrobats, magicians, dancers, singers, and even a "wild vacuum cleaner".

Valo chose the MAC TW1 tungsten washlight because "traditionally powerful Tungsten washlights have been a problem. When the TW1 came out our local distributor Electrosonic Lightinen kindly sent one to me for testing. Now we have twenty on tour. Its "quiet operation - not just virtually silent - combines with really good colour mixing and a wide zoom range to make these units heavy workhorses for us. I really enjoy working wi

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Czech Republic - This June, Prague will host the combined celebration of design for theatre at the Prague Quadrennial and the PQ Scenofest. In June every four years, Prague hosts an international competition of the work of individual designers and nations. The best design from across the world will be on display for the 10 days of the Quadrennial.

Scenofest sits in the very heart of the Quadrennial, designed to bring the next generation of designers together to collaborate as a part of a huge range of exhibitions, performances and workshops. The world's greatest designers will take part as workshop leaders and in delivering a series of Lectures and presentations.

The venue is the Industrial Palace, and the PQ organisers have given Scenofest pride of place in the Central Hall. This space will see a 300-seat theatre space, workshop areas and exhibition areas - and the Tower of B

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UK - Leicestershire-based Hawthorns, providers of lighting, sound and video have announced the acquisition of Core Creative from The Concerto Group.

Managing director Martin Hawthorn comments, " We have been looking for some time now for London premises and the opportunity arose. Having an established base in London provides another resource to the London customer as we continue to grow. An increasing amount of our conference and party work is London-based and now is a great time to build on that success with Core's experienced full time staff and equipment based in town."

The Hawthorn inventory of £5 million worth of state-of-the-art lighting, sound, drapes and staging will be based across the two locations, supporting the events market with their creative in-house project management team and the continued dry hire of equipment. The move will make Hawthorn a &

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South Africa - Ingonyama Productions, based in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), South Africa, recently purchased a Soundcraft MH3, 32-channel mixing console. Ngubane Thabani, owner of Ingonyama, comments, "We are getting more and more calls for a variety of high profile live events in this area. It's vital to have a desk that's built to perform in diverse circumstances."

Gary Furman, of Wild and Marr KZN, adds: "Ingonyama Productions has come a long way in the last year - due in part to the fact that they offer a professional service coupled to their planned buying process, ensuring that their inventory is scalable and cutting edge.

"The Soundcraft MH3 together with its dbx and BSS processing, Crown I-Tech amplification, JBL VRX line array system as well as other professional products, gives them the tools they need to become a major force in the touring and production

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Germany - BSS Audio has provided advanced site-wide digital distribution at Movie Park Germany - a major amusement park in Bottrop-Kirchhellen, which is continuously evolving and expanding. The Park welcomes around 1.5 million visitors a year into its 40,000sq.ft facility, who have access to 40 different shows, 15 shops and 24 restaurants. Further facilities will be added prior to the park reopening on 31 March following the winter recess.

Having acquired the site in 2004 from Six Flags Inc, early last year the park's operators, Belgian-based StarParks recently embarked on a major technology upgrade and commissioned a new audio-visual infrastructure, based around a central BSS Audio Soundweb London DSP/distribution system.

Under the supervision of technology integrators, FACE, the installation began in the early summer and was completed by the end of the year. Using Soundweb L

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UK - i-Vision has designed, supplied and installed a colour-changing LED lighting system for Flamingos, a brand new gay clubbing destination concept in central Bristol. The 900 capacity club is independently owned by Stuart Hayles, who saw a gap in the market for a really top notch gay nightclub in the city.

Hayles asked i-Vision's Luke Dodd to design the lighting following Dodd's eye-catching scheme at L!QU!D, a new club in Chepstow also owned by Hayles. "Lighting is absolutely fundamental to creating and enhancing moods, and no cutting edge clubbing environment is complete without good lighting and sound these days" he says.

Flamingos' main room (Arena 1) features R'n'B and dance music, a bar and a VIP area upstairs. Its walls are up-lit with 18 of i-Vision's Lumos 3 fittings, "The perfect fixture for the job" says Dodd. Three bubble tanks behind the bar

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UK - Dialight Lumidrives, in collaboration with the University of Manchester, has been awarded a grant by the Department of Trade and Industry-led Technology Programme for a £330,000 project to develop new technology platforms for next generation LED lighting modules. The applied research programme runs until April 2008 and aims to produce a number of high output LED modules with light outputs exceeding 12,000 lumens.

The modules will integrate thermal management, optical control and high reliability drive electronics to maximise the benefits of LED technology in existing lighting applications such as architectural, road way and industrial lighting.

Welcoming the new partnership, Science and Innovation Minister, Malcolm Wicks said: "The UK has a proud history of innovation in science and technology. We believe that we must work with industry to develop the marketabl

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Russia - A major ADB lighting installation has been completed as part of the reconstruction of the leading theatre in Siberia, the Novosibirsk National Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet, built in 1945. The installation, by ADB's Russian Federation partner, DOKA Media, has created a state-of-the-art stage lighting environment in the theatre, which is used mainly for opera and theatrical productions and is regularly lit by the leading Lighting Designers from Moscow and St Petersburg.

The work involved full replacement of the existing lighting equipment for the main stage, as well as innovative approaches to networking. The task was huge, and made even more challenging by the regulations governing the restoration of this historical building.

ADB equipment is at the heart of the system and includes Phoenix 10/XT and 5/XT control systems, interfaced via Ethernet directly with th

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Slovakia - Czech pro audio distributor Prodance combined a dealer launch of RCF's TT+ line array with some major music event in Bratislava. The 800 plus charity event featured a complete cross section of entertainment which included folk music, chamber music, rock and even tap dancing!

Daniel Smutný, Prodance's technical support was on hand to meet the dealers on the Friday morning. He says: "The TT+ system and rigging is very user-friendly and the whole array, comprising six TTL33-As per side, were flown with ease in no time at all with two TTS28-As ground-stacked below, this really impressed some of our customers who had turned up early to view the whole event. The set-up of the actual array was also quickly taken care of with the aid of the RCF TT+ Shaper software; this takes just a few minutes to enter details of the venue and then gives you all the array configuration

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UK - Kylie Minogue has made a strong return to touring and performance after her courageous and public battle with breast cancer. Her Homecoming tour has been winning rave reviews, including a recent series of seven sold-out dates at London's Wembley Arena.

Front-of-house engineer Christopher Pyne specified a multiple line array system featuring Milo high-power curvilinear array loudspeakers. The main arrays of 16 cabinets per side were augmented by two side arrays of 16 Mica compact high-power curvilinear array loudspeakers each and front-fill from 12 M'elodie ultracompact high-power curvilinear array loudspeakers. The rig was driven by three LD-3 compensating line drivers.

"A lot of people aren't aware that Wembley Arena was built as the swimming venue for the Olympics and British Empire Games (now the Commonwealth Games), shortly after World War II," says P

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France - InnovaSon has announced the appointment of Camco as its new German distributor with effect from 1 March 2007. Camco, based in Wenden-Gerlingen in western Germany, is best known as a manufacturer of high quality power amplifiers, but the company also has a thriving German distribution wing that handles Camco amplifiers, Nexo loudspeaker products, and now InnovaSon digital mixing consoles.

InnovaSon sales and marketing director Xavier Pion is confident that this new partnership with Camco will consolidate his company's presence in Germany. "Camco is ideally placed to achieve this," noted Pion. "They already have a very strong sales network in place that targets our market completely, and the products that they currently distribute are highly complementary to our own. This, in turn, benefits everybody, as it enables Camco to propose complete, high-quality so

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UK - The John Madejski Academy in Reading is the latest of the DfES Academies Programme designed to raise the level of attainment in England's inner cities by introducing a distinctive approach to school leadership.

Specialising in sport, the John Madejski Academy will have capacity for approximately 1,100 students, but the infrastructure also includes a technically-equipped auditorium and separate dance/drama studio, provided by Leicester-based Hawthorn Theatrical.

Contracted to the main construction company, Costain, the company has turned to Martin Audio sound reinforcement components as part of its audio-visual design model - extending the company's relationship with the AQ series.

According to Hawthorn's installation manager Simon Ling, the versatility of the AQ series meets the many requirements of a general purpose assembly hall, while the textured light grey factory

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UK - HSL is supplying lighting for the current Ricky Gervais UK theatre and arena tour, which has been designed by Arturo Ollandini. HSL is once again working with Phil McIntyre Productions who are promoting the multi-award-winning writer/comedian. It follows on in the comedy vein from their successful work together on League of Gentleman in 2005 and Mitchell and Webb in 2006. HSL's Mike Oates is overseeing the account and comments, "It's great to continue including a healthy spot of comedy in our comprehensive theatre repertoire. It's a very specific genre to light and requires special detail."

Operating the show on tour is John Slevin, who is working with Simon 'Piggy' Lynch. The rig features two 56 ft long mid and back trusses and a 40ft front one - all pre-rigged, and slightly randomly loaded with PARs and ACLs. There are seven ETC Source fours on the front truss,

  1. New look PALME Asia in Singapore
  2. Toronto's Four Seasons Meyer Sound System
  3. Loud Technologies acquires Martin Audio
  4. BBC Studios switch to Clear-Com
  5. Maryland church installs DL.2s
  6. Wideline rocks in Italian quarry
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