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UK - One of the pioneers of early HD projection technology in event staging, London-based QED Productions has adopted the latest generation 3-chip DLP technology with the purchase of eight Christie HD8K projectors.

QED director Paul Wigfield says that these devices are the brightest high definition projectors in their class, setting new standards in quality and ease of use. "We are delighted to begin a new partnership with Christie and I can confirm that this purchase is just the start," he promises. QED is also the first company in the world to take delivery of the new HD18K extreme high brightness projectors from Christie.

Wigfield set up QED with co-director Stephen Heliczer over 20 years ago, since when they have remained in the vanguard of technical production in a range of sectors from prestigious live events to broadcast. "We had been looking closely at t

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Germany - When Dortmund-based Licht & Ton set out to find a digital console that would handle their special event and concert work, versatility and accessibility were top of their list.

After researching the market, the new, fully-featured Soundcraft Vi4 comfortably met the criteria. Remarking on the desk's sound quality and state-of-the-art design, Dortmund proprietor, Wilhelm 'Helmer' Lennertz, highlighted a number of special features - in particular the console's Vistonics II touch-screen Interface, allowing the sound engineer to access 24 full channels at a time, and the incorporation of other interfaces (particularly the MADI link).

"In my eyes the Vi4 was simply the most professional and user friendly console - with the best quality sound - currently in the marketplace," he said. The desk was supplied by Audio Pro, Soundcraft's German distributor.

(Jim Evans)

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USA - Democracy Now!, an award-winning national, daily independent news programme that airs on over 500 radio and TV stations in North America, has recently taken delivery of an InnovaSON Sy48 digital mixing console and a remote Stage Box to handle a live news broadcast five days per week. Pioneering the largest public media collaboration in the US, Democracy Now! is broadcast on Pacifica, community and National Public Radio stations; on public access cable television stations and satellite television; as a podcast and on the internet.

Democracy Now! chief broadcast engineer, Nick Marcilio, explains why he opted for an InnovaSON console over anything else. "There were a number of reasons," he remarked. "I'd seen the board side by side with a number of other digital console brands at a recent AES show, and was struck by the versatility of the d

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UK - London's Comedy Store recently installed an Allen & Heath iLive digital mixing system to improve sound quality and manage the complexaudio distribution needs of the club.

Initially, it seemed iLive would exceed the demands of the application but after consulting the club's technical team it became clear that it was a more complex installation.

Input sources include a stage mic, an MC mic, radio mics for improve groups, and DVD and CD playback devices, whilst the club's output structure is complex with 12 matrices feeding various speaker zones - including different seating sections, the bar area, toilets and entrance hall - plus time align delays, and broadcast feeds for Paramount Comedy channel and the BBC, who both record shows at the Store.

The club also has a tiny sound booth requiring a console with a small footprint, and, due to the demanding schedule, the club emp

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New Zealand - Processing devices from BSS Audio have helped bring a new aviation heritage centre, majoring on World War 1 aircraft, to life. The highly anticipated Omaka Aviation Heritage Centre is an exciting new concept specialising in aviation history. Located just outside Blenheim in the Marlborough region of the South Island of New Zealand the centre's first exhibition, Knights of the Sky, occupies 3,000sq.m of purpose-built display area. The collection is managed by the 14-18 Aviation Heritage Trust, chaired by the New Zealand film Director Peter Jackson and comprises one of the world's largest collections of World War 1 aircraft and memorabilia; this has been brought to life with a number of dramatically staged static displays along with functional planes.

From the AV perspective the entire project was managed by Grant Collie of technical solutions company LDPS, Ne

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Japan - Beyonce kicked off her Beyonce Experience world tour on 10 April with a large video-dominated production featuring 14 High End Systems DL.2 digital light fixtures, the most ever specified on tour, in the design. LD is Justin Collie of ArtFag; DL.2 supplier is XL Touring Video of Los Angeles.

John Wiseman, CEO and president of XL Touring Video, says, "This is not only a large tour in terms of scale of production, but in terms of fixture quantity, this is the largest tour DL.2 has ever been on. We're proud to be supplying the fixtures for it. The DL.2s are a major element in Justin Collie's design, and this is definitely a visual experience to see."

The tour started in Tokyo, moves to Australia, hits Europe/UK in April-June, and North American arenas July-September.

(Jim Evans)

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The Netherlands - Dutch rental company Orion Licht en Geluid didn't own a single piece of QSC equipment until one of its customers requested QSC amplification and WideLine loudspeakers for a new discotheque he was building. A few months later, and Orion has now become the first company in Holland to be able to offer QSC's new WideLine 10 line array system - from its own rental fleet.

With 25 years' experience behind them, the production hire company had been considering investing in a line array system of their own for some time, to service their wide range of event productions. "We were impressed with how perfectly the QSC system had worked in this discotheque," remembers Orion's commercial manager, Remko Langendonk. And before long Jos Muller from QSC distributors, Holland Audio Import (HAI), was knocking on his door.

"We had already looked at the major compet

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Denmark - Architects Dissing + Weitling have created a combination of form and function in Bryggebro, a 190m long, 7m wide bicycle and pedestrian bridge that forms part of Copenhagen's growing network of pedestrian and cycling paths. Inaugurated in September 2006, Bryggebroen is a swing bridge for the passage of large ships, and the first bridge built over the city's harbour in 50 years.

Besides saving Copenhageners several minutes on their commutes, not to mention providing a safe and beautiful alternative to the noise and trafficked roads, visually Bryggebro connects two sides of Copenhagen - Islands Brygge with Havneholmen - while defining the space of the harbour.

At night the bridge stands as a lighted ribbon over the water thanks to built-in linear luminaires designed by Dissing + Weitling in collaboration with Martin Professional. The bridge's central spine, which divid

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USA - As people around the US prepare to recognise Earth Day on April 22, Color Kinetics emphasises the role that new lighting technology will play in mitigating energy strain, projecting that at least 75% of commercial lighting in the US will be produced by energy-efficient LED sources by 2030.

LEDs already deliver four times the efficiency of traditional incandescent and halogen light sources, while rapidly gaining ground on fluorescent and offering numerous benefits above and beyond all three, says the company.

"With millions of lights burning nearly 24x7 in office buildings, hospitals, shopping malls, hotels and public places, it's no wonder that commercial buildings account for 51% of total energy consumption for lighting in the US vs. 27% for residential," said Bill Sims, president and CEO, Color Kinetics. "This presents us with an enormous opportunity to

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UK - Awards events provide several of the annual highlights of the UK performing arts industry and Lighthouse screens have enjoyed a high profile at two of the most recent, the Brit Awards and the TPi Awards. 14 February 2007 saw the Brit Awards take place at London's Earl's Court. With the event happening on St Valentine's Day, Lighthouse's heart-shaped screen was a star of the show.

Broadcast live on ITV, the 12 panels x14 panels Lighthouse R16 screen with measurement of 12.72m wide by 10.64m high dominated the Brits' stage, while a second, rectangular R16 screen, measuring 12 panels x 9 panels (12.72m wide by 6.85m high) was positioned stage left, upstage of one of the two performance areas.

The screens and control system were supplied by XL Video. Featuring a mixture of live camera footage, VT play-ins and graphics, control for the screens was provided by XL's new portable

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UK - At least 18 UK sound equipment firms are prime targets for a takeover and another 37 could be sold off by their parent companies, according to a new report by independent business analysts Plimsoll Publishing.

At the other end of the scale are 16 major companies that are expanding rapidly, largely through acquisitions, and 16 "predators" who are using the misfortune of others to clean up in the market.

Plimsoll's senior analyst, David Pattison, said: "The 18 takeover targets we have identified generally have a similar profile - they are privately owned, are in financial difficulty and have owners who are approaching retirement. Any firm in this position should be listening to the warning bells, because its potential selling price will be in the bargain basement. The other 37 distressed companies are operating as divisions of larger parents. I'm fairly certa

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Japan - Two major QSC system installations in Japan have been reported by distributors, Tokyo-based ComodoMattina.

At Iruma Municipal Hall, QSC Installation Line Array (ILA) and Modular Design (MD) components were specified for the refurbishment of this 1,100-seat auditorium, located in the Saitama Prefecture. Whereas the pre-existing system had been installed inside the proscenium arch, this time the main sound reinforcement system has been designed in front of the arch in order to generate a higher SPL and better coverage, with improved clarity.

While this acoustical solution would generally be favoured it is seldom permitted in general civic halls as it interferes with the architectural aesthetic. That the ILA system was permitted to adopt such a position outside the pros arch in this instance was completely unprecedented, believes ComodoMattina's Takafumi Asahina.

The ma

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USA - Beginning 26 April 2007, Vari-Lite will embark on a six city road show. As part of the 25th Anniversary Celebration, the Vari-Lite road show will highlight the new VL3500 Wash luminaire, the newest member of the Vari*Lite Series 3000 family of luminaires, along with the complete line of Vari*Lite automated luminaires. The road show will begin in Los Angeles, CA, and will conclude November 2007 in Orlando, FL.

"Vari-Lite is eager to get out on the road and demonstrate the new VL3500 Wash luminaire" stated Vari-Lite product marketing manager George Masek. "During the road show, we will have the opportunity for quality personal interaction with our dealers and lighting designers across the nation. Their feedback regarding the light, along with their feedback on the complete product line, is highly regarded. This new light is truly something special, and we are

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UK - Sunderland-based High Fidelity Studios has just completed the building of a fully-equipped pre-touring rehearsal suite, installing Allen & Heath's new dedicated monitor console, the GL2800M, to complement the studio's existing GL2400 FOH desk.

"The aim of the new studio is to provide a facility for up-and-coming musicians to take their music to the next level," explains High Fidelity Studios MD, David Dorn. "The suite offers bands the experience of a full blown gig, providing quality equipment they would find at a top line event. The space is set up like a venue with a fully furnished stage including drum rises, a valve back line, and top quality 32 channel monitor and FOH desks."

"We are very familiar with A&H mixers as we have GL2200's and GL2400's in our hire stock, and we come across them in most of the venues we engineer," continues dire

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USA - Nexxus Lighting has completed the renaming of the company from Super Vision International to Nexxus Lighting. The company is focusing 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.

The company has also announced that it has completed the move to its new manufacturing and distribution facility in Orlando, Florida.

"We are very pleased with the response to the Nexxus Lighting strategy from our customers and partners." stated Mike Bauer, president & CEO. "Although we are only a few months into implementation, we have accomplished our short term goals with the name change, symbol change and facility move and now our focused on executing on our branding strategy to mak

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USA - The second annual Behind the Scenes Tony Awards Party is set for Sunday 10 June in New York City. Continuing a long-standing tradition, the shops that work on Broadway gather together for an evening of food and drink to cheer on their Tony-nominated shows. Last year over 125 professionals, a dazzling array of industry talent, had a fabulous evening while making sure their colleagues will be cared for in times of need.

Fred Gallo of PRG Scenic Technologies, one of the organisers of the original Tony parties and the new Behind the Scenes benefit, says, "The combination of attending the long-standing Tony night shop party with the opportunity to contribute to the Behind the Scenes programme that helps industry professionals is a win / win outcome for everyone. Plus, there is an open bar - so as I said last year, there is no excuse not to come."

(Jim Evans)

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UK - When chirpy pop-rockers Guillemots winged their way around the UK on a bill-topping 10-date tour in February, the flying visits to venues from Aberdeen to Bristol were characterised by a sound which always soared but, thanks to XTA processors, a sound crew who never got in a flap, says the avian-styled press release.

Supplied by audio hire company Concert Sound, six XTA DP226s using AudioCore via a WISER wireless network took care of system control for the tour's Adamson Y-10 / Spektrix line array PA.

"The combination of the Adamson PA and XTA processors was really good," says Concert Sound system tech Aron Ross. "It was a system that looked complex on paper, but it was very straightforward. We could make physical changes to the system very easily. In some venues, for the more awkward balconies we needed to both fly and ground stack the Y-10,"

Two DP

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Denmark - It was ten years ago that Martin Professional launched the MAC 600 washlight, a fixture destined to become one of the most successful automated moving heads in the history of the lighting industry. From the first delivery to Hamburg-based PROCON Event Engineering in early 1997, the 575 W Fresnel luminaire went on to become an industry favourite with over 30,000 units sold to date.

The MAC 600 certainly lived up to the company's slogan at the time, 'Tougher than the rest'. Marketed as the 'MACnificent Team' along with the MAC 500, which launched later that same year, the MAC 600 gained a loyal following that changed Martin's reputation forever, says the company.

With their purchase of 300 units in 1997, PROCON was the first to bring the MAC 600 to the rental market, a transaction that other rental houses would soon copy. In honour of that first purchase Martin recentl

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Switzerland - Soundweb London digital signal processing from BSS Audio was recently specified in the fourth biggest ice hockey stadium in the country, with a capacity of 8,000. Built in 1995 the Resega Ice Arena in Lugano is home to the Hockey Club Lugano HCL, which has won the Swiss National Hockey Championship seven times within the last 20 years.

As a result, their home games are packed, with all matches accompanied by a continuous cacophony of crowd noise. This, coupled with a critical reverberation, explains why two different installed sound systems have both been replaced within the last ten years after being deemed unsatisfactory.

In spring last year, the town of Lugano issued a tender for a new sound system which needed to fulfil the sound reinforcement requirements of a wide range of events and also meet the EN 60849 regulation for evacuation purposes.

The concept o

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UK - Live event lighting company, Essential Lighting Group, has made a significant investment to become the world's first lighting rental company stocking Barco MiTRIX and MiSTRIP Scenic LED fixtures.

MiTRIX is a lightweight, bright and highly transparent LED module with 16 by 8 pixels and a pixel pitch of 24mm. MiSTRIP, a linear pixel strip with 13.25mm inline pixel pitch, can be freely spaced to suit the resolution required, offering immense flexibility in a wide variety of applications, says the company.

Essentialís technical director Martin Lubach says, "The creative LED range uses video images which are accurately mapped to the chosen LED configuration using the powerful Director Toolkit software. There's no need for video clips to be pixel mapped into DMX512 signals with the resulting loss of image quality and low refresh rate. The system is easy to configure and c

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Singapore - Singapore's growing infrastructure - requiring the need for ever more professional staging services - is already having a positive effect on this year's Event 360º show, which makes its debut under the wing of the umbrella PALME Asia expo in July.

Some 1,000sq.m, a quarter of the overall capacity at Singapore Expo, will be set aside for Event 360º Asia. Heartened by the initial response, Davin Er, who is responsible for developing this sector, believes that interest has not only been stimulated by the support from the Singapore Tourism Board, but the building of the S$3.85bn Marina Bay Sands complex, housing casino, hotel and convention centre.

Event 360º Asia will also be working closely alongside Singapore-based UnUsUal Productions, who are among an increasing number of local companies that have the capability of offering world-renowned ev

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USA - Los Angeles night club, the Temple Bar in Santa Monica, has installed Allen & Heath's iLive Digital Console, now providing mixing duties for the club's nightly live music schedule.

Based in LA's fashionable Santa Monica area, the Temple Bar is a unique music venue hosting local, national and international artists performing a spectrum of music covering the genres of jazz, electronica, indie, hip hop, soul, latin, reggae, and world music. There is also a house DJ performing between acts, and the venue regularly organises film screenings and poetry nights.

The Temple Bar's music director and chief mixing engineer, Swan, commented, "The sound of the console is magnificent, I've been mixing at the Temple Bar for five years, I have never hear the room sound like this before. It brought our sound system alive! Its compact footprint fit perfectly in our sound booth, and ou

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UK - Summit Steel supplied four SmarTmasts to Britannia Row which were utilised to emulate a concert style set up for sound tests in the new Wembley Stadium. Two SmarTmast 4s were used to suspend speaker arrays that mimicked the height and positioning of PA wing hangs on a typical concert stage set up in the end-on position. The masts were picked for their 15m height, quick buildability and neat footprint.

The main object of the exercise was to integrate a show PA system with Wembley's house PA to provide full audio coverage throughout the stadium. They also took the opportunity to ensure that Emergency announcements could be heard in all locations around the venue.

Summit's Jon Bray was contacted by Brit Row's Bryan Grant to supply the necessary support structures for the tests. Bray and a team of three riggers erected a total of five masts, which stayed up for a two-day peri

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UK - Located in Plaistow, east London, Glory House is a family-based, multi-racial and multi-cultural church where audio and visual technologies have been embraced to broadcast the church's message in the most effective way possible.Music is an integral part of Glory House: up to a 100-strong Gospel choir and musical director being complemented by an in-house technical sound team.

The venue now has a new sound system supplied and installed by South London-based Subfrantic Production Services. The Turbosound system comprises four TA-500 Aspect Wide mid-highs, four TSB-118 subs and six TXD-15M wedge monitors, all controlled by two LMS-D24s. Subfrantic also supplied amplifiers, mixing consoles, outboard equipment, microphones, a custom-designed multicore and an ASL communications system.

"The main factor dictating the specification was to get the best sound we could on a rea

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  4. Lighthouse joins St Patrick's Day party
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  6. XL Video gives ambience to Lemar tour
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