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USA - Two public institutions in the USA have recently been the recipient of new Merging digital audio workstations. The Washington-based Library of Congress has recently acquired several Pyramix DAWs, each built around a Merging Mykerinos MB5 card with an AES-EBU digital output daughterboard.

The DAWs are being installed in the Library's new facilities at the National Audio Visual Conservation Centre in Culpeper, Virginia, where staff will be using them primarily to digitise the Library's audio collections, creating high-quality preservation files. The Pyramix systems were assembled by Merging Technologies' US distributor Independent Audio and supplied to the Library of Congress by Massachusetts dealer Parsons Audio.

In a separate sale, Washington's National Gallery of Art has also installed a Pyramix for use by the Gallery's audio-visual staff.

(Jim Evans)

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UK - Harman Pro UK has announced the judges for the final of the AKG Unsigned Heroes battle of the bands competition, which is taking place at Camden's Koko on 26 April. The Summer festivals at which the winning group will play later in the year have also been confirmed. The lucky band will take the stage at both the prestigious Isle Of Wight festival at the start of June (headlining on the Platform 1 stage), and also on the Brit Bus stage at the Kent Festival, with headliners the Feeling, the Ordinary Boys and the Ghosts, from 29 June to 1 July.

With this and other prizes (such as an AKG sponsorship deal and PA equipment worth £10,000) riding on how the bands perform at Koko on the night of the final, it's important that the competition judges have plenty of music-business experience.

Harman Pro UK's five choices fit the bill nicely: Jez Coad is a renowned film composer

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South Africa - The Durban International Conference Centre in KwaZulu-Natal has celebrated its 10th anniversary with the launch of the new ICC Durban Arena - a sub-divisible 32,000sq.m space that will be used for show space and exhibitions. Midas consoles and Klark Teknik signal processing equipment were used extensively for the new venue's launch, supplied by South African distributor Prosound Pty, which was contracted to provide the audio and production management for the event including overseeing the design and set-up of the audio system.

The opening of the arena coincided with George Benson and Al Jarreau's South African leg of their Giving It Up tour, so it was decided to host the Durban show at the new venue as part of the opening ceremony. The launch also featured a speciality show, The Power of Durban, devised and produced by Durban ICC's technical producti

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UK - The annual St Patrick's Day celebration took place in London on 17 March 2007. A major part of the action took place in the Capital's iconic landmark Trafalgar Square, where the fountains turned green, large amounts of Guinness were drunk and the action was relayed by Lighthouse LED screens.

The free event, organised by Mean Fiddler for the Mayor of London, featured the best of contemporary and traditional Irish music on the main stage in Trafalgar Square, with video specialist The Picture Works supplying all the visual elements for the show.

Two 5 x 5 panels of Lighthouse R16 16mm LED screens, each measuring 5.08m (w) x 3.85m (h), were positioned stage left and right, with a further 4 x 3 panels of Lighthouse R16 measuring 4.05m (w) by 2.8m (h) placed centre stage.

"We've done this particular job for six consecutive years," says The Picture Works owner Robin

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USA - Production Resource Group, LLC (PRG) and High End Systems, (HES) have announced a joint licensing agreement regarding their patent portfolios of lighting and control technology. The agreement goes into effect immediately.

Both PRG and HES have been innovators in developing digital and analogue lighting fixtures, systems and controls for the entertainment industry. Both companies hold extensive catalogues of patents in the United States and abroad. Under the agreement, PRG will be able to offer licensees a single license that covers both the PRG and the HES patents.

"This means that manufacturers who develop products can conveniently access both PRG and HES patents with a single license from PRG," says Jere Harris, chairman and founder of PRG. "We expect that this agreement will make it easier for manufacturers to utilise the innovations developed by PRG an

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UK - XL Video supplied Production North with plasma and LED screens and a Version 4 Catalyst digital media server, all of which were used as an 'ambient' video system for the Lemar theatre tour.

Production North's Steve Levitt and Sarah Hollis (also the tour's production manager) came up with a set design which also incorporated the video screens. They wanted something a bit different, a slightly discreet and understated visual effect that would work appropriately in the venues that Lemar was playing.

The seven screens consisted of six plasmas ranging from 42 to 61" dotted asymmetrically around the set for a quirky slightly random feel, and a 6ft by 4ft panel of Barco i-Lite 6 LED screen to stage left. The plasmas were attached to various bits of set and trussing with scaffolding clamps and adaptors. All surfaces were driven by content stored on the Catalyst, which was tr

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USA - The Chauvet Q-Spot 575 won the 2007 Club World award in the Best Lighting Category. Every March, the Club World Awards honour the club industry's best, from LJs, DJs and club designers to lighting, sound systems and the clubs themselves. Editorial staffers of Club Systems International magazine and parent company Testa Communication select nominees from a submission pool. A panel of industry experts determines the winners who were announced at a ceremony held in Miami, FL.

Development Manager Victor Menendez accepted the Best Lighting Product award for the Q-Spot 575 on behalf of the entire team Chauvet. Also in attendance was CEO Albert Chauvet. " This means a lot to us," he said, "because we not only feel that it does justice to the Q-Spot 575's outstanding performance but it also validates our team's hard work and determination to make a difference

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UK / USA - UK manufacturer GDS has formally announced the appointment of TMB as the exclusive distributor for its award-winning 'Blues System' in America, Asia and the Middle East.

The system was extremely well received at its North American debut at USITT in Phoenix, says Chris Curran, TMB's architectural sales director: "The Blues System is truly one of those 'why didn't I think of that?' new products. It solves many backstage lighting problems as well as offering options that were previously impractical. We were almost overwhelmed by the positive response at USITT and also by the various possible new applications that arose during conversation with the many visitors to our booth."

Specifically designed for backstage lighting applications in the working theatre, the Blues System won a PLASA Innovation Award at its European launch at the PLASA Show last year, and a

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Spain / Portugal - Quercus Equity has invested 60 million euros in the acquisition of the Spanish group Stonex and the Portuguese audio-visual group Alfasom - owner of the Spanish companies Aysav and Congress Rental Ibérica - creating the largest audio-visual group in the Iberian Peninsular.

The Stonex group, founded in Madrid in 1980, specializes in engineering and turnkey stage equipment projects for theatres, auditoriums, congress centres, casinos and theme parks, encompassing stage engineering, show lighting, architectural lighting and audio-visual installations. The company has offices in Madrid and La Coruña, and boasts more than 300 reference projects in the Iberian market, such as WB Madrid theme park, Pamplona Auditorium and congress centre (Baluarte), Colon Theatre in La Coruña, Campoamor Theatre in Oviedo, Expo 98's Lisboa Camoens Theatre and Gran Casino de A

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World - In early 2007 Rod Stewart embarked on his Rockin' in the Round Tour an ambitious theatre-in-the-round production that kicked off a 56-city North American tour in January, to be followed by a swing through European stadiums in June and July.

The production is impressive in both scope and scale. Stewart's tour makes the most of the set, starting with four huge, high-definition video screens that face each direction. Before the show, a video called The Rodfather touting Stewart's history as a pop innovator is screened, while during the show, images of Stewart, his band, and shots of the city in which the performance is taking place are displayed on the screens. Two catwalks coming off opposite sides of the stage allow Stewart to venture out of the main performing area and into the crowd. The intricate lighting rig includes multicolour LED lights built into the

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UK - The Association of British Theatre Technicians (ABTT), is sponsoring Performing Theatres, part of The Theatres' Trust Conference 07. Performing Theatres follows on from the successful 2006 ABTT Theatre, Architecture and Engineering Conference and develops the need for there to be a stronger profile for users in setting out requirements for building and refurbishing theatres.

Raising issues about how best to maximise theatre design in the 21st Century, the Performing Theatres Conference is chaired by Ian Brown, artistic director, West Yorkshire Playhouse, Genista McIntosh and Venu Dhupa, director of creative innovation, Southbank Centre. The one day event promises to offer a lively and wide-ranging debate on how the design of theatres will meet our needs in the 21st Century.

Complementing ABTT's annual Theatre Show, which highlights technological innovation a

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UK - The concrete is dry, the first crowds have walked the terraces, and just after Easter it was time to test the sound. "When we were approached to test the house sound facilities at the new Wembley Stadium in conjunction with a concert system set-up, we were of course delighted," said Mike Lowe of Britannia Row Productions Ltd. "We expect to be servicing many shows here over the coming months and years, so the opportunity to be the first to get a real feel for the building was not to be missed."

Over three days (11-13 April) Britannia Row crews rigged the stadium for 'end on' and 'side on' concert configurations. "We rigged an EV Xline system off 15 metre SmarTmasts from Summit Steel as for a main stage system, and then added Outline Butterfly delays off 11 metre masts out in the field. The system was then linked into the house EAW installed system an

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UK - HSL pulled out all the stops to deliver in excess of 700 Pulsar Chroma Heart LED fixtures to illuminate the set of the new ITV games show Golden Balls for LD Tom Kinane.

Golden Balls is an Initial-produced 40-part series being recorded in TV6 at the BBC's Wood Lane Studios. It is directed by Simon Stafford and Julian Smith and aired daily during the 5-6pm prime time slot on ITV1. Presented by veteran comedian Jasper Carrot, it is a game of luck, intuition and barefaced bluff as four contestants battle it out to win - or loose - thousands of pounds.

HSL's project manager Sean McGlone comments, "We already had 150 Chroma Hearts in stock and allocated for this project, and then at the last minute, it was decided to increase the level to over 700 units. Rising to the challenge, Sean decided to purchase the additional 600 units and Pulsar decided they were g

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Canada - To maximize support, shorten lead times and improve price competitiveness in the European market, Adamson Systems Engineering is announcing a new European support and sales structure.

As of 1 April 2007, Adamson is implementing factory direct sales to distributors, and countries without established distribution, throughout Europe. Previously, France based DV2 managed all EU territories, but now maintains distribution duties for France and Belgium exclusively. DV2 will continue to contribute as a key partner to the overall support throughout Europe.

Countries with established distribution are France & Belgium (DV2), Spain (Lambda/2), Italy (Reference Laboratory), The Netherlands (Sound & Light Import), Denmark (Nordic Rentals), Czech Republic (Mediatech Spol.sr.o.), Greece & Cyprus (Enttech S.A.) and Russia (I.S.P.A.).

Adamson has retained Andy Weingärtner in the ch

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UK - Sitting quietly in Bristol harbour, one of the UK's most quirky - and in some ways historic - venues has recently had a sound and lighting makeover, including the installation of a major Turbosound loudspeaker system.

Owned by DHP, the Motor Vessel (MV) Thekla gained notoriety in the 1980s as The Old Profanity Showboat, run by well-known eccentric and former Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band main man Vivian Stanshall.

The makeover includes a complete new lighting and sound rig, supplied by Stage Electrics. The hold is still the main performance area, which sees six Turbosound QLight TQ-445 full range enclosures, four TQ-425 bass units and two TSB-118 subs installed, controlled by two LMS-D24 digital controllers and driven by Turbosound-badged MC amplifiers.

On stage six Turbosound TXD-15M wedges are used for foldback, while the bar area in the main room also sports four QLight TQ-

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Europe - UK-based wireless specialists dAFTdATA, Belgium-based Luminex, manufacturers of Art-Net products, leading UK rental company Essential Lighting and French equipment distributor Sonoss, all joined forces to send the first "eDMX" wireless DMX signals across the Channel from France to England, as reported in the latest issue of Lighting&Sound International.

The link up took place on 15 March between Cap Gris Nez, west of Calais in France, and the White Cliffs of Dover in the UK. The distance covered was, according to GPS, 20.82 miles/ - believed to be the world's longest ever wireless DMX signal transmission to date.

The experiment germinated from a meeting between dAFTdATA and Luminex at LSI's wireless 'shootout' in 2006. Discussions ensued which resulted in them working together to produce systems that tal

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Latvia - GaCo is one of the oldest sound, light and stage rental companies in Latvia. Recently it celebrated its 10th anniversary. For the birthday show with 150 guests, lighting designer Maris Meness used one grandMA light, grandMA video and three MA mediaPC servers.

The main idea of the event was to bring together all customers, partners and producers to celebrate together and to show how the company has grown in the past years.

The grandMA light and the MA mediaPCs were used to display logos, bitmap effects etc. on five screens: "It was a good chance to show to Latvian entertainment people what you can do with a grandMA," said Maris Meness.

(Jim Evans)

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UK - Fuzion plc has announced a series of regular, affordable training courses through May, June and July on the latest Compulite consoles, Dlite and Vector.

The course includes both introductory and advanced levels, with topics covering media-server connectivity between Hippotizer and Catalyst, LED matrix programming, Timecode programming with MIDI and SMPTE, and Networking awareness.

All courses will take place at Fuzion's offices in Walton-on-Thames, and run from 10am to 5pm (including lunch with refreshments). The courses are already booking fast and have limited spaces, says Fusion.

(Jim Evans)

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UK - As the UK distributor of HME's range of advanced wireless intercom products, Orbital Sound reports that it has recently been awarded HME's Outstanding Distribution Award for the second time. Orbital earned the award by continuing to deliver the DX wireless intercom series, which comprises the DX 200 and DX 100, to the UK's broadcast, live performance and installed sound markets.

Recent organisations that have embraced the DX200 system include The Royal Court Theatre, Scottish Opera, Queens Theatre Hornchurch, Grand Theatre Wolverhampton, Royal Welsh College of Music & Dance and Hull Truck Theatre Company.

HME's sales director John Kowalski comments, "Orbital Sound followed up 2005 with such an amazing performance in 2006. HME systems can be found throughout the live performance and broadcast markets in the UK and Orbital Sound is behind this. We're proud to be associ

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USA - Despite the dizzying success and exploding fan base of Arcade Fire over the last year, their current Neon Bible Tour has the remarkable feel of a very intimate show, say observers. Lighting designer Paul Normandale put together a stage design that kept things slightly less assuming, but just as bold and entertaining as the band's theatrical performances. Using a mix of Martin moving lights, LEDs and some projection, the show achieves a powerful, energetic feel that is at the same time close and informal.

"There is a real emphasis on the band's performance," says Normandale. "It is definitely not an R&R show." Having specified MAC 700 Profiles on several recent projects, he chose them again as the main spot for his lighting design, while the MAC 250 Wash served as the foundation of dynamic colour on the band and background.

He continues, "W

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UK - A Radical Lighting RADlite NG1 digital media server is in action on the current Australian Pink Floyd UK arena tour which has just kicked off again with a completely new design for 2007. The RADlite is being used for soft-edging and masking images, movies and effects being projected onto a 60ft wide upstage arched surface with a 5m diameter circular truss hung in front of it.

Lighting director Phil White and show projectionist Chris Gadd were instrumental in getting RADlite specified for the tour, having used the system before and knowing that lighting and video supplier Entec has also invested in RADlite systems.

Visuals are looked after during the show by Gadd, along with White and video aficionado Richard Hutton. These three are joined by super-tech Simon 'Boff' Howarth, another Entec regular, and rigger Danny Spratt. Lighting has again been designed by Dave Hill, who

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Japan - The second Midas XL8 live performance system to be sold in Japan has been delivered to PA company Zero-db by EVI Audio Japan.

Established in 1997, Zero-db has become well-known for its application of innovative solutions to the live music scene in Japan. The company has invested heavily in Midas technology over the past decade, with analogue consoles including XL3, XL250 and Heritage featuring on its inventory.

"When we heard that Midas was to launch its digital console, I instantly decided to add it to our rental stock," says Zero-db president Mr Shunji Izawa. "As I've been using Midas products for a long time, I was assured of its ease of use and reliability of operation. Perhaps most importantly, we also know we can rely on the Midas philosophy towards concert sound and the audio quality we've come to enjoy from their consoles."

EVI Audio Japan

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UK - When the award winning team at ElectricFly Productions took on the task of designing the UK and European leg of Jarvis Cocker's new tour, they turned to Maxedia as the digital media server for the job. Using the artwork on Cocker's latest album Jarvis as the foundation for the stage design, Nick Jevons created a rig, rich in LEDs and deep in novelty.

Most of the early design was created on Martin Show Designer, back in the ElectricFly studios. This was then manipulated and pixel mapped using Maxedia.

"As we did all the programming in the office, when I got out on site it was all there, I just had to tweak it a bit," says Jevons. "When we got it up and running at the first venue of the tour, we realised it was too tight a fit, so using the Maxedia I was able to do some quick pixel mapping and reconfigured the graphics in just ten minutes. The show sti

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USA - Bandit Lites provided lighting for the first annual 'Volscars', an awards banquet for The University of Tennessee's athletic departments. Lighting director Will Twork used a combination of Martin MAC 2 Ks, 600s and 500s, High End Cyberlights and Coemar LED pars and ETC Source Fours to light the event, all controlled by a Whole Hog II.

Twork said that the vibe he was going for was similar to that of the Oscars or Grammy Award Shows. He designed a warm look for the awards section of the evening and a cooler look for the dinner. MAC 500s and 600s were projected on the ceiling to provide backlight for the room.

Martin MAC 2000 Performances were used to animate triangle-like structures covered in white fabric, which were placed on either side of the video screens.

In transition between gigs with Brian Wilson's world tour and lenny Kravitz, Twork says, "I am very thankf

  1. Handy Christie install at Harrods
  2. New trade fair format for EVI Audio
  3. Robe open day at Just Lites
  4. Neve & Clearmountain at Sonic launch
  5. Tomcat training in Texas
  6. Avolites on the Bloc
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