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UK - Two Avolites Diamond 4 consoles were specified for the 2007 BBC Electric Proms shows staged at London's historic Roundhouse venue. Production lighting for the event was designed by Bryan Leitch and Nick Whitehouse of Visual Light Design, and equipment was supplied by Siyan.

Headliners for this second year included the Kaiser Chiefs, Paul McCartney, Bloc Party, Ray Davies, Mark Ronson and many more.

Whitehouse & Leitch chose the two Diamond 4 Visions as the most flexible control option on the table. They were commissioned to incorporate both stage/live and TV/audience lighting into their very dynamic design. The shows were run by Siyan's team of programmer/operators - Ewan McRobb, Dom Smith and Stu Farrell - all LDs in their own right - working in close consultation with all the headlining band's own LDs.

"We use Avolites for all our major shows," affirms White

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The Netherlands - The Schouwburg Theatre in the Dutch city of Almere has won the Installation Europe Award 2007 for best auditorium project, with its ETC IES Matrix Mk II SineWave dimming receiving special praise from the judges.

The Schouwburg Almere is a new state of the art multi-venue performing arts centre designed by Japanese architects Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa of SANNA which provides a flexible environment in which to present a diverse array of music, theatre and dance.

With three adaptable spaces receiving incoming shows often only playing for a single night, the theatre has a rigorous schedule, demanding flexibility in technical infrastructure and equipment. To that end, the theatre consultant on the building project, Theater Advies BV, specified ETC IES Matrix Mk II SineWave dimming and ETC Congo lighting consoles throughout the building.

Lois Jansse

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UK - HSL supplied over 80 moving lights and nearly 150 digital lighting fixtures for lighting designer Tom Kinane at the Premier League All Stars tournament. This was staged at the David Beckham Academy in Greenwich, London, broadcast on Sky One and attended by bumper live audiences.

Kinane has worked with HSL on many other shows including the first series of Dancing on Ice, and he once again wanted them on the case providing the show's specialist lighting requirements. The project was handled for HSL by Sean McGlone.

The competition was part of the Premier League's 'Creating Chances' initiative. It united football legends, celebrities and fans in a 7-a-side knock-out contest that saw Middleborough triumph 3-1 over West Ham in the final, in the process winning a £100,000 donation for their favorite charity.

The moving lights were all Robe - consisting of 30 Colo

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Italy - ETC is one of four companies which recently took part in a control systems seminar organised by Italian magazine Sound&Lite on 8-9 October. The first day of the seminar in Gabicce was a conference on the next generation of lighting and control; the second was four two-hour long demonstrations of the best of those systems, including ETC's latest and most advanced control system yet, the multi award winning Eos.

Eos was designed to handle the most complex, multimedia-filled lighting rigs and is already being specified for theatres, performing arts centres, TV production and comparable sites. The system combines innovative features and functionality in a powerful system fully networked for ETCNet2 and the new Net3 protocol (powered by the new ESTA ACN standard). Eos is also unique in offering features tailored to the needs of each member of the lighting design and productio

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UK - Working on behalf of The Croatian Embassy, Cameron Presentations Edinburgh recently projected images of the country onto a building opposite the Scottish capital's world-famous Balmoral Hotel, using a Christie Roadster S+20K projector. The object of the exercise was to encourage tourism in Croatia and demonstrate the country's growing relationship with Scotland.

The President of Croatia, His Excellency Stjepan Mesic, visited the Scottish Parliament and met with Presiding Officer Alex Fergusson MSP at a formal reception to mark his visit.

Contracted by the Embassy under their agreement with the Scottish Parliament, Cameron's positioned the powerful 20,000 ANSI lumens projector in a bedroom on the hotel's fourth floor to enable the Croatian Tourist Board's logo and multiple images of the country to be seen by thousands of people gathering around Waverley Station and Princes

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UK / Middle East - Van Damme has expanded its presence in the Middle East by appointing NMK Electronics Enterprises as distributor for its entire range of cable products. NMK will also distribute generic VDC Trading products such as patchbays and connectors.

Founded by Nicolaos M. Kyvernitis in 1985 and based in the United Arab Emirates, NMK is representing the Van Damme and VDC Trading range in Dubai, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar and Cyprus.

NMK's Business Development Manager, Chicco Hiranandani, says: "We are extremely delighted to have Van Damme and VDC Trading products in our portfolio. Their quality and reputation reflect NMK's desire to be a leading distributor in the professional audio industry."

The Van Damme range of audio and video cables has been designed, engineered and refined over many years to suit customer requirements. Many new and innovative ideas have be

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Germany - After the November 2006 edition in Lisbon, Cologne hosted a monumental Herbalife convention, an event for which Outline's Butterfly line array was specifically requested.

The American giant - leader in the wellness sector, with a million distributors in 61 countries throughout the world and net annual sales totalling $3billion - has always placed great emphasis on the 'audio factor' at its conventions.

In Germany, considering the excellent results achieved at the Lisbon Pavilhão Atlântico, to cover the audience of the Köln Arena (20,000 participants) 76 Butterfly CDH 483 Hi-packs, 12 Sub Victor Live and eight Subtech were used, with relative Outline power amplifiers: a combination of T6.5 and the new T7 units, all of which occupy just one rack unit each, plus Genius 26 DSP for signal management.

The operation was handled by Planet Service of San Marino. The fine

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USA - The Genlyte Group Incorporated has announced record third quarter earnings per share of $1.38 compared to 2006 earnings per share of $1.32. Net income was $40.1 million, up 5.7% from the third quarter of 2006. Third quarter 2007 net sales of $418.8 million, a record for any quarter, were 2.1% higher than the $410.4 million reported for the same period last year.

Genlyte owns many lighting manufacturing companies leading professional entertainment lighting brands such as Vari-Lite, Entertainment Technology and Strand Lighting,

Sales during the first nine months of 2007 increased 10.5% from $1.106 billion to $1.222 billion. Year-to-date earnings per share were $3.87 compared to $4.26 for the first nine months of 2006. Year-to-date net income was $112.5 million compared to $122.5 million last year. First quarter 2006 net income included a one-time tax provision benefit of $

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Canada - Canadian recording artist and producer Daniel Lanois, famed for his work with U2, Bob Dylan, Peter Gabriel, Brian Eno and Emmylou Harris, is giving his many admirers a unique glimpse into his creative process in the recording studio with a new documentary film, 'Here Is What Is'. The film recently enjoyed its debut at the Toronto International Film Festival and was followed by two nights of concerts at which Lanois had an opportunity to publicly acknowledge the support of Sennheiser, who proudly partnered with him for the debut of his documentary.

"I've got thirty years of Sennheiser under my belt!" smiled Lanois. "I was very proud to be associated with Sennheiser for my recent concerts that took place during the Toronto International Film Festival."

The documentary's premier was followed by two sold-out concert performances at the Great Hall in To

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Denmark - Aarhus, Denmark's second largest city is also the oldest with recorded history dating back to the year 951. In this context, the 19th century Aarhus Theatre, which hosts numerous theatrical, dance and musical performances throughout the year, and houses three schools for acting and theatre arts, is relatively young. Yet it was the recent upgrade to a Meyer Sound M'elodie loudspeaker system replacing the original Meyer Sound system that brought the theatre's audio into the 21st century.

Now, thanks to Meyer Sound's Danish dealer Nyk°bing-Falster-based Hercules Productions, Aarhus Theatre residents, performers, and guests alike can experience much improved sound in the theatre's main venue and the second hall, Scala.

"As long as I can remember, Aarhus Theatre has had a reputation as pioneers and trendsetters in Denmark, known for great sound and for their very

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USA - Elation Professional presented the 2007 Elation Education Experience award to three young lighting designers at the WFx show in Atlanta.

Sponsored by Elation Professional, the Elation Education Experience award was started in 2006 to promote future excellence in church lighting design by encouraging young lighting designers to develop skills in working in House of Worship settings.

"We regard the House of Worship market as an important part of what our company is all about," said Eric Loader, director of Elation Professional. "In our view, it's important that young lighting designers develop their skills and abilities with HOW applications in mind, just as they do with the theatrical, touring and club markets."

To win the contest, the 2007 Elation Education Experience participants had to complete a lighting design project for a hypothetical religiou

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UK - The British Tinnitus Association (BTA) has rebranded and launched a new website (see address below) in order to raise awareness of the condition.

Tinnitus affects almost five million people in the UK - a staggering 10% of the adult population. The new BTA website and rebrand is a response to one of the most common health problems facing the UK today and has been designed to raise the profile of tinnitus and support those who have the condition, says the association.

Musicians and music lovers are particularly at risk from hearing damage due to frequent and extended exposure to high levels of noise. There is a common misconception that using ear protection can reduce the sound quality of music in a live situation. In reality the right ear protection can increase the quality of what is being heard by cutting out specific frequencies, as opposed to simply cutting down noise.

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Germany - The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Christina Aguilera, Nelly Furtado, The Beastie Boys, The Police, Celine Dion, Tim McGraw, The Killers, The Montreal Symphony Orchestra and Canadian hard rock legends Rush are just some of the acts currently touring with equipment from ChainMaster or whose recent shows have featured equipment from the Eilenburg-based manufacturer.

The Peppers, for example, took 21 500kg VarioLifts, eight 800kg VarioLifts and four VarioTrolleys with them on their latest world tour, whilst the Beastie Boys opted for six half-ton VarioLifts.

The musicals Wicked, The Elvis Story, Night Fever and We Will Rock You as well as the NHL All Star Game, the Juno Awards Presentation, the Canadian Country Music Awards and the East Cast Music Awards - not to forget the Tattoo Military Music Show - are other high-profile productions in which chai

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UK - Every employee's dream has come true at Le Mark where they're raising money for the 2007 Children in Need appeal.

For every £50 raised managing director Stuart Gibbons is going to be taking a pie to the face from members of his eagerly awaiting staff. To see photos and videos of the action happening on Friday 16 November, visit the website address below.

(Jim Evans)

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Switzerland - Around 800,000 techno fans from all over the world flocked to Zurich in August for the annual Street Parade - one of the undoubted highlights of the techno calendar. In addition to the parade through the streets of the Swiss metropolis, the programme included around 100 indoor events, the biggest of which was the Music 4 Life party thrown by MTV and attended by some 13,000 ravers.

The organisers of the event entrusted production, as they had done the previous year, to MK Badensound of Renchen. A team led by Johannes Moeck deployed a full 280m of cable to connect the entire network of amplifiers and loudspeakers, which comprised 124 Dynacord V-System enclosures in four-point configurations either flown or mounted in the hall ceiling, all driven by 22 Dynacord Power H5000 power amplifiers.

"We used a similar loudspeaker configuration powered by the same amps l

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UK - Turbosound has appointed specialist export office PAXT to develop distribution in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Based in Cambridge UK, PAXT is a long established sales and marketing operation.

Specialising in developing markets, the company has a dedicated export office for manufacturers wishing to penetrate diverse emerging economies around the world.

In confirming this key appointment, Simon Blackwood, managing director of Turbosound commented, "Seamus Connolly (PAXT commercial director) and Tim Pollard (PAXT managing director) have significant channel management expertise in these emerging markets and we're delighted to partner with them to make our brand more widely available and aggressively grow our mutual business. It's also always nice to start off with a large order."

"We are delighted to manage the distribution of Turbosound in these growth a

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UK - When, to support its sustained growth and popularity, Leeds Metropolitan University decided to acquire and completely refurbish a former BBC television studio, it found that a sophisticated lighting control system based on products from the Clipsal brand of Schneider Electric was the key to maximising the versatility and convenience of the facilities within the new premises.

The lighting control system serves four main areas - a mock boardroom, which can also be used as a video-conferencing room; a teacher training area which has an extensive audio-visual installation; an exhibition room; and a café area. The lighting requirements vary substantially in detail from area to area, but the overall objective is always the same - to allow the lighting levels to be set quickly and easily to suit the particular activity that is taking place within the area.

Operon, the con

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UK - Stage Electrics will be hosting a Rosco Scenic Workshop at its Bristol Head Office on Thursday 29 November. The informal event has been arranged to give delegates the opportunity to gain hands on experience of Rosco Scenic products and how they can be used to great effect.

Jenny Knott, product manager for Rosco Scenic Products who is an experienced scenic artist from the US will be leading the workshop. There will also be the chance for delegates to get their hands dirty with the coating products including the new CrystalGel.

The workshop will run from 10:30 to 17:00 and is free of charge. Sara Alarabi, training manager from Stage Electrics, comments: "We are very pleased to be hosting the workshop and encourage anyone interested to register to attend sooner rather than later, we have already had a good level of interest."

(Jim Evans)

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Australia - Anolis LED fixtures have been installed into the Grand Ballroom of the Merrimu Reception Centre in Melbourne - and have proved a great hit with director Peter Batziakas's various clients which range from weddings to corporate events.

Merrimu (a local Koori word meaning 'Meeting Place') is a venue focussed on hosting functions and receptions of all types. The original homestead was built in 1882 and converted into a reception venue in 1955, with the Grand Ballroom - seating up to 400 guests - added in the late 1960s.

Batziakis took over in 2005 and completely renovated the entire venue, working with interior designer Alistair Sarris from Kinetic Space.

Sarris had specified Anolis fixtures for several previous lighting schemes and knew the brand was reliable and high quality, and so repeated the process at Merrimu. The Anolis fittings were installed by the project'

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UK - Edinburgh's Hard Rock Café presents some unique challenges. This small multi-purpose venue is occupied by 150 restaurant diners one moment and by 200 standing indie rock fans the next. AV Company Simon Kennedy Lights chose the Soundcraft Vi4 live digital sound console for the venue, which played host to a performance by million-selling artist Sandi Thom broadcast on STV in June.

SKL's sales manager, Stephen Pattison comments: "We do work for the Hard Rock Café up here and when you're going into an environment like that, which is essentially a restaurant that's being turned into a venue for the evening, size matters. The Vi4 has everything we require and it does it with a slightly smaller footprint."

(Jim Evans)

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Serbia - Audio Light Concept of Belgrade, Serbia has designed, delivered and installed a complete Martin lighting rig for Cotton Club in Prijepolje, Serbia. Completed in June 2007, the 400sq.m club offers disco and live music, VIP and DJ areas and a raised bridge for showgirls.

The lighting brief was simple: to create a good ambiance for guests. Lighting designer Sandro Krstic of Audio Light Concept went about fulfilling that brief with a host of Martin fixtures including four MAC 250 Krypton moving heads, eight Mania SCX600 scanner effects, two Wizard Extreme effect lights, two projectors with two Magnum 1500 foggers for the atmospheric fog and mid-air projection canopy.

The Martin fixtures are located on two circular trusses (3.5m diameter) 4.5m above the floor. Lighting control is from a hands-on Martin Xciter, which the club finds "easy to use for non-trained lighting

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UK - The BBC's Electric Proms season 2007 saw Outline's Butterfly line array return for a long season. Supplied by Britannia Row Productions, the system consisted of 24 high/mid cabinets and eight Subtech 218s, powered by Outline's new T9 amplifiers and controlled via Dolby Lake processors.

The Roundhouse specified the system after last year's audition of BRP's latest acquisition. It was a unanimous "Yes" by all the technical staff at the Roundhouse and BBC crews alike to Butterfly's encore, says Outline.

This year (as last) saw the rebuilt Roundhouse host a broad spread of artists. One of the many highlights was Sir Paul McCartney, who performed Beatles and Wings hits together with his latest compositions.

(Jim Evans)

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UK - Over 30,000 fans attended the homecoming show in Ward Park, Bangor (N. Ireland) concluding the UK section of Snow Patrol's Eyes Open world tour. For the show on 1 September, the band's lighting supplier HSL deployed a full battery of lighting equipment, including 32 Falcon Beam 3kW luminaires from A&O Lighting Technology, which were equipped with special colours and scrollers.

For this concert, the creative team of lighting designer Davy Sherwin and visual designer Robin Haddow came up with a completely new show concept that set it apart from the earlier gigs - without abandoning the stage aesthetics featured earlier in the tour. Sherwin and Haddow combined their lighting and video designs and skills to create a memorable overall impression.

Part of the electrifying Bangor show involved eight Falcon Beam searchlights attached to a truss at the rear of the stage, ge

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USA - The 300-seat auditorium in Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) hosts an amazing diversity of musical and theatrical styles, from jazz to classical and from pop to avant-garde.

Dennis O'Shea, the MCA's manager of technical production, recently added a second eight-channel TRUE Systems Precision 8 preamp/DI to the auditorium's reinforcement and archival system so that all 16 recording channels could benefit from the Precision 8's clean, warm sound.

The MCA bought the original Precision 8 after upgrading to a Yamaha DM1000 digital mixer. O'Shea explained, "We switched over from the typical 'barge' board to get something smaller and to take advantage of digital memory. With the addition of the 16 Precision pres we've added a very exclusive layer to the board. The Precision 8 has a warmth, clarity, and consistency that's unlike any other mic pre I've sampled befor

  1. Ampco/Flashlight wins Best Auditorium award
  2. New hi-tech HQ for Crestron UK
  3. ESS takes Yamaha digital option
  4. Stage Electrics installs RCF Acustica at BAC
  5. Essential joins Staging Connections Group
  6. DPA supports Real World in Cambodia
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