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UK - The Kaiser Chiefs wanted something completely different video-wise for the latest arena leg of their tour, so set and lighting designer Richard Larkum came up with the idea of having five portrait screens crowning the top edge of the stage.

XL Video was asked to supply kit and crew. The project was handled for them by Jo Beirne and Phil Mercer, who also initially suggested they use Jon Shrimpton to direct the show's camera mix.

Other key decisions made on the video front included not to have any onstage content and not to have any side stage IMAG screens. "We didn't want anything at all that would physically distract or divert attention from the band," explains Larkum, adding that to keep everyone's eyes focused towards the stage, the top mounted screens seemed the ideal solution.

To encourage the flow of communication between lighting and video, Larkum insist

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South Africa - MA Lighting initially made its entry into South Africa a couple of years ago. Gearhouse had spent a lengthy period of time deciding which desk would be the best way forward for them as the largest rental company in Africa. They finally decided on the grandMA. Michael Althaus, managing director of MA Lighting, travelled to South Africa to visit Ofer Lapid, Tim Dunn and Bill Lawford from Gearhouse and was introduced to Duncan Riley, who had just started his own company called DWR Distribution. By February 2007, an agreement was formed, making DWR Distribution the agents for MA Lighting.

"MA Lighting is very precise and they do everything properly," commented Duncan. "If they say it's going to happen on this day, you can be assured that it will. The desks have proved themselves as reliable above all else, which does effect how they are seen by the ente

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Austria - Wiener Event Technik, one of Austria's leading rental companies has expanded its rental stock with the addition of three Frog 2 Lighting consoles inventory, each complete with two 3M touch screens to maximise their usability on the fly.

The Frog 2 made its Austrian debut with the Vienna State Opera Ballet on their production of Walzerreigen in August. The performance was staged at the Kaiserzelt on Lake Altaussee with lighting design by Rudolf Fischer. The Frog 2 controlled the comprehensive lighting rig, which included 18 Martin MAC 600, 18 Martin MAC 2000, 16 6-Bar PAR 64 1kW, 12x Arri 2kW Fresnell, 12 Floodlight 1kW, 12 UV Tube 36W and two UV Flood 400W.

Managing director of Wiener Event Technik, Erich Kulicska says: "The Frog 2 fits all the criteria for our rental consoles including individual timing of channels and quick access to all desk data. In a

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USA - Washington State Attorney General Rob McKenna announced his candidacy for reelection in style at a recent breakfast gala attended by over 2000 supporters at the Meydenbauer Center in Bellevue, Wash. Working together with the Blue Danube production company and Hollywood Lights, Mills Music of Seattle provided sound reinforcement for the event, deploying a Dynacord Cobra-2 compact line array system.

"The 'Breakfast Campaign Kickoff' started at 8am and we rocked their socks off," says Ric Webb of Mills Music, who supervised sound. "Rob McKenna came onstage to music from Pirates of the Caribbean, which was a great way to get the guests going, and the exit music was Up Around the Bend by Creedence Clearwater Revival. This was our first time flying the Cobra, after a year of stacking the system for a wide range of outdoor and indoor shows, and we fou

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USA - Premier Production and Sound Services (PSS) provided full audio and lighting production for Dennis DeYoung's recent concert at the Baton Rouge River Center in Louisiana.

The performance featured classic hits from DeYoung's tenure as front man for Styx including Come Sail Away and Mr. Roboto as well as songs from DeYoung's solo albums. The Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra provided musical accompaniment along with DeYoung's current five-piece rock ensemble.

Premier provided a live sound reinforcement system that included JBL Vertec line arrays supplemented with VRX and SRX Series portable loudspeakers. The main PA system included a pair of 13-element arrays, each including nine Vertec VT4888 midsize enclosures and four VT4887A compact line array enclosures as down-fill support. Two columns of four JBL VRX932LA portable line arrays each were hung flanking the ma

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USA - The new Northwestern Prentice Women's Hospital in Chicago recently celebrated its grand opening with a gala performance from soul legend Aretha Franklin.

Lighting designer Terry Heisler, transformed the hospital into an entertainment atmosphere, with an eclectic mixture of moving lights - 20 PixelLine 1044s showcased on the main stage and 24 PixelArc Rs decorating the walls inside the hospital.

Heisler reports: "The PixelLines were a perfect fit for this show. The main stage was located in a large portable tent with sloping angles. I wanted to break up the monotony of those angles with something that could contrast and add another dimension."

He continues: "When the PixelLines were turned on you lost the 'tent' feeling - plus the pixel mapping and collage movement made the rig look much bigger than it was. The PixelLines also complemented the collage wal

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UK - HSL is injecting some old and new magic lanterns and lighting effects to the successful nine-week run of Aladdin at Newcastle Theatre Royal for Qdos Productions. It is lighting designer Ben Cracknell's sixth consecutive panto season at the Theatre Royal and HSL has also been supplying kit for the same duration.

"Panto is one of the hardest shows to light because it encompasses so many different genres - comedy, tragedy, musical, theatre, dance and rock 'n' roll all rolled into one," says Cracknell.

This Aladdin show also includes 3D projection for key elements including the magic carpet and the genie, which really throws the action right out into the audience and into people's faces - eliciting great excitement and reaction.

HSL is supplying all the moving lights for the show, along with equipment for another 10 Qdos productions around the UK, fr

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UK - Hoist UK is moving to bigger premises. The new offices, workshop and warehouse are based on the Wirral peninsula and are ideally located at the heart of the motorway network, says the company.

The move reflects Hoist UK's growth and success over the last year which has seen an expansion in the company, the product range and business generally.

Hoist UK is a UK distributor for the complete range of Verlinde industrial and entertainment lifting equipment.From 3 January 2008, the new contact details will be: Hoist UK Limited, Unit 11, Carrock Road, Croft Business Park, Bromborough, Wirral, CH62 3RA. Tel: +44 (0) 151 334 7682. Fax: +44 (0) 151 334 9373.

(Jim Evans)

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UK - Large-format projection specialists ETC London is supplying 18 Christie S20 Roadster projectors to Belgian superstars Clouseau for their 18-night run at the 15,000 capacity Antwerp Sportpalais.

ETC London was brought into the mix by set and visuals designer Bart Clement, who is working for the band for the first time. Clement is known for being inventive and original when it comes to defining stage environments, and this one was no exception. He created a giant 17m high by 30 wide curved wave-like back wall and projection surface from nearly 400 aluminium cubes covered in white Polystretch fabric.

Clouseau's main cube projection surface was made by WiCreations, and is fed by 12 of ETC's Christies, configured as two flown stacks of three focussed on the centre of the screen, with two more either side of stage on the deck, mounted in short towers. Two additional stacks of t

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Australia - ARX Systems has announced the appointment of Sunil Impex as its new distributor for Korea.

ARX managing director Colin Park said: "Sunil Impex is a new distribution company headed by Edward Shim, who has been a key figure in the Korean audio industry for many years. The Korean market has always been an important one to ARX. We're looking forward to working with Edward Shim and his energetic team at Sunil Impex to develop the market for ARX products further.

"ARX has a number of innovative new products slated for release in 2008 which we feel should be well received by Korean live sound and installation audio professionals."

(Jim Evans)

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USA - The grandMA is in control on R. Kelly's national Double Up tour which continues until 13 January. Production designer Patrick Dierson, of Artfag, selected the console to control all the automated elements of the big stage show, including lighting, video and scenery.

Dierson notes that R. Kelly has always had problems getting the lighting of his shows to be exactly as he envisioned it. "Now, for the first time in his career, he has complete control. He was very involved in the lighting and sat with us throughout the programming sessions."

The Double Up tour's high production values required the grandMA to control all the lighting, the DL.2 projectors, video control and routing, Control Freak systems integration and M-box servers.

The grandMA also controls the Mainlight Soft Motion system, a DMX-controlled motor cabling system for soft goods like

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France - Audio Pro Heilbronn has created an imaginative digital audio matrix infrastructure to connect boardrooms within a new Council of Europe building in Strasbourg. In order to implement this, the company turned to Soundweb London technology from BSS Audio.

While Siemens handled the media technology element of the competitively-tendered contract (video and control) it was their sub-contractor Stemin GmbH who took on responsibility for the audio design.

Stemin needed a digital matrix for audio transmission of the discussion and interpreter systems in each of the six boardrooms set within the new construction.

Audio Pro project manager, Stefan Beck commented: "We had to make it possible to transmit the original source and four interpreter signals from each room to any other room and the two control rooms."

Along with Stemin, Audio Pro devised an alternative Cob

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UK - Donny Osmond performed a series of show dates in the UK this winter in support of his current release, Love Songs of the 70s. For the fourth tour in a row, Osmond worked with UK-based Major Tom, which provided a powerful Meyer Sound system of Milo curvilinear array loudspeakers.

"Donny is very knowledgeable about sound, more so than many artists," explains Major Tom's principal, Lars Brogaard. "He records his shows to Pro Tools every night, and he loves the Milo system."

The touring system comprised two arrays of 15 Milo loudspeakers and one Milo120 high-power expanded coverage curvilinear array loudspeaker per side, augmented by two side-hangs of 12 Mica loudspeakers each. 12 600-HP compact high-power subwoofers were flown, six per side, next to the Milo arrays, and four more 700-HP ultrahigh-power subwoofers were stacked next to the stage. Sev

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Belarus - The city of Minsk recently celebrated the 940th anniversary of its founding. The grand celebrations were accompanied by a rich cultural programme. For the needs of the organizers of the celebrations, Milos supplied the roof - MR3 20x14m (65.6x45.9ft) in size with an S4 podium 2.5m (8.2ft) high - and M390L and M290B stands.

"Quality products, fast deliveries and maximum project support - these are the reasons why the organisers chose Milos. Our experts also took part in several training constructions preceding the official term of the celebration. Everything simply had to be 100% correct," said Vladimír Hasman, sales department manager for Milos.

(Jim Evans)

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Australia - An extensive Anolis architectural LED lighting installation has been completed at Brisbane's Paddington Tavern pub - known locally as The Paddo, renowned as one of Queensland's finest pubs.

The Paddo's new lighting scheme was designed by Craig Chandler of Craig Chandler Architects as part of a recent re-vamp of the large venue, giving it a post-modern industrial edge. The installation was undertaken by electrical contractors Espirit.

The project was jointly managed by Acoustic Technologies and ULA. Blair Terrace, national sales manager from ULA comments: "Craig has specified both Robe and Anolis fixtures for many other venues."

(Jim Evans)

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UK - A choir of nearly 9000 school children formed part of a series billed as 'the largest school concerts in the world'. Entitled Young Voices, it toured six major UK arenas including London's 02 this Christmas.

Guest artists on the tour include soul and R&B singer Beverly Knight and UK beatboxing champion Beardyman. With soloists, a 14-piece band and the choir, the on stage inputs soon rose to over 70. This gave monitor engineer Jamie Hickey an opportunity to put the new Yamaha DSP5D through its paces alongside a PM5D-RH, supplied by Britannia Row.

A relative newcomer to the PM5D-RH, Hickey first used the console while doing monitors for a recent series of David Gray concerts. "The David Gray gigs were relatively straightforward with only six separate mixes, so it was a good way to learn the desk," he says. "For this show, it couldn't be more different.

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Latvia - 48 channels of ARX MSX 48 16-in, 48-out ISO-transformer microphone /line splitter featured recently at the popular Cabare Plin Plin Show in Riga.

Edmunds Zazerskis from ARX Distributor UBS (Universal Baltic Sound) said that the MSX 48s were used by system engineer Aldis Vingris to split between Yamaha PM5D-RH and M7CL house / monitor consoles and an OB Van.

"All the units performed flawlessly, and the sound is just excellent," said Zazerskis.

(Jim Evans)

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UK - HSL supplied seven Robe Digital Spots, a set of custom built DMX winches, full lighting, rigging and crew for designer Rob Sinclair's innovative look for the Human League's 2007 festive tour. It is Sinclair's fourth tour with the band. Each year he ensures that the production values are maximised for the available budget and that the band have a fresh style to the stage.

This year lead singer Philip Oakey took a real interest in the visuals. Deciding to perform their seminal 1980 Dare album in order in its entirety, he discussed with Sinclair his desire for a real period feel from the visuals and a 'rectangular' basis to the stage.

Sinclair created and edited all the show's video content himself. Approximately 50% of this is completely new, and the rest was a combination of re-edited and archival material form the Dare era. All of it is stored in the Digital

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UK - Blitz has been commissioned by sound designer Mike Walker to provide the sound system - including a Cadac J type mixer - for the Aspects of Love UK tour.

Mike Walker comments: "Working on a new show is always exciting as it creates new challenges for the technical team. With a show that has such powerful songs and conveys deep emotions, it is essential to ensure that the sound equipment is able to bring the story to life for the audience and surpass their expectations."

Chris Jordan, head of theatre at Blitz, adds: "Aspects of Love is a passionate love story and its music and sound help to ignite the passion from the stage to the audience. It is paramount that our equipment is able to support the emotion of every performance. We are committed to providing the highest quality of sound and video equipment and we look forward to ensuring that the

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UK - Adlib Audio supplied sound production and crew for the Kaiser Chiefs arena tour featuring a JBL VerTec system specified by FOH engineer Chris Leckie.

Leckie was the first UK- based engineer to use a VerTec system in the UK, purchased by Adlib in 2001.

The touring rig featured 16 VT4889 cabinets per side for the main hangs with another 14 per side for the sides, complete with eight of the new VerTec VT4880A subs in the air and another six on the floor, making a total of 14 per side.

A series of the smaller VT4887s were utilised for front in-fills, carefully positioned around the downstage edge of the stage. Delay hangs for the larger shows consisted of four 4889s per side.

The 4889 and 4887 cabinets were driven by Camco Vortex 6 amplifiers, with Crown i-Tech 8000s for the subs. For processing, crossovers, EQ and system delay Adlib used its special custom engineered Dol

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Mexico - As a result of rapid growth in Latin America, Meyer Sound Mexico recently expanded its facilities by 50 percent. Now located at its Mexico City headquarters, the larger space will accommodate a growing staff of customer support.

"As the standards for audio equipment have risen at high-profile events and installations throughout Latin America, the demand for Meyer Sound products has increased dramatically as well," says Antonio Zacarias, managing director of Meyer Sound Mexico. "The new facility enables us to continue to provide the high-level of customer support for which Meyer Sound is known throughout the world.

"We can now keep a higher quantity of products in stock locally, which will allow us to fill customers' orders quickly."

(Jim Evans)

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Canada - Named after Shakespeare's birthplace, the small city of Stratford, Ontario today hosts the largest classical repertory theatre in North America. Offering theatrical fare rivaling the best of New York and Shakespeare's Stratford, the Stratford Festival of Canada hosts an annual audience of 600,000 over the course of eight months. 14 productions were staged this year, with plays by the Bard of Avon taking top billing, along with Broadway-style musicals that added depth and variety to the repertoire. To deliver the classics to the Festival patrons, more than 80 Meyer Sound loudspeakers were used, along with Matrix3 audio show control systems and a fully integrated LCS Series CueConsole control system, which was recently installed in the largest venue at the Festival, the 1,826-seat Festival Theatre.

A key proponent of the LCS Series solution was resident sound designer Pet

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UK - HSL supplied lighting equipment, crew and full production rigging for lighting, sound and video for the Live 07 Festival of Scouting event staged at the O2, London. This concluded the official celebrations for the Scouts' centenary year, culminating in a show featuring 3000 performers, seven mini Coopers, a Harley Davidson motorbike and abseiling explorer scouts across two action-packed three-hour shows in the one day.

HSL's Mike Oates project managed, working closely with production manager Mike Bryan and lighting designer Andy Hook, following HSL's successful collaboration with the Scout Association's World Jamboree in Hylands Park, Chelmsford in the summer (see Lighting&Sound International magazine, October 2007).

The lighting brief included illuminating all of the arena floor and seating areas as well as the

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USA - The registration deadline for The ESTA Foundation's Mid-Atlantic Technical Training Week has been extended to Friday, 11 January 2008. The training will be held 21-26 January at Prince George's Community College in Largo, Maryland, 12 miles from Washington, D.C. The training is co-sponsored by Theater & Entertainment Technology at Prince George's Community College and The ESTA Foundation's Seminars & Training Committee.

This six-day professional training week includes courses for lighting programmers, technicians, and electricians, as well as for arena and stage riggers. Some of the courses carry re-certification credits for ETCP certified electricians and riggers.

Courses offered in the Rigging Track are: Arena Rigging Math Fundamentals on 21 January taught by G. Anthony Phillips and Stage Rigging Fundamentals on 22-23 January taught by Jay O. Glerum. The Lighting/Elect

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