UK - Themes Incorporated highlighted its LED video flooring system at the recent Event Show at Olympia. The modular floor panels display an endless stream of moving images, animations and live, or recorded, video footage. The system can be arranged in a variety of sizes and shapes and can display logos and text, making it suitable for both private and corporate applications.

David Churches, managing director of Themes Incorporated commented: "We were so pleased with the reception that the video floor achieved - we always felt it was an excellent addition to our extensive event equipment stock, but it is reassuring when you see the reaction from clients at a prestigious show such as this.

Although we originally bought the system with dance floors in mind, we have received just as many enquiries to use it at product launches and promotions - this really illustrates the vers

Malaysia - Coveled from Dialight Lumidrives have been used to provide high quality LED lighting in six prestigious retail locations across the Far East for Royal Selangor of Malaysia, the world's largest pewter designer and manufacturer.

Coveled replaced a traditional halogen lighting system to illuminate display shelves of pewter products. Coveled provides low energy consumption of approximately 10W per metre and a long lamp life of around 50,000 hours rather than 20,000 with the previous alternative.

Lighting designers and specifiers were M-Lux of Malaysia. Coveled was supplied by Dialight Lumidrive's Asia partner and distributor Achieva Electronics of Singapore.

Locations were Raffles in Singapore, in Malaysia -Queensbay Mall Penang, the Pavillion Kuala Lumpur, Mid Valley the Garden Kuala Lumpur and Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre. Installation was also carried out at Roya

USA - As the hockey teams battled it out on ice, a lighting team enhanced the 27 January NHL All-Star Game with a large production. High End Systems equipment played a role in the nationally televised broadcast from Philips Arena in Atlanta, specifically Showguns, Studio Color 575s and a Wholehog 3 console.

HES sent its Los Angeles-based programmer/trainer Mike Hanson to assist LD David Agress and programmer Paul Turner. Agress had not yet experienced Showgun, while Turner had only recently undergone Wholehog 3 training at HES.

The Showguns were used to highlight the goals and to project logos. Agress says: "The Showguns will be part of my big-show list from now on. Really a wonderful light. They were the work horse and show horse of this year's NHL All Star Game."

Mainlight supplied the Showguns to production supplier Entertainment Design Group of Atlanta.

(Jim

The Netherlands - Spanish sound reinforcement manufacturer Vieta continues its expansion across continental Europe with the appointment of Match Audio & Vision as its distribution partner in Holland.

With a special interest in the audio-visual sector, as well as sound reinforcement and system installation, Match Audio & Vision first discovered Vieta's product range via the wireless So Cubes. Robert Pigeaud, co-owner of Match, was quick to sell and supply a 10-cube hire system to Generation Audio, a rental company based in Oss. This is now in regular use for company events and conferences.

"The market in Holland is quite slow-moving," admits Robert Pigeaud, "but I'm certain customers will be convinced by the quality of the wireless So Line and the specifications of the high-performance Do Line for indoor and outdoor installation."

(Jim Evans)

This year's ISE in Amsterdam had a vibrant atmosphere and was very well attended. Next year's event - also in the Dutch capital city - will be even bigger, say the organisers. All these factors, together with the release of a raft of new products, reflects the buoyant state of the fixed installation sector.

On the live music front, the strangest gig we have reported on in recent times must be Queens of the Stone Age performing down a salt mine in East Germany. Iron Maiden are about to tour the world again and next summer's festivals are selling out as soon as the tickets become available. And the move to digital in live music production continues with this week's official London launch of Cadac's new digital desk.

Manufacturers are now gearing up for Frankfurt, while end-users are still trying to digest the wealth of product developments, company announcements and mergers unveiled at

UK - Lighting designer Stephen Page used a Jands Vista T2 console to provide lighting control for The People's Opening event to launch Liverpool's year as the European Capital of Culture.

Using the stunning architecture of St George's Plateau as a backdrop, the show featured a cast of 600 to represent the City's rich cultural heritage, including artists Ringo Starr and Dave Stewart, a choir of 300, 40 aerial performers, 80 guitarists and hundreds of local school children.

All lighting equipment was supplied by Blackburn based rental company HSL and project managed by Mike Oates.

Lighting designer Stephen Page's brief from the creative team was to light a musical, multi-cultural event featuring a diverse mix of performers on a large outdoor scale in the middle of Liverpool's city centre.

The Vista controlled a lighting rig featuring over 200 moving lights, 360 ways o

UK - mcm Productions has announced the acquisition of Southampton-based, AV and technical production company Lite Relief, as a new division within its business.

Over the course of 10 years, mcm has established its position as one of the UK's leading providers of event management, video production and graphic skills, with a client base which boasts John Lewis, Royal Bank of Scotland, Warburtons and Mothercare. mcm's acquisition of Lite Relief comes with a large store of AV equipment, warehouse space and an existing client portfolio including Southampton FC, Hampshire Chamber of Commerce and Hampshire Cricket Club.

The purchase will further strengthen mcm's business, and allow it to broaden its in-house technical service and capabilities, resulting in creative and cost effective solutions for new and existing clients, says the company.

With nearly 30 years industry expertise,

The Netherlands - Martin Audio's OmniLine received its first gong recently when it picked up the InAVate Award for Most InAVative Loudspeaker Product for Commercial Use.

The award was presented by Dr. Walter Wehrhan, editor in chief of Production Partner (sponsors of the category) at a gala dinner - this took place at the Hotel Okura, Amsterdam during the recent ISE Show.

*XL Video won the InAVate Award for Most innovative Rental & Staging project (corporate) for its work on the launch of High Speed 1 - St Pancras International Station, the high speed Cross Channel Rail Link and the UK's new Eurostar terminal.

XL Video's business development manager Al Green was on hand to receive the Award on behalf of the company at the ceremony.

(Jim Evans)

UK - BRIT Award-nominated English pop-rock band The Feeling had a busy 2007. They spent much of the first part of the year on a major British tour, and took the stage again in June to steal the show at The Concert For Diana at Wembley Stadium. 2008 promises to be even busier, as the promotional circus for second album 'Join With Us' begins in earnest this February.

The band spent much of last year holed up in a stately home in Wiltshire writing and recording 'Join With Us', the follow up to the smash hit, 'Twelve Stops And Home'. And an essential part of that process was the delivery of a selection of Sennheiser and Neumann microphones that enabled the band to create release-quality audio in a house not designed with 21st Century recording as its primary concern.

"We took advantage use of the wonderful acoustics in the wood panelled, tapestry-lined dining hall," expl

USA - Community Professional Loudspeakers has awarded the Mac West Group their Representative of the Year award for 2007. The award, which recognises outstanding sales and support, was announced at Community's rep meeting at this year's NAMM show in Anaheim.

"All of Community's reps have done an outstanding job this year, and selecting just one company for Rep of the Year was a difficult decision," remarked Rod Falconer, Community's western regional sales manager. "But Steve, Pat, Zeke, and Greg at Mac West have really been top notch. We're pleased and proud to be represented by such a great group of people."

Mac West Group represents Community Professional Loudspeakers in Southern California, Arizona and Las Vegas.

(Jim Evans)

Italy - The orgainsers of the Show-Way 2008 exhibition (Bergamo, Italy 24-26 February) have announced further details of one of the show's key seminar sessions, titled 'Technology and development of lamps for entertainment'.

Guest speakers Roger Van Der Plas of Philips, Gerry Schuh of GE Lighting and Joachim Denz of Osram will briefly discuss the characteristics, merits and limitations of halogen and discharge lamp sources, together with an account of the development to date of these technologies with regard to their efficiency, size, life, colour temperatures, energy consumption and compatibility with environmental regulations. The panel will then discuss the future evolution of future light source technologies with examples of their potential applications in entertainment and architectural markets.

Roger Van Der Plas studied Physics at the University of Ghent in Belgi

UK - Switched on London, the capital's festival of light running from 7-14 February and coinciding with ARC08 will include the Breathing Trees 2 project. This is a revival of a site-specific installation conceived by lighting artist Laurent Louyer and first shown in Geneva.

Inspired by the resemblance of two beech trees to a pair of lungs, Laurent developed his design for the trees to appear through light and colour to be 'breathing', accompanied on site by a synchronised breathing soundscape.

In Geneva the trees were lit by 42 RGB LED fixtures supplied by Look4ideas, and controlled by a single-universe Pharos Lighting Playback Controller (LPC1) which managed the synchronising of the audio effect, as well as time-of-day, special occasion and astronomical triggers for the light show.

For the London installation, a pair of plane trees in Potter's Field Park has b

Germany - The HK Audio Cohedra and Cohedra Compact line arrays continue to enjoy increasing popularity throughout the world, both in live use in mobile applications and in fixed installations, says the company.

"Last year in 2007 we were able to solidify and expand upon the double-digit growth we experienced in 2006," says Christian Stumpp, head of international sales for the HK Audio Concert Sound and Install Sound divisions. "With new users and installations in many countries, in addition to our home market of Germany, we have been able to expand our circle of users in the hotly contested European market as well.

We are especially gratified by the rapid growth and success of our users on the Spanish mainland. The Canary Islands have been very well equipped for some time already by the substantial Cohedra User Network there. Denmark and Russia also experienced

Ireland - LED Group has confirmed the acquisition of lighting design and consultancy business DLDP which is directed by Paul Donegan.

Donegan and his team will manage all new product design and development and will also continue to provide a lighting design and consultancy service. This new company is called onepointtwo.

Donegan has experience in all areas of the lighting arena with a career spanning 22 years. He is a member of the Society of Light and Lighting, the Institute of Lighting Engineers and holds a Master of Science degree in The Built Environment (Light & Lighting) from the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London. He has lectured on retail lighting at Griffith College Dublin, Dublin Institute of Design and architectural lighting at University College Dublin.

onepointtwo offers architects, designers and engineers "a comprehensive and holist

Iceland - MC2 Audio has confirmed the appointment of Sense as its distributor in Iceland. Sense, which is a subsidiary of Nyherjihf, one of Iceland's leading IT service providers, is located in the town of Kópavogur on the southeastern shore of Faxa Bay in southwestern Iceland, close to Reykjavík.

Sales manager Bergthor Leifsson and his team are specialists in the provision of both professional and high end consumer solutions with an aim to create value for their customers through in-house team work and close collaboration with their clientele. Other brands represented by Sense include Audio-technica, Turbosound, Bose, Biamp, Sony, Renkus-Heinz, Artcoustic and Crestron.

"Iceland is a new and exciting market for us," comments MC2 managing director Ian McCarthy. "I know that the sales team in Sense is already working on some interesting projects using our amps.

France - Design consultants, Axys, recently installed Allen & Heath's new Xone:S2 club mixer at the L'Escale club, located on a barge at Louvecienne on the banks of the river Seine.

The 4U rack mixer offers many features suited to fixed installation in clubs, including an output limiter system, a mono master output doubled for sub with filtering, alternative output for sending to a second zone with the possibility of controlling volume remotely, and an alarm message audio input connection. Allen & Heath hasn't forgotten new technology either, as the Xone:S2 also includes a USB port, allowing the transmission of a stereo signal to a computer.

Resident DJ, DJ Rom-1, commented, "I am very satisfied with my new toy as it is an accurate and efficient control surface. The cherry on the cake was that after it was installed, the dynamics and sound quality in the room clearly impr

USA - On 14 February, Céline Dion will embark upon her Taking Chances world tour of over 100 show dates, following her successful, multi-year resident show in Las Vegas. The tour opens with a benefit concert for Nelson Mandela in Johannesburg, South Africa, and will bring Dion to 85 cities in North America, Asia, Australia and Europe before the final stop in Florida in January 2009. The tour includes a stop in Tokyo, which features the largest Meyer Sound Milo system with a record 168 Milo line array loudspeakers.

The system design for the elaborate, in-the-round production is handled by Dion's long-time head of audio and first-time FOH engineer, Francois "Frankie" Desjardins, whose sound design credits include the Beatles-inspired Revolution Lounge in Las Vegas's Mirage Hotel and the Cirque du Soleil's Saltimbanco touring show.

Desjardins commen

USA - One of the many attractions of Winter NAMM is the top-calibre entertainment found on stages all around the Anaheim Convention Center each evening. One of the hottest tickets at this year's show was the party co-sponsored by Heil Sound, Lectrosonics, Renkus-Heinz, and Roland Systems Group.

The event showcased both top-tier musical technique and leading-edge pro audio technology. "We are proud to have been part of an event that everyone who attended will remember," said Renkus-Heinz VP of operations Rik Kirby. "It gave us a great opportunity to show the advantages of integrating digital audio distribution, computer control and supervision, and real-time test and measurement software in an actual live performance environment. The system went together quickly, worked flawlessly and delivered exceptional sonic results, given the low-ceiling hotel ballroom environ

UK - Smash hit musical Mamma Mia! has marked the return of Smoke Factory to the West End, with exclusive use of its fog and haze products. Lighting Partners, the UK distributor for Smoke Factory, worked with Smoke Factory's German HQ, PRG Europe and the Mamma Mia! London production team, swapping 11 machines for eight Tour Hazer IIs and three Data II fog machines.

The Tour Hazer II is a 1600W hazer built into an Amptown flightcase; the Data II is a 2600W high emission fog machine; both units are DMX-controlled and have recently obtained BGV-C1 certification from the German authorities to show that the machines, the fluid and the fog they produce have no adverse health effects.

David Morgan of Lighting Partners said: "Since taking on the Smoke Factory distributorship in 2007 we have worked hard to re-establish the brand in the UK. This tie-up with one of the

Australia - In front of a pre-Christmas audience of approximately 5000 on the South Perth Foreshore West Australian Rental Company PSI Sound provided production for the annual Mandurah Christmas Carols evening.

PSI has recently added a pair of ARX MSX 48 Mic / Line Splitters to its rental inventory, allowing them to split the fully mic'd 10 piece band, backing groups, soloists and the MC that easily filled their 32 channel monitor console.

PSI's Rodger Miller said: "Everyone at the gig commented to us that it was the best sound they have had in four years of doing the event, and the MSX48 split made it possible to achieve this with ease. System setup took an hour and a half and patching was easy."

(Jim Evans)

USA - Part of the new expansion of the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Tampa, FL is the WonderWall, a $2 million interactive water fountain. Fuelling the fountain with content are eight High End Systems Axon media servers. Axon is a rack-mount unit featuring the DL.2 graphics engine, allowing users to feed media content to their own output device.

Luxious Lighting's Andrew Wilder of Los Angeles programmed the display using a Wholehog 3 and Hog 3PC. "I used all stock library content that comes with Axon, except for the Hard Rock Seminole logo," Wilder explains. "I also combined it with a satellite music video feed that runs in the casino. The Axons are housed in a small room, behind the fountain, set up in two rows of four, with projectors. I've mapped the Axon content into a sphere and they're rear-projecting."

The Wholehog 3 not only controls the cont

USA - Alpha One Technology's new Falcon 6000 and the existing Falcon 7k xenon lights played key positions in this year's Super-Bowl XLII Halftime Show. Premiering at the big event, the Falcon 6000 is a compact indoor/outdoor, DMX controlled, xenon fixture equipped with douser, pan-and-tilt movement, electronic and mechanical dimmer, electronic and mechanical strobe, zoom and integrated electronic power supply. The next release of the Falcon 6000 will include a CMY+1 colour changer, with extra scrolls for special effects.

"Finally, a versatile xenon light designed especially for both floor and inverted use," states Emmy Award winning lighting designer Bob Dickinson. "Its exceptional output, comparable to that of the 7k at a third the size and weight with one-third the power consumption, is a great advancement in xenon technology. I am looking forward to using A&O's

UK - Exhibitors at The Event Show have declared the 2008 exhibition a resounding success with almost all mentioning the very high quality of visitors as the defining factor, say the organisers.

Over 4,000 people attended the Olympia show over the two days. Michelle Tayton, manager of The Event reports, "So often we hear claims of significant increases in visitor numbers year on year to exhibitions, but this really is irrelevant if those people are not serious buyers. There are only so many people working in the industry and our visitor list reads like a who's who in events and these people have actually placed orders during and straight after the exhibition.

"We have fulfilled one of our main objectives to deliver revenue straight into our exhibitors' pockets, which has resulted in a 20% increase on re-bookings for next year's Show."

Next year The Event Show w

USA - Digital mixing console manufacturer, InnovaSON has announced the appointment of Marshank Sales as manufacturer's representative in Southern California. Established in 1920, Marshank Sales has been serving the professional audio industry for three generations and has built up a roster of some 15 brands across a number of market sectors.

According to Marshank sales president, Gary Marshank, this is a great opportunity for the company. "The quality and prestige of InnovaSON is a great addition to the lines we represent," he noted. "We've also known Kevin Madden for a very long time and are impressed with his sales and marketing abilities. The combination of a great product and great people is always a winner, so we are looking forward to a very successful relationship with InnovaSON and Kevin."

(Jim Evans)

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