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USA - The North American leg of Linkin Park's Minutes to Midnight World Tour, which has to date has passed through southeast Asia, Australia, and most recently Europe and UK, started in Omaha, NE on 12 February. Pre-production rehearsals took place in Baton Rouge and Lafayette for a week with Ben Cabot, Adamson's tour support flying out for initial set-up support.

Some of the new technical aspects for this leg of the tour include a new, fully automated lighting rig. On the sound side, Linkin Park carry on with FOH engineer Ken van Druten, whose full Adamson set-up for mains, sides, delays, and front- fills, remains as number one on the LP technical rider. Kevin McCarthy, LP's monitor engineer also continues requesting 16 Adamson M15 monitors combined with in-ears, for a monitor rig.

Tour Manager Jim Digby engaged the complete sound rig with full turnkey package from Ato

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UK / South Africa - Wirral-based Lift-Turn-Move (LTM) has just staged two motor schools in Johannesburg. The first was at leading lighting and rigging sales company DWR Distribution and the other at the country's largest rental and production facility, Gearhouse South Africa.

LTM's John Jones taught his first South African Motor School in 1999 at Gearhouse and has returned three times since then to do Motor Schools. He says: "I really enjoy the energy of South Africa. The thirst for knowledge here is incredible, and it's great to see such a wide cross section of people wanting to take their technical knowledge and understanding of such an important part of the industry forward."

The motor schools took the standard format of 16 places - with a couple of extras squeezed in. They were presented by LTM's Dave Ward, who did the majority of the technical talk, while Jones

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UK - In early March, Stage Electrics was the first supplier of lighting, sound and rigging at the BT Convention Centre in Liverpool. Stage Electrics was contracted by Steve Burrell at LXFX on behalf of the Social Enterprise Coalition.

The BT Convention Centre is a purpose built meeting facility that consists of three auditoriums, 18 breakout rooms and a 3,725sq.m multi-purpose hall.

The centre hosted the Social Enterprise Coalition's VOICE08 Conference with Stage Electrics responsible for the provision of two 30m truss structures along with lighting and sound systems. The project was overseen by Stage Electrics' project manager David Wicks, account manager Chris Philpott, with sound by Rob McNeil and lighting by Tim Massey.

Production manager Steve Burrell from LXFX in East Sussex commented: "I was very pleased with the way Stage Electrics dealt with this project

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UK - Clockaudio has announced a restructuring of its distribution channels in the UK, appointing two partners for the brand: Tukans, the business-to-business AV specialist based in the north of England, will act on behalf of Clockaudio alongside CIE-Group, one of the UK's largest suppliers of commercial audio equipment to the installation sector.

Rod Geary of Clockaudio has taken the unusual step of sharing distribution of Clock's portfolio between two agents. "Their skillsets and their customer bases are very different, and both companies will have substantial input into building up Clockaudio's presence in the UK marketplace. Tukans has established knowledge of our brand, having worked with us for the past 3 years; they present our products to leading systems integrators in the AV installation business, and are highly oriented towards technical service and support. CIE-Gr

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Australia - Cairns based Pro-gig, assisted by Australian distributor Audiotech Systems Australia has installed the world's first Outline mini-COM.P.A.S.S. in the Cairns Civic Theatre.

"Outline won the contract simply on its power output, overall clarity and ease of use", says Steve Barton - chief audio supervisor for Cairns Civic theatre.

"The adjustable horizontal dispersion was a major consideration factor due to FOH bridges either side of stage that deflected audio onto highly reflective surfaces. The overall concept was that we could now focus the audio energy onto the 700 seated paying audience and not onto the walls and other surfaces. In the horizontal plane one can adjust the degree of dispersion asymmetrically between 60 and 150 degrees in 15 degree increments. Audio can be specifically directed to where it is required."

Mini-COM.P.A.S.S. consist

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USA - Acclaim Lighting has appointed Montreal-based Rite Lites as its Canadian distributor-partner. Under the agreement, Rite Lites has been granted exclusive distribution rights for Acclaim's line of interior and exterior LED lighting and control products throughout Canada.

"We are very excited to welcome Rite Lites to our team," commented Eric Loader, director of sales for Acclaim Lighting. "We feel this move will greatly expand our Canadian presence and open new markets for our products. Rite Lites shares our vision of the huge upside potential for LED lighting in a variety of industries and applications, and they have the expertise, creative thinking and dedication to carry this out."

Founded by lighting rental/production veteran Mark Etcovitch, Rite Lites is focused on providing energy efficient lighting solutions to the commercial/industrial, landscap

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USA - The impressive Prudential Center in Newark represents the Tri-State's first major entertainment venue to be opened in 25 years. Costing a reported $375 million and boasting seating for 17,500 patrons, the sports and entertainment venue most notably serves as the new home for the NHL New Jersey Devils and the Seton Hall Pirates basketball team, as well as hosting MISL indoor soccer, concerts, family shows, and other special events.

When considering power and flexibility requirements, the venue's sound system design team elected to utilise Crown I-Tech and CTs Series amplifiers, controlled via Harman's HiQnet network, to amplify the various PA and ancillary loudspeaker systems. Pleased with the decision, Andy Prager, senior project engineer with Diversified Systems, the contracting firm responsible for the audio installation, notes: "the Crown systems sound remarkably g

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USA - Technomad Associates, LLC, reports that it has established a new sales milestone with more than 17,000 loudspeakers shipped worldwide to date. The company, founded in 1995, continues to manufacture all loudspeakers for the commercial pro audio and military/security markets at its Massachusetts facility, where each loudspeaker is bench-built and tested by its small team of craftsmen.

"Technomad is proud to contribute to the long-standing tradition of New England manufacturing," said Rodger von Kries, vice president of Technomad. "Our commitment to manufacturing our commercial and military products in the USA ensures the careful craftsmanship of all Technomad loudspeakers is centralized in our Massachusetts facility."

All Technomad loudspeakers have an IP56 rating from the International Electronic Commission (IEC) for maximum protection against hazardou

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UK - Event services company PSL successfully completed a UK tour supplying video projection and screens Madness, culminating in a rotating 'in-the-round' set at the massive 20,000-seater O2 Arena in London.

PSL supplied four 20ft x 15ft projection screens to fulfil the specification of video director Julian Hogg, using the new Christie Roadster S+20K DLP projectors to provide a mix of pin-sharp graphics, Madness' own material created by Tim Fleming of Plastic Pictures and live footage, generated by PSL's eight-camera PPU, all using Sony cameras.

"With the stage itself rotating, we had to have more cameras than usual to provide front coverage," explained Hogg, doing his first show in the O2 Arena. "This was an unusual show for Madness as it was set in-the-round. We were flying our screens nearly 50ft in the air, above the lighting grid and below the PA, sitting i

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USA - AKG Acoustics has named Sound Marketing West of Canoga Park, CA as the company's Rep of the Year for 2007. Sound Marketing West accepted this award for excellent sales performance at a ceremony held during the recent annual Harman Pro Group representative and distributor meeting.

"Each year we recognise those partners demonstrating excellent sales efforts while offering consistent and reliable customer support. Sound Marketing West exemplifies the very best in these categories," explained Nick Owen, vice-president of sales for Harman Pro North America's AKG, Soundcraft and Studer brands. "The growth of brand loyalty for AKG products in the US depends upon support from reliable and experienced sales professionals like the team at Sound Marketing West. We're proud to recognize them for all their hard work over the last year."

Jerry Klein, sales manager

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UK - HSL supplied moving lights, LED elements and set for the launch of theatre producer Bill Kenwright's new boyband and their debut of the Dream On album made by seven finalists from the recent hit BBC TV series Any Dream Will Do. The show was staged at the London Palladium theatre.

HSL supplies many of Kenwright's theatre shows and tours, but what clinched this one for them as suppliers was that they came up with a unique set and lighting concept that could also be integrated with the existing lighting rig servicing the Palladium's current resident production, The Sound of Music

Project manager, HSL's Mike Oates reports, "The brief included creating a design for the show that resembled the TV series in some ways, but that also had a bit of rock 'n' roll attitude and individuality of its own. It also had to be got in and out and rigged in a day.&quo

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Canada - Adamson Scandinavia has been established. A company statement says, "Adamson is growing the Scandinavian market which is reputably a forward thinking and technologically aware region of Europe, with a passion for music; it is home to hundreds of music festivals annually. Adamson's complete line of advanced technology loudspeaker products will consequently be a great fit for the Scandinavian regional professional touring and installation markets."

Adamson's long-time rental partner Nordic Rentals has finished building a massive new storage and office building in Velje, Denmark, which will now house the separate entity of Adamson Scandinavia, beside the Nordic Rentals divisions of Nordic Rentals, Nordic Sales and Nordic Staging.

Adamson Scandinavia staff includes manager Lars Aunsberg, director of sales Lars Bo Baadsgaard and sales staff Lars J°rgensen, an

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UK - Arena Structures has been awarded new contracts signalling a positive start to 2008, whilst also being recognised for last year's achievements.

The Company was awarded the Business of the Year award at the 2008 Performance Textiles Awards held this month. In presenting the award to Arena Structures managing director Grahame Muir, Colin Bryer, managing editor of Performance Textiles magazine, commended Arena "for showing significant growth and innovative development throughout the year following the management buyout of January '07."

Arena Structures also collected a silver award in the Project of the Year category for its input into the BCIC exhibition at the Sage Centre, Gateshead.

Grahame Muir commented: "These awards reflect the efforts of everyone at Arena Structures, who are continuously looking to improve the service we can deli

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UK - Red TX is the new company set up by Ian Dyckhoff, formerly a director of Fleetwood Mobiles, and sound designer Conrad Fletcher, with the aim of capturing audio from major live music events for subsequent television broadcast and/or release on DVD. Broadcast sound engineer Tim Summerhayes, who is currently working on a freelance basis after resigning his directorship of Fleetwood Mobiles, is being represented by Red TX and was behind the controls of the Red TX OB truck at the recent NME Awards.

For the past year Dyckhoff and Fletcher have been trading under the name of Mobile One, handling a variety of high profile events including the Vodafone TBA series, T4 On The Beach and Keane's concert from the O2 Arena, which was the first live DVD from the venue. However, the Shockwaves NME Awards 2008 - the largest in the history of this particular awards ceremony - wa

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USA - Following on the heels of his sold-out European tour, controversial Goth Metal icon Marilyn Manson recently brought his high-intensity show to North America. Supporting his current release, Eat Me, Drink Me, the 19-city tour took the rocker to some intimate theatres and auditoriums in the US and Canada.

Manson toured with 16 self-powered, high-performance MJF-212A stage monitors from Meyer Sound. Monitor engineer was Bruce Danz, a long-time associate of Taylor, Mich.-based Thunder Audio, which supplied the monitors.

"The MJF-212A is really the only stage monitor that can deliver clean, intelligible sound at the levels we require," reports Danz.

Since its release in 2007, MJF-212A has provided monitoring for the many artists including Metallica, Steely Dan, Dave Matthews and Kanye West.

Before his show dates in North America, Manson toured Europe with

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USA - Live sound and lighting production company On Cue Systems of Phoenix, AZ recently provided the sound reinforcement system for a Barack Obama presidential campaign rally at Phoenix Veterans Memorial Stadium in Arizona. The Stand For Change rally drew more than 13,000 supporters and included appearances by Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano and Caroline Kennedy.

On Cue Systems deployed a Vertec line array system consisting of a left/right arrangement of 12 VT4889 full-size line array elements per side, with 10 VT4880 full-size arrayable subwoofers per side. Additionally, On Cue Systems set up six VT4889 line array elements each for two out-fill side hangs.

According to Dan Myers, system technician for On Cue Systems, the event drew larger crowds than expected. "The campaign staff was only expecting five or six thousand people to show up, so it was amazing to see

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UK - Through dealer White Light, lighting manufacturer ETC has installed lighting at London's Arcola Theatre in Hackney. But the installation was the easy bit for the theatre. The difficult bit was keeping the show's peak power consumption below 4.5kW. And the reason why they had to do that was because the venue has recently had a hydrogen fuel cell installed, as part of its bid to become the world's first carbon neutral theatre.

ETC's technical director Adam Bennette, who happens to live just a couple of streets from the theatre, assisted with the installation, which includes nine 375W ETC Source Fours and a SmartFade ML control desk - which is also able to control the LED and fluorescent lighting on the show. "I have a pet hate of West End shows which are over lit and can even end up dazzling the audience," explains Bennette. "So it was nice to be able to work o

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UK - For the third consecutive year, Stage Electrics supplied staging and lighting for the Laurence Olivier Awards, presented annually by the Society of London Theatre.

Stage Electrics provided crew together with 36 Source 4 lanterns, four MAC 250 Entours, 12 MAC 300s, 10 MAC 500s, six MAC 700s and 14 MAC 600s for the awards held on Sunday 8 March. Lighting design was by Matt Evered, the awards were project managed by Stage Electrics' Andrew Loveday.

Production Manager Andrew Loveday said, "This is Stage Electrics' third night in a row in the Great Room. We provided equipment for Revolution Awards, Variety Club Awards and the Oliviers."

(Jim Evans)

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UK - PRG Europe has supplied lighting for the relit Tosca at London's Royal Albert Hall, which ran until Sunday 9 March. It was lit by Andy Bridge, who says, "Although this is a reproduction and relighting, it needed a lot of refining. A lot of the equipment we used nine years ago is no longer in normal use, so we had to go to PRG Europe's demo studio with the show file and lighting plots, and compare old with new - a mammoth task."

Bridge, who worked with assistant Mike Odam, is using Vari-Lite luminaires, as well as some 200 ETC Source Fours with Wybron colour scrollers, on the show. The moving light programming was by John Harris on a PRG Europe-supplied Wholehog II, while static lighting is by Dan Last on a Strand 520.

"Nine years ago," continues Andy, "we still preferred not to rely on moving lighting, but now we can be more confident about

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UK - Adlib Audio has completed it's first School Tutorial Event of 2008. Adlib's Andy Dockerty says, "The way to learn how to become a live sound engineer and system technician is to actually be involved in the environment.

"Many young people are pushed into 'live audio' and 'technical' courses by career advisors at schools. Whist sounding superficially exciting, these courses are obviously bringing in funds to educational establishments, but "live" production cannot be taught in a classroom or a one space environment.

"You need to be able to anticipate venue-to-venue problems and nuances and experience true working days - including load-ins and outs before you leave college."

Dockerty adds that apart from highlighting technical issues, the Adlib Schools Events are realistic about the fact it's not an especially glamorous career at the outset, a

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The Netherlands - XLNT Advanced Technologies has announced a strengthened distribution, sales and customer support structure for CyberHoist motion control products in Germany.

Sales distribution for Germany will be handled by Hagen-based CAST, headed by managing director Heinz Siller.

A new company, CyberHoist Germany GmbH, will become the country's CyberHoist Service Point, responsible for all service and rental support in Germany. The company has been set up by the team from current CyberHoist rental dealer Lightcompany of Neuss, Germany, and is headed by managing director Peter Nellen.

CAST and CyberHoist Germany GmbH will together form the complete team that will support all CyberHoist clients in the fast-growing German market, says the company. Meanwhile, Lightcompany will continue in its existing role as CyberHoist rental dealer, supplying full productions using CyberH

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Korea - A number of new QSC Audio ILA line array installations have been carried out in Korea recently by territorial distributors, Sama ProSound. The long-established Seoul-based company reports that applications vary from auditoria in educational establishments to places of worship.

The main auditorium at Wooshin High School in Seoul is used for a variety of functions and its long rectangular shape would generally have dictated that a large number of subwoofers would be required to complement the main full-range main speakers.

QSC's Installation Line Array (ILA) offers 140° horizontal coverage, and 12 enclosures have been specified (in two hangs) with four WL118-sw subs. This necessitated adding only a pair of QSC's AcousticDesign AD-S82's in each of the corners of the auditorium's second floor to ensure that an evenly-dispersed sound can be experienced from any location

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New Zealand - Audio networking for Skycity's new Vue Bar in Hamilton, has been placed entirely in the hands of the Soundweb London DSP platform from BSS Audio.

The Soundweb system, comprising a BLU-80 signal processor and BLU-32 I/O expander, forms part of a Harman Pro integrated system, designed and specified by James Greet from Greet Consulting of Auckland, in consultation with Paul Edlin of JANDS NZ Technical Resource Group (TRG). The system was supplied and installed by Security Specialists of Auckland - and all network design programming and commissioning was handled by Robson Birch, of JANDS NZ TRG.

The 600-capacity Vue Bar has been designed specifically to provide world-class entertainment in the city centre, and marks the end of a multi-phase development which also saw the opening of the Rebo Restaurant and Bar in May of last year. General manager Geoff Hogg confirms t

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UK - BDP Lighting won the special projects category and had a further entry short-listed in the workplace category in this year's Lighting Design Awards. The awards were presented at the London Hilton on 6 March. BDP's Guerilla Lighting events in London and Manchester won in the special projects category and Westminster Academy, London was short-listed in the workplace category.

The concept of Guerrilla Lighting was created by Martin Lupton, director of BDP's lighting group, to promote lighting design and create a platform to discuss key issues such as professional design, waste and sustainability. The power behind the exercise was the participation and collaboration, which was what particularly impressed the judges.

Under the guidance of a team leader, the teams created transient lighting designs by using high powered torches, battery powered LED projectors, luminous dot ligh

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