Business

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USA - Production Resource Group, L.L.C., (PRG) has formed a new company, PRG Distribution, L.L.C. (PRG Distribution) to distribute entertainment technology product lines from leading global manufacturers to dealers in North America. PRG vice-president Tim Brennan will oversee the new company, which operates independently from PRG with headquarters in Dallas, Texas.

Brennan states that the new company will sell exclusively to dealers, not to end-users. "PRG Distribution gives North American dealers and their customers access to state-of-the-art lighting equipment and other entertainment products that have been hugely popular with customers outside the US but difficult if not impossible to purchase in this country," he says. "Buyers can purchase this equipment from their regional dealers, fully confident that they will be able to get any parts and service they need

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UK - Element Labs, a global leader in the design, manufacture, and support of cutting-edge LED video technology to the entertainment, architectural, and signage industries, is proud to announce that it will be collaborating with EES (Entertainment Equipment Supplies S.L.) as distribution partner for the supply of its video driven LED technology products, including Stealth and Versa Tube HD, throughout Spain and the Canary Islands.

Headquartered in San Sebastian in northern Spain, and with a sales/support office in Madrid, EES is one of the leading professional entertainment companies in Spain. The company has already been appointed the exclusive Spanish distributor for many leading technology brands, including Vari-Lite, Cyberhoist, Avolites and Syncrolite, to name a few. The addition of Element Labs' LED products further enhances the solutions they offer within the Spanish ente

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Germany - The largest Martin LC Series LED wall to date graced the fourth annual Bundesvision Song Contest, an annual music competition created by German TV entertainer Stefan Raab. Broadcast live on 14 February on German network ProSieben, Bundesvision Song Contest 2008 saw 16 music acts representing Germany's 16 federal states compete in a Grand Prix type format at the TUI Arena in Hanover.

The set design for this year's show was dominated by an immense 29m x 14m semi-transparent Martin LC Series LED wall located upstage. Built from more than 200 LC 2140 panels, the LED wall covered 406sq.m and had a physical resolution of 725 x 350 pixels. A further 32sq.m of LC panels were used on a 7m high moving catwalk. A single LC panel 'door' allowed presenters a unique way to enter the catwalk and set through the LED wall.

Visual content for the LED walls and projections was created

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Denmark - Bilka is a popular Danish chain of hypermarkets, those big box stores where consumers can purchase just about anything for the home, including groceries. Bilka's original store in Tilst, a suburb of Aarhus, recently installed Martin Professional smartMAC colour changing profile spot luminaires in the store's electronics department with the goal of drawing more people into the area.

Consumer electronics, including a surge in the sale of high definition televisions, is a rapidly growing segment. Yet stiff competition, also from online stores, as well as pressure from ever dropping prices, led Bilka to renovate the department in order to increase its visibility.

That visibility included a number of changes: new product divisions within the department, a wall of televisions displayed in HD, and the use of eye-catching lighting effects visible from all over the store - a

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USA - Global communications company Imagination (USA) Inc has unveiled its new booth design for the luxury bathroom brand Toto, unveiled at the recent Kitchen/Bathroom Industry Show & Conference (K/BIS) in Chicago. This is the largest biggest bathroom and kitchen retail exhibitions in the US with over 20,000 visitors attending each day.

The new stand has been designed by Imagination's New York team to showcase the full range of the global brands luxury products as well bringing to life Toto's philosophy of 'totology' - a quest to enrich lives today, while simultaneously conserving and protecting our natural resources for tomorrow.This is the second year that Toto has partnered with Imagination to develop its presence at K/BIS. The 2007 design was a tremendous success for Toto and even went on to scoop a prestigious Event Marketer award for Best Trade Show Exhibit.

Gabrielle Ch

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India - V-Dosc owner Electrocraft, a Mumbai-based sound company, was contracted to provide the FOH sound system for the kick-off concert of Iron Maiden, who started their Somewhere back in time tour last month.

The L-Acoustics FOH manifest consisted of 24 V-Dosc elements completed by 16 SB218 Subwoofers. 16 ARCS elements were used as side-fills, while four dV-Dosc were deployed for the FOH centre-fill.

(Jim Evans)

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UK - In support of the pop trio's fifth album, Change, Sugababes are performing throughout the UK on a series of sold-out dates.London's Canegreen is supporting the tour with a flexible self-powered Meyer Sound Mica system, frequently rearranged for the tour's varied venues. "We've been obliged to reconfigure it depending on where we are," says FOH engineer Andrew Thornton. "It's no problem at all, as the fundamental tonality of the system is unchanged."

Yan Stile, Canegreen's managing director comments: "The Mica array was really the obvious choice for the Sugababes' tour. It's got the power to deliver the mix, and great articulation and imaging to handle the vocals. And it's lightweight and quick to rig and tune; you just hang it and you're ready."

Two hangs of 12 Mica line array loudspeakers serve as the main system. Low frequency conten

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UK - Audiovisualbay.co.uk is a new web-based sales resource that has been launched by Hertfordshire event production company Universal Event Production (UEP). It is designed to help companies of all types all around the world sell equipment they no longer use or need.

UEP's Steve Butcher comments: "We had bits of kit here collecting dust for ages which we always meant to sell on, but never got around to doing anything about it for a variety of reasons ......and I kept encountering people in this exact same situation. A major reason no-one was selling their unwanted kit was that they didn't have the time to get it together - it was always last on the agenda and something that no-one ever got around to. Also, until now, EBAY was the only serious option to reach a wide audience."

Butcher has decided to take advantage of this gap in the market with Audiovisualbay, making

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UK - Hearing-impaired visitors to Kensington Palace, one of London's most popular tourist attractions, have been able to enjoy their trip thanks to a recently purchased Sennheiser Tourguide system, provided by Surrey-based audio installation company SYSCO.

Kensington Palace was originally built in the early seventeenth century and has been a residence of the British royal family since 1689. The Palace was the home of Diana, Princess of Wales until 1997, which made it the perfect location for the exhibition Diana: a Princess Remembered which was open to the public between July 2007 and March 2008.

SYSCO supplied a total of five Sennheiser 2020-D Tourguide systems, consisting of five HDE 2020-D headphone/receivers and five SK 2020-D mini-transmitters, along with two HSP-2-EW-3 headset mics and an EZL2020-20L combined storage case and charging station.

"We used the

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UK - Michael Northen was a founding member of the Association of Lighting Designers and its President for many years. He was very supportive of the work of young lighting designers entering the profession, and set up a student bursary shortly before his death in 2001.

The £500 cash bursary is awarded to a student who shows exemplary talent in lighting design and is judged on a project that has been produced within the current academic year (July 2007 - June 2008). The ALD awards the bursary each year in conjunction with The Mousetrap Foundation, an organisation committed to encouraging young theatre practitioners and which manages the fund.

In addition to the Michael Northen Bursary Award winner who receives a cheque for £500, two other winners will receive prizes of £250 this year, sponsored by ETC and the ALD. All three winning submissions will be displayed

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USA - Lighting designers Richard Profe and Alex Orkisch of TLD Planungsgruppe, Germany, teamed with programmer Demfis Fyssicopulos to create a cutting-edge lighting solution for the luxury Mercedes-Benz/Maybach booth at 2008 North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) in Detroit. They used three grandMA full-size and one grandMA light to control an extensive array of light.

"Imagine the challenge the designing team had when creating an environment of close to 350 moving lights and several dozen conventional units, where the entire lighting rig is hidden behind a roof system where the beams focus through strategically placed openings in the canvas, helping create the elite, clean, and pristine feel that Mercedes Benz is known for," says Fyssicopulos.

"The programming of the booth was done on three grandMA full-size and one grandMA light. Two consoles where at

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World - Bandit Lites is supplying lighting equipment and crew for the UK, European and US sections of Mark Knopfler's 2008 world tour, which kicked off in Amsterdam at the end of March.

This is the third time Bandit has worked with the Knopfler team (they also worked with Knopfler on his 2005 world tour and his 2006 shows with Emmylou Harris).

Bandit Lites UK chief executive, Lester Cobrin says: "We are very fortunate to be working with the talented Mark Knopfler and show designer Simon Tutchener again on the 2008 tour."

Once again lighting design is by Simon Tutchener and based on a clean simple design incorporating an 8m A-type circular truss sitting centre stage as the main focal point, which is flanked by a 24ft and 16ft A-type truss each side, plus a 56ft A-type rear truss.

The show's centerpiece features an image of the famous vintage National Style 0 Reson

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USA - Four Robert Juliat Cyrano 2500W HMI followspots have been added to the lighting inventory of the Chester Fritz Auditorium at the University of North Dakota (UND) in Grand Forks. The 2,300-seat auditorium, named for the investment banker alumnus who helped fund it, hosts UND concert bands, a variety of dance and musical performances, lectures, comics (including Jerry Seinfeld who sold out) and theatre. The structure itself has a distinctive look rising to the height of a seven-story building and comprising more than two acres of interior floors; it's constructed of steel framing and steel-reinforced concrete with an orange Hebron rock-faced brick and pre-cast concrete facade.

"It's a big theatre for the region," notes technical director Pat Hill. "We were at the point where we needed new followspots. We had upgraded the rest of our lighting, and the intensity

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UK - Shuttlesound is to host a special one-day event for the UK's pro-audio industry professionals, presenting Electro-Voice's full range of line array solutions alongside just-launched new loudspeakers and processors and EV's networking products. Sound designer Derrick Zieba, who has masterminded the EV systems for the BRITS and the MTV Awards amongst others, will be the keynote speaker for the day.

The date is Wednesday 28 May, and the venue is the Ricoh Arena in Coventry. Access is by invitation only, and this may be organised through any Electro-Voice dealer or by contacting Shuttlesound by phone or email.

The latest in EV's product introductions will be available for inspection, including a new compact sub suitable for use with EV's line array products, and the DC-One SHARC-based processor aimed at users of small to medium sized sound systems. Three line-array systems wil

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UK - Linkin Park's Minutes To Midnight tour began back in January 2007 and is scheduled to run until January 2009. They headline Projekt Revolution at the UK's Milton Keynes Bowl on 29 June 2008 and are expected to take in some of this summer's key European festivals, before jetting off to Canada and the US.

The band has been playing sell-out shows to around 15,000 fans a night, although at larger venues in Asia, for example, the crowd has swelled to a whopping 40,000. The PA design includes a big front- hang of Adamson Y18s and T21 subs, while the side- hangs consist of Y10s and Spektrix. The variation in venue size means that a massive amount of this equipment needs to be carried - 24 Adamson Y18s, 16 T21 subs, 48 Y10s, as well as 28 Spektrix boxes.

The man responsible for Linkin Park's live sound is FOH engineer, Ken 'Pooch' Van Druten. He is no stranger to fu

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UK - The Standing Committee on Structural Safety (SCOSS) and the Advisory Group on Temporary Structures (AGOTS) recently held an Events Industry Workshop to discuss concerns relating to the increasing use of large television screen structures at public events.

The aim of the workshop was to identify ways of ensuring adequate attention was paid to the competency of those involved, the design process and the use and management on site of these potentially complex structures. The workshop was attended by screen suppliers, promoters, event organisers, designers and the Health and Safety Executive. SCOSS has produced a report on the procurement, design and use of these structures which highlights a number of serious concerns.

John Carpenter, secretary of SCOSS, said: "Everyone recognises the need for these structures to be procured and used in a manner which reflects their sa

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UK - Recently playing in the New Players Theatre in London, Make Me A Song is a vehicle for the heart-felt lyrics of William Finn, creator of, amongst others, the Tony Award-winning Falsettosand the Broadway hit The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.

It is with this production that Zero 88's Frog 2 console makes its debut in the West End, controlling both lighting and video in a compact but complex design created by designer Ben M. Rogers.

Directed by Andrew McBean, the work is a highly collaborative and continually evolving piece with a history of 14 producers, the original conceiver and director Rob Ruggerio and the writer Willam Finn all involved during its evolution. Rogers was also responsible for the set and video design and covered the on-site production management, so precision planning and time management was paramount.

"With all these

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UK - Clockaudio's international reach continues to extend, with the appointment of a new distribution partner in Austria. Based in Vienna, MOCOM Communication Systems offers a portfolio of AV technology and specialist conferencing products, that includes Biamp, Crestron, Community and Tannoy.

(Jim Evans)

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USA - Audio-Technica was selected to provide microphone products for Pope Benedict XVI's recent visit to New York City, which took place 18-20 April. Audio-Technica provided a wide range of microphones for Benedict's appearances and related events in New York City, and created special white-coloured microphones and accessories, in order to be consistent with the colour scheme and solemn tone of these events.

Larry Estrin, of Best Audio in Studio City, CA, served as director of communications for the Papal Visit for the Archdiocese of New York and coordinating technical director for media and broadcast. He selected several different Audio-Technica microphones for use at eight separate events over three days.

A key microphone at all of these events was the Audio-Technica AE6100 Hypercardioid Dynamic Handheld Microphone. Estrin selected it to capture audio as the pope spoke from

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Turkey - Located at the Nisantasi quarter of Istanbul, the new City's Nisantasi shopping mall is entirely in keeping with its surroundings, one of Istanbul's most exclusive and expensive shopping districts.

With the mall designed to be the fashion centre of the capital, City's Nisantasi's owner has installed 10 Lighthouse screens to show a range of eye-catching promotional visuals.

On the exterior wall, above the mall's main entrance, a portrait format curved P16i/o LED screen entices shoppers in to indulge their taste for the latest garments and accessories. Another screen is located just inside.

Further into the building, a Lighthouse P6 screen is situated opposite the elevator entrance on each of the centre's eight floors. These panels are controlled by two Lighthouse X-drive Pro and two LIP-KX processors for the curved screen, an X-drive Pro and LIP-DX for the indoor P16

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The Netherlands - After detailed consultation with exhibitors and with Amsterdam's RAI convention centre, the organisers of Integrated Systems Europe are to remodel next year's show. The move follows increased demand for stand space.

"Quite simply, we had no alternative but to change our layout," comments Mike Blackman, managing director, Integrated Systems Events. "Even by taking the whole of Hall 7 at the back of the RAI, we would have sold out of space within a matter of weeks. With another 10 months to go before our 2009 event, we have acted quickly to ensure that all our exhibitors have plenty of opportunity to familiarise themselves with the new layout, and can prepare for it accordingly."

The new layout sees ISE abandoning the rearmost Halls 6 and 7 of the RAI. Instead, the show will occupy Halls 9, 10 and 11, which are at the front of the convention

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UK - Entertainment technology supplier A.C. Lighting has launched a new video division to provide a complete solution for lighting rental companies looking to make their first move into video.

A.C. Video was formed in response to huge demand the company has received in the past few years for 'creative LED' systems which bridge the gap between lighting and video. This includes the enormous success of the Chroma-Q Color Web LED display surface exclusively distributed by the company, which has been a regular fixture on high profile light entertainment television shows and concert tours.

After gaining several year's experience providing this complex new technology, and extensive research into all products in the market, A.C. decided to provide a complete video turnkey solution to enable its existing lighting customers and upcoming visual designers to make the smooth transition int

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Middle East - Dramatic and creative uses of lighting of buildings in the Middle East, as diverse as an iconic hotel to one of the world's biggest mosques, have been shortlisted for special awards to be revealed in Dubai later this month.

The Middle East Lighting Design Awards (MELDA), organised by IIR Entertainment and Installation Technology Group, is an integral part of PALME Middle East which takes place from 27-29 April 2008 at the Dubai International Exhibition Centre. "Regional buildings have never looked so good," said Claire Brookes, event manager for MELDA. "The quality of entries this year has been truly exceptional. With billions of dollars being spent on so many iconic buildings throughout the region, developers now realise more than ever, the crucial role that architectural lighting design plays in enhancing a building's appearance especially at night

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Spain - Aero line Array systems were present at the latest Festivern that recently took place in Benifairó de la Valldigna (Valencia). The two day festival attracted thousands of people and included the participation of many different bands that offered a variety of music styles, as well as representatives of electronic and alternative music.

Four tents were set-up for the different performances, each of which accommodated different types of events. The main attractions were held in the Festivern tent where the D.A.S. Aero line array systems were the primary equipment. Simes Audio from Real de Gandia (Valencia) installed 16 Aero 38A powered line array systems, eight units on each side of the stage, along with eight Aero 218A 2K powered bass reinforcement systems. As side-fill, the D.A.S. powered systems from the compact series were employed.

(Jim Evans)

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