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UK - At PLASA08 (7-10 September 2008, Earls Court, London), Barcelona-based audio manufacturer Vieta is releasing new and improved control software to extend an installer's control over a sound system constructed from Vieta's Ti Line suite of DIN rail-mounting products.

Vieta-Net Control (VNC) Software Version 2, which includes new features, a better user interface and an easier automatic set-up, allows a remarkable 2-way communication between a variety of local control options and a PC-based master control of the media player and amplifiers, which can be connected directly, connected via a wireless network or connected remotely using the internet.

Local changes to settings on the Ti Line system can be made by any combination of IR remotes, wall switches and unit front panels. These changes will register on the remote PC which provides master control of the system, and can be

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UK- Sunbaba worked with production company Sledge to supply branding for the innocent Village Fete in Regents Park on 2 and 3 August 2008.

The innocent Village Fete has a range of diverse activities suitable to keep all the family amused including musical performances headlined by the James Taylor Quartet, Son of Dave and The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain. Interactive activities to take part in included alfresco dancing, duck herding and ferret racing as well as face painting, a funfair and giant game of boggle.

Sunbaba's signage was designed to fit in with the light hearted atmosphere of the fete. They produced 198 correx signs which included 10 'things to do while queuing for the loo' information signs, signage for the 'VNP (Very Nice People) secret garden party' and 42 x 'innocent facts'. They also provided 36 PVC signs including directional signage, central tower bran

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UK- When the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) decided to invest in state-of-the-art scoreboards at its world-famous cricket ground, Lord's, it chose Lighthouse Technologies to head up the contract. "We had two scoreboards that had been there for some time and the 16,000 light bulbs of which they consisted needed constant replacement," explains Steve Jones, IT manager at MCC. "We also had a temporary video screen which was brought in for major matches. So when we decided to replace the two scoreboards, the decision was made to add a third and set them all up to be capable of showing video.

"It has been a sizable investment, "but it's part of an ongoing policy of upgrading our facility to ensure that Lord's continues to be the best cricket ground in the world."

MCC hired Gardiner and Theobald as project managers to put out a tender for a full JCT Desig

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USA - Five-time Grammy-winning blues legend Buddy Guy has been singing the praises of Shure microphones, particularly the UHF-R wireless system.

"Without Shure...I don't know," he says. "There are a lot of things I'm doing that I just couldn't do. They're the best you have ever seen, y'know. I'm always confident when I'm using this stuff, and I'm not just saying that. It works."

On Sunday, 20 July, Guy was presented with the first-ever Great Performer of Illinois Award at a ceremony in Chicago at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park, which he held up and dedicated to "Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Little Walter, Sonny Boy Williamson, the late, great Junior Wells - all the guys who helped make Chicago what it is today with the blues." This award came just two days before the release of his latest album, Skin Deep

(Jim Evans)

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UK - Serious Stages supplied three staging structures at the 2008 Latitude festival - one floating - and a pontoon walking bridge across the large lake to link the two main areas of the site. The Festival Republic event is set in the grounds of Henham Park, Southwold, Suffolk, and has become one of the UK's most sought-after boutique festivals. The Serious team of 16 was led by crew chief Gavin Harper.

Latitude's main stage was one of the new Serious 22m, four-bay Supernova structures, which was covered in white skins for the first time, and decorated around the front with Latitude's signature funky daisies.

This version of the Supernova was constructed with round trussing for a generally gentler and more spherical appearance. The stage space was 22m wide and 14.4m deep, with 11m of headroom and with a backshed at the rear for rolling risers, backline storage and to help facil

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USA - JBL Professional Precision Directivity (PD) Series and Application Engineered (AE) Series loudspeakers are on the job at the 2008 Olympic Summer Games in the National Aquatic Centre in Beijing, to make certain that the sound will be exactly what it needs to be for the array of Olympic games taking place there.

The National Aquatic Centre, also known as the Water Cube, features 52 PD5212/64 12-inch 2-way full-range loudspeakers, eight PD5122 dual 12-inch low-frequency loudspeakers, 12 AC2212/95, and 12 each 2380A 90- x 40-degree horns matched with 2446J 2-inch exit (4-inch voice coil) compression drivers.

Designed by the China State Construction Engineering Corporation with a steel space frame clad with ETFE pillows, the National Aquatic Centre was purpose-built for the 2008 Summer Olympics, with its acoustics specially tempered for the occasion. But with literally hundre

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Germany - Last year, the German rental company Veranstaltungstechnik Linke e.K. from Leipzig utilised an Aviom Pro64 digital multicore system in its Classic Open event as a replacement for their analogue multicore system. This year, Aviom will make a repeat performance.

The annual ten-day event, presenting classical and popular artists in the historic city of Leipzig's Market Square, puts heavy demands on both the equipment and the staff. Technical director Peter Linke is managing the event for the fourteenth time this year.

Aviom's Pro64 digital multicore allows for redundant cabling for the critical audio transfer between the stage and the FOH. The 48 input channels on stage are derived from six Yamaha AD8HR preamplifiers, which feed the digital inputs of three Aviom 6416dio Digital I/O Modules.

Utilising two redundant streams of A-Net, via two separate Cat 5e cable

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Olympic News (1) - The opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games was undoubtedly one of the most spectacular such events seen and heard in recent history. The occasion provided a tremendous showcase for the world's lighting, sound, broadcast and production industries. Roll on London 2012!

Awards News - Rock band Iron Maiden have asked to be removed from the Vodafone Live Music Awards shortlist after being nominated for the best live return prize. Vodafone said the band had complained they should not be considered for the prize because they said they had never stopped touring. In a posting on their website the band said: "We are not quite sure where we are returning from." Indie group James have now been nominated for the award instead. Iron Maiden, who recently played at Twickenham Stadium, said the nomination was "very flattering". A Vodafone spokesman said: &q

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USA - George Michael has completed the six-week-long North American leg of his 25 Live tour, the third and final leg of an exhausting global tour lasting nearly two years. The tour featured a stage full of Sennheiser and Neumann microphones, including the singer's wireless handheld of choice, a Sennheiser SKM 5200 fitted with a Neumann KK 104 S capsule.

"Combining the Neumann capsule with the Sennheiser wireless system has thrust the legendary Neumann sound to the top of the wireless domain," says George Michael's long serving personal monitor mixer and audio consultant, Andy 'Baggy' Robinson. "It's opened up new dimensions in sound for sophisticated live-performance engineering. For me, the Neumann KK 104 has a warm, smooth and clean response that requires virtually no EQ. Despite a loud backline, I can always place George's vocal exactly where I want it i

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China - The Wukesong Basketball Arena, one of the three major landmark buildings specially created for the Olympic Games, is delivering audio to its 24,500 spectators with a Renkus-Heinz PN102/LA self-powered, digitally networked four-cornered centre cluster and distributed delay system.

Part of the Beijing Wukesong Culture & Sports Centre, it ranks alongside the Beijing National Stadium and Beijing Aquatic Park as one of the Games' three showpiece buildings. Post-Games, its world-class facilities will continue to host the NBA Basketball it was designed to showcase - as well as providing Beijing with a new, all-purpose live music venue, capable of seating up to 18,000 fans.

With a brief to deliver excellent speech and music to every seat, Taiwan-based Linfair Engineering - which has offices in both Hong Kong and Beijing, as well as Taiwan - won the contract to design, supply a

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UK - Hidden underground near to Tower Bridge London, is a private tunnel where clients are driven to a taxi drop off area and car park, to access the offices above. Light Bureau (Lighting Consultant) was given the task of enhancing the concrete service tunnel providing a welcoming and dynamic transport link. Working closely with Control Lighting Ltd, Light Bureau developed a sophisticated lighting control system that would monitor the position of any vehicle within the tunnel and use this to trigger digital images and video to be played anddisplayed on the LED feature wall along one side of the tunnel.

"We designed the feature wall to draw the eye through what is otherwise a very utilitarian space" explained Paul Nulty of Light Bureau. "We wanted the animation to keep pace with vehicles, thus avoiding distraction for the drivers. This required an intricate control

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Turkmenistan - The Caspian Sea country's capital city Ashgabat features the Arch of Neutrality. Its tripod shape is based on that of the traditional Turkmen tripod and it is the city's tallest building; on its top, reachable with a lift, there is a gold statue of former president Saparmurat Niyazov, which rotates through 360° every 24 hours, in order to always face the sun.

Only completed in 1998, the Arch was recently the object of an impressive lighting installation, with 105 SGM Palco 3 positioned at the base of the structure's pilasters. Chosen for their exceptional brightness and protection to IP 65, which makes them reliable even with the region's typically extreme climatic conditions (from -20° during the winter to +45° in the summer), the fixtures were mounted without any difficulty, in spite of the construction's unusual set-up.

The fixtures, supplied by

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UK - Vue Entertainment has selected Martin Audio to provide cinema sound systems for its Princes Quay Hull cinema, Europe's first new-build, all-digital multiplex cinema.

Vue has invested £5m in developing the multiplex and equipping it with state of the art digital projection and processed surround sound technology as part of the complete innovation package. Martin Audio has been the system of choice for Vue Cinemas for many years and each system is purpose-built for Vue.

Throughout Hull's ten screening rooms Martin Audio's purpose-developed Screen 5 or Screen 4 systems (depending on room size) have been fitted, accompanied by Screen Sub 1A's and Effect 5 surround speakers. These were set into position by Canadian company Eomac, who also designed the screen frames and stretch wall fabric, with the full termination/integration and commissioning of the sound and projectio

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China - The opening ceremony of the Summer Olympics 2008 in Beijing, held in the Beijing National Stadium - the Bird's Nest - has been universally praised as one of the greatest spectaculars of recent times. More than 2,300 DMX controlled fixtures and 45,000 parameters transformed the stadium into a sea of lights. Three grandMA full-size, plus three grandMA full-size as backup, two grandMA light as well as 46 x MA NSPs controlled the sophisticated lighting network during the ceremony.

"These are the Games of the records so is the Opening Ceremony", says Mr. Sha, lighting designer of the opening and closing ceremony. "In a show like this, pure reliability and proven functionality are vital."

Paul Collison, who was responsible for the control system and broadcast lighting, said of the preparation for the opening ceremony, "I was first contacted in Decemb

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Norway - Over 20,000 music lovers made their annual pilgrimage this July to the small Norwegian village of Sel for the Dansefestival. The festival reached record attendance numbers and more than 50 national and international acts performed, including The Monroes, Casanova, Grass and Something New.

The sound systems deployed on the main stage in the 6,000 person capacity festival marquee were once again the responsibility of Norwegian service provider MultiTechnic AS. MultiTechnic sound designer Dag Josten and his team relied primarily on a Dynacord Cobra-4 line-array system for the stage main system and a Dynacord Cobra-2 for side- fill.

"We invested some time in the run-up to the festival making sure the flown enclosures were perfectly aimed and tuned," says Dag Josten. "We were also using a Cobra-2 system this year for the first time to provide side fil

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UK - British jazz fusion guitarist John Etheridge is the owner of a DPA IMK4061 instrument microphone kit, supplied by UK distributor Sound Network. Comprising a DPA 4061 miniature mic with a variety of useful and discreet mounting solutions, the kit is proving to be a useful addition to Etheridge's equipment for the different types of gigs he plays.

"I've been using the IMK4061 for all dates I play with (classical guitarist) John Williams, and also on an acoustic Selmer guitar with my band Sweet Chorus - a 'hot club' style of jazz and a personal homage to (French jazz violinist) Stephane Grappelli," he says.

"I love the clear, true reproduction - the ease of mounting and the way that it gives me a great sound plus the freedom to move around."

The mounting accessories also allow Etheridge flexibility when it comes to positioning the mic on his instrument

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China - Crown Audio provided China's National Stadium with 400 Crown I-Tech amplifiers to power the sound system during the 16 days of events at the 2008 Summer Olympic Games being held in Beijing.

"As 100,000 spectators cheer for their respective countrymen in the opening ceremony, clear and present audio will be important, no matter what language is being spoken," said Marc Kellom, vice president of marketing for Crown Audio. "With over 400 of our I-Tech amplifiers powering the system, we're confident that everyone in attendance including the athletes will be able to hear their country's introduction."

Audio alone takes up two full rooms in the spacious stadium and Crown's 400 I-Tech amplifiers are housed in 30 racks. The audio system, which is fibre based, was designed by China Broadcast Bureau, a state-run agency. All the processing in the system is bei

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Australia - The Frankston Arts Centre is an iconic landmark in one of Melbourne's fastest growing areas. Designed by renowned Australian architect, Daryl Jackson, the Frankston is one of the largest metropolitan and regional arts venues in Australia. It is a major focus for the performing arts in the region with facilities that contribute to the growing stature of local companies and provide a venue for local dance schools, as well as tertiary and secondary student productions.

It was decided that they needed a new loudspeaker system to take the venue's bookings and offerings into the next level. The previous system was locally designed and built and had been the in-house system since the venue opened in 1995. When the time came to upgrade, venue sound technician and long-time fan of d&b audiotechnik systems, Ben Thompson contacted Simon Moran of Optim Audio who ultimately insta

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USA - Robert Plant and Alison Krauss played the US and Europe with their Raising Sand tour, Taylor, Mich.-based Thunder Audio provided production and a sound system based on Meyer Sound's self-powered loudspeakers.

"You're talking about two icons here, so the sound has to be perfect," says production manager Gary Trew. "The nature of the music and the backing band fluctuates from places where you can hear a pin drop clear to big crescendos during some numbers."

Robert Plant's long-time FOH engineer who also handled the Raising Sand tour, Roy Williams agrees, "Two very different artists getting together means very different expectations among the audience as well, but after a few shows, we realised we had a Raising Sand audience. It allowed us to add more dynamics to the mix, going from a whisper to a scream. The audience was recept

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UK - Rapper Jay-Z's Glastonbury 2008 performance featured a giant Lighthouse LED His intro was screened on a 15 x 5 panel (15.3m (w) x 3.8m (h)) Lighthouse R7-ER 7mm visual pitch LED screen, which also formed a backdrop to the rest of his set. The only problem was that, not long before the festival, there were few R7-ER screens in the UK that wasn't already in use.

"We were already on site doing various projection jobs and we were the only company who had any quantity of R7-ER available," says Robin Wealleans of screen provider, The Picture Works. "Unfortunately we only had about half the required quantity of panels in the country and Jay-Z insisted on using R7-ER for the backdrop. It was obviously a key part of his performance so there was a stark choice for the Glastonbury organisers - to source more R7-ER panels or Jay-Z doesn't play."

The Picture Works

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UK - CUK Audio has announced its appointment as the exclusive distributor for Sabine for the UK and Ireland. Previously distributed by Audio-Technica UK, the move of Sabine to CUK is effective immediately. With headquarters in Alachua, Florida, the Sabine range includes wireless microphone systems, feedback exterminators, multi-function digital signal processors, phantom mic riders, phantom gooseneck mics and autotuners.

Stuart Thomson, managing director of CUK Audio, commented: "We are pleased to be appointed as the new distributor for Sabine. The brand has been professionally distributed by Audio-Technica and has a strong market position in the UK. We are also appreciative of A-T for assisting with a smooth handover to ensure continuity for Sabine customers. With its quality and innovation, Sabine will be a key brand in our portfolio and customers can be assured of that i

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Italy - Santa Cristina della Fondazza in the city of Bologna has recently undergone a restoration programme.

The interior lighting is now based almost exclusively on LED fixtures. With this choice, unusual for a church, Bigi+Gregoli managed to meet different indispensable: highlighting a unique artistic heritage, creating atmospheres suited to the performances, accentuating the cultural role of a consecrated building and keeping its sacredness intact.

After careful selection, SGM was chosen and through Volume Srl supplied all the equipment used for the system: 24 Palco 5, one Ribalta and 38 Genio Mobile, plus four Giotto Wash moving head units and a Pilot 3000 console, used to programme and control all the lights.

(Jim Evans)

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UK - Belfast based BBC Northern Ireland has invested in three new Avolites ART2000 dimmer racks for it's OB unit, which have been supplied by Production Services Ireland (PSI).

The decision to specify Avo dimmers was made collectively by BBC NI's lighting directors Philip Brines and Jim Devlin and their colleague, electrical supervisor Colin Irwin.

"We needed something that was flexible, compact robust, reliable and portable," explains Irwin. "Avolites also came highly recommended by everyone we spoke to, and we wanted a future-proof product to keep the lighting department up-to-date for several years in the future."

As soon as the dimmers arrived at the Belfast HQ, they went straight out on the Royal Maundy Service, broadcast from Armagh and attended by the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh, the first time the service has been held outside the UK mainland. Sin

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Hong Kong - The Olympic Equestrian Venue (Sha Tin) is outfitted with a JBL EON system for the racetrack area during the 2008 Summer Games. While the majority of the Olympic events are taking place in Beijing, the equestrian events are being held in Hong Kong.

Managed by the Hong Kong Jockey Club, the venue is equipped with world class facilities, including a 100- x 80m all-weather sand area capable of supporting 18,000 spectators and a 5.7k cross-country course. All three events of the equestrian programme, comprising jumping, dressage, and eventing, are being held at the venue.

Dispersed throughout the racetrack area are JBL EON series portable loudspeakers. In total, 14 systems have been installed, providing sound to the competitors, media and Olympics officials located on the field. Other Harman components at the Hong Kong Olympic Equestrian Venue include six Soundcraft Com

  1. A-T President's Award goes to Global
  2. Massteknik tours Europe with digiLED screens
  3. Canegreen joins SSE Audio Group
  4. grandMA and Bon Jovi team up again
  5. SGM in Kowloon's Toy House
  6. Mikam Sound and Meyer live at the Marquee
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