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UK - A new, £6 million swimming centre, in the north Wales seaside town of Llandudno, has a weatherised Renkus-Heinz PNX61 loudspeaker system, with Biamp NPS and Audiaflex control, that allows the calls of trainers and event announcers to reach every corner of the facility with perfect clarity.

Llandudno Swimming Centre, designed as a fully equipped regional facility and fully compliant with the Disability Discrimination Act, has a 25m, eight-lane international short course main competition pool, with a moveable floor that allows its depth to be varied, a 20m four- lane pool for teaching and training, and seating for 427 spectators and 250 competitors.

Both pools, seating areas and changing rooms, are covered by a six-zone, digitally based audio paging and background music system, installed by system integrators Martin Dawes with the backup of Renkus-Heinz and Biamp UK d

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Canada - The second week of January 2009 saw Adamson distributors gather in Port Perry for a series of seminars and meetings.

The meetings were held at the Adamson Headquarters and at the historic Port Perry Town Hall, the home of local community theatre. The first day saw distributors engaged in conversation on all new developments at Adamson, including a new five stage in-line wash system, an automated powder line and the automated driver assembly line among other topics. For some, this visit marked their first visit to the factory, therefore a detailed factory tour highlighting the many new advancements, was a must for many.

Over 30 Distributors from France (DV2), Italy (Reference Laboratory), Spain (Seesound), Portugal (Merging Select), Scandinavia (Adamson Scandinavia), Germany (Trius GmbH), Netherlands (Sound & Light Import), Poland (Megamusic), Greece (DN'A), Brazil (So

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USA - The California Lottery's newest lottery TV game show set for Make Me a Millionaire features a 33ft wide by 12ft high LED video display from Lighthouse Technologies. The LED technology provider partnered with Background Images to install the display, which opens and closes and provides onstage graphics and entertainment for the game show.

"Officials at the California Lottery made it clear they wanted a large display that could open and close and change the look of the set with a variety of graphics," said Alan Barber, vice president of Background Images. "Lighthouse Technologies' R6-B 6mm LED video panel was a clear choice due to its durability, the clarity of the display and how well it functioned on set."

(Jim Evans)

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Europe - Kanye West had a successful tour across Europe in late 2008, making stops in Brussels, Rotterdam, Manchester, and at London's O2 arena. After supporting West on previous tours with Meyer Sound systems, London-based Canegreen provided a multifaceted Meyer Sound MILO and MICA line array system for the rapper's latest shows.

Working alongside West's FOH engineer Horace Ward, systems tech Dan Seal used Meyer Sound's MAPP Online Pro acoustical prediction program to plan out the system configuration and streamline setup time. "MAPP is absolutely stunning," Seal says. "To me, it's part of why we use Meyer Sound. I can plan my PA hang so precisely, I know I'm going to get the best out of every show."

The main system included 12 MILO, two MILO 120, and four M3D line array loudspeakers per side, augmented by sidefills of 12 MICA line array loudspeakers each.

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USA - Raymond James Stadium, Tampa's host venue for the Super Bowl, has been temporarily illuminated with state-of-the-art LED technology as part of a city-wide beautification effort for the championship game on February 1, 2009. From January 27 through game day, the stadium will be illuminated from dusk until dawn with Philips ColorReach Powercore - a newly launched LED floodlight - becoming a dynamic, visual focal point for Tampa residents and visiting fans.

Design firm Infinite Scale Design was responsible for designing and branding the overall look of the city of Tampa for Super Bowl XLIII. Working with lighting designer Dall Brown, they chose to accentuate the stadium's exterior crown with colourful, customizable lighting. Approximately 70 ColorReach Powercore fixtures were used in total, with just two required to evenly illuminate each 40 by 80 foot bay. Mounted on a concr

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UK - Stage Electrics has revived the architectural lighting system of the Gateshead Millennium Bridge with spectacular effect. The new lighting system's colour mixing effect LED projectors compliment the striking, white arched structure and has created vibrant illumination through both static coloured illumination and dynamic colour changing sequences.The system is programmed to run without the need for user intervention, starting up at sunset and running through until 1am.

Gateshead Council initially approached the Tyneside Branch of Stage Electrics, to provide options for the renewal of the arch lighting system. The bridge's lighting system had been programmed and serviced by Stage Electrics for several years, but was in need of updating. Stage Electrics' solution was based on the use of Philips' flag ship new product, the Colour Kinetics ColourReach.

The ColourReach is a hi

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The Netherlands - Sound designer Jeroen ten Brinke is using an Alcons Audio-based sound system for the touring production of Les Misérables.

The show has run for nine months in the Rotterdam Nieuwe Luxor theater, now moved to Amsterdam's 1,800-seat Royal Carré Theater, a return to the capital's theatre after 17 years, and from here to the Stadsschouwburg in Antwerpen, so Jeroen's design - with equipment supplied by Peter Scheunhage at Dutch rental company Focus Showequipment - has to take variations in size and configuration of the venues into account.

"We have a total of three hangs of six LR14 ultra-compact line-arrays (RBN401 pro-ribbon HF + 2x 6.5" LF) per side for theatres where we have three levels or two balconies," explains ten Brinke. "But usually, with one balcony, we use the top and bottom cluster only, which are two arrays of six L

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USA - Chadron State College's athletic facilities have been given a long-anticipated update, with powerful new sound systems installed at the school's Softball Field and Don Beebe Stadium at Elliot Field.

Rapid City, SD-based Haggerty's Audio Video designed and installed the systems, both centred around Community Professional R-Series loudspeakers. As Haggerty's Steve Foudray explains, the facilities had been sorely in need of audio improvements.

"The stadium had several issues, each reinforcing the other," he says. "The system itself was underpowered - just a few old horns and a single 100 Watt amp - so it was low fidelity and distorted to begin with. The horns were also mounted on the scoreboards at one end of the field, so there was a time delay between the announcer and the horns. And the horns were directly across from the large gymnasium building, so there

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UK - ML Executives recently added several EAW KF760 Long-Throw Line Array Modules and KF761 Short-Throw Line Array Modules to its stock. ML Executives has a long history with EAW products, and with the recent stock upgrade, they now hold a grand total of 68 KF760s and 22 KF761s, making them the largest EAW-equipped sound reinforcement contractor in Europe.

Over the years, ML Executives has supplied EAW systems for Iron Maiden, Kiss, Deep Purple and Bryan Ferry, among many others, and the upcoming 2009 touring schedule has necessitated some additional EAW inventory. "We have a busy summer of festival shows coming up that we're providing cabinets for, as well as ongoing Iron Maiden stadium and arena tours," noted Gary Marks, ML Executives managing director. "We wanted to add to our supply, so that we could take care of stadium tours around Europe without having to r

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UK - Maurice Brill Lighting Design called upon Artistic Licence to provide the control solution for the permanent lighting installation and for the Opening Night ceremony of Ballymore Properties' landmark residential building, the Pan Peninsula, at Mill Harbour near London's Canary Wharf.

One of Europe's tallest residential buildings at 509ft, this 50-storey building consists of two towers, the top of which are illuminated by external LED feature lighting. The LEDs form a series of asymmetrical patterns of intersecting horizontal and vertical strips across the top 5 storeys of each tower. Reflected in the water below and surmounting a signature restaurant and a 50th floor cocktail bar with panoramic views of London, the lighting serves to increase the aura of this world-class architecture, says the company.

Artistic Licence's award winning Colour-Tramp system was specified to

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USA - The Joint Training Initiative of The ESTA Foundation and USITT have announced a new course, Fall Protection and Rescue System Requirements and Methods to be taught in Bowie, MD. There will be two opportunities to take this two-day course beginning the week of 6 April 2009. Courses will combine both classroom and practical exercises and are designed for intermediate to advanced riggers. Topics covered will include OSHA and industry requirements, appropriate use and limitations of various systems, and useful climbing and rescue skills.

Sessions will be held at the Bowie Center for the Performing Arts, Bowie MD, and will be conducted by Morgan Neff of Mine Safety Appliances (MSA), a Fall Protection and Rescue Trainer, and Rocky Paulson, an ETCP Certified Rigger and ETCP Recognized Trainer.

(Jim Evans)

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UK - Glasgow City Chambers became a giant 75m wide by 25m high projection surface for Burns Illuminated, a show specially created to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the birth of Robert Burns, Scotland's most famous poet.

E/T/C London supplied projection equipment and expertise for the event, which was staged by Glasgow City Council. The artwork was produced by Ross Ashton, whose work was already known to the Council.

Burns Illuminated's project manager, John Toffolo, commissioned Ashton to create a projection show for the George Square site telling the story and massive cultural legacy of Burns' short life.

This consisted of hundreds of images, a combination of those sourced from the Mitchell Library in Glasgow (home to one of the largest collections of Burns material) and bespoke PIGI artwork created for the show by Ashton. The script was developed by resea

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UK - With the recent introduction of the SB-168ES stage box for Yamaha's digital consoles, SSE Audio Group decided to host a Yamaha demonstration day at its Redditch headquarters. The day focused primarily on the mid-range M7CL digital mixing console, and including both theoretical and hands-on experience with the M7CL and SB-168ES, the planned event raised such interest that SSE had to add a second day.

SSE Audio Group equipment sales specialist Alex Penn said: "With the recent introduction of the SB-168ES, it was a good time to talk about it and the M7CL. So we ran the days to help people to learn more about their capabilities, as well as letting people see for themselves the wide range of resources we have here at SSE."

A multi-track signal source was run into one SB168-ES which then fed the seven M7CLs used in the training session. This gave all attendees a chanc

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Albania - Prosound is the new HK Audio dealer in Tirana, Albania. The company reports that it has already begun to make excellent headway in the city. In a relatively short period of time, Prosound has already managed to install sound systems in four of Tirana's clubs and bars.

In the first one, Club Sharm, Prosound installed four HK Audio E.L.I.A.S. PX hi/mid-range units, two E.L.I.A.S. PX subwoofers, two PRO:15 cabinets and two PRO: 15x cabs. This club is situated directly across from the Sheraton Hotel and receives a large number of hotel guests, who appreciate the broad eclectic mix of music offered here.

Another club in Tirana that has opted for the HK Audio brand of sound is the Mad-Club.This club is one of the best known and most popular club hopping destinations in Albania's capital. With its capacity of 600-800 guests, the Mad-Club plays house and R&B music, usually s

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UK - System integration specialist Sysco has launched its new website, with a feature-rich but easily accessible environment that offers a broad insight into the company's concepts and projects.

Information on the company's background, news, and current and recent projects is backed by a further layer, that provides insights into emerging control, interactive, display, audio and storage technologies - the Sysco Knowledge Base.

Featured projects in the Portfolio section include the Eurostar St Pancras International Terminal; Christie's in London, New York and Paris; the award-winning Greenwich Royal Observatory Weller Space Galleries; the Terracotta Army and Hadrian exhibitions at the British Museum; Mercedes-Benz World in Surrey; and Twickenham Stadium.

Sysco chairman Mark Burgin says, "The new site has over 700 pages of information, photos, videos, PDF documents

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USA - January 2009 marked the 20th Anniversary for Behringer and NAMM provided the venue to recap the last two decades. At a press conference, Uli Behringer had the opportunity to reflect on the last two decades: "If anyone had asked me twenty years ago if Behringer would have 3,500 employees around the world and be one of the biggest companies in the MI market, I would have said they were nuts."

Behringer continued: "We owe our success to the dedication and passion of our employees who produce astounding products. We could not have achieved this level of success without the support of the press and our world-wide dealer and distributor network. We absolutely owe a debt of gratitude to our customers who understand the value we bring, and have become loyal users and advocates."

Addressing the current economic landscape, CEO Michael Deeb was specific. "W

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USA - Shure Incorporated recently celebrated the opening of the new S.N. Shure Theatre at the Company's Corporate Headquarters in Niles, Illinois. Shure Chairman, Rose L. Shure, and president and CEO, Sandy LaMantia, participated in the ribbon cutting ceremony and then welcomed Shure Associates and special guests into the new venue.

"We've wanted to build out this space ever since we moved into our new headquarters five years ago," said LaMantia. "Following the completion of the Shure Technology Annex in 2004 and the Performance and Listening Center [PLC] in 2005, we were finally able to turn our attention to this project, which turned out even better than we imagined. It's a beautiful venue that will serve as a lasting tribute to our founder, S.N. Shure, for many years to come."

In his comments during the ceremony, LaMantia said to Mrs. Shure that he hopes

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USA - PixelArc architectural LED luminaires, have recently been installed by Alternative Video Solutions (AVS) at Treasure Island Resort and Casino in Red Wing, Minnesota. AVS is a rental/staging and sales company, also located in Minnesota. The entrance of the newly renovated hotel now boasts a 25ft high and 15ft wide toucan bird - the long established logo of the Treasure Island Casino.

The impressive bird, designed and built by 3 Ring Scenic, has been constructed out of reflective aluminium and painted white. The toucan comes alive at dusk, lit creatively by three PixelArc R heads installed inside the structure and three PixelArc Cs on the outside.

Ron Thill from AVS comments, "The PixelArcs do a perfect job of getting the toucan to come to life, with glowing, deep, vibrant colours. We were confident the lights would work beautifully, due to the fact that AVS has used

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Denmark - On 15 and 16 January Martin Professional and the Professional Lighting Designers' Association (PLDA) held a DMX Masterclass workshop at the Martin Professional headquarter building in Aarhus, Denmark. The event, exclusive to PLDA members, was designed to develop knowledge and skills in the use of lighting control.

The series of workshops included topics such as: Introduction to DMX, basic programming of intelligent lighting, PC-based vs console-based programming, The future of theatrical lighting control, architectural lighting interactivity and video control and mixing.

The two-day programme concluded with a hands-on programming workshop in which each participant programmed a 30-60 second light show to music. Attendees were then presented with a DMX Masterclass diploma.

The workshop was indeed appreciated and feedback was very positive."I was really happy wi

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UK - Liverpool based rental company Adlib supplied lighting, AV and sound to recent UK tours by two leading British comedians - Jimmy Carr and Frankie Boyle.

Lighting was overseen for both tours by Adlib's Tim Spilman, who also designed both rigs.

The Jimmy Carr set-up featured a down stage truss with eight Martin Professional MAC 250 wash lights. These gave great colour saturation on the whole down stage area allowing Spilman to highlight the relevant areas individually. There were three main performance positions - centre stage, sofa stage right and table stage left - each of which was lit with two profiles and two floor cans.

Three 19 degree ETC Source Four profiles on side booms were positioned each side of the thrust for downstage side illumination. There were six floorcans positioned across the front of the stage fitted with heavy frost filters to eliminate facial shad

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Norway - PA company, Lydfiksern, selected an iLive mixing system to manage FOH and monitor duties for the opening ceremony of the new AKS concert hall, in Hammerfest.

"Having used the digital house desk on a production run prior to the official opening, I decided to bring in our iLive, which sonically outperforms it and is easier to use. iLive provided more power, greater flexibility, superior dynamics and EQ, and better effects, which meant I could leave my L960 reverb at the warehouse. It took six people to remove the house desk but only two to install iLive," reports Lydfiksern's MD, Thomas Mikarlsen.

Artists performing at the opening ceremony were all connected to the town of Hammerfest, and they included the national acts, Unit Five and Marte Heggelund, plus noted bass player, Knut Erik Sundquist.

"iLive seamlessly integrated with the house PA system and

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UK - Curve, the theatre complex in Leicester, opened to the public in November - with ETC providing the building's lighting and making up much of the lighting rig.

Designed by Rafael Viñoly Architects, Curve sits at the heart of Leicester's new Cultural Quarter. The building is designed to provide a highly versatile series of performance spaces: a dividing wall between the stage of the Main and Studio Theatres can be flown out to create one combined stage, and the side walls of the stagehouse can be flown out as part of the building's remit to expose the behind-the-scenes workings of theatre to the visiting public.

Lighting control for this versatile space presented a particular challenge to Leicester Theatre Trust, the management organisation of Curve, led by theatre consultants CharcoalBlue, lighting consultant Ian Moulds and the Leicester Theatre Trust's Capital Projects D

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UK - grandPA confirms that the company has been made UK dealers for the MA Lighting product range. "Our knowledge of the consoles and systems through years of experience as programmers on the platform offers potential customers the very best in system design, specification, knowledge and most importantly technical support" says co-founder of grandPA, Tim Routledge. "Both myself and Pryderi are very excited about this development especially with the imminent launch of the MA2 platform."

The company will be receiving its first grandma 2 console in the first quarter of 2009. "We invested heavily in MA products in 2008 with more consoles and NSP's, and our intention is to stay as market specialists in the systems with the new generation of consoles" says Routledge. The company is now solely based in London and has recently moved all of its hire stock th

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Snow Business - Heavy snowfall caused several West End theatres to cancel their Monday evening performances. The newly-opened Oliver!, Avenue Q, Les Miserables, The Phantom of the Opera, Mamma Mia! and Jersey Boys were all called off. The Royal Opera House performance of Die tote Stadt was also cancelled. Promoters said the weather meant that they could not guarantee the performers and crew would be able to make it into central London.

Eurovision Countdown - Jade Ewen has been chosen to sing Andrew Lloyd Webber's Eurovision Song Contest entry for the UK in Moscow. The Londoner won the public vote ahead of Sheffield siblings The Twins and Welshman Mark Evans after all three acts performed My Time. The ballad, heard for the first time, was composed by Lloyd Webber with US Grammy-winning lyricist Diane Warren. The compo

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