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UK - PRG Europe has invested in eight of the new Novalight Nova-Flower 2K flower effects for its rental stock, which have been supplied to the Birmingham and London, UK based company by Lightfactor Sales, Novalight's exclusive UK distributor.

The deal was completed between PRG's Paul Weaver and Lightfactor's Peter Coles. It builds on PRG's previous purchases of Novalight High Grounds in 2006, for the Robbie Williams Close Encounters world tour, followed by their original 1.2K Nova-Flowers, supplied by Lightfactor in 2007.

The Nova-Flower 2K offers all the features and functionality of the 1.2K version with substantially more power and punch, says the company.

Nova-Flower is the first fully programmable moving yoke 'flower effect' with DMX controllable pan, tilt, colour and shutter, plus other standard features. It has CMY mixing, a rotating reflector (in both directio

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UK - Despite being less than a year old, the Midas PRO6 live audio system made multiple debuts across the Glastonbury festival this year, joining the XL4 and Heritage packages which retain a familiar and much-requested presence at festivals across the summer.

APR Audio deployed two PRO6s at front of house for the Jazz/World Stage, alongside an H3000 for engineers preferring to use an analogue console. One PRO6 was used for mixing the bands while the second was connected to the stage via AES50 tie-lines. This allowed engineers to practice mixing the live band on headphones prior to moving to the 'hot' PRO6 for their own show, and for APR and Midas staff to demo the console to interested parties.

"We thought the usability and the audio quality of the PRO6 were second to none," says Andy Reed from APR. "Nearly half of the visiting engineers of the acts playing on

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Michael Jackson - Concert promoter Randy Phillips says Michael Jackson's death will not spell the end of his company, AEG Live. "People have speculated that this is going to bankrupt our company," the businessman told Billboard magazine. "The truth is, it isn't." Phillips said insurance was in place to cover Jackson's advance, although insurers may not pay out if the star's death turns out to be drug-related. He added that money could be recouped from footage of the tour rehearsals.

AEG will have to refund up to $85m (£52m) to fans who purchased tickets for Jackson's 50-date residency at London's O2 arena. It is also believed to have spent $23-25m (£14-15m) on production costs. Phillips said those "hard costs" were covered by insurance, although profits were not. Phillips admitted the biggest problem facing AEG at the moment was w

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Spain - In the city of Tudela, in northern Spain, all the talk is about the new Discoteca Botanic, a 1500sq.m nightclub with two different club rooms to maximise its attraction to customers of different ages and musical tastes.

What the two individual environments of Magnolia and Dalia have in common are high-SPL Vieta sound systems, powered by Powersoft. Installers Kiko Sound liaised closely on the system design with Vieta pro products supplier SeeSound.

Local stars and celebrities came out for opening night, including Ivan, the latest Big Brother winner in Spain, and Paola Santoni, the MC for the night. Manager Isidro Navarro Bea explains that the Botanic is more than just a nightclub two nights a week - "During the week, we will host special events like product presentations and private/corporate parties. We don't want to simply offer music, but to create a space which

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UK - Digital media and music agency Kaleidovision has acquired Music Concierge, a boutique luxury brand music profiling consultancy.

Kaleidovision already works with mainstream leisure and retail brands such as Pitcher & Piano, Gala Casinos, Varsity and London Clubs, providing digital media network content and technology services, while Music Concierge has built up an international portfolio of retailers such as Dunhill and Mulberry, and hotels including The Connaught in London, One&Only Cape Town, and Huvafen Fushi in the Maldives.

Explaining the rationale, Kaleidovision MD Andy Pitman said: "We will be positioning Music Concierge as our in-house boutique music profiling brand for clients who need the very highest levels of site-specific music consultancy. Music Concierge will retain full creative control of the music profiling."

Rob Wood, founder and creative dir

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USA - Eastern Kentucky and West Virginia have recently experienced a swell of AV installation activity, thanks to Ashland, Kentucky-based Newtech Systems. A key component of these installs has been a wide range of loudspeaker products from EAW, sold by Erie, Pennsylvania-based North Coast Marketing.

"Our installations take on all number of shapes and sizes, and EAW has the best solutions for just about every application we encounter," stated Newtech's Bill Banfield. "Ashland, Kentucky's Christ United Methodist Church's install was short and sweet: two EAW VR62 compact full-range loudspeakers.

"However, working with Mercer County High School in Harrodsburg, Kentucky, was a different story. There, we installed a multi-zoned system in the gymnasium, featuring six MK5396 two-way full range installation loudspeakers and 10 MK2366 two-way full range installation

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UK - Rigging specialist Summit Steel continued its association with Take That, supplying motors, rigging and a Kinesys K2 automation system for the band's summer Circus stadium tour.

Summit also provided specialist rigging consultancy, and custom designed and developed a lifting system for one of the show's most spectacular movement cues that involves moving a large set piece weighing 6.5 tonnes.

Summit's senior project manager Chris Walker worked closely with production manager Chris Vaughan from The Production Office and with the tour's head rigger Phil Broad. "This element was easily the biggest challenge for us," says Walker who was involved right from the early design and concept stages, and worked on it since last September.

The band started the show on the B stage, whilst a large circus tent set piece was in-situ on the main stage. Built by Brilliant

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UK - Due to popular demand and the increasing quantities of impression and impression XL fixtures appearing in the British market, GLP recently held a service seminar at the Richard Martin Lighting facilities in London.

Since the original training day became fully booked almost as soon as it was announced, Michael Müller, GLP director of customer support, decided to extend the seminar to a second day.

Around 30 technicians from some of the UK's leading sales and rental companies attended the event. During some relaxed training sessions, conducted by Joachim Kraft, Head of the GLP workshop department, they received detailed knowledge about the impression range and also gained new perspectives on LED lighting technology in general.

"The information gained was very valuable and is now being shared with all our employees globally," said James Prince of Bandit Lites.

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South Africa - Gearhouse Power - a Gearhouse South Africa company - supplied power distribution throughout the hospitality suites in all four stadiums involved in the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup - Ellis Park, Johannesburg, Loftus Versveld in Pretoria, Royal Bafokeng in Rustenberg and Mangaung Stadium in Bloemfontein.

The process began two years ago, when Gearhouse Power (GHP) was approached by The Power Company(TPC) - an Austrian based power distribution company who specialise in sporting events - to create a partnership for the FIFA 2010 World Cup and German-based Match Hospitality, the organisation responsible for all official FIFA hospitality areas.

GHP and TPC supplied technicians and stage hands at all four of the stadiums , while GHP's Antony Sackstein and TPC project manager Mike Knezevic spent a hectic two weeks floating between all four venues taking care of last min

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UK - Rodgers and Hammerstein's timeless classic, The King & I was given a 20-date, in-the-round season at the Royal Albert Hall recently, courtesy of Raymond Gubbay.

Starring Maria Friedman and Daniel Dae Kim, the songs were perfectly matched to Bobby Aitken's carefully designed sound system based around a Martin Audio W8LC/W8LM orchestra system. 10 Martin Audio W8LM out-fills per side complemented 10 W8LC's in L/R front facing hangs, with four WLX subs forming the top of each cluster.

"I always enjoy using the Martin Audio line arrays for big musical productions such as this. I am particularly drawn to the detailed midrange of those speakers," remarked Aitken.

"The Albert Hall is a tricky room - tight around the sides - and the W8LM's cover that particularly well; traditionally other loudspeakers we have used for that purpose have not had the vertical

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Germany - dBTechnologies' distributor convention, Prosonic was reported to have been a "roaring success" by organisers and visitors alike. With attendees totalling 70, last month's two-day event in Cologne showcased the Italian loudspeaker manufacturer's newest ranges: Flexsys, DVA, DVX andOpera Digital.

"It was a big - and some would say brave - undertaking," admits Michael Herweg, sales & marketing director. "Especially pitching ourselves against our competitors in live sound demonstrations."

"We wanted to highlight the fact that we can stand up against the big names of the industry. Really there is nothing out there with the amount of features we offer (be it power, weight or sound quality) at such a good price. Judging by the feedback we've received from some of our attendees, we've got our message across. So it was definitely worth it.&q

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USA - Christ's Church of the Valley in San Dimas, CA, has been growing steadily in recent years, making a switch to digital audio mixing a virtual necessity. With multiple locations, six weekend services, and a broadcast component that includes live streaming and re-broadcast in New Zealand and Australia, the number of audio paths has increased far beyond the capabilities of conventional analogue. To meet these needs, this evangelical contemporary church selected two Allen & Heath iLive consoles - an iLive-176 for the main sanctuary and an iLive-80 for the broadcast centre, located in a separate building.

Patrick Gourley, technical director for the church, worked with Anaheim-based Sound Bridge during the console selection process. "All our engineers are volunteers," he says. "So in addition to all the technical requirements, we had to find something with a fast l

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UK - An invitation from the Sussex Academy of Music to help choose and install a digital mixing and recording system has allowed Paul Nicholson of Midas ProSound to go 'back to school' and revisit his years as a lecturer on sound technology.

The Sussex Academy of Music, based on the south coast, provides music tuition of all instruments and courses to all age groups. Midas ProSound has been working with teaching staff to design a digital audio control system that is suitable for use in the 'live' room, and for future shows outside the Academy. The core of the system uses a RSS M-400 V-Mixer with a S-1608 Digital Snake.

"Having lectured in sound between 1990 and 2002, it's extremely gratifying to be involved once again in an academic environment, this time as a systems supplier," says Nicholson. "Today's digital technology certainly gives the student more scope

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Australia - The Australian entertainment technology trade show ENTECH will see its tenth event in 2010 with "a new event director, a rebranded image and a new commitment to industry networking and education".

Robby Clark of Exhibitions & Trade Fairs (ETF) is the newly-appointed event director. He brings over 13 years of experience in the exhibitions industry, including the successful management of the world's top ten motoring events, the Australian International Motor Show and major national trade shows including AUSPACK and Irrigation Australia.

Clark said he was looking forward to building on ENTECH's history of successful events. "ENTECH has established itself as the leading trade show for professionals in the entertainment technology industry and I look forward to a new challenge in managing the 2010 event."

"It seems that in the past the event h

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UK - The 2010 Queen's Awards for Enterprise will officially open for entries on 20 July 2009, organisers announced yesterday. Outstanding UK businesses of all sizes and from any industry sector are being urged to apply for The Queen's Awards.

Businesses that win a Queen's Award receive extensive benefits. A survey of last year's winners found that, in the first year alone three quarters experienced extra press coverage; 82% saw an increase in employee engagement; and nearly two thirds of winners in the International Trade category either increased their recognition abroad or generated new business, say the organisers.

It costs nothing to enter The Queen's Awards, and companies have until 2pm on 30 October 2009 to submit their application. Entry forms can be downloaded from The Queen's Awards website (www.queensawards.org.uk). Winners will be announced on The Queen's Birthday,

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UK - A Proel-based sound system has been installed in Rodizio Rico, the London branch of the renowned Brazilian restaurant chain located inside the 02 Arena.

With the support of the UK based distributor Proel International, the sound system installed in Rodizio Rico is composed of enclosures from the high-end EDGE and NEOS series. EDGE25PB satellites and EDGE112SP subwoofers have been used for the main distributed system; EDGE8CXPB as DJ monitors and the self powered NEOS12A and NEOS115SA as a separate system used for when the restaurant presents live music performances.

Several smaller enclosures from the AVL Systems catalogue have been used to provide coverage to other areas throughout the building.

(Jim Evans)

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UK - Out Board's TiMax audio delay-matrix has long been a staple of Bobby Aitken's in-the-round sound design approach, but this year's Raymond Gubbay production of Rogers and Hammerstein's The King and I at London's Royal Albert Hall differed in one significant detail.

The King and I represented the first foray for Out Board's new TiMax2 SoundHub being controlled by TiMax Tracker automation. Aitken observes, "TiMax has always worked well for us on these Albert Hall shows, and with TiMax2 this year I've noticed subtle improvements to the overall openness and clarity of the sound."

Principals and selected chorus members each wore a miniature TiMax Tracker Tag which enabled the tracking system to divine where they were on stage at any given time. 19 delay-based vocal imaging zones on stage were programmed into the TiMax2 SoundHub matrix. These were then ma

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Czech Republic - Morava is the latest new club to open in the university town of Zlin in the north of the Czech Republic, complete with a Robe moving light rig, specified by locally based PowerDance, who undertook the technical design and installation of all sound and lighting in the 300 capacity venue.

There has been a club on this centre of town site for about 20 years, but Morava is a new concept under independent ownership, with much attention paid to presentation detail and creating a trendy urban chic vibe.

PowerDance has used Robe products for at least 40 other club installations over the last few years says Šiška Zdenek, who worked closely with the club's lighting operator, Miroslav Werunsky on this project.

Morava is an intimate space and headroom is limited, so they wanted low profile unobtrusive fixtures, and decided on four Robe ClubSpot 160 CTs and four ClubRo

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France - Pascal Rossat, head of the events department at Forclum (Groupe Eiffage), which handles sound for the show, again appointed L-Acoustics Rental Network agent DSE to provide the sound system.

The system consisted of a total of 93 Kudo line source cabinets, with four clusters of six for the general public area hung from towers located behind the seating rows. The refuelling area featured three clusters of six Kudo cabinets, while North and South exhibit areas were covered by two clusters of six, seven clusters of three and two clusters of nine Kudo cabinets, all powered by L-Acoustics LA amplified controllers. This was a small amount of sound sources taking into account the total area to cover.

"Despite carrying out Soundvision simulations during the 10-day set up, we faced huge constraints with the North and South exhibit areas due to the presence of the planes, wh

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UK - The musical Sister Act, based on the hit film of the same name has opened at the London Palladium. Produced by Whoopi Goldberg, who starred in the film, along with Stage Entertainments, the show features a new score Alan Menken, the man behind such hit shows as Little Shop of Horrors, Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid and many others.

Directed by Peter Schneider, one of the driving forces behind the revitalisation of animation at Disney and the creation of Disney Theatrical, the show is being designed by Klara Zieglerova with lighting by multiple Tony-award winner Natasha Katz.

The equipment to realise Katz's design has been supplied by White Light. The rig includes a wide selection of conventional, automated and LED lighting equipment, including over 400 ETC Source Fours, over 250 Wybron Coloram II scrollers, over 60 Vari-Lite VL3500Q S

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UK - Richard Martin Lighting has added Chroma-Q Color Block 2 and GLP Impression XL's in chrome to its hire stock.

The Chroma-Q Color Block 2 was introduced by AC technologies and has been used by several LD's on their shows, Lee Allen on Blue Peter, John Ford for Dave Davey on Paul O'Grady, Roger Williams on Know It All and Chris Kempton on Jonathan Ross.

RML took the decision to purchase the fixtures and hire them out as kits which consist of five individual blocks which can be joined to form a 1.2m strip if required. The product offers modularity and versatility with new single colour RGBA optics, 530 lumens output (almost double the original model) and theatrical grade dimming.

IN response to demand, RML has also purchased a number of GLP Chromed Impression XL's. Following the success of the exclusive six month deal RML had with GLP, purchasin

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UK - Showsec played a key role in maintaining a relaxed summer festival vibe in Hyde Park this summer in sweltering weather over ten show-days.

Three days of Hard Rock Calling were headlined by Neil Young, The Killers and Bruce Springsteen, with some smaller shows on stage two preceding the Blur homecoming shows and Wireless Festival featuring Basement Jaxx and Kanye West.

At the most practical level keeping crowds cool was achieved by Showsec staff constantly distributing gallons of water to fans. Beyond that there were numerous strategies and approaches implemented to maintain calm and secure all areas of the Royal Park venue, from perimeter fence, to pit, to artists and VIP areas.

The companies head of security for the events, Simon Battersby explained: "This is the best team and security operation I have worked with in Hyde Park. We have really seen th

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Belgium - On Sunday 7 June an international press conference was convened at the EU headquarters in Brussels to hear the outcome of the European Parliamentary elections. As vote counts were resolved the results were relayed to the assembled masses of the World's press via d&b audiotechnik's T-Series loudspeakers, and simultaneously broadcast via live TV across the whole of Europe.

The bi-polar system design, two line arrays of 11 T10 loudspeakers positioned directly above the broadcast dais from where the televised result announcements were staged, was made by Patrick Van Cauwenberghe, who barely two months ago attended his first T-Series seminar at the Cirque Royale in Brussels.

"This system is simply the perfect one for the job," said Van Cauwenberghe. "Looks and size are important for television's aesthetics, and the lightweight T10 loudspeaker addressed stru

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UK - A move to new offices by AV and special effects company Arcstream AV will allow the expanding company to offer an improved level of customer service. The new offices in Epsom, Surrey, will feature a new demonstration suite, allowing clients to experience the full potential of Arcstream's multitouch and interactive products.

As well as the office and demonstration facilities, the new premises feature extensive warehouse space for the company's growing stock, allowing more efficient inventory control and faster turnaround. Arcstream's product range includes iBars, laser and lighting effects, interactive tables, walls and floors.

MD Neil Dickinson comments: "The office move comes at a vital time for Arcstream AV and its clients. We have outgrown our small central London premises and our new headquarters will allow us to demonstrate the whole portfolio of products, side

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  5. GE Lighting prepares for EuP Directive
  6. Christie projects Moscow Film Festival
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