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UK - Analogue mixing console manufacturer Audient is rolling out a scrappage scheme to all UK customers, with immediate effect. Purchasers willing to trade-in their old console will receive £2000 off the published price of a new ASP8024 or ACS8024 high resolution mixing desk.

Sales director Luke Baldry comments: "This scheme will appeal to studios as well colleges and universities, providing an easy way of releasing capital from their older consoles. There are a number of older consoles out there, particularly digital consoles that are becoming unreliable and difficult to service. This scheme provides the perfect opportunity to upgrade to one of our new analogue consoles."

Audient will accept analogue or digital desks as part of the scheme up until 31March 2010, subject to qualification. Further details of the scheme are available at www.audient.com/scrappage.<

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Live on Line - U2 have broadcast an entire live show via the video sharing website YouTube. Although 96,000 people turned up to see the show at the Pasadena Rose Bowl in California, many times that number were expected to have watched it online. As he took to the stage, lead singer Bono said: "Thank you Los Angeles. Thanks to everyone watching on YouTube all over the world - seven continents."

Cancelled Concerts - Sir Elton John has cancelled his concert at Wembley Arena tonight (Tuesday), the third gig he has been forced to shelve after contracting flu. Promoters said it is "hoped he will make a speedy recovery". A concert in Liverpool on Wednesday is still scheduled to go ahead. The singer scrapped Friday's gig in Sheffield and Saturday's in Newcastle after he was told to rest by doctors. Promoters are trying to reschedule the Wembley concert for a d

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UK - Trade distributor to the AV and broadcast industry, Bright Space Technologies, has been appointed as the exclusive UK distributor for Analog Way's range of broadcast products. Bright Space Technologies will now supply the Tetra-VIO and Broad Scan range of PC to HD and SD scan converters.

"There are numerous products on the market. Combine this with the complex nature of today's installations and broadcast resellers and integrators are facing an increasingly challenging situation when it comes to developing and implementing optimum solutions for their clients," says Colin Clarke, senior technical sales and support manager, of Bright Space Technologies. "To address this issue, Bright Space Technologies provides 'best-in-class' solutions to our trade customers, as well as consultancy services and advice about the equipment, technologies, processes and implementa

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Italy - Fiorello, one of Italy's most popular showmen, hit the headlines this year with a live and TV entertainment project. Three nights a week, he hosted a show in a 2,500-seat marquee in the centre of Rome, recorded and edited down to a 30-minute package and beamed out in prime time by Sky Italia Satellite channel the following evening, with highlights transmitted every Sunday.

An up-tempo combination of his talents as a singer, comedian and imitator, the show alternated solo sketches with interaction between the artist, his guests and members of the audience, with a great deal of improvisation.

Fiorello's FOH engineer Hugo Tempesta used a DiGiCo SD7 console to mix live and broadcast sound, as well as recording every show. "With a 10-piece band and bandleader/pianist, mics for guests and spare mics, I'd no less than 156 input channels," he says. "Quite a numb

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UK - Adlib Lighting continues its working relationship with Enter Shikari, supplying lighting equipment and crew for the current UK tour.

The project is being managed for Adlib by John Hughes, and Enter Shikari's lighting design has been created by Steve Bewley, who has been onboard with the band since March this year.

Hughes says: "It's great to be on the road with Shikari again - they are one of the most exciting bands of the moment. Steve has put together an imaginative, great looking and very practical design, which works well in all venues whatever the available stage space."

Bewley's starting point was in devising a rig that matched the massive energy, breakneck pace and highly animated performance of the band, and in helping transmit this vibe from the stage and into the audience. He also wanted something that looked completely different to their last tour,

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Korea - Suwon Outdoor Concert Hall recently installed an Adamson sound system for its amphitheatre's seated area. One of Korea's most celebrated amphitheatres, the venue is located at the heart of a grand oval-shaped park in the centre of Sewon City, in Kyounggi Do province, at a close proximity to Korea's capital city of Seoul.

For its stage design and surrounding landscape, the SOCH was awarded the Korea Architecture Prize in 1996. World-class musicians as Pavarotti, Sumi Jo, and Andrea Bocellini have graced its stage. The concert hall is also home to the Suwon Metropolitan Symphony and the Suwon Metropolitan Choir, and from spring to fall, it hosts to a wide range of performances by classical and popular performers who traditionally kick off their nationwide tours in Suwon.

The venue's smallish conventional seated area is taken up by 796 seats, but the oval park's meticulou

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UK - Void Acoustics took over the high-profile Matter venue in London's O2 Arena in mid October, to host a one-day Void Extravaganza. Taking advantage of Matter's impressive space and ambience, Void demonstrated its latest loudspeaker and amplifier products, launched last month at PLASA 09, enabling the invited audience of some 65 venue owners, hire companies, installers and DJs to audition the new systems under real-world conditions.

The Void products demonstrated at Matter ranged from touring line-array to club install systems, and included the Arcline 12 medium-format line-array and Arcline X multiple resonant-chamber sub. Void also demonstrated the Stasys range, across the Stasys Prime ultra-efficient wide-band arrayable point-source, the Stasys X horn-loaded sub, the Stasys 5 Mk2 1 x 18 low-frequency and the Stasys 3 mk2 arrayable mid-hi. Completing the new-product l

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UK - The UK debut of Electro-Voice's EV-Innovation Series will be one of the highlights of Shuttlesound's Big Day Out, being held at the Reebok Stadium in Bolton on 3 November.

There are three Series in the EV-I loudspeaker family. The EVA Expandable Vertical Array Series for installed sound applications, the EVF Front Load Series of two-way front-loaded full-range system for fixed installs demanding a compact and lightweight package, and the EVH Horn Load Series of 15" full-range cabinets with five different rotatable waveguides. Big Day Outvisitors will be able to experience all three versions.

These new products for the installation market are being launched to UK customers by Guillermo Wabi, product manager for EV fixed install, concert sound, cinema & custom loudspeakers, who is flying over from the USA especially for the occasion.

The Big Day Out<

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Belarus - A number of rock bands passing through Belarus recently have taken advantage of fixtures from PR Lighting - supplied by the Chinese manufacturer's territory distributors, FE Belimlight.

The company's Maxim Yugov confirms that automated fixtures such as the XL1500 are becoming increasingly popular for their output, flexibility, advanced features and superior colour saturation.

FE Belimlight stock more than a hundred of these heads, which utilise a powerful 1500W short arc discharge lamp, optimised by the use of a high quality and efficient optical system. This makes it one of the brightest projectors in the market.

The highlight of the touring season was British rock singer, Chris Norman's appearance at the Mir Castle complex in Belarus - a stunning gothic building (and UNESCO World Heritage site) which dates back to the 15th century.

Norman's lightshow included 4

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USA - The ESTA-sponsored Connectivity Pavilion will be on display at LDI 2009 in Orlando, with an expanded array this year of equipment running the latest in entertainment control protocols.

The Pavilion offers a hands-on demonstration of devices interfacing under RDM (ANSI E1.20), ACN (ANSI E1.17), and Lightweight Streaming of DMX512 over ACN (ANSI E1.31).

Members of the Controls Protocols Working Group and the task groups for these standards will be in the Connectivity Pavilion to demonstrate and discuss these ANSI protocols, which can be specified for new lighting systems or for upgrades of old ones. Anyone with an interest in lighting control is invited to stop by and see the reality of these protocols and how transparently they allow the operation of equipment from a variety of manufacturers, says the organisation.

(Jim Evans)

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USA - Part of the AT&T Performing Arts Centre in Dallas, Texas, the Winspear Opera House, which opened last week, was designed by Foster + Partners under Pritzker Prize-winning architect Norman Foster. Engineered specifically for performances of opera and musical theatre, its stages are also equipped for performances of ballet and other forms of dance.

A 21st century reinterpretation of the traditional 'horseshoe' opera house, the principal performance space, the 2,200 seat Margaret McDermott Performance Hall, is fitted with variable acoustics in the form of retractable drapes. Behind the design is Triple E's Chaintrack, which enables the drapes to be stacked in pockets hidden within the walls when not in use.

The fact that Chaintrack can navigate corners of just 40mm radius enables it to double back on itself, and this, coupled with the facility to store curtains flat rather

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Kenya - The Gearhouse South Africa Group of companies supplied rigging, lighting, audio, LED screens and power distribution for the 2009 MTV African Music Awards, staged at the Kasarani Gymnasium at the Moi International Sports Centre, Nairobi, Kenya. The project entailed air freighting 55,000 Kgs of equipment from South Africa.

The Gearhouse crew was led by Bill Lawford who collaborated closely with Simon Roche, logistics manager from production company VWV, together with an international production team primarily from the UK, including lighting designer/director Gurdip Mahal, moving light programmer/operator Ross Williams, FOH sound engineer Derrick Zieba and screens director Chris Saunders from XL Video UK.

Gearhouse also asked UK lighting rental company HSL to supply additional lighting equipment and technician Tim Oliver for the event. Gearhouse has a long standing relati

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USA - Bosch Security Systems, Inc. Is to realign its sales, marketing, and customer service and support organisations in a move that will combine the Security Systems and Communications Systems Divisions in the Americas. Effective 1 January, 2010, the changes will result in a fully integrated organisation that makes it easier for customers to do business with Bosch, says the company.

The senior leadership team of the combined organisation will incorporate key executives from both Security Systems and Communications Systems.

Heading the team, Jeremy Hockham, president of sales for the Americas, will lead sales, marketing, business development, technical and project support and customer service for the combined operation in North and South America. Christopher Gerace will continue in his role as president.

Eric Cechak, Franck Fabry, Daniel Nix and Kelly Priest will head the fo

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UK - Tower Productions, which provides a range of services to the live event production industry including lighting hire, rigging, power generation and power distribution, recently completed a heating, lighting and power installation at the O2 Arena in London for the Gymnastics World Championships. The company deployed white 18kW electric heaters as no oil-fired equipment was allowed in the area.

"12 of these units and 40 400W white lo-bays ensured the practice area was warm and bright. The electric heaters are ideal for this type of installation as they are small, smart, reliable, fuel and fume-free and easy for the user to operate without and standby personnel," noted crew chief Andy Sharman.

(Lee Baldock)

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Canada - Looking to provide versatility in a cost-effective manner, systems integrator AV Communications recently installed a Soundcraft Si3 console as the centrepiece for its audio system design at the new Mapleview Community Church in Barrie, Ontario.

Housed in a former sports arena, Mapleview Community Church currently seats up to 900 people, and is part of a much larger campus that eventually will include sports facilities, a daycare centre and other recreational areas. In addition to the requirements for customary SPL, dynamics, and Percentage of Articulation Loss of Consonants, there were two requirements for this installation: It needed to fit within the designated budget and it needed to include a digital console.

The console needed to handle 32 channels of mixing and a dozen auxes, and it had to be flexible enough to handle day-to-day presentations by members of the c

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Germany - Lighting designer Martin Kuhn included 80 Infinity ACL Coemar moving heads in his lighting rig for Nature One 2009. Under the slogan Smile is the answer, a record number of over 60,000 revellers attended this year's Nature One 2009, probably the biggest electronic music festival in Germany, held on the former Pydna missile base, near Kastellaun, Hunsrück.

Since 1995 DJs from all around the world play the event and every year the audience also gets spoiled by the technical side, with powerful audio and a stunning light show. This year the technical service Satis & Fy from Werne, inspired by lighting designer Martin Kuhn included 80 Infinity ACL Coemar Moving Heads.

This spotlight with its extremely tight-emitting characteristics provided an impressive beam show over the heads of the dancers on the main floor.

(Jim Evans)

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UK - Baldwin Boxall's Vigil EVAS voice alarm system has been installed in the brand new Caterpillar stand at Leicester Tigers stadium. The new stand completes phase one of the £60m redevelopment at Welford Road.

The voice alarm system, installed by Argus Services Ltd, will ensure safe and controlled evacuation in the event of an emergency. Investing in a well-built voice alarm system enables security and safety staff to feel at ease with the knowledge that the system will activate the instant it is required to do so. In the meantime, for everyday events, the same system provides stadium staff with full public address / DJ facilities and background music creating a great atmosphere for the fans. Other benefits include the ability to record timed messages for announcements such as advertising forthcoming events, venue facilities and closing/opening times total flexibility to

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UK - The London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games Ltd (LOCOG) is inviting an expression of interest from live events production companies to provide the production services for the Opening and Closing ceremonies of the London 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games.

LOCOG is seeking a highly experienced live events production company who have Olympic, Paralympic or large scale events experience to provide administrative and production services to the Creative Directors of the four ceremonies. The Creative Directors will be recruited directly by LOCOG through a separate process and so creative content proposals are not being sought from potential production companies. The chosen production company will manage and execute the production process from conception to delivery.

Bill Morris, LOCOG Director of Culture, Ceremonies & Education said: "The

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Finland - In late 2008 and early 2009, Finnish band Eppu Normaali enjoyed its Klubiotteella tour with a pair of DiGiCo SD8 consoles supplied by Akun Tehdas, the audio production company owned by the band and directed by drummer Aku Syrjä.

So successful was the tour that TomFloor Production, an associate company run by producer and engineer Tomi Pietilä, has since purchased its own console for Location Factory - the world's first SD8-equipped mobile recording facility.

"When it came to choosing a console, there were a few options which I considered, but very soon it became obvious that the SD8 had more preamps, more power, more... everything... compared with other brands," says Tomi of his new acquisition.

"Most importantly I knew the sound quality of the preamps. Having used the SD8 to make live recordings of the Eppu Normaali tour, I already k

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Dubai - Dubai-based company EPIC Events L.L.C. has just invested heavily with NMK Electronics in equipment from Electro-Voice.

The order includes 12 XLC127 line-array enclosures, 20 active ZXA5 speaker systems, and Tour Grade amplifiers (TG5, TG7) with integrated RCM DSP modules controlled by IRIS-Net software. This is state-of-the-art equipment offering the highest degree of reliability, performance and ease-of-use, says the company

"The inventories of three rental companies in the United Arab Emirates now boast Electro-Voice line arrays with remote amplifiers," says Chicco Hiranandani, business development manager, NMK Electronics. "Another thing customers appreciate is the quality of Electro-Voice (after-sales) service. The regular software updates are extremely popular here. They create trust. That's why investing in Electro-Voice is always a sound decision

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Greece - Clay Paky's Alpha Profile 1200 fixtures were used during a National Theatre production of Phèdre at the famed Epidaurus theatre in Greece, as part of the Athens Festival.

The 15,000-seat Epidaurus theatre, designed in the 4th century BC, is known for its symmetry and beauty and marvelled for its exceptional acoustics, which allow the entire audience, regardless of their seat, to clearly hear a performer's unamplified voice from the stage. Although most ambient noise is absorbed by the limestone construction, it is still important to use equipment that can operate quietly.

Lighting designer Paule Constable explained, "Clay Paky Alpha Profile 1200 were used as front light specials placed amongst the crowd, so the low noise was a major consideration. We used the shuttering to pick out elements on the stage with great accuracy. They also proved reliabl

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UK - Plaster is a new look creative communications company, formally known as Resource PR. With nearly 10 years providing b2b and b2c communications, specialising in the event, exhibition, technology and audio visual sectors, the agency has rebranded to encompass its broader communications mix and reflect the company's creative new team.

The new company brand (Plaster) has been unveiled this October through a viral video, which saw the team donning plasterer's outfits and plastering their new logo onto the wall of their office.

Managing Director Graham Brown explained: "We have grown in many ways since moving to Bristol three years ago and it feels like a natural progression to have arrived at this rebrand. Kellie became a director last year reflecting her input and commitment, Lisa has a great portfolio of PR and marketing campaigns as an account manager, while Andrew, E

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Germany - With an impressive five-year growth rate of 289%, Coolux, the creator of the Pandoras Box media server system, has reached 42nd place as part of this year's Deloitte's Fast 50 list, a ranking of Germany's 50 fastest growing technology companies.

Deloitte has honoured business growth, technological innovation and entrepreneurial spirit this way for the seventh year in a row. The listed companies' performance highlights the fact that they were able to surpass expectations even in times of economic crisis.

Coolux founder and CEO Jan Hüwel comments on his company's success: "We are now reaping the benefits of our sticking to triple A quality standards, no matter what the economic situation. Pushing our ability to come up with innovative new ideas to the utmost limit and beyond has always been one of our main goals. More than 1500 licences sold since the inception o

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Japan - Cirque du Soleil's ZED is playing Tokyo Disney Resort's purpose-built 2,150-seat theatre. The dynamic soundscape created by sound designers François Bergeron and Vikram Kirby helps entice the guests into a world of imagination, giving the show a heightened emotional texture using Meyer Sound's Constellation electroacoustic architecture.

As applied in ZED, Constellation utilizes 97 compact loudspeakers, 32 microphones, and five dedicated VRAS processors to afford the liberty of creating fully adaptable acoustics.

"Constellation can sound absolutely natural, if that's what you want," says principal sound designer François Bergeron, who is also CFO of Burbank-based Thinkwell Design and Production and designer for six prior Cirque du Soleil shows, "but in pure sound design it also lets you play with the laws of physics. You can create acousti

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