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Switzerland - Headquartered in Lausanne, The International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) is the governing body with global responsibility for all forms of volleyball. With 220 member National Federations, operating via five confederations based in Africa, Asia, Europe, North & Central America and South America, it is currently one of the largest sports organisations in the world.

The new main meeting room at the Lausanne headquarters features a Bosch Digital Congress Network (DCN) Next Generation flush-mount installation. The flush-mount system was considered particularly attractive for this application as it enables tailor-made fixed installations to be built into the furniture.

The meeting room's elegant wooden conference table features a centre that rises up to give delegates access to the microphones and voting units. And the channel selector units are installed in the edge

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Hungary - Only 60 km from Vienna, southwest of Lake Neusiedler, lies the Hungarian city of Sopron. Sopron (Ödenburg in German) is not only a university town but also the home of HK Audio's Hungarian distributor IFK.

Recently when the Petõfi Theater of Sopron was looking for a new sound system, they asked various vendors to conduct a system demo. Naturally IFK was among the bidders. IFK won with the HK Audio Cadis System they proposed.

The Petõfi Theater, with a rich tradition going back two centuries and its Vienna Secession style, is located in the middle of the Old City of Sopros and holds an audience of about 550. The programme ranges from classical and modern drama to comedy and musicals. The new system is made up of six HK Audio Cadis CAD 208 cabs as the centre cluster, two ConTour Series CT 112 12"/1.4" mid/high units and CT 118 Subs on both the left and the

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Germany - Berlin's O2 World venue staged the MTV European Music Awards featuring some of the music industry's most popular artists of 2009. With plenty of live performances between the business of handing out the gongs, Sennheiser supported the event for the seventh year in a row by providing microphones, in-ear monitoring systems and technical assistance.

Working closely with the event's sound designer Derrick Zieba and audio company Britannia Row, Mark Saunders and Andy Lillywhite of Sennheiser UK were there to provide hands-on support for the many performers using Sennheiser equipment.

The company supplied G2 series in-ear monitors for every performer, as well as SKM 5200 handheld mics with Neumann KK 105 capsules for all the presenters.

With Berlin being Neumann's home city, it was appropriate for the company's capsules to feature.

"The amount of effort that Mark

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Angola / UK - Special effects and AV specialists Arcstream AV has been engaged by production company Media XXI to install an Arcsphere structure for the African Cup of Nations Final, to host the Angolan president and guests.

The huge projection sphere is being installed in host country Angola for the tournament which kicks off on 10 January 2010. Angola will be joined by 15 nations who successfully advanced from the qualification process that began in October 2007 and involved 53 African national teams.

The 22m diameter inflatable structure will feature a 360º seamless projection, playing sponsor adverts and logos, viewable on both the inside and outside of the dome structure. The Arcsphere is an inflated positive pressure dome, and will be installed with a state of the art AV system including a series of plasmas inside for guests to follow the matches.

The sphere is being

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UK - When Belfast-based lighting rental company Production Services Ireland (PSI) started planning its annual staff festive party, they soon realised the potential of evolving it into an event to showcase its products, services and passion for the industry, all wrapped up in a convivial social environment, complete with lavish hospitality.

It was staged in the Ballycultra Town, part of the Northern Ireland Folk & Transport Museum, an attraction covering a 170-acre site, complete with the reconstituted 19th century town, which has a church, bank, police station, school and houses.

PSI invited key clients and suppliers. They received an overwhelming response with a turnout of 150 people.

PSI's Sean Pagel says: "Once we'd decided that this was the route we would take, we were determined to go all out to ensure that everyone had a good time, enjoyed our hospitality and also

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USA - Backing up Eminem on the American Music Awards, bassist / music director Adam Blackstone and guitarist Curt Chambers came through loud and clear for this world-wide broadcast - thanks to Brace Audio DWG-1000 digital wireless performance systems.

Eminem took the stage late in the awards ceremony to pump-up the house, and the rhythm section laid down a solid sonic groove. Live broadcast, multi-band shows are a must-deliver situation, and Brace Audio did just that with pristine audio and flawless wireless bass and guitar system performance.

"Finally, a wireless that keeps all my frequencies intact" said Blackstone. "With Brace, I don't lose any of the low-end on my bass, and the tone remains the same. It's a life saver for an active, moving bassist like me."

"Knowing that you have a reputable wireless unit on stage to handle your tone and distorti

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Hong Kong - Traxon Technologies, realised one of the largest LED Christmas decorations for this year's Christmas Wonderland in Hong Kong.

Supporting environmental protection, Hongkong Land decided to decorate the five skywalks around the Landmark building in Hong Kong's Central with energy saving though highly efficient LED lighting solutions provided by Traxon.

The installation size per bridge varies from a quantity of 40 Mesh units for the 2x13m Ice House Bridge to 202 Mesh units installed along the Connaught Bridge with a total length of 63m, displaying season's greetings and Christmas animations.

Traxon's Mesh RGB is a versatile, modular system of IP67-rated LED modules with a low profile and an easy mounting. The Mesh units can easily be connected by flexible joints offering a high degree of customisation. With its individually controllable pixels T

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Belgium - As of 1 January 2010, the Belgium based sales companies Ampco Belgium and Candela, which specialise in the distribution, supply and installation of professional audio and lighting equipment to the Belgian market, have become fully independent from the Ampco Flashlight Group.

Both companies will continue under the direction of managing director Karel de Piere, who from the same date has acquired the ownership of Ampco Belgium and Candela from Ampco Flashlight, left the Ampco Flashlight Group, and sold his shares in the Ampco Flashlight Group. The newly independent companies will focus exclusively on sales activities and will not operate in the rental market.

The Ampco Flashlight Group's audio, lighting and video sales activities will continue to be developed in Europe through TM Audio, Lightco and Pixelsource in the Netherlands, Paradigma in Romania and Atlantic Audio

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UK - West Sussex-based Special Project Solutions reports that it has achieved compliance for CHAS (Constructors Health and Safety Scheme) and CSCS (Construction Skills Certification Scheme) Platinum recognition.

CHAS is a non-commercial scheme available to suppliers and to organisations looking for suitably competent suppliers. Qualifying for recognition is a three stage process involving paperwork, review and a health and safety audit. "With more and more of our work involving being on site at the building stage it is a vital qualification, and we are proud to have been accredited," says David Green.

CSCS was set up to help the construction industry to improve quality and reduce accidents. CSCS cards are increasingly demanded on site as proof as occupational competence by contractors as well as public and private clients. Special Projects has been awarded Platinum r

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UK - Projection artist Ross Ashton from E/T/C London was commissioned to create three special art works for the 2009 St Andrews Festival, a three-day event designed to celebrate the rich history and culture of St Andrews, home of the Scottish patron saint. This was staged amidst the environs of the town of St Andrews on the last weekend in November.

Two of the three projections were at the ruined Cathedral of St Andrews. Ashton projected giant moving images onto the altar area and one on the cloister walls.

The third site was in St Mary's Quadrangle, part of St Andrews' university - the third oldest in the English speaking world. These were the only light works in the 2009 Festival.

Ashton had produced a small piece for last year's festival, after which he was asked back by event organiser Rob Murray-Brown to do a piece specifically about St Andrews, to be staged in t

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UK - Entertainment retailer HMV is expanding its presence in the live music market by buying venue owner MAMA Group for £46m. HMV's move comes nearly a year after it took a 9.9% stake in MAMA, which runs 11 concert venues including the Hammersmith Apollo. MAMA also owns other interests, including an artist management business which represents bands such as Franz Ferdinand and the Kaiser Chiefs.

Since January, HMV and MAMA have been partners in their Mean Fiddler joint venture, which runs venues in London, Birmingham, Edinburgh and Aberdeen.

HMV chief executive Simon Fox said: "Our joint venture has worked well since its formation and the full combination of HMV and MAMA will enable us to accelerate our growth into live music.

HMV's takeover offer for MAMA, which is still subject to approval from shareholders, comes after the group rejected earlier bids from Luxemb

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UK - Event safety specialists Stagesafe have produced two new event information documents, available as free PDF downloads from the Resource Centre of its web site, www.stagesafe.co.uk.

The first is entitled the Stagesafe guide to on site working practices and safe working procedures in the technical production industry, and is aimed at event companies to give to their staff as a basic guide - and can equally be used by individuals and freelancers as a handy reference. It contains a wealth of professional advice, hints and tips about safe working, says the company.

Stagesafe has also updated its Stagesafe guide to self employment in the live music and events industry, a guide for the self-employed and for those who use the services of the self-employed.

(Jim Evans)

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UK - Blackburn- based HSL supplied lighting equipment, a Kinesys automation system and crew to the final leg of Snow Patrol's 2009 world tour, named Snow Patrol Reworked. This follows HSL's servicing of all the band's UK and European sections across the whole tour, which kicked off in January 09.

Mike Oates project managed for HSL, once again working closely with the tour's LD Davy Sherwin, production manager Wob Roberts and tour manager Neil Mather. Mike Oates comments, "It's been really interesting to see how Snow Patrol's show has evolved and changed over the year. Each section has been different, and of course it's been excellent working with Wob, Davy and Neil again - they are a great team."

Snow Patrol Reworked was a departure from their standard five-piece rock band set up, with 12 extra musicians onstage, bringing an orchestral feel to the show.

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USA - Loud Technologies (parent company of Mackie) has announced it has signed an agreement with Avid that licenses the use of Mackie's new Onyx-i Series Firewire Recording Mixers with Avid Pro Tools M-Powered 8 software.

To enable use with Pro Tools M-Powered 8, users will need to purchase the Mackie Universal Driver upgrade at www.mackie.com. Once the driver is downloaded and installed, the Onyx 820i, 1220i, 1620i and 1640i mixers can be used with Avid Pro Tools M-Powered 8 software.

"For years, Mackie customers have wanted to combine the familiar workflow of an analogue mixer with the world's most popular DAW," said John Boudreau, VP of Loud's Music Gear group. "Through our newly-signed agreement with Avid, Mackie's Onyx-i mixers now make this possible."

Chris Gahagan, senior vice president of products at Avid said, "Avid has made openness a key

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UK - A.C. Entertainment Technologies has supplied a Chroma-Q Color Span LED cove lighting and wall wash system to the Brighton Dome for its Dome Foyer main bar. Situated alongside the venue's art deco style Concert Hall and part of a £22 million refurbishment of the facilities in 2002, the modern Foyer is used for a wide range of shows and corporate events.

Jason Ashdown, technical manager for Brighton Dome & Festival, approached A.C. Entertainment Technologies when the venue wanted to achieve an up light wall wash around the top of the Foyer, to provide mood lighting for events including comedy, classical, dance and other music genres. With plenty of natural light flooding the room from large skylights, brightness was a key criteria for lighting daytime events.

Ashdown considered several LED products before settling on the Chroma-Q Color Span. His chosen Color Span syst

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Ukraine - The 2009 Junior Eurovision Song Contest recently wrapped up its seventh season, seeing its largest viewing audience in its history. An estimated 13m viewers watched 13 competing countries onstage, beaming alongside 22 Clay Paky Alpha Beam 1500 fixtures. The show was held on 21 November at the Palace of Sports in Kiev, the same location as the 2005 Eurovision Song Contest.

The show is a spin-off of the 52-year-old Eurovision Song Contest, produced by the European Broadcast Union (EBU). It is hosted by the public service broadcaster of the host country, which this year was NTU in Kiev. The show is the biggest song contest in the world for performers aged 10 to 15, who must each compose their own music and lyrics.

The theme of this year's show was Tree of Life, based on the artwork of Ukrainian folk art painter Maria Primachenko. Lighting des

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Italy - A Proel Public Address and audio evacuation system complying with EN 60849 standards has been installed in Mantua at the new Thun store and logistic centre.

Thun, the Italian company well-known for its ceramic gift and home furnishing ranges, has chosen Proel's AVL Systems' products for its new 1,600sq.m store and its logistic centre which covers a total surface of 35,600sq.m.

Proel's PROEVAC evacuation system has been directly interfaced with the fire detection equipment whose sensors are distributed in various strategic areas of the facility. The system's rack-mount central unit, positioned in the mechanical room, controls the BMH and BMFIRE paging stations broadcasting calls, announcements or pre-recorded evacuation messages.

Each facility area or zone is equipped with specific EVAC speakers with redundant connections (A + B lines). PROEVAC systems and components

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UK - 5 Star Cases was recently contacted to design and supply a complete exhibition display system and flight case solution for CPU Holders 4U and Pro Audio Stash.

From an initial brief from Pro Audio Stash's Rob Platt, the design team at 5 Star came up with some ideas and following some minor tweaks, the project was born, comprising two main product categories.

Pro Audio Stash distributes a range of 19" rack mount cabinets, both free standing and wall mounted, plus a host of rack-mounting accessories like plain panels, drawers, ventilation panels and castors.

CPU Holders 4U manufacturers and distributes a range of 'Under-Desk' CPU holders, laptop security drawers and cable management trays.

(Jim Evans)

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Australia - Green Day is currently on their mammoth 21st Century Breakdown world tour which started in 2009 and is scheduled to continue towards the end of 2010. The band has just finished the Australian leg of the tour.

Featured in the lighting rig are 37 Martin MAC III Profiles. "The MAC IIIs do a really good job for the throw distances that we have as some of them are very long," commented Kevin Cauley, lighting director for the tour. "Our upstage truss is trimmed at 42ft off the ground so there are some very long throws required.

"This is the first show that I've used the MAC IIIs on and I think they're great. The effects wheel is awesome. It's just a really good, heavy-duty light and the crew has had no real problems with them. We've found that the lamps in the MAC IIIs are lasting a good five-hundred hours longer than Martin suggested. We were

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In The Money - U2 had the most successful North American tour of 2009, according to music trade publication Pollstar. The Irish band's 360° stadium tour sold 1.3 million tickets in the US and Canada, worth $123m (£76.3m) overall. Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band came second, with tour takings amounting to $94.5m (£58.6m). Elton John and Billy Joel's joint tour was the third most successful tour, with ticket sales worth $88m (£54.5m). Britney Spears and rock band AC/DC completed the top five with takings of $82.5m (£51.1m) and $77.9m (£48.3m) respectively.

Show Business - Recently honoured Status Quo are the hardest-working band in British music, according to a list compiled by the Performing Rights Society (PRS). The band performed to more than 250,000 fans at 27 arenas in 2009 - more than any other band. "Performing in

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UK / USA - Following a hugely successful first joint venture fund raiser this year between Light Relief in the UK and Behind the Scenes in the States, the two charities are doing it again in 2010. And once again they have the full backing of award-winning designers Paule Constable, Ken Billington and Ken Posner, along with Light Relief's co-founder, Rick Fisher.

Established in 2007 as Light Relief Day and now renamed By Design Day, 24 April is the day that, each year, people in the professional lighting design business give back to help others less fortunate than themselves. The first 'joint venture' between Light Relief and Behind the Scenes raised £7,500 - £3450 for Light Relief and $5,700 for Behind the Scenes. The money came through a variety of channels, including a bucket collection among the audience of the London production of Hairspray o

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UK - St Anne's Church on Alderney in the Channel Islands has long been central to island life, both as a church and more recently as a venue for concerts and events. Often referred to as the 'Cathedral of the Channel Islands' because of its size and grandeur, it has a capacity for a congregation or audience of up to 650 people, and makes the perfect setting for visiting choirs and bands.

With the church actively encouraging appropriate use of the church for outside events, a high quality sound system is imperative, but over the years it became increasingly difficult to hear and enjoy both the spoken word and recorded or live music over a system that was installed more than 25 years ago. When a bequest from a local island resident made money available for 'a project that would benefit both the church and the congregation', the sound system was top priority.

With local resident

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UK - Robe moving lights are at the core of the spectacular Brilliance installation in Blackpool, a major light art work consisting of six alluminium clad architectural arches traversing the seaside town's Birley Street, combined with additional lighting pods along the surrounding Church, Corporation and Clifton Streets.

The £3.5 million 'regeneration by light' scheme, commissioned by Blackpool Council, has been funded by the Northwest Development Agency, the European Regional Development Fund and Blackpool Council. The design concept was developed by Manchester based BDP, the lighting was conceived and programmed by Greg McLenahan of World Wide Lighting Design working in close conjunction with Blackpool's Illuminations department. The installation was overseen and co-ordinated by principal building contractors, J. McCann & Co (Nottingham).

Blackpool has historical

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The Netherlands - Integrated Systems Events has announced the positioning of a Digital Signage Expert Showcase within ISE 2010. Co-located next to - and integrated with - a number of other attractions to form a larger Digital Signage Area in Hall 10 of the Amsterdam RAI, the Showcase is intended to show ISE attendees a complete signage system, with content creation, management, delivery and display solutions from a range of vendors, all viewable in a single location.

Mike Blackman, managing director, Integrated Systems Events, comments, "With over 250 digital signage exhibitors at our tradeshow and our DOOH Business Conference now firmly established as Europe's premier networking event for digital advertising, we felt the need to provide an additional Digital Signage Area for 2010.

"The Digital Signage Expert Showcase is a key element of this, and we believe i

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