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UK - Hundreds of churches could face bills to replace or retune sound equipment rendered useless by changes to the way that radio frequencies are allocated. It has prompted the Church of England to join an industry-led campaign to press Government to provide adequate compensation for affected groups.

Many larger churches use wireless microphones to transmit the voice of clergy and others leading services through a public address system. Some of these audio systems, in churches and cathedrals using four or more such 'radio microphones', currently use a channel dedicated for use by programme makers and special events production staff (along with other frequencies that are subject to geographical restrictions). But changes proposed by the communications regulator Ofcom, and supported by Government, to clear and sell spectrum currently used by radio microphones mean that this channe

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UK Production rigging specialists, Vertigo, has completed one of the UK's largest ever sports stadium rigging project at Arsenal's FC's 60,355 capacity Emirates Stadium in north London, installing eight giant banners emblazoned with striking images of the club's greatest players.

It follows an exceptional few months for the London based company, which has provided production rigging design and installation for the BBC Sports Personality of The Year 2009, Children In Need, the Selfridges Christmas Lights switch-on, Harry Potter - The Half Blood Prince premiere in Leicester Square, Ford's stand at the Shanghai Motor Show, and live productions of the BBC's So You Think You Can Dance, Mama Mia in Oslo and Phantom of the Opera in Buenos Aires.

The Emirates project, created to emphasise the link between Arsenal's glory days at its former Hig

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UK - Yamaha's Dante-MY16-AUD card is now shipping, offering integration of the latest audio networking technology with a wide range of Yamaha digital audio products. And the new interface is already proving its worth to audio production company Britannia Row.

Yamaha Commercial Audio says it is committed to seamlessly interfacing its digital audio products with the widest array of networking protocols, ensuring that any potential problems of compatibility and different proprietary technologies are no issue for a Yamaha-based system. Audinate's Dante system is the latest to be adopted, with the Dante-MY16-AUD allowing Yamaha digital mixing consoles, DME processors and TXn series power amplifiers to make full use of Audinate's 'plug and play' technology.

Each Dante-MY16-AUD card provides 16 bidirectional audio channels (16 channels at 48 kHz, or eight channels at 96 kHz) over Gig

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Canada - The Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra enraptured 13,000 young Canadians late last year with an electrifying performance in Toronto's Rogers Centre, home to the Toronto Blue Jays of Major League Baseball. In order to effectively connect musicians to audience, Montreal-based Solotech applied a system of Meyer Sound Milo line array loudspeakers to the retractable-roof stadium.

Produced by Toronto-based Glenn Gould Foundation, the student concert was the culmination of a three-day celebration honouring Dr. José Antonio Abreu, founder of the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra and recipient of the 2008 Glenn Gould Prize.

"I'm sure it was a transforming moment for the young people there," says Brian Levine, managing director of the Glenn Gould Foundation. "It was a breathtaking musical experience, and it ended with the shouting adulation you'd expect for roc

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UK - ARRI has confirmed the appointment of Flashlight as its main distributor of lighting and grip products. As part of a global exercise to reorganise sales operations within the ARRI Group, Flashlight Ltd have been carefully selected for their ability to provide the best possible service and support to ARRI customers in the UK, says the company.

Flashlight will continue to receive direct support from ARRI to ensure that they are always up to date with the latest lighting products, and will also continue to maintain the high standards on which ARRI's reputation is based.

Flashlight carries large stock to maximise supply chain efficiency, as well as offering various levels of service for its specialist markets.

The 2009 GBP price list is no longer valid. A Euro price list is available on request. (Tel: 01706 625866 E-Mail: sales@flash-light.org.uk)

(Claire Beeson)

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Vietnam A Vertical Line Array Outline comprising 32 Outline Butterfly CDH 483 Hi-Packs, supported by 16 SubTech 218, was chosen as the FOH system for Happy New Year 2010, a concert for 35,000 people staged in the Hanoi's My Dinh National Stadium.

Sponsored by the Maritime Bank and organised by Vietnam's VTV3 TV, the show attracted a vast audience thanks to performances by the country's leading artists including My Tam, Lam Truong, Dam Vinh Hung and Hong Nhung.

Vietnam's Outline distributor, Fantasies Show Light of Hanoi, was also the rental company that had the task of providing and installing the Butterfly rig at My Dinh National Stadium.

The event's FOH engineer, Mr. Nguyen The Ngoc, commented, "Among the best-known high-end line arrays, I think the Butterfly is also one of the fastest and easiest to install; its prediction software is very accurate and provide

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USA - The Union Ballroom is a social hub at Duquesne University, a private, coeducational university founded in 1878 and located on a bluff above Pittsburgh's downtown. The room's split-ceiling design has in the past presented a challenge for any PA system in that space, but especially for the older, nondescript speakers that had served the room for years.

A solution was reached with the installation of two AX366 Arrayable Install Loudspeakers from EAW. When the units were installed in November 2009 as part of an overall renovation of the system, the room's sound improved dramatically. The installation was specified and installed by McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania-based Hollowood Music and Sound, which specializes in design, installation, and service of multimedia and sound systems.

"The large concentric horn design of EAW's AX366 disperses the sound evenly throughout the room

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UAE - Creative Technology Dubai has launched its new revamped website - www.ctdubai.com. Following the launch of other Creative Technology Group operations throughout the world, CT Dubai's site features the same principal properties and qualities bringing CT Dubai into line with CT Group's corporate image.

The new website displays photos of recent regional and global events, contains news items and downloadable case studies detailing the latest projects CT have been involved with and links to all other CT offices around the globe.

The new format also offers visitors the option of registering to receive CT news as the information goes live.

(Jim Evans)

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UK - A comprehensive Technical Training Workshop covering the Kinesys automation system will be staged on 1 & 2 March 2010 in Blackburn, at the premises of lighting rental company, HSL. The Training is open to all interested parties. It has been designed to work as a one or a two day course to suit all levels of interest.

Day One will be a general technical training day, incorporating an overview of the basic Kinesys system and how it works including the conversion of hoists to vari-speed; the use of the Kinesys Elevation 1+ and Elevation 24 hoist controllers and Kinesys' range of power distribution units; connecting everything together, fault finding and running from Rigger remote control handsets.

Day Two will be dedicated to the philosophies and working of the Kinesys Vector control software, complete with practical sessions allowing attendees to get hands-on with the contr

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UK - Bill Bailey's comedic reworking of various familiar musical themes has been a central part of his act since the beginning. To this he recently added a wry and amusing look at the different instruments in the orchestra, the result being Bill Bailey's Remarkable Guide to the Orchestra. This production made its debut in 2008 on a few low-key dates, before coming to national attention via shows at London's Royal Albert Hall, one of which was recorded and broadcast on BBC television.

The end of 2009 saw the show taken on tour to London, Cardiff, Birmingham, Manchester, Dublin, Belfast, Liverpool, Warwick and Gateshead, using a different local orchestra at each venue. Featuring a Yamaha PM5D and M7CL at FOH, the audio system was provided by Bridgend-based Sonalyst and designed by company owner Rory Madden with Yamaha's Nick 'Biggles' Pemberton.

With Academy Award-winning

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Finland - Over 100 of the new Robe CitySource 96 LED wash fixtures were utilised to illuminate two high profile light works - at Parliament House and the Council of State and University buildings in Senate Square adjacent to the Cathedral - featured in Helsinki's 2009 Light Season.

The exterior light art for both sites was designed by Finnish lighting designer Mikki Kunttu. It was the second year of the event, and followed on from Kunttu's successful lighting of Senate Square last year.

Kunttu chose the sites for their prestige and visibility in the city. The newly launched Robe CitySource 96 units were specified following site tests. The fixtures were delivered to lighting rental company Moving Light via Robe's Finnish distributor Live Nation Finland a couple of weeks before the installations went live.

Having these at his disposal enabled Kunttu to produce a spectacular co

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Luxembourg - On 1 December 2009, the Kling & Freitag Nomos XLC was presented to K&F distributors and an international audience at a one-off experimental showing of Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. This event is a combination of a movie screening on a 23m metre HD screen and a live show with over 200 musicians and singers.

Over 2,000 people in the d'Coque Arena followed the action with music provided by Sinfonietta Cracovia and the INECC Choir Luxembourg led by conductor Ludwig Wicki.

For the event, 22 line array elements K&F Sequenza 10 N/W with six Sequenza 10B were used. The new cardioid subwoofer K&F Nomos XLC with 3 x 18" chassis also celebrated its successful premiere. As front-fill speakers and stage monitors, six CA 1001 and four CA 106 were used. All speakers were operated using 10 K&F SystemRacks.

(Jim Evans)

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USA - The newly-renovated Victory Brew Pub in Downingtown, Pennsylvania includes two main dining areas and a conference room adjoining the large bar area and a Community Professional based sound system.

The brewery owners had a pretty clear idea of what they wanted - a sound system that delivered good sound and even coverage across the entire venue. The bar area is very open, with plenty of background noise and there are some areas with high ceilings and lots of reflective surfaces, while others with carpeting and finished ceilings.

A distributed system based on 24 Community VERIS6 full-range, two-way loudspeakers provide even coverage and hi-fidelity sound for both music and voice. The conference room and arcade areas, all of which have a more finished, dropped ceiling look, are served by Cloud6 ceiling speakers.

(Jim Evans)

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India - Diversified Business Communications - producers of events, publications and eMedia headquartered in Portland, Maine, USA - has acquired PALM Expo from Infocast Systems. Diversified will host the 10th PALM Expo 2010 at the Bombay Exhibition Centre, from 3-5 June 2010, bringing international experience serving 15 specialised business sectors and organizing over 90 events annually.

"Diversified Communications India Pvt. Ltd, was created as a 100% subsidiary of Diversified Business Communications, which absorbed the entire existing team of the PALM Expo. I will continue to dedicate myself to the PALM and Musician Expo as managing director of Diversified Communications India, and Manuel Dias remains the project director, directly responsible to all exhibitors at the PALM 2010," says Anil Chopra.

The 2010 PALM show expands by nearly 35% this year and will include a

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Italy / Australia - Announced at the NAMM exhibition in Anaheim, California, Italian manufacturer FBT says it has appointed Innovative Music Australia Pty Ltd as its Australian distributor for its full range of pro audio products including the company's wide offering of loudspeaker systems, Mixing Consoles and Audio Contractor products, effective January 15th, 2010. "This is a momentous occasion for Innovative Music," comments Steve Lincoln-Smith CEO of Innovative Music Australia. With more than 40 years' experience manufacturing some of the world's best pro audio products FBT is an incredible fit with our other product lines, and we are looking forward to expanding their sales into the Australian Market. Together with FBT, we are now able to offer the finest Pro Audio solutions in Australia."

(Lee Baldock)

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UK - Mick Perrin Productions (MPP) - one of Europe's foremost promoters of comedy tours - has forged a closerelationship with Sennheiser.

Eddie Izzard, one of the UK's leading stand-up acts, is currently on a major tour of UK and Europe arenas with Sennheiser equipment, but the relationship between MPP and Sennheiser goes back much further, starting with George Glossop, Izzard's long term sound designer.

"The relationship started with Eddie's production via Sennheiser US and, separately, through rental company Delicate Productions and Scott Scherban, who used to mix Eddies arena shows," says Sennheiser artist relations manager Mark Saunders.

"George and Andy Lillywhite (Sennheiser UK's chief engineer) also go back a long way on the technical side of things and when Eddie's arena European arena tour was booked, that's when my phone rang and things have rolled o

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USA - When the new musical Fela! opened in November, it marked the Broadway debut of the PRG V676 lighting console. The musical and the console both won rave reviews. PRG worked closely with lighting designer Robert Wierzel and automated lighting programmer Timothy Rogers on this distinctive production.

Fela! directed and choreographed by Tony Award winner Bill T. Jones, is a musical about the controversial life of Afrobeat legend Fela Kuti. Jones charged the design team, which also includes sound designer Robert Kaplowitz, projection designer Peter Nigrini and scenic/costume designer Marina Draghici, with the task of transforming the Eugene O'Neill Theatre into Fela's Shrine Club in Nigeria.

Wierzel explained, "When you enter the theatre, you are immediately aware of being inside the club. For our production, there is nearly as much lighting equipment in th

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USA - Global entertainment lighting rental company Bandit Lites says it is currently practicing all possible environmentally friendly actions in its offices around the world. This includes a huge reduction in printed paper materials, energy-efficient task lighting in all its facilities and sorting all its waste for recycling.

Bandit is further educating its staff on 'Green' thinking and urging all team members, as well as all its vendors and clients, to consider the environment first in all decisions. The company says: "A bold new look is on the Bandit website, reaffirming the commitment to eco-friendly actions. The greening of Bandit is a process and not a single action. Bandit will work toward every possible action that is environmentally friendly and saves energy."

The staff at Bandit has spent the last year working with GRNLite to develop a full range of rugged,

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Canada - The Glacier Garden is a scientific indoor and outdoor museum located in Baie-Comeau, Quebec, where visitors can travel back in time and experience the northern adventure 20,000 years under the ice.

Medialon has been selected by XYZ Cultural Technology, a Canadian-based integrator and AV designer company, to be the main controller of the entire indoor part of the museum.

Visitors start their journey by entering the Glacier Exploration Station where the magic of sound, video, lighting, and multimedia technologies transport them into a virtual expedition.

One Medialon Manager V5 Pro license controls four different timeline shows where several tasks run simultaneously in the Glacier Exploration Station. Thanks to Medialon Manager Panel, the free touch panel design software, XYZ Cultural Technology has created friendly-user touch panel interfaces to be used on Red

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UAE - The Burj Khalifa in Dubai - the tallest manmade structure ever built - was subject to sumptuous opening celebrations with sound, lighting and fireworks synchronised by Delta Sound.

Costing over $1.5 billion dollars and measuring an awe-inspiring 828m - over half a mile - from tip to toe, the eyes of the world were on the official opening ceremony which took place on 4 January. Delta Sound Dubai was tasked with the supply of the sound and communications for the event, with Andy Jackson designing the entire system. The company also claimed an unofficial record into the bargain.

Delta had been approached by Prisme International, a French-based event management company, which Delta has worked with on previous events. "This was the first time that Prisme had specifically requested that we do the sound for an event like this, so it was a definite feather in our cap,"

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France / The Netherlands - Sennheisser Netherlands has resigned from its position as L-Acoustics distributor for Holland, effective 28 February 2010.

L-Acoustics sales manager Tim Mc Call comments: "Sennheiser Netherlands has always proved to be a professional and dedicated partner for L-Acoustics. Whilst we are sad to be parting company, we wish them well for the future. Meanwhile we are looking forward to building on the strong base L-Acoustics already enjoys in the Netherlands and to welcoming contacts old and new at the forthcoming ISE show in Amsterdam."

(Jim Evans)

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UK - Scottish PA company, Ward Steedsy Associates employed its Allen & Heath iLive digital mixing system to manage the recent People's Postcode Lottery Winners' Party in Rutherglen, Lanarkshire, where nearly £2m was handed out to prize winners.

Hosted by Scottish presenter, Angus Purden, the Big Postcode Rollover Party included an exclusive live performance from chart-topping rapper, Chipmunk. Ward Steedsy's iLive system, comprising an iDR10 MixRack and iLive-112 Control Surface, managed FOH audio for the event.

"This was the fourth time we have used our iLive system for a Postcode Lottery Party and we have previous event settings saved on a USB stick, so the set-up time was greatly reduced," says joint MD, Steven Ward. "We provided all the FOH kit, including separate feeds for the video tape, the camera crew's headphone mixes and the

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USA - Sting is to lend his support to the Hear the World initiative, a global hearing loss campaign that helps raise awareness about the importance of hearing and the consequences of hearing loss.

Sting joins a host of other celebrity ambassadors including Jude Law, Elle Macpherson, Annie Lennox, Jerry Hall and Peter Gabriel. Each supporter has been photographed by musician and photographer Bryan Adams holding the Hear the World pose - with one hand cupped behind their ear to convey conscious hearing.

Over 800 million people worldwide, more than 16 percent of the world's population, have hearing loss and experts predict this will to increase to 1.1 billion by 2015. In the UK an estimated 8.5 million people have hearing loss and struggle for up to 15 years before seeking advice. Studies have shown that this has a significantly negative effect on a person's social, emotional and

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UK - The London Eye New Years' Eve celebration has become a regular event for Stage Electrics, marking a successful beginning to the New Year.

Following eight consecutive years of supplying elements of lighting equipment and staff, this was the first year that Stage Electrics was the sole supplier of all the lighting for the New Years Eve event for Jack Morton Worldwide. This year's event stepped up a level with lighting designer Durham Marenghi making use of 14 Clay Paky Alpha Beams 700s, which were programmed by associate designer Paul Cook, to form 50ft tall digital count-down clock, on the Shell building façade, achieved using some precise indexing of the oblong slot Gobos.

The cues were triggered by a satellite time code via MIDI into the console, which set the stage, attracting over half a million New Year revellers, who again braved the cold to usher in the New Year as

  1. grandMAs in control at Abu Dhabi F1 concerts
  2. Lighthouse goes to the races in Pisa
  3. Kowloon church switches to Ross Vision
  4. Mumbai's Omkar opts for Proel power
  5. Mojo Barriers delivers to top 2009 tours
  6. Sound Power provides Pilots for Yates
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