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USA - A critical letter about the use of chemical pesticides on its lawns in 2008 led to a series of steps and decisions at Farnsworth Art Museum that culminated with a resolution to become a leader in environmentally sustainable practices. Converting the entire museum from halogen to LED light bulbs was a major part of that decision.

The effort will make the Rockland, Maine, institution one of the first art museums in the nation to use LED lighting for all of its galleries. The lights will dramatically reduce the museum's energy consumption, allowing the Farnsworth to allocate more funds for programs and exhibitions.

For the LED project, the museum has partnered with Efficiency Maine and California-based LEDtronics. The relamping will not only help protect displayed artwork by reducing the potentially harmful effects of standard lighting on works of art, but it will also prov

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Indonesia - As Nexo enjoys consistent growth in south-east Asia, a new distribution appointment has consolidated the company's network in the region. E&E Indonesia will now be the exclusive representative for the brand in Indonesia.

Nexo's marketing manager Joe White, who worked closely with E&E Indonesia to reach agreement, is delighted to complete a regional picture which includes Yamaha Music Asia in Singapore and Audio Solutions in Malaysia.

"Over recent years, we have seen each country in south-east Asia developing personalised market needs that have to be addressed on a local level," says White. "Our current distributors have established a great presence for Nexo in Malaysia and Singapore, and we've been seeking to duplicate this kind of support for Indonesia, which has high potential for us in both the installation and live sound sectors.

"E&E Indo

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China - Themed as Better City - Better Life, the Shanghai Expo 2010 recently started with a spectacular Opening Ceremony, produced by David Atkins Enterprises from Australia, for which a grandMA2 system was used for lighting control. Robert Dickinson and Ted Wells realised the lighting design for this major event.

The 2010 Expo lasts from 1 May to 31 October 2010. Over 190 countries and more than 50 international organisations attend - and 70m visitors are expected.

Paul Collison, the project's lighting manager, reports, "Our main MA system was built from three grandMA2 full-size, three grandMA2 light, six MA NPU (Network Processing Unit), 32 MA 2Port Nodes and eight MA NSP (Network Signal Processors) which we used as 4Port Nodes. The grandMA 3D software was used as well for pre-programming and designing purposes. grandMA2 was the ideal platform given the size of t

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China - Loudspeaker manufacturer Fohhn Audio has exclusively equipped the German, Swiss and China State Grid Pavilions at Expo 2010, Shanghai, with state-of-the-art loudspeaker-, amplifier- and DSP-technology. Hundreds of the German-engineered speakers have been shipped to China, installed and finely tuned by Fohhn engineers in the months leading up to EXPO 2010, which officially opened on 1 May.

The theme of the 2010 exhibition, Better City, Better Life, is reflected in the 6000 sq.m German "balancity" Pavilion, where visitors undertake a guided walking tour of the pavilion 'city', moving through 13 different areas including a harbour, parks and the city's power plant. Over 300 Fohhn products, including a range of Arc Series loudspeakers, have been networked using Fohhn's DSP control technology to provide a balanced acoustic environment throughout the different

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UK - At over 300 years old, contemporary art auctioneer Phillips de Pury & Company knows that having high quality sound in its premises is essential. With buyers potentially paying many thousands of pounds at the company's auctions, every word uttered by the auctioneer must be clear and unmistakeable. With this in mind, the company recently commissioned a new audio system at its London premises, controlled by a Yamaha DME series digital mixing engine.

Adapting a Victorian former Post Office sorting station as its London premises, the company needed an audio system that could cater for a wide variety of applications with equal, high sound quality. Most importantly, however, it had to be very discreet.

Cambridgeshire-based Absolute Pro Audio was commissioned to design and install the system. Comprising 16 zones, the system's 'brains' had to be able to cover all eventualities fro

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Switzerland - A high-end audio-visual system has been installed at Jade, the newest addition to Zurich's nightclub and restaurant scene, featuring Nexo's compact Geo S12 line array modules for the main dancefloor and a variety of PS cabinets around the venue.

Jade has quickly established itself as one of Zurich's top clubs. The new venue is located in an old post office. Throughout the day, it is open as a fine-dining restaurant, and on the weekend, it is transformed into a high-spec nightclub, home to national and international DJs, and a crowd of 700 guests. Such dual identity represents a relatively new fashion for Switzerland, although "such hybrid concepts are widespread in other countries", observes owner Mario Contartese.

Zurich-based AV integration specialist Baranday AG was chosen to handle the installation. CEO and project manager Nicola Votta is a long-tim

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UK - Billed as the first ever panel discussion to address the issue of working at height and sustainability, the Access Industry Forum (AIF) representing the nine principal trade associations and federations involved in working at height, has brought together a panel of experts in the inaugural AIF Knowledge Base at this year's Safety & Health Expo in Birmingham next week. These include representatives from UKCG (UK Contractors Group) and the Construction Products Association. They will discuss the topic: Work at height - sustaining the future.

The panel of experts will examine and discuss the initiatives currently in place, review what other areas of industry are already doing and identify specific areas for future attention and development. The debate therefore promises to be both stimulating and informative.

Jane Thornback is sustainability policy advisor at the Cons

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South Africa - For the third year running, Gearhouse South Africa supplied full technical production, site infrastructure and a series of solutions to stage the 2010 Mighty Man Conference, at Greytown outside Durban.

Gearhouse was again working for The Shalom Trust, and in close collaboration with its technical co-ordinator, Nik Fairclough of Northwind Recording who also mixed the FOH sound.

Gearhouse's project manager was Eyal Yehezkely. He oversaw a crew of 28, spanning multiple technical disciplines - audio, AV and screens, power, lighting and staging. The project management included internal and on site logistics, surveying and GPS mapping of the site, detailed layouts, design of the crowd seating, positioning of delay towers and structures and producing comprehensive site plans.

The primary technical challenge - with an expected audience of up to 400,000 - was to

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USA - Live F.O.H mix engineer Richard Barling used a SADiE LRX2 location audio workstation on the recent three-week Friendly Fires tour of the United States.

"The LRX2 performed very well," Barling says. "I used it to both multitrack record the shows and 'virtual soundcheck' at soundcheck time. We ran 28 channels from stage, four lines of music and intro at F.O.H and two audience mics. In total, we recorded 36 channels every night via the two fibre optic MADI cables linked to a Soundcraft Vi6 local rack with MADI outs and one wordclock cable. The audio sounded great."

Barling adds that he used the SADiE MTR software to capture and play the audio back into every channel on the Vi6, as if the band were performing on stage.

"The audio comes back into the desk in exactly the same gain level," he explains. "MTR saved the files neatly onto an ext

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Slovakia - Lighting and video content for multiple LED surfaces at the 2010 Miss Universe Slovakia beauty pageant, staged in the SIBAMAC Arena, Bratislava, was controlled by two grandMA full-size consoles, six video stations with the MA VPU software (Video Processing Unit) and six MA NSPs (Network Processing Units). The show - which regularly draws one of the highest annual ratings on Slovakian TV - was broadcast live on national STV1, and featured an enthusiastic audience of 5,000 people.

The show's visuals were designed by Martin Kubanka. He worked closely with lighting and video programmers and operators Michal Schmid and Tomas Lecky, who each used a grandMA full-size console for their respective departments.

Says Kubanka, "I have been using grandMA for at least 10 years on all my shows and I would not even think about using another brand, and especially not now, for s

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USA - The nominations for this year's Tony Awards were announced this morning. Nominations in the design categories went a broad line-up of productions, with plenty of recognition for leading productions Fela! (11 nominations), La Cage aux Folles (also 11), Fences (10), Memphis (8), Ragtime (8), and Red (7).

In the category of best scenic design for a musical, the nominees are Marina Draghici, who transformed the Eugene O'Neill Theatre into an African nightclub for Fela! ; Christine Jones, for the towering, video-filled environment of American Idiot; Derek McLane, for his highly imaginative, three-level re-imagining of Ragtime; and Tim Shortall, for his original, and somewhat down-market, take on La Cage aux Folles.

Leading the best scenic design of a play category, the nom

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UK - Infinity M, the latest addition to the Coemar range, is making its début at the Adelphi Theatre in London in Andrew Lloyd Webber's new musical Love Never Dies.

The opera, which will run until 23 October 2010, continues the story of The Phantom of the Opera of 1986, the highly successful musical that has been performed in over 25 countries and seen by more than 100m people.

To translate the complex story into reality and make it a successful musical, Webber chose prize-winning lighting designer Paule Constable, who called in the lighting supplier White Light.

The Infinity M moving head projectors were chosen first and foremost due to their excellent output in relation to their dimensions: as powerful as 2000W projectors, they have the dimensions of a 250 W projector and consume less than half the energy, due to the optical quality of the components u

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USA - Visual effects company Origami Digital has completed the move to its new location near the Hawthorne Airport. The 8,000sq.ft building includes an expanded performance-capture stage, a large studio for the artists and state-of-the-art infrastructure. Origami Digital provides a solution for filmmakers who want to keep their postproduction in the Los Angeles area.

"We've always had a full-service approach to our work, and in the new space we can offer the whole range of our services more efficiently," said Oliver Hotz, founder of Origami Digital and visual effects supervisor at the facility. "We have invested a great deal in the development of our mo-cap pipeline and now we have a dedicated 50' x 50' mo-cap volume so we can really put the system to work."

"We looked at a number of great buildings, but we decided on this location because it gave us t

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UK - PLASA and L&SI magazine have confirmed the schedule for the major Loudspeaker Demonstration event which takes place this month at The Centaur in Cheltenham.

PLASA and L&SI have joined forces with the technical team at The Centaur in Cheltenham to stage this unique three-day product demonstration on Tuesday 18th, Wednesday 19th and Thursday 20th May. The event will allow visitors to hear and compare a range of leading professional PA systems designed for shows and events with up to 5000 audience capacity.

Over the course of three days, 11 leading manufacturers will gather at the 4000-capacity multi-purpose venue to demo' their systems. Each will set-up for a Test Period, during which measurements will be taken from a uniform source, and a Performance Period during which they will have the chance to play source material of their choice and demonstrate the capabilities of th

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Indonesia - RCTI (Rajawali Citra Televisi Indonesia), one of the biggest TV stations in Indonesia, recently proved that 10 years of hard work is no big deal for a grandMA lighting console. Their two grandMA full-size boards have been in active service over the past 10 years, starting on the show Who wants to be a Millionaire.

"The consoles are still in very good condition and all they have needed is a minor upgrading of the memory and a round of updates to the installed software", reports Jens Poehlker, sales director MA Lighting Asia Pacific. "Since coming here last December, we also wanted to follow up on our promise to provide training."

After the console upgrades, a two day MA training session was jointly organised by MA Lighting, Adi Nugroho (head of lighting at RCTI), Setyo Wibowo (head of technical maintenance at RCTI) and Rocky Jong (PT Monal

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China - This year's international exposition in Shanghai China is considered to be the world's biggest and most spectacular expo ever. Some of the permanent pavilions where Compulite's equipment is featured include the China Pavilion, Urban (City) Beings Pavilion and Urban Planet Pavilion.

The Chinese national pavilion is the largest and tallest of its kind at the Expo. Compulite's Vectors are used in the China Pavilion section called Wisdom journey.

To facilitate the Urban Being's pavilion lighting and sound Shanghai Yongjia chose to control the lighting (accompanied with sound and video synchronization) utilizing Compulite's Vector console. The Vector console and the sound system receive MIDI signal from a Medialon system achieving synchronous play of light, sound and video. The lighting system of the Urban Being Pavilion was programmed and operated by King Chou from

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UK - Completely revised and updated, the Ladder Association's new 40-page Code of Practice contains much information for ladders users and employers alike. Timed to coincide with the launch of the association's Don't be a ladder lightweight campaign promoting training, the code covers everything from the Work at Height Regulations and managing risk, to ladder selection, safe use and inspection.

Intended to encourage safety and best practice amongst the UK's estimated 2m ladder users, the code contains a foreword from HSE welcoming the Ladder Association's contribution to helping minimise and avoid falls from height.

Complete with a risk assessment template covering planning, setting up the job, carrying out the task and inspecting and maintaining ladders, the code offers easy-to-follow, practical advice in five distinct sections.

Whilst the document may be used as a s

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Spain - QAV, who are a leading events company and have many years' of experience and expertise of managing events throughout the world, provided a full turnkey package for the Global Progress and Promise event sponsored by Pfizer. As part of this package Stage Electrics recently supplied two of their high resolution 6mm LED screens for the event, which took place in Madrid.

Working together over the four-day conference, the two 4mx3m indoor 6mm LED screens, were flown from two 4m truss structures within the reception of the conference. They then were taken down and combined into one 8mx6m screen and again flown from the truss structure in the main exhibition area for last two days of the event.

Included within the package, Stage Electrics also supplied their own video specialist, Chris Lewis, who was on site to provide technical support, for the whole duration of the co

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UK - Following the popularity of last year's course, AC-ET's Rigging division is hosting another training school on 7-8 June. This year's event is being held in conjunction with trussing, staging and support solutions manufacturer, Litestructures, at their Wakefield premises.

Eric Porter, experienced independent rigger, trainer, assessor and committee member for the PLASA National Rigging Certificate, is leading the training school again alongside staff from AC-ET and Litestructures.

Keeping the same format as last year, the comprehensive two-day training programme is adopting an established course that has been attended by industry people from all over Europe. Content is aimed at professionals wanting to acquire specific know-how and expertise to use in their day-to-day roles. It is equally suitable for people in other industry roles who wish to understand this sector in more

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Belgium / China - In response to growing demand in China and across Asia, ADB Lighting has opened its first regional subsidiary - ADB Asia, headquartered in Hong Kong. The ADB Asia team is headed by Bertrand Dauphant who will manage the Asia / Pacific area.

It follows the recent appointment of Acoustic and Lighting System, with offices in Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand, as ADB's new distributor for Malaysia and Brunei.

Bertrand Dauphant comments, "The two largest Asian markets for us are currently China and South Korea, where ADB is a leader in the entertainment lighting market for theatre and broadcast. We're expanding further with our new distributor, Acoustic and Lighting System in Malaysia, and we've recently signed a new distributor for broadcast in the Philippines, as well having a good presence in the Vietnam and Thai TV studio markets."

He adds: "As

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UK - On Saturday 8 May Julie Andrews will make her return to the stage at London's O2 Arena in The Gift of Music - an Evening with Julie Andrews. With a Meyer Sound system provided by Capital Sound, Andrews, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor Ian Fraser will take the audience on a musical journey through Andrews's career that has included Mary Poppins, My Fair Lady, The Sound of Music, and The King and I.

The concert will mark Julie Andrews's first performance on a UK stage in 30 years. "To perform once again in my homeland on the London stage will be a wonderful moment - it is where it all began for me, and I am so excited to be able to share a brand new work with audiences," says Andrews.

Capital Sound, the London sound provider that has supported such performances as Il Divo and Kylie Minogue, will return to the O2 wi

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USA - The crane carries a universal message of peace, so it's only fitting that the more than 100,000 visitors who attended this year's Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival were greeted by a giant representation of the elegant bird. Spanning its wings 150' and standing a towering 45' high, the white aluminium origami-style crane was one of the festival's main attractions - right up there with headliners Jay-Z, Muse, Gorillaz and Thom Yorke - at an event known for its visual art as much as its eclectic music.

Created by Crimson Collective, a group of Los Angeles-based artists, architects and designers, the sculpture was inspired by the Japanese art of origami and the legend that anyone who folds 1,000 origami cranes will be granted any wish they desire. But the huge creature, called Ascension, was intended to be more than iconic symbolism or eye candy. It was designed

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Italy -In a move to increase business in its home territory, Outline has announced that Mods Art is now its exclusive distributor for Italy. Founded and run by the Lombardi brothers, Mods Art will undertake exclusive distribution of the Italian brand, which continues to meet with success in the rest of the world, from the United States, across Europe, Africa and the Middle East to Australia.

At the helm of the newly founded Mods Art, the Lombardi brothers combine different but complementary professional experiences. Luigi, a lighting designer and founding partner of Blackout srl, has in-depth knowledge of the expectations and requirements of the Italian rental and entertainment markets, whereas Davide - already a well known system engineer and sound engineer - has high-profile references at international level.

Davide Lombardi has worked as system engineer or sound engineer on

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USA - This year, Wybron celebrates 30 years at the cutting edge of stage lighting invention and manufacturing, from the current LED technology of the Cygnus line to dichroics and watchdog systems, all the way back to the company's initial offering of scrolling colour changers.

Invented by Wybron CEO Keny Whitright in 1980, the scrolling colour changer sparked a revolution in the way lighting rigs were outfitted, designed and employed. Colormax, the first scroller, paved the way to the subsequent Colorwhiz, to The Scroller, to the Coloram, and then to Wybron's current offerings, the Forerunner, Coloram II and CXI. The advent of scrollers allowed for vastly consolidated rigs, providing a quick and painless way to squeeze many colours out of one fixture.

Jim Lenahan, the longtime LD for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers was the very first designer to use the scrolling colour change

  1. Matt-LX in Sweet Charity
  2. Iconyx helps restore a Texas landmark
  3. Meyer Sound Constellation for Laguna church
  4. Martin Maxedia drives Vegas LED chandelier
  5. HSL in the Passion Pit
  6. Clay Paky illuminates Zelig
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