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UK - The AVnu Alliance, founded to promote the adoption of the IEEE 802.1 Audio/Video Bridging (AVB) standards, will continue its first birthday celebrations at PLASA 2010. The alliance was founded in mid-2009 and has since quadrupled in size. Recent membership announcements include Biamp, Bosch, Molex, Peavey and XMOS. To celebrate the momentum it has achieved, the AVnu Alliance will host a panel discussion at the PLASA show in London.

The panel discussion, open to the public, will be entitled IEEE 802.1 Audio/Video Bridging (AVB): The Future of Standards-Based A/V Networkin. The panel, comprised of representatives from alliance member companies, will explore the role of the AVB Standards in the professional A/V industry, as well as consumer electronics and automotive applications. An in-depth explanation of AVB and related IEEE standards will be presented, followed by a

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UK - For the second consecutive year, a team of LED lighting specialists named Team Easily LED and made up of employees from Architainment Lighting Ltd, EcoSense Lighting and Philips Lighting will hike a gruelling 20 miles across London at night in order to raise money for the charity Maggie's Centres.Maggie's Centres provides care and support to those affected by cancer, including sufferers, their family and friends. The charity helps to enable people to cope with the emotional stress and feelings of helplessness that cancer diagnosis brings. It provides courses in managing stress, relaxation and nutrition to boost the immune system and aid recovery. The centres give reliable advice and sources of information for anyone affected by cancer, in a caring environment. This invaluable service is provided free of charge and therefore the charity needs your help to raise money for its c

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Switzerland - reports that Montreux-Oberland-Bernois Railways in Switzerland will become the first customer of the new Barix Annuncicom 155, a networked Audio over IP device specially designed for harsh everyday operation on railways, buses and ships. Barix partner Railtec Systems will exhibit a new panorama carriage with the device on the open-air grounds at the Innotrans show in Berlin, Germany, taking place September 21-24 at the Messe Berlin Exhibition Centre.

Railtec Systems, based in Switzerland, is currently outfitting 14 locomotives and railcars and about 60 passenger carriages operated by MOB Railways with networked Annuncicom 155 devices. The devices are integral to the configuration of MOB Railways' pioneering passenger information and announcement system. The Annuncicom 155 is responsible for the bidirectional exchange of live announcements as well as priority, monit

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UK - Orbital Sound has supplied a new sound system to the Hideaway jazz club, employing d&b audiotechnik E12 and E0 loudspeakers, and D6 power amplifiers. Specified by freelance sound engineer Cliff Scott, who was called in by the Hideaway for advice on upgrading an earlier system, the new installation is configured to provide consistent coverage throughout the club, with an accurate performance sympathetic to the club's genre.

Frances Strachan, Hideaway's creator and owner, comments, "You can't separate a successful live music venue from the quality of its sound system. By its nature, our clientele is discerning and musically literate, and is quick to criticise any perceived shortcomings. Our new system has been extremely well received, and we are getting numerous compliments about the quality and clarity. When the band's good, and the system sounds right, people just sit-

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Latvia - ARX, the Australian based pro audio manufacturer, has announced the appointment of Riga based SGS Sistemas Ltd as their new Distributor for Latvia.

ARX managing director Colin Park and SGS Sistemas's Normunds Eilands recently finalised the new distribution agreement following initial discussions at the Frankfurt Pro Light + Sound earlier in the year.

Colin Park comments, " SGS Sistemas is a well known and established distributor in the Latvian audio and lighting industry and at ARX we're excited that SGS Sistemas is introducing our USB DI Series products and the new USB I/O Universal Transformer Isolated USB Interface to their pro audio clients and market, as well as our MSX series of signal distribution products, our AudiBox series of audio toolbox essentials, and the rest of our ARX signal processing range."

Along with ARX, SGS Sistemas also represents l

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UK - Sandown Park racecourse in Esher, Surrey was the venue for one of this year's biggest one-off music events in the south.

Surbiton's Hillcroft College, celebrating its 90th anniversary this year funded the venture, in a brave bid to raise urgent funds to fix the leaking roof, improve disabled access and carry out essential maintenance - spurred on by the collapse of £13m of Learning and Skills Council funding.

Working from the college, a team of just three people managed to secure some of music's top artists. Among the names who performed to a 14,000 crowd on 28 August were headliners McFly, Chipmunk, Tinchy Stryder, Roll Deep, Alesha Dixon, The Wanted and Julian Smith.

Ipswich-based DHE Professional were contracted to provide sound reinforcement for the festival, and put together a full HK Audio FOH and monitor set up consisting of Cohedra, Cohedra Compact, ICON a

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UK - Robert Juliat's new LED profile, the Aledin, was put through its paces by a succession of technicians at the Edinburgh Fringe this year at C venues C aquila in the Roman Eagle Lodge on Johnston Terrace.

C venues is one of the largest of the Fringe's venue producers and C aquila its latest venue. Like many of the Fringe venues, C aquila is a 'made' space so operated off very limited power supplies. Two theatre spaces, a box office, catering and bar facilities had to run off only one 63A single phase.

A team, consisting of head of hire and events for Northern Light Nick Read, artistic director and lighting designer Hartley Kemp, journalist Sara Rushton-Read and C venues production manager, Richard Williamson, approached the design for lighting the spaces with a special purpose in mind - to run the entire venue from low energy sources which would in no way restrict the creat

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Australia - Queensland's Coorparoo State School has recently unveiled its new multipurpose hall which seats up to 500 people and everyone is delighted with the results.

"We are very proud of our new state-of-the-art performing arts hall and we are extremely grateful to have our new performance space fitted out with professional stage lighting equipment installed by an expert team," remarked Jo Young, music co-ordinator for Coorparoo State School.

That expert team was Performance Lighting & Sound, specialists in supplying audio visual requirements to educational facilities.

"Our limited knowledge of lighting equipment meant we had to rely on the team at Performance Lighting & Sound to guide us as we configured equipment to suit our specific needs," says Young. "It is early days for our operating team but we are already reaping the benefits of our Jand

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UK - Leading entertainment industry associations The Association of Lighting Designers (ALD) and Women In Stage Entertainment (WISE), and the lighting charity Light Relief are present at this year's PLASA Show. The three organisations are sharing stand M-14; the stand is located immediately behind the White Light Zone in Earls Court 2.

WISE, an organisation established to address the representation of women in the entertainment technology sector, will step from their stand onto the White Light Stand from 4pm to 6pm each day to host Tea O-Clock. A WISE spokesman says, "Each day WISE members from all sectors - sound, AV, lighting, rigging - will offer PLASA Show visitors a calm oasis from the frenetic show floor. We will be providing refreshing mugs of scalding tea, fabulously tasty home baked cakes, an empathetic ear and some scintillating conversation."

The AL

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UK - HSL supplied lighting, LED screens, rigging, staging, structures and power for the Sainsbury's UK Schools Games Opening Ceremony at Gateshead International Stadium. The Blackburn-based company was working for show production company Fast Track Events and also for Modular Projects who together delivered the show for end clients, the UK Youth Sport Trust. The ceremony was hosted by BBC Sports presenter Jill Douglas

HSL's Mike Docksey co-ordinated a masterpiece of planning which ensured that everything ran like clockwork on site, with Howard Dean production managing HSL's crew and liaising closely with show producer, Fast Track's Bob Caple.

Says Docksey, "This was a real team effort from all angles, requiring a lot of transparent and lucid communications. It was a pleasure to work with Bob and Fast Track Events again, to be involved with and assist in capturing the vibe

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UK - TC Group International has announced the appointment of John Hornby Skewes & Co. as UK & ROI sub-distributors of Tannoy's VQ Live touring PA system.

JHS takes on responsibility for driving sales and promotion of the recently launched VQ Live range from 1 September.

"Since introducing VQ Live to the market earlier last year, Tannoy has, for the first time perhaps, a dedicated high-performance PA solution specifically aimed at live sound applications and we've been extremely encouraged and enthused by the early feedback," says Miguel Hadelich, TCGI's VP international sales (touring). "It's clear that there's real potential with this system, particularly in the small and medium scale live music and corporate AV sectors, sectors where the benefits of VQ Live offer real advantage to hire companies."

TCGI UK sales manager (touring), Simeon Ludwell adds, &q

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UK - Line 6, Inc., an industry leader in digital modeling technology for music production, is currently showcasing its new XD-V digital wireless microphone systems at PLASA 2010.

Line 6 digital wireless microphone systems offer a simple and effective alternative to conventional core TV band UHF wireless systems. XD-V systems operate in the 2.4GHz band, which permits worldwide license-free operation while delivering future-proof solutions from any further re-allocation of the core UHF spectrum to the pro audio user.

"Since its release, Line 6 digital wireless technology has received unanimous praise for its unmatched performance, simplicity and sound," remarks Simon Jones, vice president of new market development at Line 6. "PLASA 2010 is the perfect venue to bring this new, advanced technology and simple user experience directly to a key audience of audio profes

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UK - Why look at a loudspeaker when you can listen to one, that's the message once again being sent out by Duran Audio at this year's PLASA Show. For the second year running, Duran Audio will have a demo room at PLASA where potential customers can listen to the products and discuss their merits with members of the Duran Audio team.

The company will be demonstrating products from its Scope, Source and Flex ranges. In addition to this, the flagship Intellivox products and the new range of Beam Shaping Subwoofers, which take low frequency control to another level, will also be on show.

A few surprises are in store for visitors to the demo room with Duran promising to launch three new products at the show.

The AXYS demo room is in the Westminster Suite, Earls Court 1. Public demos will be held daily at 12 noon and 4pm. Private listening sessions are also available by appointment

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UK - LumenRadio, a leader in wireless lighting control technology, releases support for RDM over Art-Net in all CRMX RDM transmitters at PLASA this year.

"Our CRMX wireless products already supported all the common entertainment lighting protocols: DMX, RDM, ArtNet I & II, Streaming ACN (draft & standard), ETCNet 2 & 3, Strand ShowNet, and Pathport. We are now taking it a step further by adding support for RDM over Art-Net. This means that we now have extended the bi-directionality of RDM into the Ethernet domain with the obvious advantages that has for networked connectivity on the controller side", explains Niclas Norlén CTO of LumenRadio.

All CRMX hardware is designed to last for "a life time" in the most demanding applications, including professional production and touring environments. The hardware longevity is paired with an extensive ongoing s

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UK - Hot on the wheels of this year's highly successful, inaugural First Night Riders' (FNR) sponsored motorbike ride, comes the announcement of the next exciting, high octane adventure.

Having already raised £10,000 for The Theatrical Guild (TTG), many of this year's participants, along with some new bikers from the industry, will trade their blacks and hard hats for leathers and helmets and hit the open road. Riders will boldly go where no First Night Rider has been before, as they visit even more of the UK's most significant and historic theatres and opera houses.

The 2011 ride will depart from the National Theatre on Saturday 18June 2011, and finish on Friday 24 June. The exact route and places FNRs will visit will be confirmed later in the year.

Lending their support to the cause are familiar faces from stage and screen including: Peter Benson, James Fleet, Cyril

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UK - After a record breaking 2000 visitor registrations in the final week alone, the opening day at Earls Court on Sunday 12 September has been packed with activity, as over 350 companies launch more than 500 new products.

A major strength this year has been the return of several leading audio brands and over 60 new exhibitors overall, including Ateis, Avid, Baldwin Boxall, Bosch, Bose, EAW, Electro-Voice, Intertek, Korg, Mackie, Martin Audio, Penton, and SCV/ Turbosound, as well as over 250 loyal exhibitors.

In one of the show's numerous innovations for 2010, visitors were able to watch the PLASA Awards for Innovation judges assess this year's exciting nominations in a series of live presentations on the interactive Innovation Gallery at the entrance to Earls Court 2.

Video of those presentations will be screened in the Innovations Gallery throughout the show, allowing othe

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UK - Fred Foster, Chief Executive Officer of ETC (Electronic Theatre Controls, Inc.), and one of the best known designers and developers in the industry, was confirmed last night as the fourth winner of the prestigious Gottelier Award, presented at the PLASA Awards for Innovation at Earls Court on the second night of PLASA 2010. The Award was voted for by readers of www.lsionline.com.

Foster started ETC in 1975 with the goal of installing the first memory lighting-control system in the New York Metropolitan Opera House. During his time he has developed a wide range of innovative products including Mega-Cue, perhaps the first console to utilise digital multiplexed data over two conductors between the desk and dimmers; the Concept console that led to the Expression / Express line of control desks; the Obsession Console and the Sensor Dimming System.

He contributed to the design

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UK - Winners of the 2010 PLASA Awards for Innovation, and the 2010 Gottelier Award, were announced yesterday evening in a special presentation at PLASA 2010 in Earls Court, London - after a hotly contested nomination process that saw 62 products entered and six contenders for the Gottelier Award.

The Awards for Innovation, for the first time, were judged 'live' at the Innovation Gallery by an independent panel of 16 expert judges, in front of show visitors and a camera team on Sunday 12 September. Show visitors are able to watch the judging process replayed on large screens in the interactive Innovation Gallery for the rest of the show.

Seven Awards for Innovation and one Gold Award were presented by PLASA CEO Matthew Griffiths, while ETC founder Fred Foster was honoured with this year's Gottelier Award in recognition of his work on such legendary products including the compan

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Help For Heroes - Robbie Williams and Gary Barlow have performed live together for the first time in 15 years. The Take That pair, who announced this year they were working together again, performed their new single Shame at a Help For Heroes concert in London.

Earlier, Barlow and Williams said: "It's great that people like Shame so much and we can't wait to perform it live for the first time." Also in the line-up were Tom Jones, Alexandra Burke and Pixie Lott. The concert, which took place at Twickenham Stadium also featured comic talent including Bruce Forsyth, Peter Kay, Michael McIntyre and Jack Dee.

Some 60,000 people were at the event - including 150 personnel injured in combat who attended the show free of charge. Proceeds will go to the Help For Heroes charity, which raises funds for wounded troops and their families.

In The Courts - An attemp

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Hong Kong - QSC Audio Products has taken a major step towards building local sales, service and support capabilities in key international markets, with the opening of a new subsidiary, QSC Asia Ltd., in Hong Kong.

Situated in a 500sq.m split facility in the New Territories, it will support the burgeoning Asia Pacific region with a comprehensive operation, from localized sales, service, and support capabilities to managing the supply chain and offering 24/7 back office support and product training. Its geographical scope will extend from the Indian sub-continent to the West right across the Far East to Australasia, and also incorporate the powerful China and Japan markets.

Commenting on the development, Harold Yin, QSC senior VP, global sales & marketing, said that the opening of QSC Asia had been the culmination of a strategic five year plan, and had been expedited following &

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Tunisia - The 46th International Festival of Carthage, Tunisia's largest arts event, took place over a six-week period this summer in the picturesque open-air Carthage Roman Theatre.

Once again, a wide range of world-renowned artists made up the programme - each leaders in their own artistic fields. And once again SGM lighting fixtures, supplied by local sales and rental company, Sybel Light and Sound, formed part of a complete technical package designed to turn the stage into a spectacular performance space.

Under the artistic eye of lighting designer Elyes Guizani, whose ideas were turned into reality by the Festival of Carthage contractors, pop artists such as Seal, Johnny Clegg and Héléne Ségara were joined by Arabic artists Sabeh Fakhri, Lotfi Bouchnak and Zied Gharsa. Increasing the international flavour were dance troop Fire of Anatolia, the

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UK - 2010 marks the 20th anniversary of Sennheiser UK. To celebrate, Sennheiser UK is looking back at the many highlights of an extremely successful two decades, but also forward to what it can achieve in the future.

Sennheiser's roots go back much further, to the immediate post-war period in Germany. In 1945 Dr. Fritz Sennheiser founded 'Laboratorium Wennebostel' (Lab W) to manufacture valve voltmeters. The following year the company started manufacturing microphones and, by 1950, was producing pre-amps and mixer amps.

Sennheiser UK joins the story of its parent company in 1990, three years later playing a key role in the launch of the SKM 5000 radio microphone, a wireless classic, while the 1998 launch of the evolution series microphones literally revolutionised the MI market. The wireless evolution range made its debut the following year and had an equally significant impac

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USA / UK - QSC Audio Products has announced a co-development partnership with the M&W Design Group to create a series of digital audio mixing consoles. Greg Mackie and Peter Watts are, respectively the M and the W in the organisation's name.

After retiring from Mackie Designs (now Loud Technologies) in 2003 Greg Mackie still had a desire to create the kind of innovative and high-value products he is known for. So it only took a little charm and cajoling by his long-time friend and collaborator Peter Watts to convince him to come out of retirement in 2008 and develop the concepts for a line of digital mixing consoles.

Peter Watts is also an experienced pro-audio veteran who has spent 35 years designing analogue and digital recording consoles. With concepts and preliminary designs developed, Mackie and Watts began looking for a partner to bring these mixers to life.

"We n

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Malaysia - The owners of The Opera, a nightclub located in Petaling Jaya, Malaysia, recently turned to EAW for a complete sound system upgrade. Regional EAW distributor ProAktiv Systems supplied the EAW loudspeaker systems and Powersoft amplification, which is now installed in the main theatre and VIP areas throughout The Opera.

The clubbing experience at The Opera is enhanced by daily Cirque Nouveau performances featuring acrobatic and circus troupes high above the main floor in the three-story, 10,000sq.ft theatre. The main stage regularly features performances by dance, gymnastic and martial artists. In addition, the club frequently showcases recording artists, bands, DJs and video DJs.

The main audio system in the theatre, which is modelled after grand European opera houses, comprises four EAW MK5396 two-way full range compact installation loudspeakers. The four-inc

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