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Europe - As Deep Purple continue their tour through Germany and France, their long-serving FOH engineer Gert Sanner has transferred his show mix from his Soundcraft Vi6 digital console to the smaller footprint of the new Vi1.

An early adopter of the Vi6 (since when he has regularly provided technical support to sales and rental company, SSE Group), Sanner was keen to move his show files to the Vi1 and prove the process in a real-world environment.

"The purpose was to create show files that would work on any Vi console," he stated, with the end goal of purchasing a Vi1 for the band.

Having now completed his rigorous trials, the FOH engineer declares that he has been able to tick every box. "It was important to be sure that the Vi1 would work on the road and to discover whether there were any compatibility issues or areas for improvement. I did this by demoing i

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UK - The annual Prince's Trust Concert at London's Royal Albert Hall and lighting designer Simon Tutchener called on Bandit Lites and CE Lester Cobrin to supply the illumination needs for the 2010 event. Since 1976, this event is one of the premier happenings in the music world, raising money to assist the young jobless people in the UK. The show has long been an attraction to the best of the best and this year was no exception.

Brian May and Roger Taylor of Queen, Eric Clapton, Status Quo, Phil Collins, Mike and the Mechanics, Jamie Cullum, Tom Jones, Alison Moyet, Midge Ure, Tom Chaplin and others served up an evening of memorable performances to the royal couple, Prince Charles and Camilla. The evening has hosted by Dame Edna Everage and Rob Brydon. The event was run by production manager Kevin Hopgood.

Tutchener used Martin MAC 2000 Washes, MAC 2000 Profiles, ETC Source 4

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USA - NAMM has announced the education session schedule for this year's Hands-On Training (H.O.T) Zone at the 2011 NAMM Show, offering the broadest educational experience for professionals in the recording, live sound, DJ, house of worship, commercial systems integrators, and stage and lighting industries in the history of the show.

The H.O.T. Zone will offer attendees free one-hour classes on more than 75 educational topics over four days, including topics such as Introduction to Live Mixing New Techniques for DJs, Lead Worshipers Arise The Future of Music, and Pro Tools 101". On 13 January, 2011, the opening day of the NAMM Show, the H.O.T. Zone will be offering Boot Camp Day with an array of basic courses designed to provide foundation-level instruction in music technology and business.

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USA - ESTA has started work on a new project to write an American National Standard: BSR E1.42 - 201x, Entertainment Technology - Installed Stage Lift Safety Standard.

Stage lifts, such as orchestra pit or theatre forestage lifts, are not the subject of any current national standard. As a result, safety requirements and inspections of them are inconsistent. This project is to develop a standard for stage lifts that can be referenced by the International Code Council and the National Fire Protection Association.

The scope is limited to safety and to lifts that are installed as a part of the building and that are not for a single theatrical production. Any person involved in the design, manufacture, use, or inspection of stage lifts and who is willing to actively work on the project is invited to join the new working group.

A working group application form is available on the

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USA - Usher's current OMG Tour, his first big-budget spectacle since 2004, is lit by lighting designer Peter Morris and associate lighting designer Eric Wade. "We had to design around a lot of fly gags and moving set pieces," notes Wade who heads FOHShow, a lighting- services company. "The rig is designed to look big but not be completely massive; it's large but not over the top. It fills two trucks and features between 160-200 fixtures."

Wade is using a grandMA2 and comments, "I love the grandMA2 because you can pretty much programme it however you're comfortable programming: Nothing is set in stone. It does everything the way I'm used to working but with lots more bells and whistles. And the networking is amazing; I had Benny Kirkham come out and help me programme, and we worked simultaneously with him setting up his desk exactly the way he wanted whil

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UK - Lighting rental company HSL is supplying lighting kit and crew for the Foals Total Life Forever tour which covers the UK and Europe.

Lighting designer Davy Sherwin has put together a show based around a design that makes the rig appear vastly bigger than it actually is.

The project is being handled by Mike Oates for HSL, who says, "It's always great working with Davy - he is one of the most talented of the UK's current new wave of LDs."

The full rig contains a front and back truss plus a substantial floor package, the latter of which will travel to Europe with them where they will hook in to house rigs overhead.

Four different length tank traps come down as drop arms from the back truss, and another five come up from the stage underneath, with one GLP Impression LED wash light on the down pipes and two on each of the up pipes. Another two Impressions

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UK - Ateis UK has appointed York-based Tukans as sole distributor to handle its ECS-Teleconference range.

ECS (Echo Cancellation System) was launched at the beginning of 2010 and is designed to produce clear audio for teleconference work, with no delays or doubletalk. The product is based on a digital signal processor using Dynamic Automatic Echo Cancellation, which uses a wideband acoustic echo cancelling algorithm developed by Ateis engineers.

While ECS is aimed at the conference market in general Ateis is also looking to move into the boardroom and specialised commerce sectors. The ECS range has a modular configuration and comprehensive signal processing replacing the function of many ancillary products, making it cost effective and easy to maintain.

Tukans director Yvonne Womersley comments: "The financial sector has embraced conferencing technology and we are sure

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UK - LMC Audio has sold the very first Midas PRO3 live audio system to Rambert Dance Company. Rambert's front of house engineer, Tomás O'Connor, who made the decision to purchase the desk alongside sound designer David Tinson, was keen to invest in a desk that "combines quality and flexibility".

O'Connor comments: "Rambert wanted to spend wisely on a desk that could fulfil the demands of the company's increasingly complex show pieces. Our main goal was to find a desk that had all the flexibility and features of a digital desk, but with the usability and great sound quality of an analogue desk. After a lot of research, the Midas Pro series was the only desk that met our requirements."

JP Cavaco, sales manager at LMC London, made the sale to Rambert.

O'Connor notes: "When I joined Rambert, I was aware of a long history between the sound department her

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UK - Showsec's London Office successfully implemented a complex event security operation at Earls Court for the British Military Tournament.

VIP Royal guests and senior military officials were among 56,000 visitors attending the return of Britain's oldest military tattoo, on 4 and 5 December. Over 500 troops and 145 horses appeared in two performances per day, featuring the ever-popular field gun run, massed bands and battle re-enactments.

IMG's operations director Nick Mattingley who managed the event production, states, "Showsec were seamless from beginning to end. Their venue knowledge and experience was second to none, particularly for directing crowds and performers around Earls Court, we were reliant on them to deliver - and they did very well.

"There is a momentum for us to capitalise on this years' success and come back next year, so we will open discussion

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UK - Production Light and Sound, a leading UK live events production company, has announced the acquisition of 14 Robe Robin 600 spotlights, making them one of the first businesses in the UK to stock and deploy this new technology. This investment is just part of a major overhaul of Production Light and Sound's inventory, as they scale up operations to meet the increased demands of larger projects.

Jason Salvin, director of Production Light and Sound explained why credit provided by Azule Finance was so vital: "Having pitched and won a series of large scale events contracts we needed to rapidly grow our business. In the fast paced events production industry, it's critical that we remain at the cutting edge of new technology developments, to ensure that are services are the best in the industry. Thankfully, Azule Finance, who came highly recommended by Robe, was able to prov

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UK - The current Kings of Leon world tour features an innovative design by LD Paul Normandale with all lighting controlled by a grandMA full-size console. The lighting is being operated and looked after on the road by director Ali Bale - using a grandMA for the first time. Another grandMA light is being supplied by XL Video to run the Catalyst media server playing back video content.

Normandale has worked with the band since 2004. The conceptual look of the latest show features a large and battered, messed-up looking back wall made up of 640 PAR, nook and raylite fixtures, an idea that came to Normandale because the band like fast cars, so the wall of lights resembles a giant metallic wall of retro headlights in a tribute to American muscle car culture. He also wanted to have a complete departure from a large or dominant video screen or wall at the back.

The 640 'headlights' a

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Germany - The new EAW KF740 Three-Way Full-Range Line Array module recently made its German debut at a historic concert in Berlin that featured one of the best-known oratory works by Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis. Berlin-based Hacksound Veranstaltungstechnik provided the multi-zone PA system, comprising all EAW speakers powered by Lab.gruppen amplification, for the performance of Canto General at the Max Schmeling Hall.

Hacksound supplied a main left/right flown system composed of nine KF740 speakers plus two KF730 Compact Line Array Modules, for down-fill, per side. A dozen additional KF730 speakers, in two hangs of six, provided out-fill to the audience on either side of the stage. Five more KF730s were positioned to provide front-fill. Three hangs each of six KF730 speakers, plus a pair of SB730 Compact Line Array Subwoofers, were employed for left, centre and right

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UK - The very first batch of the new Robe Robin LEDWash 600 LED Wash fixtures off the production line in the Czech Republic were delivered to UK lighting rental company HSL, with 40 of them going straight out on JLS's UK arena tour, specified by lighting designer Dave Lee.

JLS' career kicking off after being runners up on the 2008 X-Factor talent show. Since then they have sold 1.3m albums worldwide - including their new and second studio release Outta This World.

The show for this, their second major tour, has been created by artistic director Beth Honan with a set and stage design by Peter Barnes, with all the technical production co-ordinated by Production North, overseen on the road by production manager Karen Ringland.

When Dave Lee was choosing his fixtures, he specifically needed some very bright and lightweight units to do certain jobs. When HSL's proje

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China - The refurbishment of 77 Des Voeux Road (now known as the Nexxus Building), transformed a 1960s curtain wall relic into an 'A' grade modern and efficient commercial building in the heart of central Hong Kong.

The refurbishment entailed the replacement of the curtain wall which provided a more efficient and sustainable building. The retention of the concrete structure meant that the refurbishment was vastly more sustainable in terms of the carbon that might have been produced had the owners decided to demolish the structure completely and re-build from scratch. Architects AEDAS, lead by David Clayton, envisaged a rapid and efficient plan to transform the asset for their clients, Pamfleet Limited.

The sustainable theme was continued in the lighting design. Nexxus needed to make a statement, something that would stand out when viewed in the two parallel 'concrete canyons'

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UK - With the official public opening of the new Royal Shakespeare Theatre (RST) on 24 November, Stage Electrics has completed its five-year-long role at the technical heart of this visionary transformation project.

The transformation was designed to create, in RSC artistic director Michael Boyd's words, "the best theatre in the world to perform the works of Shakespeare". It involved a massive reconstruction that created a new RST auditorium with a thrust stage and embraced the adjacent Swan Theatre, with a colonnade connecting the two and extensively upgraded public facilities throughout.

Stage Electrics, as specialist theatre contractor and technical coordinator, was contracted to provide and install the Theatre Electrics Package, including every electrical, audio and lighting system within both the RST

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Lebanon - Beirut-based Pro-Audio company AMAC has been appointed as Electro-Voice's distributor as of 1 November 2010.

AMAC director Abdul Razzak Assafiri comments, "AMAC's policy is to keep on pushing towards a better future and leadership in the A/V market. Electro-Voice is of great significance for us."

Assafiri continues, " We offer services and solutions. That is to say - distribution, consultancy, design and simulations, system integration and after-sales services. We are also skilled in installations and solutions such as professional sound for theatres, house of worship, conferences, hotels, pubs and clubs. And last but not least we offer DJ equipment as well as automation and control for both residential and commercial venues."

AMAC has two offices and two showrooms, one located in North of Lebanon and the other in the centre of Beirut.

(Jim Ev

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USA - When production meetings began for the Bob Dylan fall tour, a few challenges for the lighting design would become evident. First, the tour would be playing venues that varied greatly in size and location; and second, at a Bob Dylan show one thing is clear; it's all about the music. While many tours may rely heavily on colour changes, strobe effects, columns of light or intense video, this tour would rely on the opposite, simplicity. To overcome these challenges, the production team turned to their longtime tour provider TMS who brought in 35 Vari*Lite luminaires.

Fully understanding the necessities for this design, TMS began working with the design team to provide the ideal lighting tools and decided to use 21 VL3000 Spot, six VL3500 Wash, and eight VL3500 Spot fixtures.

Now on the road, the VL3000 Spot luminaires are being used for key light on the band, gobo breakups t

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Czech Republic - The 12th Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space, the largest scenography / performance design event in the world, held once every four years, returns to Prague, Czech Republic, in June 2011. Coming to Prague will allow visitors to discover a unique outdoor performing exhibition, Intersection: Intimacy & Spectacle, presenting 30 internationally acclaimed artists within an architectural environment/installation specially designed for this occasion.

Additionally, a large number of projects will be on display in outdoor public spaces throughout the city - a unique occasion to discover Prague through the eyes of the world's contemporary artists. Visitors will also be able to explore various disciplines essential to the performing arts thanks to special projects focused on lighting and sound design, architect

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The Netherlands / South Africa - Philips Entertainment Lighting (PEL) has appointed DWR Distribution as the exclusive distributor in South Africa for its Selecon and Strand brands. DWR Distribution is already the exclusive distributor in the region for another PEL-owned brand, Vari-Lite.

Michael Goldberg, sales director for PEL Europe, says: "Now that the brands of Selecon, Strand and Vari-Lite are all under the Philips Entertainment Lighting umbrella, it's a logical step to offer DWR Distribution exclusive distribution for all the Philips Entertainment Lighting brands. DWR has very successfully distributed Vari-Lite products for the last year. The company's reputation in the South African market place is exemplary and it's renowned for its excellent service and product support. These are all excellent reasons for moving exclusive distribution to DWR."

Since DWR Dist

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UK - John Hornby Skewes & Co, UK and Eire trade distributors of HK Audio products and Lab.gruppen products, reports that Feeder is using HK Audio and Lab.gruppen products on live dates around the world. The year 2010 marked the release of the band's seventhth album, Renegades, and saw the band embark on a sell-out international tour.

At the Leeds Metropolitan University show, the band used a pair of HK Audio CT115 Contour Series monitors which had been bi-amped off two channels of a Lab.gruppen FP+10000Q and Channel 1 of an HK Audio DSM2060 speaker management processor.

Taking the drum seat for the tour is acclaimed session drummer Karl Brazil who used HK Audio monitors from the Contour Series (a pair of CT118 subs and a pair of CT115 speakers).

"Karl is a very musical and dynamic player," says Dan Trowhill, Feeder's monitor engineer. "It has been diffi

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Italy - Nearly 90 Clay Paky motorised spotlights were used in the Italian television variety show I Migliori Anni (The Best Years). The programme is directed by Maurizio Pagnussat and hosted by Carlo Conti, and consists of a tele-voting competition between pieces of music from different decades.

The elaborate set designed by Riccardo Bocchini consists of a double stage, connected with a wide central gangway on which the competing artists move. All around this is the orchestra, whereas the jury and VIP guests are inside six 'windows' on several levels. The audience is seated on stands at the end of the studio and in two ranks of balconies. There is a total of 400 seats, which makes it one of the largest RAI production studios in Rome.

The Clay Paky effect lights include Alpha Profile 1200s, Alpha Spot HPE 1200s and Alpha Wash 575s. Their arrangement was designed by the d

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Singapore - Wireless Solution Sweden was a proud participant at the inaugural Youth Olympic Games this summer held in Singapore. The event hosted youth athletes from 204 countries competing in 26 events - all hopefuls to compete in the following year's Summer Olympics.

The opening ceremony was held on 14 August 14 at the Float @ Marina Bay Platform, the world's largest floating stage located in the heart of Singapore. The Singapore skyline served as a backdrop, which required a display of lighting, lasers and fireworks.

The set involved a ring of shipping containers to symbolize Singapore being the biggest harbour in South East Asia. A 5000sq.m lake was created in front of the scenography. In the middle stood a 32m high lighthouse, which held the cauldron for the Olympic flame. In a very different approach to typical Games ceremonies, the Singapore skyline was used as a backgr

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UK - Merseyside-based lifting, control and rigging sales specialist Lift-Turn-Move (LTM) has supplied 40 x 1 tonne LoadGuard hoists to Over The Top Rigging (OTT).

These were specified by Mark Wade, who is production rigger for the current JLS UK arena tour with his company OTT supplying all the tour's rigging equipment and services to the show's technical producers, Production North.

Thirty-five of the double-braked, motors to BS7906: Part 1- Category A are used to suspend a U shaped catwalk approximately 120 ft long that flies in low above the audience so the UK's favourite boyband can perform a whole section of the show right above the heads of their hugely enthusiastic fans.

Wade uses two IBEX controllers for the up and down movement of the catwalk and the car, he is delighted with the performance of the LoadGuards "They are going to be very busy, and I already have

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UK - Entertainment lighting supplier White Light is currently in the middle of a very busy run up to the Christmas holiday season, with theatre shows and many other festive events making use of the company's extensive lighting hire and sales stock and production services.

Many of these shows are traditional pantomimes. This year's count has seen White Light supply four Aladdins, six Cinderellas, two Dick Whittingtons, two Jack and the Beanstalks, four Peter Pans, three Sleeping Beautys, four Snow Whites and just the one Robin Hood.

White Light is also once again providing the lighting equipment for two shows that have established themselves as perennial Christmas favourites - White Christmas and The Snowman. White Christmas this year appears at the Sunderland Empire, with lighting designed by Ken Bill

  1. Cleveland church switches on with Electro-Voice
  2. Pro Audio Systems at Leeds Film Festival
  3. Taiwan broadcaster increases DPA arsenal
  4. Mastermind Production Group adds Vertec
  5. Adlib lights Ellie Goulding in style
  6. World's largest MaxModules control system
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