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UK - West Midlands and Bristol based AV specialist Central Presentations (CPL) has boosted its stock of Sony HD digital cameras, lenses and accessories with a new £250,000 investment.

This is to service current and ongoing work due to an excellent end to 2010 and a busy start to 2011, as well as to meet the increase in client demands for HD video, and to maintain the company's policy of keeping abreast of the latest technology in this fast moving world, says the company.

The cameras are Sony HXC-100 HD/SD studio spec units. These are HD/SD switchable, can also run both formats simultaneously and have an array of programmable function buttons on the camera head. The camera uses the latest 14-bit A/D conversion circuit and 2/3-inch Power HAD FX CCDs for superior picture quality.

(Jim Evans)

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USA / Europe - Mojo Barriers ensured the safety of millions of fans and famous acts from six out of 10 of the top grossing worldwide tours during 2010, the company reports.

As Mojo Barrier's US office wrapped up 2010, the barrier specialists, led by J.B. Dolphin US manager, were delighted to learn the company had provided barriers and expert crowd safety services at over half of the top ten tours during the year.

"We pride ourselves on being industry leaders; during 2010 Mojo Barriers, as a company, provided product and services over 750 touring shows," says Dolphin. Six of these made the top 10 list for highest grossing world tours and the fact they trusted us with the safety of their audiences and acts reflects our investment and ongoing efforts to improve concert safety."

The barrier company created bespoke parts for both the top grossing act Bon Jovi and t

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UK - An unusual multi-media installation was recently completed in the City of London, led by A.Jay Services Ltd with Pro Audio Systems providing the audio infrastructure. The nature of the client's business as a major international investment bank demanded an exceptional level of security and discretion from its chosen suppliers.

The demanding technical requirement was for a combined AV system capable of providing visual coverage and audible intelligibility throughout a very large room which the client (whose identity remains confidential) variously uses for presentations, recruitment open days, corporate events and product launches. Due to its location, flexibility and technical infrastructure it is also used on occasion by other companies as guests of the client.

Designed and commissioned by Giuseppe Mallozzi of A.Jay Services, the entire integrated system is controlled cen

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UK - Matrix Amplification is a new company with a familiar name. Over the past 18 months, from its base in Wales, the company has developed, manufactured and field-tested a new range of lightweight switchmode power amplifiers.

Amplifier designer Andy Hunt, the man behind the original Matrix amplifiers, has now re-established the brand along with business partner Matt Button. Save for some metalwork which is sourced from a local supplier, the new manufacturing operation is remarkably self-sufficient, with the design and manufacture taking place in-house, including the switchmode power supplies and surface-mounting of the PCBs. Button told L&SI that following extensive end-user testing and feedback, the company now has 13 product lines in production, all of which are either Class AB or Class G topologies.

So successful has the field-testing been that Matrix is already providing

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Lebanon - Pro audio specialist Technosound has recently designed and commissioned audio systems for two substantial theme venues in Beirut, both outdoors and using Community loudspeakers.

The first venue is a driving experience called Rio City. It is actually a small village with a comprehensive road network around which electric-powered cars are driven. Rio City is a new concept in Lebanon, being entertaining but with and the serious goal of teaching youngsters how to drive responsibly while respecting the law, other road users and pedestrians. The Malouf Group has launched the project in response to the increasing number of road accidents in Lebanon, and the lack of public awareness of traffic laws.

Technosound was commissioned to design and provide a music system to cover all public areas of Rio City. In addition to all-weather durability, sound quality was important and th

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USA - Following the acquisition of the Imerge media server brand in the UK, the Prism Sound group has entered into another strategic alliance: Prism Media Products Inc, the group's US distribution business, has taken on the combined US distribution operations for PMC Speakers and Prism Sound group.

The change in USA distribution meets with PMC's global expansion plans following recent enhancements to its product lines as well as its international sales & marketing teams.

The newly-expanded and combined operation will be jointly led by VP sales Maurice Patist and VP operations Janice Norton. PMPI will retain the staff and facilities of both PMC's Irvine office and PMPI in New Jersey, handling all importation, service, sales and marketing for both brands.

Graham Boswell, sales and marketing director for Prism Sound group, says, "There is an obvious synergy between the Pri

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The Netherlands - On the eve of ISE 2011, Norway's projectiondesign is reaffirming its commitment to education by scheduling dozens of tutorial sessions on its stand during the show, and by partnering with InfoComm International to provide specialised seminars that have been independently evaluated to provide Renewal Units (RUs) for CTS certification.

During all three days of ISE 2011, projectiondesign will host a series of tutorial sessions for its distributor and end-customer partners on its stand, with the aim of bringing as many industry contacts as possible up-to-speed with the latest projection technologies and their applications. These will be hosted by the newly appointed Andre Jensen who has been promoted within projectiondesign to support the company's partner and education focus.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday 2 February, the company's David Aleksandersen will present two

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China - Its popularity in western countries may have been largely transitory, but karaoke is still a huge attraction in the Far East, with high specification facilities providing entertainment for many thousands of people. The latest raft of karaoke - or KTV - clubs has recently been unveiled in China, with Apex Intelli-X48 processors at its heart.

Dalian Wanda Group is one of China's biggest real estate development companies, with the construction of many hotels and other high profile facilities to its name. The hotels are managed by a range of global chains - including Hilton, Sofitel, Intercontinental and Crown Plaza.

2008 saw Apex audio processors recommended for use in a Sofitel-managed hotel's private KTV club. Supplied via local distributor Budee Technology Development Co, the system has proved a great success and so Apex Intelli-X48 processors were specified for Wanda

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Australia - Robe CitySkape Xtreme and CitySource 96 LED wash lights were used to illuminate the picturesque and iconic Hanging Rock, a rare volcanic formation located near the townships of Woodend & Mount Macedon in Victoria, Australia, making an already beautiful natural environmental feature into an extra special backdrop to a concert by Leonard Cohen.

Lighting for the concert - which took place on an open air stage in front of the rock face - was supplied by Melbourne & Sydney based Frontier Touring, who proposed that the rock itself became an atmospheric element of the performance as part of the event's integral lighting scheme.

For this, they needed a high powered lightsource requiring minimal power and with low environmental impact on the surrounding flora and fauna. They decided that the CitySkape Xtreme met all the criteria after a demo and coming highly recommended fo

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UAE / Oman - Melody House, distributors of HK Audio speaker systems have recently supplied Music Connections with the first Icon system in the Middle East. After a positive experience the company quickly decided to purchase a second system a few weeks later. Music Connections, based in Muscat are professional service providers for sound, lights, video and backline for various corporate events and concerts.

"After demonstrating the Icon system to Music Connections, we had great feedback and a confirmed order for a system," commented Dino Drimakis, business development manager at Dubai-based Melody House. "However after they actually used it for an event and realized how convenient and effective the system was, we quickly received a second order for another system. We are happy to see that HK Audio is represented by a major rental firm in the Sultanate of Oman."

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UK - Pentewan Sands Holiday Park near Mevagissey in Cornwall is one of the country's leading camping and caravan parks and was voted Britain's best beach holiday park in 2008.

When the owners decided to expand the facilities to include a new on site leisure facility complete with two pools, jacuzzi, gym, fitness centre, bars and restaurant, they asked Pyramid Presentations to design and install high quality lighting and AV systems throughout.

Since the audio brief required 20 different sources and outputs to 12 different areas, Pyramid saw it as an opportunity to design an audio system around a Bose ControlSpace ESP-88 audio management system. An additional requirement was for speakers that blended into a clearly defined interior design, and the Bose FreeSpace range was chosen.

According to Bose Pro Partner, Nic Black of Pyramid, the audio brief consisted of two main element

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Brazil - For his recent DVD shoot, popular artist Luan Santana played the HSBC Hall in Rio de Janeiro. The show's lighting was designed by Danny Nolan using two grandMA2 consoles, four MA 2Port Nodes on PC PRO plus two MA VPUs (Video Processing Units).

Nolan stated, "We used the latest version of grandMA2 software for the show and pre-programmed everything using grandMA 3D. Via the MA-Net2 the two MA VPUs delivered the video content to low res panels and Barco Versa TUBEs. The network and multiple consoles were the key to this big show which needed to control many elements and also run completely on timecode from start to finish. It really worked well and allowed for a cue perfect show."

The lighting rig featured, amongst others, 20 DTS XR300 Beam FARs. Polar Films and Spectrum Lighting supplied the lighting equipment. Nolan also worked as programmer and operator for

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USA - Behind the Scenes, an initiative of The ESTA Foundation, announces its second annual holiday card student design contest, open to any lighting, set, video or costume full-time design student interested in creating an original design for a 2011 card.

The winner will be chosen by an all-star panel of previous holiday card designers including Bob Bonniol, Beowulf Borrit, Ed Coco, Christine Jones, Scott Pask, Bruce Rodgers, Douglas Schmidt, and Tim Hunter Design. The winner's design will be among the cards offered for sale to raise money for Behind the Scenes, which provides financial assistance to entertainment technology professionals who are seriously ill or injured.

The winner will also receive a free pass to a Live Design Master Class in lighting, sound, or projection (winner's choice) to be held in May in New York City.

"This is an incredible opportunity for stu

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USA - Chauvet reports the installation of 100 fixtures inside Bing Bar, an exclusive Microsoft-sponsored lounge in the historic Claim Jumper Hotel, during this year's Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. The festival takes place annually as part of the programmes offered by Sundance Institute, established in 1981 by Robert Redford and his colleagues.

All but four of the Chauvet fixtures were LED-fitted and specified by dealer Justin Chatterton, owner of The Beat of Time located in Clinton, Utah. Bing, the decision engine from Microsoft, created an invitation-only lounge for exclusive film premiere after-parties, happy hours, press junkets and musical performances by the likes of Snoop Dogg, Lil Jon and Janelle Monae.

Inside Bing Bar, every corner and wall were washed orange and blue - the colours of Bing - with COLORdash PAR and COLORstrip wash lights. The Jack Daniels-s

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UK - Status Quo lighting designer Pat Marks and production manager Glen Smith continued their long-standing relationship with Bandit in 2010 as the group toured the UK and Europe.

Marks patented lighting system for 2010 included ACL's, 8 lights, PARs and Source 4 Lekos, Martin MAC 2000 Washes, Clay Paky Alpha Beams, Atomic Strobes, LED PARs and a full on LED screen, all provided by Bandit. Marks worked his magic with the grandMA console speaking to Catalyst Media Servers.

Crew chief Ian 'Mac' MacEwan, technician Tom Crosby and video technician Alain Demy kept the system on the road throughout 2010. Bandit C.E. Lester Cobrin is especially proud of Status Quo and loves working with such a well-oiled, professional machine. "Bandit and Quo are both experienced road veterans, and the marriage is a great one" says Cobrin.

(Jim Evans)

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USA - A Midas PRO6 emerged the clear winner for the World Outreach Church in Murfressboro, Tennessee, US when selecting a console for its new 2,800 capacity main sanctuary. "The sound quality and navigation are unbeatable," reports church technical director Derric West.

West got to work demoing several different consoles onsite while the new sanctuary was in its design phase, swapping test consoles in an existing sanctuary every other weekend, but keeping the same mics and PA. "The console was the only variable," reports West, "and it was any easy choice once we put the PRO6 in."

Regular services are likely to include around six vocals in addition to the pastor, choir and soloists, plus contemporary bands with drums, bass, guitars, keyboard and additional vocals. West configures the PRO6 with 80 inputs to facilitate swapping bands and inputs with

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UK/USA - When ETC developed the iRFR app, which turns any iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch into a remote controller for ETC lighting desks, the intention was to provide convenient and affordable facility-wide lighting control to venues around the world.

The iRFR has accomplished much more than that, however. All the proceeds from purchases of the £30 app are donated to Light Relief and Behind the Scenes, organisations which provide emergency funds to entertainment-technology industry professionals dealing with illness or injury. When buying the app, users choose either the LR or BTS version, depending on which charity is closer to home.

In the year and a half since it became available, the iRFR app has raised some £21,500 for Behind the Scenes and Light Relief. That money has gone directly to workers in the industry who are going through crises and has been used for much

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China - The recent opening and closing ceremonies to mark the 16th Asian Games, held on Haixinsha Island, Guangzhou, differentiated from similar events seen previously - with the spectacular event making the city as the background and the Pearl River as the stage. In fact the event started on the river, with a ship sailing from east.

In order to make the ceremonies a success, the island was equipped with a series of public address systems, with QSC's Q-Sys control chosen to provide tourists from all over the world with "crystal clear sound reinforcement".

A Q-Sys network provided coverage to every corner of the island, with a powerful Q-Sys Core as the engine, and Q-LAN's low-latency Gigabit Ethernet network implementation as the transmission network.

There were eight control rooms on the island, two of them based centrally and the remainder as satellites. Two Core

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Qatar - PR Lighting fixtures featured heavily in two high profile, but completely diverse events in Qatar recently.

December proved a busy month as nearly 150 of the Chinese manufacturer's flagship products were deployed by local distributors, TechnoPro LLC (Qatar) for the 2nd World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) in Doha.

The three-day event, which was officially opened by His Excellency Sheikh Abdulla bin Ali Al-Thani, Chairman of WISE, in the presence of Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, Chairperson of Qatar Foundation, was attended by over 1,000 delegates from different countries.

Auditiore designed and managed the production, which was held in eight different ballrooms within the Sheraton Resort and Convention Hotel. They, in turn, tasked TechnoPro with providing a complete technical infrastructure, including audio, light, and video equipment.

The co

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China - On 10 January 2011, the Chinese pavilion - Oriental Crown - on the EXPO fair grounds in Shanghai was the scene of an impressive event, when the BMW Group was presenting their car product range to about 2.000 invited guests.

For the purpose of the BMW event, the fixed sound system of the hall was completed by K&F SCENA 15 monitors.

A much bigger open-air stage was located on the south side of the pavilion.Here, line arrays from Kling&Freitag were deployed. On the right and on the left side of the scene, floating formations of four Sequenza 10 N (for the remote area) and two Sequenza 10 W (for the close area) were flown on each side. Over these hangs there were three Sequenza subwoofers. All speakers were driven by K&F SystemRacks with ready-to-use configuration, the signal processing was done by CD 44 integrated digital system controllers. The equipment was supplied by

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Czech Republic - Veteran Scots rock group Nazareth enjoy cult status in the Czech Republic, a fact that was once again evident at their show in Hradec Králové where they sold out the 3,000-seater Aldis Congress Centre for the last stop of their Still Loud 'n' Proud tour. The ACC is a venue notable not only for its impressive size but also for the quality of its infrastructure, acoustics, sightlines and artists' dressing rooms.

To ensure the sound was worthy of the setting, the tour organizers contracted Dvur Králové nad Labem-based rental company Sound Service to handle the sound reinforcement. For the Nazareth production, the team led by company chief Oldrich Skalický opted for an extensive Dynacord system, with a combination of horn-loaded Dynacord F12, FX 20 and FX 12 boxes combined with a Cobra 2 line-array system.

The system included six F12 CHW, t

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Germany - Optocore has appointed Synthax GmbH as its distributor for Germany and Austria. Optocore sales and marketing director, Tine Helmle, stated that the decision was based on many factors - not least being that the company is headquartered close by, in Munich.

"Synthax is highly committed, and has assigned four members of staff to work on the brand," she said. "Their proximity to us will also improve training opportunities, client support and general communication."

Marketing opportunities will also be enhanced by the fact that Synthax do not represent any digital consoles within their distribution portfolio. Tine Helmle explains, "Because we are aligned with certain console manufacturers - either in technical co-operation partnerships or producing bespoke emulation mode products - this has resulted in certain parts of the market being excluded in

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Robert Juliat has announced a further addition to its international family of dealers with the appointment of Lighting Bits Ltda of Brazil. Operating out of Sao Paulo and headed by Daniel Ridano, Lighting Bits Ltda will be exclusively responsible for Robert Juliat products across Brazil, and non-exclusively across the wider Latin American market.

"The quality and reliability of Robert Juliat fixtures is unique," states Ridano. "Robert Juliat is a dream product in any project where quality is a must. In addition to this, the technical and project support offered by the Robert Juliat team is superb."

Lighting Bits exhibited Robert Juliat fixtures - Cyrano 2500W HMI, Victor 1800W MSR and Buxie 575W MSD followspots and the full range of RJ zoom profile spots - for the first time in September 2010 at the Lighting Week trade fair in Sao Paulo. "The response was fan

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Power Cuts - The BBC has axed its annual Electric Proms season after five years, citing financial considerations. Radio 2 controller Bob Shennan said it could be achieved "in an alternative, more cost-effective way". Sir Elton John, Robert Plant and Neil Diamond were among the artists who took part in the 2010 event. Marcus Davey, the Roundhouse's artistic director, called the decision "sad" but said he hoped the venue would develop other projects with the BBC "in due course".

Show Business - London theatre continues to defy the effects of the recession, reporting overall results for 2010 that saw record box office revenues and a minimal (0.79%) drop in attendance. Society of London Theatre president Nica Burns said that she was delighted with the results, which she claims represent an ongoing "golden period" for London theat

  1. AC-ET to stage 2012 switchover open days
  2. Busy start to 2011 for White Light
  3. Bochum theatre installs grandMA2
  4. Entec supplies Marina & The Diamonds dates
  5. First Indian video son et lumière goes live
  6. IVCA building ties with China
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