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UK - Liverpool based Adlib kicked off the 2011 music festival season in style - supplying sound systems to three stages and lighting to Radio One's Big Weekend at Carlisle Airport in Cumbria.

It was the fifth consecutive year that Adlib has supplied equipment and crew to the event, and their team was headed by James Neale on site and co-ordinated by Dave Jones in the office.

The stages were In New Music We Trust (stage 2), unashamedly rocked on Saturday night by headliners the Swedish House Mafia, ahead of their upcoming tour for which Adlib is also providing sound; and stage 4, The BBC Introducing Stage which showcased some of the hottest new talent.

On INMWT, Adlib's new CODA Audio system made its Big Weekend debut, configured as two flown left and right main hangs each comprising 10 CODA LA12 speakers, together with 16 LA8s for front- fills and 16 ground stacked SC

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Denmark - Martin Professional's headquarter building in Aarhus has taken on a life of its own thanks to a new media facade made up of Martin LED display panels with graphical content from Danish design office Kollision.

The 180m2 facade, mounted on the inside front of the building, is made up of Martin Professional LC Plus Series LED display panels and presents a wide variety of dynamic graphical content that reacts to visitor interaction in the form of activities and movement in and outside the building.

The dynamic graphics do more than mesmerize and entertain; the media facade can be affected by motion sensors and user input for a truly unique, personal experience. The media facade allows a static building to come alive through an ever-changing lighting design, a constantly evolving expression that engages visitors and passers-by.

Rune Nielsen of Kollision stated, "A

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UK - Capital Sound has carried out a complete overhaul of its Martin Audio W8L Longbow inventory in preparation for the Take That Progress Live 2011 tour, which opened at Sunderland's Stadium of Light on 27 May.

Once Martin Audio's line array system had been chosen by the band's FOH sound engineer, Gary Bradshaw, the rental company took the unusual step of having its entire W8L Longbow fleet (including complementary WS218X subs) finished in black, to create stage uniformity; at the same time they purchased eight further enclosures.

All of which received unconditional approval from Gary Bradshaw. Two days into the show, the sound engineer reported, "It is still early days but I'm very pleased with the results we have been getting with the Martin Longbow system, which is very smooth but very powerful."

Since Production decided to dispense with large delay towers in f

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UK - The weekend of 20 - 22 May saw the inaugural edition of the Friends Of Mine festival held against the stunning backdrop of Capesthorne Hall near Manchester. FOM Fest boasted an impressive line-up for a first-time festival. Organisers had no hesitation in drawing from the rich pickings of the Mancunian music scene over the years with acts such as Kid British, Badly Drawn Boy, The Buzzcocks, The Fall, Dutch Uncles, Bad Lieutenant, Wakefield's The Cribs and of course the inimitable Charlatans amongst many others.

The weather might not have been too kind, but it didn't dampen the spirits of festival goers who braved the elements to support the cream of the crop of 'local' bands who, for once, were all playing in their own back garden. Paul Nicholson from Red Square Audio / Midas ProSound handled the audio requirements across the festival's four main stages, including a fleet of

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Africa - For the 4th consecutive season, Blond Productions were commissioned to cater for the sound, lighting and AV requirements of Big Brother Africa.

When their client, Endemol South Africa, wanted a new set for Big Brother Africa Amplified, aired on DSTV, Blond approached Sean Hoey of Dream Sets. Together they came up with fresh ideas that have "pleasantly surprised the client".

Lighting designer Peter Rieck (Blond) and Sean Hoey (Dream Sets) put their heads together from the inset with the assistance of Vector Works. Their aim was to create a set that would bring out as many technical and visual aspects as possible. "Robe fixtures added mood, beams of light and eye candy, while the real 'show stealer' were the graphics on screens and plasmas, all running via a grandMA Media Server," say Blond.

Christian Ballot, MD from Blond comments: "Five to t

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Greece - Robe lighting was invited by the Czech Consulate in Athens to create a special lighting scheme for the official launch of La Grace, a replica of the 17th century corsair (pirate) ship captained by Czech seafarer Augustin He?man, which took place in the exclusive and picturesque harbour at Flisvos Marina, Athens.

The vessel has been recreated by a group of Czech enthusiasts in a shipyard in Suez, Egypt, which still uses historic and traditional building methods. The pre-planning and research for the project took three years and the actual construction process another two years. The new La Grace will serve a multi-functional international role as a sea cadet training facility and as a tourist attraction worldwide.

A team of enthusiastic individuals from Robe, all with an eye for design and aesthetics - Josef Valchar (MD) Petr Kolmaka (Anolis sales manager)

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UK - Ethix Management has announced the expansion of its digital mixing facilities with a 70k investment in a SoundCraft Vi6 desk. Thanks to swift competitive finance from Azule Finance, Ethix Management, who have regularly worked in Trafalgar square, this year alone on Chinese New Year, St Patricks Day, Holland House and Vasahki as well as several festivals lined up this year, will use this mixing desk in the forthcoming festival season.

Paul Jones, owner and director of Ethix Management comments, "The SoundCraft Vi6 has an excellent reputation in the industry as an intuitive digital mixing desk. It is incredibly quick to re-patch and its user friendly interface makes it easy for any sound engineer get on board and start mixing, which is vital at festivals due to the sheer volume of artists and engineers using any one deck. Azule Finance's understanding of the production i

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Russia - Situated in the In far Siberian city of Yakutsk, located just 450 kilometres south of the Arctic Circle, a new entertainment complex known as Europe opened this spring.

The complex is set over five floors and the technical infrastructure was designed and installed by MS-Max - drawing heavily on components from the EAW catalogue.

Above the ground floor pub and sports bar, are an Italian restaurant, a billiards room and café; the Striptease nightclub spans floors three and four (along with a Karaoke bar) - and up on the top floor are bowling lanes.

MS-Max supplied a punchy EAW dance system in the form of the purpose designed Avalon Series. This consists of a pair of enclosures, complemented by 10 rectangular UB82, eight BH760 bent horn subwoofers, four LA212 monitor speakers, four FR129z 12in LF and four SM129z compact single 12in speakers. EAW's CAZ Series amp

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UK - Queen recently celebrated their 40th anniversary in spectacular style with Stormtroopers in Stilettos, a major retrospective exhibition held in London. Celebrating the band's first five albums, the exhibition took place at the Old Truman Brewery with Genelec 8030A 2-way active loudspeakers playing album tracks in the background in separate, themed areas.

Created by Island Records, Universal Music and Marmalade London, a design and production agency, the exhibition takes a comprehensive look at the early part of Queen's career, from before the band's formation in 1971 right up to their spectacular free gig for over 250,000 fans in Hyde Park in 1976. The large 1250ft² warehouse space was split into five zones, with graphics and music to match each stage in the band's career. Supplied and set up by Source Distribution, 30 Genelec 8030A loudspeakers were used in all are

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Italy - For its new complex in Villorba, in the province of Treviso, Benetton Group chose a Proel PA system.

The building, which hosts an exclusive event centre and the Museum of Racing Cars, now features a PROEVAC2 audio system, selected by Barzon & Dainese from Ponte S. Nicolò (PD), a company that operates in the field of industrial and civil electrical systems.

In detail, they installed a 10-zone PROEVAC2 system with 20 speaker lines - two lines for each zone - for a total load of 4000 W.

The whole system is located in the control room and controlled by a centralised rack with microphone console from which all vocal announcements and, if necessary, pre-recorded evacuation alerts are delivered.

Every room and area of the building features EVAC speakers, positioned and interconnected using redundancy logic (line A+B).

The EN60849-compliant evacuation system, which is n

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UK - Adam Hall has signed a distribution agreement with FaitalPRO.

Faital S.p.A was established in Milan in 1958 as a small family run business, over the following 50 years they became a leading European manufacturer of loudspeakers for the automotive industry. The new millennium led to the diversification strategy for Faital that resulted in the development of the FaitalPRO brand.

Flavio Naggi, overseas sales manager for FaitalPRO comments, "We are definitely proud of this agreement that is certainly a step forward in our distribution scheme; working with such a prestigious partner as Adam Hall consolidates the European spread of our high-end professional loudspeakers and represent the beginning of a solid and very promising co-operation for both companies."

Andrew Richardson, managing director of Adam Hall UK adds, "FaitalPRO is a fantastic addition to our p

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Germany - It's easy to hide behind a wall of superlatives: bigger, heavier, brighter, bolder, sharper; and for Creative Technology this years' Eurovision Song Contest was all those things and more; but it's the little details that put the polish on this project, says CT.

"The spectacular creative design from Florian Wieder and Jerry Appelt stretched us in places we'd never been stretched before," said head of CT's Dusseldorf Office, Alex Klaus, and the man responsible for running the project.

The Wieder/Appelt design was dominated by a 1250sq.m expanse of Spider 30 LED screen. At twice the size of the infamous U2 Pop Mart screen, it completely filled one end of the Esprit football stadium in Dusseldorf. "That's almost the entire worldwide inventory of Spider30," said CT's MD Dave Crump, over from England to witness the event.

"We've pulled in resourc

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UK - Designed by David Chipperfield Architects with auditorium design by Charcoalblue theatre consultants, the Hepworth Gallery in Wakefield opened to the public on Saturday 21May 2011.

Built to house works created by its namesake, sculptress Barbara Hepworth, as well as other British contemporary artists, visitors will be able to augment their visual experience through a variety of multi-media talks, presentations and lectures in the Charcoalblue-designed auditorium.

Charcoalblue's design director, Gavin Green, collaborated with Chipperfields to deliver a balance of style and technical wizardry in the space. Green, who is fresh from the launch of the RSC's new 1,000-seat theatre, says , "Working alongside a world-respected, multi award-winning architectural firm like Chipperfields has been an honour and an extremely rewarding learning experience. In addition, contributin

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UK - APG's line array system, Uniline, was deemed a resounding success after its first outdoor UK appearance at FOM Fest (The Friends Of Mine Festival) Manchester over the weekend of 20-22 May. Uniline was in the company on the main stage with the Charlatans, the Buzzcocks, Bad Lieutenant, The Cribs, The Fall, and many more over the course of the three days. APG was also specified for stage monitoring using a combination of SMX15 and DX15 monitor wedges plus TB118 subs and M3000 side-fills.

All of the audio requirements for the festival were handled personally by Paul Nicholson from Red Square Audio/Midas ProSound, and APG's Mathieu Delquignies assisted with the Uniline system tuning.

"It's great to have such amazing support from the manufacturer," commented Nicholson. "We were particularly pleased to have Mathieu with us on this occasion, firstly because it's t

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UK - Tinie Tempah lighting director Dave Cohen recently made a big impact using Martin Professional's EC-20 LED panels as a backdrop video wall on Brit Award winner Tinie Tempah's latest UK tour. "A video screen doesn't need to be any more complicated than lighting fixtures. Yet time and time again I find other systems insanely complex, says Cohen. "The plug and play style of the EC system makes it so easy."

Cohen, who works as a freelance show designer for various acts and heads his own design company, SauceDesign, was looking for a transparent, uncomplicated video wall for the tour and found what he was looking for in the EC.

"Being a lighting engineer by trade, I was looking for a system that was more up to date as well as user friendly," he states.

On the Tinie Tempah tour, Cohen ran cinematic style content on a 16 x 9 format upstage EC screen th

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UK - Sennheiser UK reports that it has made some significant improvements to its Service Department, including the launch of an Online Spares Ordering function for its professional audio division and new additions to its workshop, aimed at further upgrading levels of customer support.

"Our emphasis is always on serving the end customer and improving the support we give to them," says Tim Sherratt, Sennheiser UK's engineering and technical services manager. "Initially, the new Online Spares Ordering section will serve three product areas: MKH Wired Microphones; Evolution Wireless; and Pro Audio Headphones. The site provides a quick and efficient way for customers to order spare parts. We will be adding more items and information as we progress this part of the site. We have also introduced a new online Service & Support centre which features an FAQ section, online

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UK - The derelict Battersea Power station on the bank of the Thames in south London recently played host to a major corporate event when drinks brand Jägermeister, through experiential marketing specialists Lucid UK, held a massive rebranding party within the building's towering walls. RG Jones Sound engineering provided Synco PA and stage monitor systems for Jägermeisters' Ice Cold Event at Battersea Power Station, which featured Alice Cooper appearing in holographic 4D.

"We couldn't resist this," says Alice, "Working with Jägermeister to appear as holograms on the other side of the Atlantic is the ultimate experience, a cutting-edge conjuring trick that celebrates the future and our history."

The event was hosted by DJ Zane Lowe, who played an exclusive DJ set at the event; with live performances from Jägerband The King Blues; and further sets from XF

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UK - Unusual has completed work at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, for the musical production of <>I>Shrek. Work included hanging over three tons of speakers on the front of house truss, and around 18 tons of set.

Simon Stone, project manager for Unusual Rigging reports, "The most interesting and challenging part of the project from our point of view was working out how to hang so many pieces of set, including over 40 cloths, with so little weight in the house counterweight sets. The theatre has an extremely old counterweight system which can only take up to 125kg in each cradle; an Unusual Ladderbeam on its own weighs that much, so we knew we had a lot of work to do.

"For the three flown pieces that weigh over 1400kg each, we replaced the theatre counterweight cradles with Unusual's, each of which can take up to 1.5 tons. But the budget wouldn't have stretched to

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UK - April saw the new and the old of Liverpool combine to create a special event in one of the city's most beautiful and historic buildings.

Record label Dig Deeper, DJs Hernan Cattaneo and Danny Howells, and Liverpool promoters Freeze joined forces to host a party beneath the breathtaking architecture of one of Liverpool's Anglican Cathedral. This was the setting for the launch of Prolyte Group's new version of its performance platform, LiteConsole.

LiteConsole is a versatile podium structure that offers a portable and high visual-impact solution for a variety of applications but is ideal for DJ performances, says the company. To reflect this, the new version has been designed to accommodate the latest range of CD players and mixers, as well as offering improved ergonomic efficiency and a more dynamic aesthetic impact.

LiteConsole modules comprise just four primary pieces

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Germany - There was much praise throughout Europe for what Germany achieved in this year's Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) finals in Dusseldorf. "Bearing in mind this was staged in a football stadium the sound was outstanding," said Ola Melzig, production manager for the ESC since the year 2000.

For the team at d&b audiotechnik, the challenge of the Esprit Arena was sheet metal, nine hectares of it to be precise. "The roof structure is enormous, all corrugated metal," said NDR's head of sound for the live event Jochen Jensen.

"With a reverberation time of six to eight seconds it was absolutely critical we keep sound energy from hitting the roof, or reflecting off the floor up to it. My first thought was, who are the specialists who can help me with this? I called Ralf Zuleegat d&b audiotechnik and asked if he could help. It will require a bigcommitment f

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Cyprus - The latest upscale addition to Cyprus nightlife, the Little Buddha bar in the island's capital Nicosia, is one of the stars of a list of recent installations by Renkus-Heinz distributor S&V MegaSound. With two club installations, a cathedral and a conference centre completed and more in progress, the company is having, said owner Stelios Petrides, a "hectic" time.

Music is a famed part of the Buddha Bar experience and features Latin/oriental lounge beats that gradually move into more upbeat house tunes as the evening progresses. With sound quality central to its enjoyment S&V MegaSound were called in to design a system capable of delivering exceptional fidelity and precise directional control - along with the ability to deliver flawlessly night after night.

The system is specified as 16 TRX81 two-way full range loudspeakers and four PNX112 subwoofers, powere

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UK - Late April saw Paul Carrack play three nights at the Royal College of Music with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, where a trio of Yamaha digital mixing consoles helped the venue's sound to be mixed, while also being recorded for DVD release.

Having recorded his latest album A Different Hat with the RPO, Carrack squeezed the entire ensemble into the confines of the Royal College of Music's 400-capacity Britten Theatre. Playing three such intimate shows meant that space was at an absolute premium, so a pair of Yamaha M7CL48-ES consoles handled front of house and monitor sound, while an 02R96VCM was used to track the show for a DVD recording.

Using three Yamaha SB168-ES stage boxes, the house system was extremely compact but maximised the show's all-important sound quality. With the orchestra generating plenty of acoustic sound, the key to mixing the show was ensurin

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Macau - Opened in May 2011, Galaxy Macau was billed as Macau's first integrated leisure and entertainment resort, designed to help the region achieve its aim of becoming a diversified 'Global Centre of Tourism and Recreation'. LED screen manufacturer Lighthouse Technologies had successfully acquired the contract for the provision to the resort with a series of visual elements.

Lighthouse's first involvement with owner Galaxy Entertainment Group (GEG) was at the beginning of 2008, when it supplied two LED screens to GEG's flagship StarWorld Hotel and Casino in Macau Peninsula.

Lighthouse provided the 550,000sq.m Galaxy Macau, the newest integrated destination resort in the Special Administrative Region's Cotai entertainment area, with six LED screens.

Two Pi10-ER 10mm screens are situated at the entrance to resort, each measuring 12.8m (w) x 9.6m (h) (10 x 10 panels), display

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Australia - Footscray Community Arts Centre is widely acknowledged as one of Australia's leading centres for contemporary arts and community engagement. October last year saw the opening of a new 250-seat performance space plus a new gallery, computer lab, and other multi-use spaces for meeting, seeing, creating and talking about art.

With the new venue came some new gear including four 53 cm ETC Selador Vivid-R LED fixtures and an ETC Element console.

"The Seladors perform really well, deliver strong saturated colours and have great optics," remarked Darren Gee, venue & operations manager. "We don't have a lot of power in the building so the more LED fixtures we can put in the roof, the better. It also means we don't have to get up and down all the time to change colour as that can now be done from the console.

"I looked at some of the other LED fixtures

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