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Australia - The Adelaide Convention Centre (ACC) is one of the busiest in Australia with a wide range of events from trade shows to corporate dinners to product launches. The ACC recently added to its audio inventory with the addition of 18 Turbosound Flex Array TFA-600HDP self-powered cabinets.

The system is rigged as two hangs of nine elements for large events but can be easily split into smaller systems as required. Each Flex Array element consists of dual horn-loaded 10" drivers, a 6.5" Polyhorn loaded mid-range driver, a Dendritic loaded 1" and dual 800w power amplifiers with DSP.

Eight Turbosound NuQ-8DP (8"/1") self powered cabinets were also purchased as front-fill and general purpose speakers. Both the Flex Array and NuQ self-powered speakers include network functionality allowing the team full laptop control (gain, delay, EQ and monitoring) o

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Poland - The first weekend of July was a historic moment for Poland, as the country assumed the Presidency of the Council of the European Union for the first time. To celebrate, a huge concert was staged in Warsaw, where nine Yamaha digital mixing consoles and a large Nexo PA helped to entertain a huge crowd.

The show took place in the city's Plac Defilad (Parade Square) and featured three stages. Televised nationally, a range of international artists joined Polishacts in playing one of their own songs and a popular Polish song, before handing over to the next act.

Such a rapid series of changeovers made the three stages necessary, so Warsaw-based production company GMB Pro Sound supplied a Yamaha PM5D-RH as the main front of house console for each stage. Two DSP5Ds and a DME64 digital mixing engine were also used for delays and speaker management of the large Nexo PA - compri

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UK - With artists on the festival circuit demanding more elaborate visual set-ups than ever before, Colour Sound Experiment - the specialist lighting and sound designers - has announced its investment in a £300,000 bespoke 100sq.m LED video wall.

Working closely with Azule Finance to expand its business, this lightweight, scalable video wall is just one part of Colour Sound Experiment's recent stock expansion, which also includes GLP impressions and Clay Paky Alpha Spots.

The summer months are always a busy time of year for Colour Sound Experiment. However, with new headline artists and major festivals on its books, it needed to rapidly scale up operations to meet the breadth of projects in the pipeline.

Haydn Cruickshank, MD Colour Sound Experiment explained: "We needed a large scale video wall solution that was both compact and lightweight, for speed of rigging

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UK - PLASA 2011 sees the announcement of a new presence in the global lighting industry, the multi-faceted Alderamin Group. The organisation is exhibiting at Stand 1-E32.

Specialising in the provision of comprehensive project solutions for the entertainment, leisure, architectural and retail lighting sectors, Alderamin Group comprises four key companies: Ptarmigan Integration, Artistic Licence Integration, Artistic Licence Engineering and Ten Thousand Things.

The Ptarmigan and Artistic Licence brands are already established in the industry. Now, their respective founders, Simon Fraser and Wayne Howell, have joined forces to create Alderamin Group, an organisation that promises to" reshape the lighting industry landscape".

"We believe we have a winning formula," says Howell. "Ptarmigan and Artistic Licence complement each other fantastically well, as

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Germany - Nexo's 45ºN-12 stage monitors have made their festival debut in Germany on the centre stage of one of the country's largest events - the new 'line monitors' were used by drummers on the main stage of Rock im Park, courtesy of rental company satis&fy AG Werne.

Together with its sister event, Rock am Ring (Rock at the Ring), Rock im Park (Rock in the Park) is one of the biggest music festivals in Germany. It takes place around Nuremberg in the south of Germany; headliners this year included Disturbed, System of a Down, Coldplay, Alter Bridge and Kings of Leon.

Rental company satis&fy AG Werne, specialists in live entertainment and tour support, worked extensively with Reinhard Steger, rental sales engineer from Nexo's German distributor audiovation, to test the new N-12 line monitors before offering them to the festival stage.

For a stereo drum-fill set, satis&fy us

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UK - Mojo Barriers helped ensure the safety of thousands of Foo Fighters' fans when the band performed two sell out concerts live at the Milton Keynes Bowl earlier this month. The shows took place at the open-air amphitheatre on 2 and 3 July, and were attended by over 45,000 fans each night.

Mojo Barriers' UK offices worked closely with the production and promoter SJM Concerts, to install a 600m barrier system. The configuration was one of Mojos' customary designs encompassing the B stage , thrust and primary barrier as one continuous system surrounded by a secondary line for both a safe zone and a 'golden circle'. Mojo also had a 200m bar barrier system on site for Central Catering. Mojo Barriers' supervisor Greg Johnson, oversaw the installation.

Kevin Thorborn, Mojo Barriers' UK manager, said, "Amidst a busy summer it is testament to our international logistics, suppor

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UK - After several years of successfully deploying its inventory of Yamaha M7CL and LS9digital mixing consoles on a wide variety of events, production company Subfrantic has recently made a major further investment in two PM5D-RHs and aDSP5D. Hardly were the new mixers out of their packaging than they were heading for a festival field.

Held in late June at Kings Hill, Kent - a mixed residential and business development ton what was formerly the RAF West Malling aerodrome - Music On The Hill was a family-friendly three-day festival, all proceeds of which went to two Kent-based children's charities, the Demelza Hospice Care for Children and The Children's Development Trust.

The live music was divided into a distinct theme on each day - classical/opera on the first, pop on the second and tribute/'heritage' acts on the third - which made it an ideal test for Subfrantic's la

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Ireland - Production Services Ireland (PSI) supplied full lighting production, rigging, crew and technical support for the Vodafone (second) Stage at the 2011 Oxegen Festival at Punchestown Racecourse, County Kildare.

It was the first time that the Belfast and Dublin based company has serviced a major stage at the high profile MCD promoted festival, which featured a line up including (on the Vodafone Stage) The Swedish House Mafia, The Strokes, Deadmau5, Tinie Tempah, The National and Pendulum.

The PSI team of seven was led by Sean Pagel, who also created a production design to satisfy all acts appearing.

The StageCo stage/roof measured 20m wide by 16 deep and offered 14m headroom, below which PSI sub-hung three 'festival LX' trusses and an additional 'festival artist' truss, to accommodate the requests of those who were carrying specials and extras. They also flew a tab-tra

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UK - Rental company, APR Audio, provided PA and control systems for the West Holts and John Peel stages at Glastonbury 2011, selecting Allen & Heath iLive digital mixing systems to manage FOH and monitor mixing duties, which were also networked for audio and control sharing.

On the John Peel stage, APR chose an iDR-64 MixRack connected to the largest control surface in the range, the iLive-176, for monitors. Twelve onstage mixes were provided, plus LR side-fills and up to eight stereo IEM feeds. Engineer, Fabrizio Piazzini, additionally used the iLive MixPad app to make final tweaks. For FOH, an iLive-144 Control Surface was chosen, connected via Cat 5 ACE to a modular iDR10 MixRack installed onstage.

The systems were networked to provide input sharing and remote control via the iLive Editor PC software.

"One of iLive's great assets is that it is a networkable system, t

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USA - Located in Mt. Crawford in west central Virginia, Southard Audio is a regional sound company that, during its 30-plus years in business, has made the move from local events to large arena-sized shows. Two major initiatives have powered this expansion: a long-term cooperative partnership with Richmond-based Soundworks, and a mutual reliance on Turbosound Flex Array loudspeakers.

"Our relationship with Turbosound goes back more than 20 years," notes founder and president Mike Southard. "When it was time to expand into a line array system, it was easy to see the benefits of the Flex Array. It's a great-sounding PA, very loud for its footprint, with easy and straightforward rigging - a perfect complement to our existing inventory."

That system was put to the test at a recent 11,000 seat show featuring Snoop Dogg at the Coliseum of West Virginia University

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UK - Already boasting an illustrious following among lounge nightclubs in London's clubland, including Mortons, Raffles, Stringfellows, Vendome, Bungalow 8 and Le Pigalle, Nexo has been given a big boost by new super-club Pulse, which has chosen a Geo S12 system for its primary space.

Pulse, also known as Bankside Vaults, is built into four spectacular interlinked brick arches, right beside Blackfriars Bridge in central London.

Divided naturally into four main interlinked areas, the space can be adapted for any occasion. Its primary space is equipped with a performance stage, recently used by Erick Morillo for a record-breaking crowd of 2,500 people, which has been fitted with a Geo S12 system, underpinned by Nexo's RS15 subbass units.

The installation of Geo S12 in Pulse follows the success of a smaller system at sister club Arcadia. The two projects have been overseen by H

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UK - The Roland V-1600HD Multi Format Live Video Switcher was recently chosen by Digital Insanity as graphics switcher for the main stage at T4 On The Beach, a one day music festival which is held every July on the beach at Weston Super Mare.

T4 On The Beach is hosted by and televised for Channel 4 and consists of a number of contemporary pop and rock acts performing live in front of an audience of 50,000 people.

Digital Insanity, a video solutions provider specialising in content creation and show operation has been providing the video graphics for the event since 2005 - the first year the event featured a video screen.

With a requirement to create bespoke looks for upwards of 60 tracks and a video heavy stage set - often with multiple unique outputs and video links - Digital Insanity needed a live video switcher which they could use to switch between various feeds for the

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UK - After several months in the planning, news of an exciting new feature exclusive to PLASA 2011 has been announced - a major shoot-out of leading LED lighting fixtures, hosted by the STLD (Society of Television Lighting and Design).

Lighting Designer Paul Middleton has teamed the STLD with PLASA to bring visitors a unique tradeshow experience, where they will be able to directly compare LED lighting fixtures in three different areas of the 240sq.m space.

Middleton comments, "The STLD has been looking at staging a major LED-based event for some time now, having previously organised events at Pinewood Studios and elsewhere on the topics of consoles, moving heads and generic lights. We felt it was the right time to do another event and LED lighting was the obvious subject, basing the event on the simple question: 'can you light a TV set entirely with LED fixtures?'"<

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South Africa - Green Hippo's Tom Etra is making his way southbound and will be joining distributor Tadco at the Mediatech tradeshow in Johannesburg's Coca Cola Dome.

Mediatech is the continent's largest media and entertainment technology tradeshow and will see exhibitors and visitors from a wide variety of sectors including pro AV, Staging, Rigging and Lighting as well as Broadcast, Film and Production.

"This is a great opportunity to show South Africa what Green Hippo products have to offer. Tadco are making huge strides into the video market and it is exciting to be part of this. I hope to set a lot more Hippotizers free in South Africa."

Prior to the show, Etra will spend a couple of days training at Tadco as well as local production company Sound Stylist, who have already experienced Hippotizer during the 2010 World Cup.

Having started as a sound and communic

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USA - Founded by a group of jazz legends-including Mahalia Jackson and Duke Ellington -in 1970, the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival has grown and evolved over the years to become a tribute to different musical genres, with a special emphasis on jazz. The varied musical and cultural showcase is held over two consecutive weekends on 12 different stages set up at the New Orleans racetrack grounds.

Widely known as simply the 'Jazz Fest', the festival embodies the culmination of years of effort on the part of local leaders, whose aim was to create an event that would properly highlight the heritage of New Orleans as the birthplace of jazz. This year's line-up, a perfect reflection of the event's cultural significance and popular appeal, included world renowned artists like Tom Jones, Bon Jovi, John Legend, Maceo Parker, Cyndi Lauper, Kenny G. and Alejandro Sanz, among many oth

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UK - A mainstay of Croydon's High Street, the Black Sheep Bar is a respected and all-encompassing nightspot, with genres from Rock, Indie, Metal, Drum 'n' Bass and more entertaining punters at least six days a week.

When the popular bar recently needed to upgrade its PA system, it opted for the Tannoy VQ Live system.

Black Sheep Bar manager Paul Bossick said, "It's a superb system. We do a mixture of live music and DJing, and we're predominantly into dubstep at the moment, which is the reason we changed sound system - our old one was not really adequate. The Tannoy VQ Live systems captures all the sounds we want very nicely."

The installation was carried out by Aylesbury-based Moonlite Productions Limited. Moonlite managing director James Iyengar said, "Paul has been a customer for many years, and his venue has changed to adapt to current music styles and cust

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World - After debuting with Celine Dion (Taking Chances World Tour 2009), Britney Spears (The Circus World Tour 2009), Kylie Minogue (US tour 2010), Microsoft (Kinect CDS launch 2010) and Victoria's Secret (2010), the MDG theONE atmospheric generator has completed another international assignment with Kylie Minogue's Aphrodite - Les Folies World Tour 2011, which draws to a conclusion in South Africa this week.

Four of the TheONE generators have accompanied Miss Minogue across 28 countries, augmented by four MDG Ice Fog QTM Low Lying Fog Generators, to produce the spectacular atmospherics which underpinned the tour's distinctive look.

The MDG units were supplied for the European and North American legs by the tour's lighting, video and sound supplier, Solotech. They were supplied at the request of lighting designer, Nick Waterhouse, who was careful to speci

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Czech Republic - Every four years, the International Organisation of Scenographers, Theatre Architects and Technicians (OISTAT) collaborates with the Prague Quadrennial, the world's largest festival of Scenography to present Scenofest, an educational project of performances, workshops and special projects for students from across the world.

Part of this year's festival - held in June - was Six Acts, a collection of educational and artistic projects created by international groups of artists that were staged at cultural sites throughout the city. ETC lent a variety of lighting equipment to Scenofest that was used during several of the Six Acts and in student workshops.

ETC donated two lighting control desks - SmartFade and SmartFade ML - along with SmartPack dimmers, Source Four luminaires and Selador Lustr and Paletta LED fixtures. The equipment lit the First

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USA / China - Lightswitch Architectural has been chosen by Pei Partnership Architects of New York to create comprehensive lighting for their new project, the Bank of China International Finance Tower in Suzhou, China. Currently in design phases, the Bank of China Tower will be comprised of two structures, a 100m tower and a low building with generous perimeter exposure, advantageously located between two canals in the city.

Pei Partnership Architects, who have a history with Bank of China, have set out distinctive and sophisticated plans for the Bank of China Tower in Suzhou, drawing on simplicity and clean lines to reflect the strength and dignity of the banking giant.

Lightswitch Architectural has been tasked with the responsibility of providing lighting design for the interiors, exteriors, landscapes, banking halls and event auditorium of the dual buildings in the Tower com

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UK - The BBC show, Tonight's The Night is now in its third series and still presented by West End star John Barrowman.

Richard Martin Lighting (RML) continues to support lighting designer Roger Williams on the show which is filmed at BBC Glasgow. Tom Sutherland programmed and graphics were provided by Potion Pictures which were run off two Hippo Grasshoppers.

The lighting rig, incorporates a heavy variety of the Clay Paky range - Alpha Spot 575 HPE, Alpha Beam 700 and Alpha Wash 300s.

Various LED Lights completed the look - including LED Par 36, 2 Lights, iCove QL and Chroma Strips and the new intelligent LED chasing ribbon.

(Jim Evans)

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UK - 5 Star Cases has delivered two new custom designed GT26 tool display cases to Rugby based Alstom Power, each of which holds 60 assorted tools, and will be used to service their GT26 high performance gas turbines, of which there are 22 in the UK.

All the cases are finished in a striking Navy Blue HPL (High Pressure Laminate) exterior - Alstom's corporate blue - and feature branding applied by using 5 Star's in-house screen printing facility.

5 Star's Steve Swann manages the account, and works closely with Alstom Power's department stores controller Mick McGrath on each individual case solution.

McGrath notes, "5 Star takes on every project with enthusiasm, and finds inventive and imaginative ways to ensure that we get exactly what we need. Nothing is ever too much trouble."

(Jim Evans)

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USA - The verdict is in at the Haskell County Courthouse, where a new high-quality audio system is delivering news and entertainment to the local population.

The three-story, 100-year old building in Haskell, Texas, received a major audio upgrade via four Technomad Berlin 9040 narrow dispersion loudspeakers. Mounted high on the building's 60ft high roof, the Technomad system replaces an outdated PA system scarred by time and weather. Technomad also supplied a mixer and two wireless handheld microphones for the audio headend.

Like all Technomad loudspeakers, the Berlin 9040s are fully weatherproof, suitable for the harsh climate of north-central Texas. The loudspeakers are built to withstand the region's extreme summer heat (routinely topping 100 degrees), intense year-round UV rays, and heavy rains and lightning storms of the spring and autumn months.

The Berlin 9040 loudspe

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International - There are just 10 days remaining to make your nomination for the 2011 Gottelier Award.

When the Nomination phase closes on Friday 29 July, the shortlist will be announced and voting - open to PLASA Members, as well as PLASA Show Exhibitors and Pre-Registered Visitors - will begin on Monday 1 August.

This prestigious award is presented each year during the PLASA Show to someone who has made "a significant and sustained contributions to the advancement of entertainment, presentation or installation technology - whether in audio, lighting, rigging, staging, or any other related field".

The Award was introduced in memory of Tony Gottelier, the highly respected lighting designer, product developer and industry commentator who passed away in 2006.

Previous Winners:

2007 - Tony Andrews | Funktion-One

2008 - John Stadius | DiGiCo / Soundtra

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Theatres at Risk - The Theatres Trust has called on local communities to fight to save theatre buildings which are at risk. Some 58 UK buildings are on the trust's 2011 'at risk' register, with the Brighton Astoria and London's Cochrane Theatre among those facing demolition. It said it hoped legislation, including the new Localism Bill, would empower groups and individuals to "take on the guardianship of theatres at risk".

Theatres in Wallsend, Alsager, Ayr and Glasgow were all recently demolished. The at risk register also features theatres threatened by neglect, local development, funding cuts and closure. The trust said this year's register highlighted the impact of austerity measures over the past year. It praised "the tireless efforts of community and campaign groups who are the guardian angels of many UK theatres". But it said there was still "a de

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