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USA - Developed by OTG Management, Bar Brace and Croque Madame in JFK's Terminal 3 are not your average airport restaurants. In addition to allowing customers to order directly from their seats via iPads provided on site, the award-winning eateries feature menus developed in collaboration with local chefs.

To create that atmosphere, OTG depends heavily on custom music programming and Audica Professional MICRO series audio systems provided by NYC's EL Media Group. "Airports aren't known for good sound," says EL's chief creative officer, Ernie Lake, "but it's not just about the food for OTG. They're very in tune to music, so we have to have incredible programming and incredible sound."

Featuring Class D amplifiers and onboard EQ, Audica's MICROzone controller/amp and MICROplus 4-channel power amp combination are compact enough to fit into a small cabinet at e

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UK - When Nissan's luxury car marque Infiniti set about expanding its presence in Europe, it wanted to engage with potential buyers in a new and unusual way. The result was a digital art competition, the finalists of which have their work featured at the opening of the new European showrooms. Essential to presenting the artwork are BrightSign digital media players, providing each event with a dramatic visual focus.

Distributed in the UK by Pixels, seven BrightSign media players were used at the opening of Infiniti's new showroom in Stockport in late 2011. The event was devised and managed by London-based Oil Productions, with the technical aspects managed by The Big Idea and installed by Entserv Audio Visual.

"We had used the BrightSign players on the Doctor Who Experience. They were extremely reliable, gave fantastic resolution and were able to be synchronised accurately

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The Netherlands - Fans of the Dutch football team Ajax are getting a kick out of the new Ajax Experience visitors' centre in Amsterdam. The multimedia site was designed and produced by Montreal's gsmprjct with audio-visual systems integration by Electrosonic.

Ajax formerly had a 'museum' in its stadium some distance from central Amsterdam. The new visitors' centre is within walking distance of popular areas of the city and easily accessible via public transport to team supporters and tourists alike.

The highlights of the Ajax Experience are the interactive exhibits, which give visitors an opportunity to experience what it's like to be an Ajax player. The exhibits include T.I.P.S, which emphasises Technique, Insight, Personality and Speed; and a series of virtual exhibits where visitors take the place of players in the locker room, players' tunnel and stadium.

T.I.P.S. Techni

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UK - For the second year running, entertainment lighting specialist White Light supplied the lighting rig to the Olivier Awards Ceremony, which rewards the best of London theatre created during the previous 12 months.

The awards ceremony was held this year at London's Royal Opera House, with the lighting designed once again by Ben Cracknell.

"It actually feels a bit like the perfect gig for us," comments White Light's managing director Bryan Raven. "It celebrates theatre, with which we have a long historic involvement - many of the shows nominated this year use lighting rigs supplied by us - and yet it's staged as a giant event, like the many other corporate and live event productions we are now involved with. It also uses the full range of equipment we offer - everything from LED moving lights to the good old-fashioned PAR can!"

White Light supplied the

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China - The AVC Group has completed a three-week Asia Training Tour, which attracted more than 300 distributor and dealer personnel to its three stops in Beijing, Shanghai and Bangkok.

According to Ken Johnsen, international training manager at The AVC Group, the tour gave distributors the opportunity to engage in brand specific training on the ELAN, Niles, Xantech, Sunfire and ATON brands. The tour is part of a new programme rolled out at ISE 2012.

"We were able to extend the success of our European Training Tour with this three-city tour of China and Thailand, training hundreds of our Asian partners on every aspect of each brand's product line in a comprehensive three-day programme in each city," Johnsen said.

The focus of The AVC Group's international education effort, Johnsen said, is to 'train the trainers' to be complete experts in all of the five brands' pro

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UK - March 2012 saw Sennheiser UK hosting a series of Digital Mic Days at Koolworld Studios in Luton, Bedfordshire. The 'Digi Days', held in conjunction with UK digital console manufacturer, DiGiCo, were designed to demonstrate to engineers from different sectors of the pro audio industry just how simply digital microphones can now be integrated into today's audio systems.

Sennheiser UK's sound reinforcement specialist, Dave Wooster, was on hand to show attendees the benefits that digital microphones can offer. A full complement of microphone models from both Neumann and Sennheiser were deployed in the studio's live room, with musicians on hand each morning to provide live signal feeds that were captured, via the digital mics, into Protools.

Microphones used included Neumann TLM 102 D large diaphragm condensers, KM D digital output stages fitted with a variety of capsules and,

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UK - Independent distributor of pro-audio products Nova Distribution, has announced its UK exclusive distributorship of Eve Audio speakers, the new range of active monitors from Berlin based manufacturer EVE Audio. Nova will be supplying dealerships across the UK.

EVE Audio was founded and owned by Roland Stenz, a man with a long background history in the audio industry. The products cover a range of sizes and applications from the SC204, the smallest in their studio monitors line to the largest four-way system monitor that EVE Audio produces at the moment, the SC408. Along with a range of subwoofers, built with quality in mind.

The SC204 may have a small footprint. But they will probably be the biggest sounding speakers in your setup, says the company. They also have the added convenience of threaded screw inserts on the bottom and the back so that the SC204 can be mounted on

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UK - One of the popular features of recent ABTT Theatre Shows has been the free seminar programme, and visitors to the Theatre Show in London's Old Truman Brewery on 13 June this year will be treated to a rare chance to hear William Dudley, the country's preeminent stage designer.

Looking back over his extraordinary career of more than 40 years designing for theatre, opera and ballet throughout the world, Bill Dudley is taking as his theme Virtual scenery. Roger Fox, director of the Theatre Show said, "Bill will compare projected scenery then and now, and will introduce an international time line initiative which aims to foster a better general understanding of older theatre technologies."

Arranged to coincide with an international meeting of OISTAT, the opening seminar will be held at the Theatre Show from 11:00 to 12:30 on Wednesday 13 June. This will be a s

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UK - Electronic dance group Chicane were back on form last week when they played to a massively 'up for it' crowd at Koko. The much anticipated show was to launch their new album Thousand Mile Stare .

Richard Martin Lighting (RML) supported LD Pip Rhodes in his choice of a simple yet striking rig including Martin LC2140 panels. The vibrant and bold images used with the screen help compliment the psychedelic trance tunes of the Ibiza favourites.

The LED based video screen has a semi transparent design with easily connecting panels that allow for area coverage of up to 14m in height and no restrictions in width. Each panel frame is 1m x 2m with LEDs laid inside an acrylic tube. The pixel pitch of the panel is 40mm which allows for excellent resolution and the design of the panel creates a seamless image. On hand to help out Pip was Hannu the house LD at Koko and Tim the s

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UK - The new Canada Water Library in London's southeast Docklands is an impressive and striking building, with artistic ambitions that take it way beyond the standard repository of books, CDs and IT services.

Stage Electrics was brought in by the electrical contractor, Inviron, who in turn worked for the main contractor, ISG Jackson, to create a highly flexible ground floor performance studio space, capable of hosting anything from art exhibitions through to music concerts. Added to that, the massive dock doors, which open out on to a courtyard, act as a proscenium for an audience sitting outside, with the studio forming the stage.

Built from the edge of the former Canada Dock, Southwark Council's £14m investment is an integral part of the local community and popular with commuters who flock to the café for a quick cappuccino or lunchtime sandwich. Its live arts p

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Singapore - Wireless Solution Sweden AB Singapore distributor Laservision recently delivered the award-winning creation of Wonder Full - the largest light and water spectacular in South East Asia. This breathtaking multimedia spectacular is currently on display at the doorstep of the Marina Bay Sands, Singapore.

Wonder Full is the story of water and light creating life, told with cutting-edge water and light technology. This free 13-minute show is a water, land and sky based 360-degree experience unlike anything seen before. A three dimensional fantasy showcases the mediums of enormous water screens, vibrant multi-colour high powered lasers, searchlights, spot lights, fountains, surround sound, strobes, bubble factories, flame effects, LED lighting, high definition video projection and other special effects, spanning the 38 acre Marina Bay Sands site. The attractio

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Germany - Deutschland sucht den Superstar (DSDS), the German equivalent of The X Factor, the international talent show franchise, has now reached its ninth year and is attracting great interest as always. Over 35,000 aspiring singers performed in the casting calls that took place in 35 cities in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The lighting designer Manuel da Costa has accepted the challenge of staging the nine live evenings, which will be broadcast from the MMC Studios in Cologne-Ossendorf, after the preliminary casting calls and recalls.

When choosing the lighting equipment, Costa opted - among other lights - for 30 Clay Paky Sharpys and 16 Clay Paky Alpha Spot HPE 1500s, along with two full-size grandMA2 consoles, four full-size grandMA 'series 1' consoles and 10 video processing units (MA VPU plus).

"Because of budget limitations and the space and weigh

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Australia - In these financially difficult times, maximising the potential of facilities has become a key issue for the education sector. At the same time as delivering high quality education in line with modern expectations, schools need to ensure that their facilities generate their own revenue. These are the reasons why one Australian primary school has invested in DiGiCo, opening up a new market for the console manufacturer.

Helensvale Primary, located on Queensland's Gold Coast, recently finished a new performing arts centre, complete with a full audio-visual solution designed, supplied and installed by Dominica Sound via DiGiCo's Australian distributor, Group Technologies.

"The school was previously hiring halls at its local arts centre for its events, but wanted to become self-contained in order to cut some of the operational overheads," says Steve McCallum, d

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Czech Republic - Robe lighting has implemented LumenRadio's award-winning wireless CRMX (Cognitive Radio Multiplexer) wireless technology on all its current Robin series products, and this will now become a standard feature of all future Robe products.

In addition to the Robin Series, CRMX is used in Robe's LED Series including the popular CitySkape Xtreme fixture and the brand new CityFlex 48. It is also available as an option for several other Robe product lines and as a standard accessory for the LEDWash 1200.

Czech Republic based Robe lighting has chosen to partner with LumenRadio as the Swedish company is also a leader in its specialist field.

The CRMX system is fully RDM (Remote Device Management) compatible and also supports multiple other protocols including DALI, Art-Net, Streaming ACN, ETCNet, ShowNet, Pathport and KiNet 1 & 2.

It avoids interference by using inn

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UK - Participants in this year's First Night Riders charity motorcycle ride are being offered a unique tour of London's Royal Albert Hall.

The annual First Night Riders event - which raises money for industry charity The Theatrical Guild (TTG), the only charity dedicated to looking after the interests of backstage and front of house personnel - is already attracting international attention with riders from around the world signing up for a good cause and a good time.

On Friday 22 June a group of the daredevil riders hailing from all sectors of the entertainment technology industry will set off from the iconic Royal Albert Hall in London for a four-day open-air tour of the south and south west of England.

Along the way they will visit key sites including Bristol's Theatre Royal, the Theatre Royal Plymouth, Hall for Cornwall and the incredible Minack Theatre at Land's End and

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Spain - French loudspeaker company APG has announced the appointment of well-known Spanish industry figure, Juan Antonio Cuevas, to represent APG throughout Spain. A renowned sound engineer in his own right and former systems engineer for Meyer Sound, Cuevas knows the pro audio industry in Spain well.

"When I first heard the demo of the New Generation products from APG, I was blown away," says Cuevas. "The natural-sounding acoustics, endless headroom, precise electronics and excellent build quality... let's take, for example, the SMX15 wedges: frankly, I've never heard such quality from a monitor, I sincerely think that this is one of the best stage monitors in the world - and subsequent comparisons with other brands confirmed my opinion. DX12 and DX15 exhibit the same excellent sound quality for continuity throughout the range.

"As for Uniline, I thought t

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UK - The future development of the UK audiovisual industry will be at the top of the agenda for InfoComm's new UK Task Force. Appointed for a year's term by the InfoComm International Board of Directors, the UK Task Force will develop, investigate, formally research and address issues affecting the UK audiovisual industry.

Greg Jeffreys, president of InfoComm International says, "The formation of the UK Task Force is a sign that the UK has got to a certain point, maturity and critical mass and we've appointed some key figures to manage and drive that growth locally."

The UK Task Force comprises a diverse mix of industry professionals, including integrators, distributors, manufacturers, end users and consultants. 2012 members include: Scott Burgess, director, Creative Technology London; Gordon Innocent, chairman, RGB Communications Ltd; Deborah Jones, sales director,

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UK - A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET) provided two one-day Jands Vista v2 'masterclass' seminars to students taking the Lighting Module of Backstage Academy's Foundation Degree in Live Events Production.

The 16-month fast-track intensive course, led by chief operations officer Robin Watkinson, provides students with the core practical skills needed to pursue a successful career in the professional events production industry. The invitation to participate underlined the fast growing popularity of the Jands Vista system in live events.

AC-ET's Andy Mahaffey conducted the training at the LS-Live Studios in Wakefield, West Yorkshire. A range of different sized consoles from the Vista family allowed the two separate groups of students to have full hands-on training and see how flexible and accessible the system is.

The masterclasses gave students an introduction to the Vis

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Slovakia - Midas has announced the first sale of the PRO2 live audio system into the Slovakian market. Facilitated by Midas' Slovakian distributor SBL Acoustics, the sale was made to Patrik Kvacka, who runs his own rental company in Slovakia's political and cultural capital of Bratislava. The new console has already been used for concerts by eclectic Berlin collective Jazzanova and British jazz and electronic band The Cinematic Orchestra.

Kvacka ordered the first PRO2 after attending a demonstration of the new console for the Slovakian sound industry, held by SBL and attended by more than 60 sound specialists and engineers.

"The dimensions of the PRO2, combined with its weight, capabilities and price, is exactly what I was looking for," says Kvacka, who has several years' experience of mixing on a Midas PRO6. "The PRO2 gives me everything that I need."

(J

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UK - CP Sound has completed a full sound system installation at an upmarket Mexican restaurant in London's Soho district.

The brainchild of Will Ricker (who heads up Ricker Restaurants), top New York nightlife designer, impresario and 'cultural engineer' Serge Becker was brought in to create the interior of this two-in-one operation. With a fully featured DJ booth set downstairs in the 95-cover basement restaurant lounge, the designer, also responsible for such places as the similarly conceived La Esquina as well as Joe's Pub and The Mercer Hotel - specified RCF sound reinforcement throughout, based on his positive experiences with the brand in the Big Apple.

Designing the sound for the hacienda style basement into five zones, Colin Pattenden of CP Sound has wall-mounted four C3110 full range, compact 10" + 1.5" horn, wide-dispersion, low profile loudspeakers, one in

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France - Key debates of the Council of Europe are now taking place under a double cluster of Nexo Geo loudspeakers in its primary Strasbourg council chamber.

Not to be confused with the EU, the Conseil d'Europe is primarily concerned with ensuring legal and cultural cooperation between the 47 countries of Europe, with responsibility for human rights and democratic development. Under the famous blue flag with its 12 stars, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe uses the large debating chamber in the centre of the Palace of Europe, called the Hemicycle, famous for its unusual architecture.

This auditorium has been equipped with a substantial Nexo Geo S8 speech reinforcement system by installation company Lagoona. According to Denis Fenninger from Lagoona, the most important criteria in the tender process were for perfect speech intelligibility and uniform sound cove

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UK - A.C. Special Projects (ACSP) have recently completed the design, supply and installation of a sound, AV and lighting system at the new Moyes Centre @ DYCA (the David Young Community Academy) in Leeds.

The first Academy of its kind to open in Leeds, DYCA has pioneered the development of new, innovative and engaging methods of teaching and learning. The Moyes Centre is a £3.35m new build created as part of the Government's (DCSF) £200m investment in creative co-location projects.

The programme is an initiative that has re-located various key community services to work as a cohesive team in one central location, addressing and improving local circumstances from within the heart of the community.

The project was managed for ACSP by Lance Bromhead, who co-ordinated closely with DYCA's operations manager, Graham Thornton.

ACSP's brief was to provide technology t

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Australia - Gasworks Arts Park is a vibrant arts precinct producing a range of high-quality arts programs, workshops and activities for every age, ability, interest and audience. Situated in Albert Park, Melbourne, on the site of the former South Melbourne Gas Plant, Gasworks is just three kilometres from the CBD and the precinct houses four hectares of park, two theatres, three gallery spaces, a café, as well as function and workshop spaces.

According to Michele Domonkos, operations & human resources manager, it was desperation that led her to purchase ETC Source Four Fresnels for the precinct's theatres.

"We really needed some uniformity in our lantern stock," she remarked. "We had a lot of mismatched fixtures, mostly well past their used by date. The reflectors were worn and sourcing the various parts to maintain the old and broken lanterns was becomin

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Norway - Manchester based lighting and visuals specialist dbn has specified and installed a custom LED lighting and control solution for the new set of the Norwegian National Lottery which is operated by Norsk Tipping AS.

dbn's project manager was Nigel Walker, and they were working for UK based Stage One Creative Services, with whom Walker has enjoyed a long and successful working relationship. Stage One in turn was commissioned by producers Fabelactiv, to deliver a set for the high profile show which is broadcast from their HD studios in Hamer via national TV channel, NRK.

Stage One appointed Nick King to design the spectacular set, and then asked dbn to interpret the prominent lighting elements of the resulting 15m wide scenic environment, a streamlined fusion of interlocking curves made from frosted acrylic material and backlit with LEDs, embracing retro and futuristic in

  1. Kenkaato makes big impact in Doha
  2. RTS systems at Birmingham Ormiston Academy
  3. Nick Gray visuals highlights Wool Modern
  4. Audio Technique adds APG Uniline
  5. Chauvet Europe heads for ABTT Theatre Show
  6. Le Mark's PAL labels for Telegenic
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