France - Genesis Networks recently teamed up with digital audio solutions specialist Digigram to provide broadcast services to France's leading pay-television channel Canal Plus for their coverage of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa and the Wimbledon Tennis Championships in the UK.

Genesis needed to transmit 10 broadcast quality duplex audio channels between South Africa and France, and similarly, six duplex channels between Wimbledon and France. Digigram was able to provide a simple and cost-effective solution based on the IQOYA*SERV/LINK multiple stereo / multichannel IP audio distribution codec.

In this instance, Digigram provided six IQOYA*SERV/LINK devices for a fully redundant contribution system; one 'main' unit and a second unit for redundancy purposes for each site (Wimbledon, Paris, South Africa). The flexibility and scalability of the IQOYA*SERV/LINK system meant

Russia - With Over 200,000 DMX Channels, the Kremlin State Palace is one the largest architectural LED installations worldwide. Formerly known as the Kremlin Palace of Congresses, it was built in 1961 and intended for use as a modern arena for Communist Party meetings, congresses, performances and concerts.

It contains over 800 rooms, and its central space remains one of Europe's biggest auditoriums with seating to accommodate 6000. Today the space is used primarily for concerts and ballet performances, is home to Kremlin Ballet Theatre, and acts as a second stage for the Bolshoi Theatre.

The main auditorium is encased by towering walls which, during the recent contemporary update led by architects from the studio OTASH, were plated with RGB LED panels creating two vast curvilinear LED screens (25mx60m).

Centrally controlled by an e:cue lighting control system, the new multi

UK - Cloud Electronics has announced the addition of six new distributors, now representing the Cloud brand across Europe and the Nordic region.

In the Nordic region, Standard Audio Systems AB represents Cloud in Sweden, while in Denmark, DTK Audio Produkter is flying the flag.

The BeNeLux area is covered by two companies - Mennegat Trading BV across the Netherlands region with M-Pro BeNeLux BVBA providing for Belgium and Luxembourg.

Sound Directions SARL France is the new distributor for France, as Show Supply is for Switzerland.

"The appointment of so many new distributors at one time is unprecedented for us and reflects our ongoing strategy to strengthen our brand throughout EMEA," says Mark Bracken, Cloud sales manager EMEA.

(Jim Evans)

USA - New York's Major League Soccer team, the New York Red Bulls, finally have a place to call home. The new Red Bull Arena, in Harrison, New Jersey, was completed on 20 March 2010, and features an EAW-based sound system.

The arena features a European design, with a canopy that encircles the entire two-tiered seating area. The first row seats are approximately 21ft from the touchlines, while the following rows are steeply raked, creating an intimate experience for fans that are closer to the playing field than in traditional US soccer stadiums.

This is the only soccer stadium of its kind in the United States, states Brian Elwell, project manager for Acoustic Dimensions. A catwalk that follows the path of the canopy made access to the hang points easier, but the proximity of the canopy to the seats created coverage challenges for the PA system design.

The closer speakers wer

Financial Matters - U2 have been the world's biggest-selling band over the past 12 months, raking in $130m (£84.9m), according to the website Forbes.com. The Irish group have been staging their global 360 tour in support of their album No Line on the Horizon. They claim the title despite singer Bono's bad back forcing them to cancel a Glastonbury festival appearance.

AC/DC were in second place with $114m (£74.5m) followed by Beyonce Knowles on $87m (£56.8m). Bruce Springsteen was fourth on the list with $70m (£45.7m).

One of the few relatively youthful acts on the list was Lady Gaga, who has amassed $62m (£40.5m) in the year to date, according to the website. The singer has been performing the Monster Ball tour around the world. Madonna demonstrated that she remains a major player in the music industry by coming in at eighth place, w

UK - Equipment produced by a North East company is helping to ensure the safety of the Tate Britain Art Gallery in London.

Attracting over one a half million visitors a year, the gallery, at Milbank in London, has joined the list of major buildings across the world using products from Sunderland-based Current Thinking.

The gallery, through its facilities managers SPIE Matthew Hall, faced the challenge of replacing its ageing voice alarm system and one of the key benefits of using Current Thinking's products was that it could be installed with the minimum of disruption to the fabric of the historic building.

Current Thinking managing director Anthony Smith says, "What appealed to the gallery - and to the installers VA Systems - was that our equipment enabled the use of the existing speaker installations at the same time as enabling the upgrading of the overall system to

USA - BSR E1.17 - 201x, Entertainment Technology - Architecture for Control Networks, has been posted for review at www.esta.org/tsp/documents/public_review_docs.php. The draft standard is a suite of documents that revise sections of the existing ANSI E1.17 - 2006.

The revisions include changes to the Device Description Language, the Session Data Transport protocol, the Device Management Protocol, and to various EPIs.The revisions are being done to correct errors and to add additional functionality to the standard. The review period runs through 23 August. The review is over when 24 August starts. Responses must be submitted before then to be considered.

ANSI E1.17-2006, Entertainment Technology - Architecture for Control Networks (ACN), is a suite of documents that specifies an architecture, including protocols and language, that may be configured and combined w

USA - The Entertainment Technician Certification Programme Council has confirmed that the Navigator Automation Class at Fisher Technical Services, Inc. (FTSI) has been approved as an ETCP Recognised Training Programme.

FTSI's four-day course gives students an overall view of the principles of entertainment automation systems and teaches the basics of how to configure and programme an automation system using FTSI's Navigator hardware and software.

The course is taught by Dana Bartholomew, a vice president of Fisher Technical Services, who has over 26 years of theatre automation experience. Bartholomew is one of the foremost experts on both Navigator software and practical installations. She is involved with the development of industry standards as a member of ESTA's Rigging Working Group. At Fisher Technical Services, she has been integral to the design, manufacturing, and inst

UK - Arcola Theatre launched seven of its new HyLight fuel cell powered lighting systems across the Latitude Festival site; providing lighting for everything from marquees, to forest performances to toilets, as well as powering laptops, phone chargers and ticket machines.

HyLight is the first fuel cell product to be developed specifically for the events industry and offers the high reliability demanded through an onboard 'brain' which monitors performance and seamlessly switches to battery back-up in case of fault or user error.

Running on hydrogen, with a run time of 50 hours between refills, the system produces zero emissions and is almost silent. Carbon emission reductions of up to 60% are likely in performance settings through use of the latest LED lighting. The system is also suitable for safety and security lighting where emission reductions of up to 90% are possible by

UK - MTR has introduced the next product in the stageClix family, the stageClix 'Pack', a belt-pack version of the 'Jack' digital wireless system from Holland.

The 'Pack' continues to provide all the features of the 'Jack' for which stageClix is already well known. These include rechargeable NIMH batteries, receiver with a built

in charger, 15 hours playing time on one charge, no menus, no compander, a frequency response of 10Hz-20kHz ±3db, 24 bit digital converters, no audible latency (2.4 ms), twelve user selectable channels, encoded transmission, and unique triple-diversity, 3 frequency transmission in each of the 12 channels simultaneously.

And like the 'Jack', the 'Pack' operates in the 2.4GHz band, legal throughout the EU and beyond, and completely sidestepping the government frequency sell-off problem.

The 'Pack' transmitter has two inputs: a 3.5mm high impedance j

UK - The Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2010, a bold geometric structure designed by Jean Nouvel, has opened to the public.

The main build contractor, was Stage One. The company was responsible for the manufacture and installation of all the structural steelwork, flooring, a 12m high freestanding wall leaning at a 30º angle, central canopy area, seven metre high steel-framed glass cube section and bar/café areas - all in striking shades of red.

"We are honoured to have been asked to construct the prestigious Serpentine Gallery Pavilion for the second year running," said Mark Johnson, managing director, Stage One. Our involvement in the construction of the 2010 Pavilion, which required completely different manufacturing capabilities to the 2009 Pavilion, highlights the truly diverse range of skills and services we can offer to our clients.

The company worked cl

UK - Black Light has announced the launch of a new course for professional

technicians working in the theatrical or events industries. The course, Rigging and Working at Height in the Entertainment Industry, is designed to provide the knowledge and practical guidance needed to work safely when rigging equipment high above a stage or auditorium.

Over three days, course attendees will learn from industry professionals and trained instructors on all aspects of safe working at height. Classroom-based theory, hands-on practical sessions and discussion groups are all part of the package which is aimed at keeping everyone involved and active throughout.

"Falls from height continue to be one of the biggest causes of workplace injury and death. Theatres and stages can be particularly hazardous places to work," says Black Light's technical manager Craig Collin. "

Italy/Norway - Aethra.net and Videoworks AS a company with headquarters in Oslo, Norway, holding an OEM agreement with Sony Japan for Europe, have signed an agreement of exclusive distribution for the territory of Italy.

"We are extremely proud of this agreement which will further strengthen the position of Aethra.net and its partners in the Italian market," said Luigi Astoirii MD of aethra.net. "The distribution of Videoworks videoconferencing products based on Sony technology creates an absolutely different value proposition in the market."

Along with the products , Aethra.net will be able to render a number of converged services including multi-video conferencing in hosted and managed modes and

webcasting, audio conferencing, room design and installation.

"Adding Aethra.net as a partner for Videoworks brings great value with their deep knowledge

South Africa - Ministry of illusion's work featured strongly in the 2010 World Cup closing ceremony. Contracted by the VWV Group, the ceremony's producer, MOI was mandated with conceptualising and delivering on all aspects of the digital effects and post production for the World Cup closing event.

"Being invited to join the conceptualisation phase of the ceremony gave us creative licence; it also meant our team got to work with some of the best brains in our industry. There were a large number of elements to our work, but it seems the real crowd pleasers were the watering hole, the marimba, and the newspaper," said Gerd Müller, MD of Ministry of illusion.

The animation software used by MOI for the entire project was 3D Maya and Autodesk Flint and was rendered using Quicktime Animations at 50p (50 frames per second). It included the compositing o

USA - Martin Professional's new M1 lighting controller was recently used to control a large LED lighting system for Independence Eve, a patriotic concert celebration held in Denver, Colorado's historic Civic Centre Park.

Full service LED lighting company Blazen Illuminations of Loveland, Colorado produced the lighting for the event. Blazen owner Nate Webb, who served as lighting designer, commented on the new console, "The M1 performed flawlessly and made it possible to do this event without all of the heavy lifting. Setting up the console took about two minutes and we were up and running."

Webb continued, "The M1 has all the great controls of the bigger consoles but without the heavy motorized faders. There was no learning curve from the Maxxyz to the M1, it's all there. The standard 10 cuelist faders and the 12 playback faders make it easy to control an

Canada - Now in its 23rd year, the Toronto Jazz Festival has grown from an ambitious upstart to become one of the world's premier jazz events, attracting some 500,000 visitors annually for 10 days of music that features jazz legends and newcomers, and even well-known musicians of other jazz-inspired genres.

This year's festival brought Maceo Parker, Herbie Hancock, and Harry Connick, Jr., as well as The Roots, Taj Mahal, Chaka Khan, and Macy Gray to the largest city in Canada. To accommodate all of the acts at the 1,200-seat Nathan Phillip Square main stage and the demands of their engineers, FOH guru Brad Mulligan set up the new Innovason Eclipse digital console to have a predictable 'analogue' topology.

For almost all of the engineers, it was their introduction to Innovason's M.A.R.S. integrated multitrack recording system, which allowed them to record portions of the soundc

UK - Stage Electrics recently supplied Beyond Certainty with a high performance LED video screen during the month of June. The 3.1m x 2.4m indoor screen was ground staked on a stage in the glass atrium built on the terrace at Devonshire Terrace restaurant, located in London in the City financial area.

The screen was utilised to show various sporting events such as the 2010 World Cup in South Africa and Wimbledon for city traders who frequent the restaurant.

Mark Larcombe, account manager at Stage Electrics said, "Our high quality video screen was ideal for this venue. The fact that the screen was located in the restaurant's glass atrium didn't diminish the picture quality - even in daylight. Our client was extremely happy with how well the screen performed."

(Jim Evans)

Italy - Proel features in installation projects for several venues in San Teodoro, just a few kilometers from Sardinia's Emerald Coast. Quadra Luce & Design, a company based in Pesaro, chose Proel's systems for sound reinforcement in the Bal Harbour Restaurant and the Ripping Discotheque.

Both projects, designed by architect Marco Lucchi, benefited from the cooperation of AFA Arredamenti, a leading company in wooden and custom furnishings, which took care of the details regarding style and design.

Bal Harbour Restaurant and Beach Bar features a wide terrace with a swimming pool and restaurant. Its Proel Audio System includes 18 TFLV12P satellites, 10 TFLV115SP subs, six PRL250, 6 PRL600, and six PRL950 amplifiers, all controlled by AMX systems.

The Ripping Discotheque, located in San Teodoro's town centre features two dance floors, Black Diamond and White Diamond, where Proe

UK - BSS Soundweb London digital building blocks have been used to control three karaoke pods in Red Monkey, a new Japanese-themed diner in Clapham's Battersea Rise.

F1:Sound Company undertook the technical fit-out of the new Asian-inspired lounge and karaoke bar for Sanzaru - formed by MD Steve Kelly, with Jeff Veitch and Toby Cobb.

The three karaoke pods are running Lucky Voice software and IT as part of the powerby.Luckyvoice scheme (another karaoke concept with which the F1:Sound team are closely associated).

The venue, which has been created in collaboration with Focus Design, features three karaoke pods for up to 20 guests each, down in its basement. On the ground floor, which is split into four separate sound zones, guests dine on Asian cuisine and drink cocktails while listening to an eclectic mix of funk, soul, blues, chilled house, Motown and lounge.

F1:Sound's d

UK - The Association of British Theatre Technicians (ABTT) has temporarily withdrawn the Guide To Access For Work At Heights In Theatre Code of Practice.

This follows the withdrawal of the Manufacturer's Instructions containing a section on moving an occupied Tallescope, consequential upon actions by the Health and Safety Executive.

The Manufacturer's Instructions are reprinted in the ABTT Code of Practice. Whilst believing the method contained in the Code of Practice to be safe, the ABTT strongly recommends that an occupied Tallescope is not moved until this matter is resolved.

(Jim Evans)

USA - In preparation for the 2010 NBA Play Offs, Oklahoma City Thunder decided to upgrade the existing analogue FOH console in its Ford Centre arena to an Allen & Heath iLive digital system.

"The Thunder organisation was concerned that Ford Centre's sound system wasn't adequate to handle the playoffs," says Jerry Hooper, owner of Hooper Sound Production Services in Norman, Oklahoma. "The Thunder fans are among the loudest in the NBA, and a playoff scenario against the defending champion, Los Angeles Lakers, was sure to test the limits of the current system. We determined that the analogue FOH console was the weakest link in their situation."

Hooper consulted the house sound engineer for the arena, Jeremy Griffin, and recommended the Allen & Heath iLive, largely for its ability to be quickly integrated.

"We brought in an iLive-144 console and tied it

UK - PLASA 2010 will see Women in Stage Entertainment (WISE) - an organisation established to address under representation of women in the entertainment technology sector - host Tea O-Clock, on the White Light stand, Earls Court 2 from 4 -6pm daily.

Olivier award winning lighting designer and co-founder of WISE, Paule Constable, comments, "Each day WISE members from all sectors - sound, AV, lighting, rigging - will offer PLASA Show visitors a calm oasis from the frenetic show floor. We will by providing refreshing mugs of scalding tea, fabulously tasty home baked cakes, an empathetic ear and some scintillating conversation. Tea O Clockis open to anyone attending the PLASA 2010 trade show and everyone who drops by is guaranteed a warm welcome from our WISE members. Details of who will be available and on what day will be confirmed on the WISE and the PLASA Show

France - Now in its 13th year, the Cognac Festival (la Fete du Cognac) was originally born of an initiative from a group of young winegrowers wanting to boost the profile and celebrate the world's most famous brandy. The four-day festival which took place on the marina in Cognac in south-western France attracted some 15,000 visitors from 8-11 July who came to savour the local gastronomy and listen to music from some of France's most reputed artists.

Festival organisers, the Association Fete du Cognac, called on local rental company Atlantic Sono to supply and run all of the audio equipment, who partnered up with Alpha Audio to provide the main PA and stage monitor system, all comprised of APG equipment.

Atlantic Sono's Yann Henard explained that the festival has been growing in size and popularity every year, and this year they required a much bigger and more powerful s

South Africa - Wild & Marr recently installed Crown amplifiers to power sound at World Cup venue Moses Mabhida Stadium. The stadium also features AKG, BSS Audio, JBL, and Soundcraft components as part of the sound reinforcement system.

Situated in Durban, the new stadium has a capacity of 70,000 and hosted five group games, one second round game, and a semi-final match during the World Cup. The venue is named after Moses Mabhida, a former General Secretary of the South African Communist Party. The stadium's design is highlighted by an arch, which represents the once divided nation of South Africa coming together.

The Moses Mabhida Stadium system installation was handled by South African Harman Professional distributor Wild & Marr and features 74 Crown I-Tech 4000, 36 I-Tech 8000 and 33 CTs 4200USP/CN amplifiers. Signal processing is provided by BSS Audio with three BLU-800 de

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