New Zealand - Grease, the original stage version of one of the highest-grossing musical movies ever, opened in Wellington's Opera House with Christchurch based Redd Acoustics providing audio with a little help from an XTA D2 dynamics processor.

The musical was born in a disused Chicago tram shed in 1971 as an experimental amateur show and by 1979 it was the longest-running show on Broadway and a hit movie. The Wellington Musical Theatre version met the challenge with a PA comprising ElectroVoice loudspeaker cabinets and M-Audio Monitors handled the band foldback along with the XTA processing.

XTA's SiDD (Seriously Intelligent Digital Dynamics) is already assisting in London's West End and on Broadway, but the multiband D2 Dynamic EQ was used on the Christchurch job. Systems and

UK / Spain - Xtreme Audio Visual, the Clacton-on-Sea-based sound and lighting installation company which won the key contract to fit out the Guru superclub in Valencia, has created a new open-air dance terrace at the venue, featuring an ElectroVoice dancefloor system in keeping with Guru's use of EV and Dynacord products throughout the venue. All EV and Dynacord product was supplied by Shuttlesound, the UK distributor, to Xtreme AV.

Nirvana, the latest space, has been created by removing all the walls, leaving just the roof so that it works as a covered terrace. The VIP room has been integrated with the terrace, and both areas are integrated with the rest of Guru's rooms via the BSS Soundweb network which Xtreme installed last year. There is an ElectroVoice RX system for the main dancefloor, featuring four RX218s and four RX212s, two RX112s and four RX115s. This system is power

UKBosch Security Systems scored another major success for its DCN Digital Congress Network system when it was chosen by the Irish government to provide high quality international and portable conferencing facilities at various regional venues throughout the country during Ireland's Presidency of the EU. Featuring portability, the new DCN Concentus system provides multi-lingual translation facilities using the latest Integrus infrared audio language distribution system for secure interference-free audio distribution in any language at the touch of a button anywhere in the debating chamber.

Another Bosch DCN system is already used every day in the main Irish Parliament in Dublin so the Irish government know its capabilities very well. It is also used in many other EU parliaments including Brussels and the new Scottish parliament building in Edinburgh.

Provided and installed by

Italy/USA - LDR recently announced the launch of the new Canto 250HR ceramic followspot, the result of cooperation between Philips Lighting and LDR. The new Canto 250HR is based on the new ceramic lamp from Philips, which provides 3200 K and a CRI>90 whilst using only a quarter of the power consumption of a 1KW halogen lamp.

The ST250Hr lamp offers all the benefits of ceramic technology for applications that until now have been the preserve of halogen lamps. This followspot features a well defined beam, a large side handle to control pan and tilt movement and a double microswitch interlock for safe bulb replacement. The fan-free cooling system makes it ideal for TV studios and theatre applications. Lamp, iris, mechanical dimmer, spigot, colour frame and 2m mains cable are included as standard, and a five-colour colour changer is available as an optional extra.

The new Canto 25

Czech Republic - Apogee Sound International, the US manufacturer of sound reinforcement products for the pro audio industry, has announced that the new Sazka Arena in Prague, Czech Republic, has installed 98 Apogee APL Series powered loudspeakers. The Apogee system consists of 90 Apogee APL-500DSP and eight Apogee APL-800DSP loudspeakers, networked and controlled by Apogee Digital Audio Management (ADAM) software. The new arena was designed and built in just 28 months to be ready for the opening of the 2004 IIHF World Hockey Championships in Prague.

The Sazka Arena's Apogee system was designed by Soning, one of the Czech Republic's leading consulting firms, as were other audio/video and broadcast systems in the venue. According to Andrej Hronec, owner of AudioPro, Apogee's distributor in Prague, Soning focused heavily on the latest technologies to ease the normally difficult ta

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ETC Halcyon Silent

High End Systems Halcyon Silent builds on ETC’s legacy of fanless automated fixtures by incorporating features from the highly sought-after Halcyon family. Halcyon Silent perfectly balances silent operation with brilliant output of 18,400 lumens and high-impact features. 

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Japan - Asahi Kasei Microsystems (AKM), a leading supplier of audio ICs for professional and consumer markets, recently introduced the AK4113 - a 192 kHz digital audio interface receiver (DIR) with a wide sampling rate. The six-channel input AK4113 supersedes the four-channel AK4112B, which has been widely used in AV amplifiers as a cost-saving version of the AK4114 without transmission functions. It supports wide sampling rates from 8kHz to 216kHz.The AK4113 is fully compatible with AES3, IEC60958, S/PDIF and EIAJ-CP1201 standards for AV amplifiers, DVD receivers and DTVs. It also supports 24-bit 192 kHz PCM data and Non-PCM data streaming like Dolby Digital/MPEG etc.

Like the AK4114, it features a Q-subcode buffer for audio CD, built-in 40-bit channel status buffer and incorporates a non-PCM detection function for identifying DTS-CD data. Compared with the AK4112B, the AK4113

Italy - The premiere of Shark Tale - Dreamworks' and distributor UIP's latest animated creation - was staged in spectacular style in Venice's historic Piazza San Marco (St Mark's Square) as part of the 2004 Venice Film Festival. Show producers Bob Collins and Sean Glen of Me3 Productions from California brought in UK-based technical production specialist Andy Peat Associates and Venetian production company TESE to realize this major feat of technical production.

This is the first time a show of this nature has been granted permission to take place in the Piazza San Marco, a world heritage site and home to thousands of pigeons. The audience was joined by the film's star 'voice-over talent' including Will Smith, Robert de Niro and Angelina Jolie, along with the film's producers and directors. In addition to the 500 VIPs, approximately 5,500 local guests also enjoyed the evening - free -

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Create new traditions – Cameo P6 - High Output Full-Spectrum Ellipsoidal

Cameo's P6 is a future-proof LED profiler with a powerful 600 W RGBACL engine and 16,000 lumens. It’s an energy-efficient replacement for 2.5 kW halogen profile lights in theatres and venues. With excellent light quality and natural colour rendering, it fits perfectly in theatres, musicals, TV studios, congresses, and live events.

With an LED life of 50,000 hours and low power use, the P6 cuts energy costs and supports the EU’s ‘Green Deal’ goals for climate neutrality by 2050. It also meets updated eco-design rules for lighting.

www.cameolight.com/p6profile

UK - Automation specialist Kinesys has completed the design, specification, and installation of a new automation system for the mother grid at the National Indoor Arena (NIA) in Birmingham. According to Kinesys, this makes the NIA one of the safest and most flexible venues for rigging in the UK.

With an increasingly diverse schedule of events, the hall's rigging upgrade was prompted primarily by general health and safety concerns. Working closely with the venue's head of rigging Paul Rowlands and rigging and motor supplier Bridgehouse, Kinesys' Dave Weatherhead devised a customized control system to the venue's initial brief.

A major challenge was that all Kinesys' distro racks, patchbays and control gear had to be mounted within the grid itself. This was for neatness and to minimize cable runs, for which Kinesys also developed a series of customized cable trays that run neatly with

Russia - The organizers of the Musikmesse/Prolight+Sound St. Petersburg exhibition have announced that in future the event will be organized solely by Messe Frankfurt's Russian partner, Lenexpo. The decision was taken by the organizers, Messe Frankfurt GmbH and Lenexpo Exhibition and Trade Fair Company, and communicated to the exhibitors and other interested parties at the end of September.

Last year, the second trade fair for musical instruments and accessories, lighting, sound and event technology in the Northwest Region of the Russian Federation, enabled around 300 exhibitors to make contact with some 8,000 visitors at the exhibition centre in St. Petersburg. Nevertheless, the results of this edition showed that the expectations of Messe Frankfurt in terms of event growth and profitability were unlikely to be fulfilled in the medium term. "Musikmesse/Prolight+Sound St.

France - Loud Technologies Inc. announced the appointment of Impact Evénement as the new distributors of the EAW and EAW Commercial brands in France with immediate effect.

According to EAW's European sales manager, Sean Martin, Impact is ideally placed to represent the EAW brand in France. "We are all very eager to start doing business," confirmed Martin. "From our perspective, Impact's set-up and structure is superb with imposing premises on the outskirts of Paris. Their distribution expertise is already second to none, and their audio expertise is guaranteed with the appointment of ex-EAW representative Bruno Ghidionesco to the Impact team. As distributors of high-end lighting equipment, Impact already has strong relationships with many of EAW's key customers in France, and of course, as EAW is the only audio line they represent, we can be sure that there are n

UK/Ireland - Acclaimed sound engineer Moray McMillin has been appointed pro audio sales manager South/National Concert Sound Specialist for John Hornby Skewes & Co. Ltd - the exclusive UK and Eire distributor for HK Audio. From Nov 1st, a, dealing with the continuing acceleration of interest in HK Audio pro audio systems, concentrating on the mainly southern section of the UK.

McMillin is a hugely experienced sound engineer with over 30 years of top flight experience under his belt. He has toured the world many times over with major rock acts such as Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Dio, Whitesnake, Souxsie and The Banshees and Suzanne Vega. "The last nine years have been spent touring worldwide with Deep Purple," explains Moray. "That was a wonderful experience as innovation and quality of sound is very important to the band. Consequently, I was given the opportunity

UK/USA - PLASA - the Professional Lighting and Sound Association - has announced a joint initiative with CMP Princeton, the organizers of the annual Seatrade Cruise Shipping Convention, to launch a new pavilion at the event in 2005, focusing directly on lighting, audio, AV and staging technologies.

The new PLASA@Sea Pavilion will form a key element of this annual cruise-related trade show and conference which is the largest gathering of cruise line owners, operators and suppliers in the world. More than 9,000 people from 116 countries, including over 1,000 senior cruise line executives attended Seatrade 2004.

Whilst the Conference will offer a four-day programme of targeted seminars and meetings, the exhibition will showcase the latest innovations in marine technology, with PLASA@Sea providing a connection to recent developments in entertainment and leisure-based technology. A

UK - Creative Technology has collaborated with set designer Markus Blee to create a spectacular 'virtual' LED backdrop at the Riverside Studios in Hammersmith for the final of the MTV Shakedown with Wade Robson, in which lighting and visuals are projected into a 'virtual' LED environment by two double-head Catalyst systems.

Markus Blee presented Adrian Offord and Stuart Young of CT and TV lighting director Gurdip Mahal, with two projected models of the design. Some 138sq.m of 25mm LED display was to be arranged in random shapes, the multi-faced media display enveloping the performers, set off by two 9sq.m Barco iLite 8 panels - one upstage centre of the dancefloor and the other offstage left. The content, provided by moving light operator Ross Williams, would be fired to the four colour-coded 25mm zones via the Catalysts, while the higher resolution Barco screens would take a mixture o

Norway - The term 'multi-talented' takes on a new dimension in the case of Jo Nesbø, a remarkable Norwegian artist whose career moves to date include stockbroker, professional footballer, novelist, pop artist and - most recently - writer and composer of a musical.

Born in 1960, Jo Nesbø's latest work, 90-Meters Bakken, an allegorical piece about the tribulations of moving to and growing up in the small town of Molde, Norway, has sold out in its initial theatre run, and is about to tour the country with a substantial live sound and lighting production.

Norway enjoys one of the world's highest standards of living - and consequently one of the world's highest concentrations of professional entertainment technology. This has helped provide Nesbø with an enviable touring production for his new work, with a Renkus-Heinz PN102LA self-powered line array PA, Martin Audio monitors, TC Elect

UK - London's Brixton Academy was the location for Canegreen's recent free training day. As a leading supplier of professional sound reinforcement in the UK, Canegreen said they realized the value of investing in a training day set to equip freelancers with the necessary skills required to match the company's demands.

Richard Martin and Pete Hughes with MD Yan Stile developed the idea. Experienced members of Canegreen's staff taught the next generation of staff and freelancers the skills required to work safely and efficiently at events. Focusing on line-array rigging, attendees gained an understanding of the processes involved in setting up events, from opening the back of the lorry and loading in, to rigging line-array speaker systems, de-rigging and loading out. Some attendees used the day as a refresher course, whilst others used it to advance their basic skills. The day allowed pe

UK - Ensuring uninterrupted, safe and reliable power to the stages and numerous hospitality areas of a festival the size of V is no mean feat. Power is essential to everything that happens on a festival site from stage lighting, sound and AV to the toilets flushing, showers running and car parks and campsites lighting up at night. From the first day of the fit up to the last hour of the out and of course throughout the event itself, the one thing that cannot go off is the power.

The responsibility for site power for V at the Chelmsford site this year fell to Power Logistics. And with 65,000 people coming to see over 50 acts playing on four stages in Hylands Park - plus the DJ and sponsored dance tents, catering vans and stalls, backstage hospitality areas, campsites and car parks, toilets and showers - power distribution can be a logistical nightmare.

The production team found itself

UK - Bandit Lites UK is supplying lighting production for the UK and European leg of the Moody Blues' 2004 world tour. Bandit Lites Inc also services the band's lengthy annual American tours. Other territories on the current itinerary include Australia and New Zealand in early 2005.

Lighting designer Mick Thornton has worked with the band for the last five years, each tour turning the stage into a completely different and eye-catching visual environment for the performance. Keeping to a basic front and back truss format for his primary building blocks, this year Thornton added three overhead triangular trusses which move, and four vertical upstage towers.

The stage set - as devised by Thornton - is all in white, including the cyc, which has a four-channel star cloth behind it and the stage floor, which is covered by a white carpet. Parts of the set also have white scrim stretc

UK - The Queen Elizabeth Hall on London's south bank has been closed for much of this summer whilst undergoing a substantial refurbishment programme. The stage area in particular required a major overhaul and has undergone significant modernisation. ELP were brought in to strip out the old rigging structures and install a brand new, high spec rig.

"We were well placed to take the job on" explains ELP project manager Toby Dare "as we already provide all the rigging services for the Royal Festival Hall next door. We proposed and designed a new grid system for the QEH which would be flexible enough to accommodate the diverse range of productions the Hall now caters for. These now vary from orchestral performances, through to theatre, circus and modern dance."

Over a six-week period, (from the end of July to early September 2004) the ELP crew stripped out all

USA - To coincide with the US launch of its new digital mixing console, the D1, DiGiCo will be giving away two DiGiCo D1 USB MP3 watches in a free prize draw at LDI. The draw will take place half an hour before close of show on Friday and Saturday on DiGiCo Booth #2728 and all entrants must have taken a demonstration of the new D1 console during the show.

"We're very excited about both the launch of the D1," says DiGiCo marketing director, David Webster. "And we're celebrating this with a prize that fits the occasion. Our original USB watches have proved to be incredibly popular, having all the convenience of DiGiCo's D5 pocket sized USB key, which can store all the desk settings for an entire show, with the added convenience of a watch. Now we're giving away all that plus an integral MP3 player. It doesn't get much better!"

(Sarah Rushton-Read)

UK - Warrington Borough Council has built a new 24-hour security monitoring control room facility to improve its continued commitment to combat crime. A command wall system incorporating JVC's high resolution D-ILA DLA-SX21 projector and rear projection CinePro screens was specified by Industry Consultant Faber Maunsell.

Jason Todhunter, associate director at Faber Maunsell designed and planned the new facility, and has undertaken all technical project supervision. "Warrington Borough Council required a cutting edge control room facility. Previously CCTV monitoring was undertaken from an outdated control room within Warrington's police headquarters. The new development incorporates Warrington Borough Council's security monitoring as well as care call and emergency planning services," commented Todhunter.

Images displayed on the JVC command wall system are fed from ex

Italy - Although Italian EMI recording artist Vasco Rossi is over 50, he's definitely still the country's rock "enfant terrible" and his huge popularity with young fans was once again confirmed by the crowds at his recent Clear Channel-produced tour to promote his latest album "Buoni e Cattivi" (the Good and the Bad). In fact, the tour kicked off with a sold-out gig at Rome's Olimpico soccer stadium and ran to packed stadia, before finishing with a free show in Catanzaro, to a reported audience of 400,000.

Vasco's fans expect maximum visual impact from his shows and this was no exception: Grandi Schermi (Large Screens), a business unit of Euphon Communication, was responsible for the supply, installation and technical assistance for The three Lighthouse Technologies LED screens used on the impressive set designed by Giò Forma, and Rome's Limelite supplied a

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