UK - XL Video renews its acquaintance with Roger Waters, supplying projection to the current tour plus an IMAG system to selected shows, which included his performance in London's Hyde Park last weekend.

Waters' is renowned for pioneering the integration and use of provocative moving images into his work, and this is no exception, with a complex, expressive and compelling video narrative running for the entire show. Video is a fundamental to a performance shot through with many serious political and psychological threads. It's acts an additional player onstage, with every image ands sequence loaded with meaning and relevance.

The tour has also visited some more off-circuit corners of the world, including Tel Aviv, Stavanger (Norway), Moscow and Istanbul. The first half of the sh

Denmark - TC Electronic has announced availability of two new TDM reverb plug-ins ported directly from the System 6000. Available for Mac and Windows/Venue, the DVR2 Digital Vintage Reverb and NonLin2 Stereo Effects Reverb are now shipping.

DVR2 is the most precise EMT250 emulator to date, suitable for both studio and live use, say TC Electronic. It presents fine-tuned qualities of the original processor such as sweet modulation, spectral balance, spaciousness and saturation. The Vintage Reset function produces a sound very close to a well-preserved EMT250, which is still a favorite on lead vocals in studios fortunate enough to own one.

NonLin2 is an effects reverb offering easy-to-tailor compact room-feel applicable on any lead vocal or mix. Unlike the traditional natural sounding TC reverbs, NonLin2 is capable of generating compact vocal ambience, percussive and dramatic dru

Germany - Fan Fest, Germany's longest running party held from 7 June to 9 July as part of the FIFA World Cup, saw 100,000 football fans all watching giant video screens in four areas with a total screen size of 234sq.m including a 60sq.m screen above the stage, situated at that most iconic symbol of Berlin, the Brandenburg Gate.

The whole Fan Fest area runs for two kilometres on the Strasse des 17 Juni finishing at the Victory Column and is known as Fan Mile, an area of around 77,000 square meters, equivalent to 12 football pitches.

Of course, a vital ingredient for this area is a sound system capable of delivering good quality sound for fans to experience the whole World Cup match atmosphere, as well as provide sound for the peripheral events. Once the matches are over each day, Fan Mile turns into Berlin's biggest dance floor. Every day at midnight a laser show heralds the s

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Strictly FX, Pushing Boundaries

Strictly FX was founded in 1996 by industry veterans Mark Grega and Ted Maccabee. Our expertise and knowledge of the world’s leading pyrotechnic, laser, and flame manufacturers allows us to curate astonishing live events. With over 500+ shows performed a year, there’s good chance you’ve seen some of our work!

UK - Autograph, the theatre sound supply specialist, has just been awarded the contract to supply the West End Production of Dirty Dancing. The musical version of the 1980s film will open in October this year at the Aldwych Theatre, and judging by advance ticket sales, will be there for a long time.

Dirty Dancing premiered in Sydney in 2004 breaking all box office records. This was followed by a German version in Hamburg, which continues playing to full houses. The sound designer is Bobby Aitken (We Will Rock You, Mamma Mia!) and the production sound engineer will be Autograph's Andy Brown. The sound system will feature the D5T and DS-00 Digital mixers from Digico, band monitoring will be via Formula Sound's Q18 personal mixers and the main front-of-house loudspeaker system a combination of d&b Q1 and L'Acoustics dV-Dosc.

Dirty Dancingjoins the long

Denmark - Responding to the recent surge in laser popularity, Martin Professional has come up with a new and "hassle-free" laser - the Martin RGB Laser 1.6 - a Class 4 white light laser with balanced cool white which comes in an extremely compact housing.

With simple plug-and-play operations, hundreds of pre-installed effects, and a cooling system that eliminates the need for expensive and bulky water cooling, the RGB Laser 1.6 is all about performance made easy. Take it on the road, decorate and revitalize outdoor structures and buildings for events and promotions, or utilize its unique effect in permanent installations, the RGB Laser 1.6 is as versatile as it is powerful.

Slightly larger than an average DVD player, yet able to take the knocks and blows of touring without misaligning, the RGBL 1.6 is capable of extremely deep saturated colours - especially an intens

Germany - This year, the rave scene celebrated Mayday in Dortmund, with the 'Mother of all Raves' drawing 25,000 hedonists from Germany and beyond - all hell-bent on dancing the night away. TSE AG of Berlin was responsible for the production in the three adjacent venues, the centrepiece of their strategy being systems from Electro-Voice.

A lot has changed since the first Mayday rave fifteen years ago at Berlin's Weißensee. Now staged at the Westfalenhalle in Dortmund, the event has grown larger and more professional, without sacrificing any of its charm, as this year's event, attended by just under 25,000 ravers, demonstrated.

Live shows from such stars of the scene as The Prodigy and cult DJ Westbam contributed to event; and the sound was provided by TSE AG Berlin.

The event organisers wanted the ground to shake, and they called in the celebrated Berlin soundsmiths

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UK - Formula Sound has announced the extension of a winning formula by introducing its new 4-channel FF-4000 DJ mixer. The mixer takes all the best features of the company's existing 6-channel FF-6000 mixer and repackages them into a more compact and lower-priced unit. Designed in response to customer feedback and intended for use in smaller applications, the new FF-4000 mixer still delivers all the flexibility and user-friendliness which has made its predecessor so popular.

"The reaction when we introduced the FF-6000 early last year was tremendous," explains Formula Sound's Barry Penaligon. "That prompted us to look at other versions of the same concept and by listening again to what our customers wanted we arrived at the new FF-4000 mixer."

Customer feedback was an essential element in the creation of the original FF-6000 mixer which was designed in coll

UK - A Victorian indoor market in the UK's rural West Country has been converted into a vibrant rock venue as part of a multipurpose remit, with the aid of QSC ModularDesign loudspeakers, process control and amplification.

The Cheese & Grain in Frome, Somerset dates back to 1874 when the building housed a busy market. The produce sold at the market was loaded onto railway wagons at the rear and transported to other parts of the country.

Before local dealers, Sounds of Frome moved in to bring the venue's sound reinforcement into the new millennium the venue had experienced a chequered recent history. Although several semi-permanent extensions had been added, the building deteriorated, and until 1997 was used as a temporary storage area. In the 1990's it was purchased by Mendip District Council and leased to Frome Town Council who undertook a programme of repairs and refurbishme

Canada - With seating for over 3000 congregants, the recently completed First Alliance Church is one of Calgary's largest and most modern houses of worship. Despite the venue's enormity, its state of the art audio and video systems bring a close and personal experience to all.

The systems were designed and installed by leading Canadian providers White Radio, with audio based around loudspeakers from Chester, Pennsylvania-based Community Loudspeakers. A centre cluster of three IFR77B three-way cabinets and two ISS118B subwoofers is augmented by left and right clusters of IFR34SB and IFR64SB three-way systems. Rear delay is covered by five more IFR64SB systems, with additional front-fill provided by six Community STS26B two-way boxes. A pair of ILF218B subs is installed under the stairs for extra bottom end.

"The sanctuary is a very wide room, and a traditional centre clust

UK - The Dutch branch of pan-European dry rental company AED has purchased two Midas Heritage 4000 consoles from Midas Consoles Holland. The consoles were purchased primarily to supply its clients that specialise in large-scale musical productions.

Hannover-based Racks and Stacks is one of AED's major customers, and the H4000s were purchased with their typical musical configuration in mind. This setup sees both consoles being used at front of house, with a double multicore cable delivering 96 channels to FOH. Monitoring is typically in ear and relayed to the musicians from the FOH position.

"With the H4000 we could provide stereo monitoring, which was an extra motivation for the customer to choose Midas," says AED proprietor Eddy van Nuffel. "It's also very straightforward for us to change this setup from two FOH desks to a standard FOH and monitor configuration

USA - American DJ has announced the passing of long-time employee Joey Corral, on 3 July. Corral, who served American DJ in a number of management capacities, most recently in Elation Professional sales, perished in a motorcycle accident outside Los Angeles.

He had been active in the DJ and lighting industries for over 20 years, and during that time he made numerous contributions to the DJ community. "He touched a lot of lives, and was a great role model," said Scott Davies, general manager of the American DJ Group.

"My brother Chuck and I have known Joey since before American DJ was started," continued Davies. "He has always been a very valued friend to our families. Joey was a very sweet and caring individual who made everyone feel at home. American DJ is a close knit company, and we're all going to miss him."

Joey Corral was 54. He leaves beh

USA - Renkus-Heinz has released a major upgrade to Beamware, the software that configures the acoustical output of its Iconyx digitally steerable array systems. Version 1.4 of Beamware allows sound system designers to define and steer multiple beams from each Iconyx array module, say the company.

With up to four beams available from each 'building block' IC8 module, eight separate beams of acoustical energy can be produced by an IC16 array, 12 by an IC24 and 16 by an IC32. The acoustical center of each beam can be located anywhere between the top and bottom of the array. Beamware's intuitive GUI now includes an 'Auto Focus' function that allows the designer to specify the number of beams to be produced by the array. Beamware then automatically aims the beams evenly to optimize coverage of the audience area or areas, using one of two algorithms as specified by the designer. Auto

Russia - Staged at the Olimpiysky Sports Center in the Russian capital, the National Television Awards in Popular Music was attended by more than 20,000 people, and saw G-LEC provide 157 PhantomFrames to display the video images that served as a visual backdrop to the circular set.

Having designed the set to move up and down, the production company looked for the lightest and brightest LED system available, and chose G-LEC's lightweight, flexible and easily assembled PhantomFrame. The modular PhantomFrame system is capable of providing pixel by pixel rendering of full-speed video display signals, ensuring that the images, from a Catalyst media server and fed to the bank of LED frames via seven PC racks, were fast and smooth. In addition to the Awards, the audience was treated to performances from a host of Russian pop stars, including the once-controversial duo Tatu.

This was

Argentina - The city of Mendoza in Argentina offers a complete agenda of cultural events, including folk festivals, theatre, art expositions and the Grape Harvest festival, Mendoza's most historic event of the year. One of the biggest events of its kind, the Autumn for Life Marathon produced by Mendoza's Channel 9 TV, was recently held in the city.

For more than four hours, over 35,000 spectators enjoyed the numerous performances of this open-air event. The sound reinforcement company Merino Producciones of Mendoza was responsible for the event's technical production. For the main PA, the company used 24 D.A.S. Aero 28 line array systems flown 12 per side form a height of 10m. A down-fill system of four Aero 28s was used to provide coverage for the first six rows.

Delay towers comprised of four Aero 28A were located 50m from the main stage. According to Carlos Merino, t

America / Europe - Touring in support of her 2005 album, Confessions on a Dancefloor, Madonna's 2006 tour is an all out disco spectacular that sees the Material Girl dancing her way across North America and Europe through the summer.

Perhaps this summer's hottest concert ticket, this is Madonna's second tour in a row in which lighting designer Roy Bennett has turned to a Martin lighting package. PRG's Las Vegas office has supplied 47 MAC 700 Profiles, 31 MAC 2000 Washes, 82 Atomic strobes with Atomic Colors and other automateds for the tour.

"Some of what we did this year was based on what was done on the previous tour but we expanded on that," Roy explains. "We have a combination of MAC 700 Profiles, MAC 2000 Washes and other automated lights both in the rig and on the floor, all over really, doing a lot such as the soft good washes over and around the

UK - Creative sound design and installation specialists CP Sound, continues its reputation for installing the highest quality sound systems with a JBL sound system design and installation at Volstead. The club is the latest highly discreet A-List haunt in London.

The building has housed clubs of various descriptions for some years, before recently being acquired by the Ignite group, and transformed into a intimate, uniquely branded and highly atmospheric venue in their extremely select group.

CP Sound has completed several projects for Ignite over the last three years, and once again Colin Pattenden was approached for his technical input into Volstead in its prime Swallow Street, Soho, location.

Ignite wanted refined and classy audio to compliment Satmoko Ball's provocative neo art deco interior design which involves plenty of mirrored and reflective surfaces oozing glamour.

USA - Bandit continued their long relationship with the CMA Music Festival in 2006. Under the direction of noted designer Mike Swinford the Bandit team delivered another television show to be aired July 24th on ABC. Martina McBride, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Brooks and Dunn, Keith Urban, Wynonna, Montgomery Gentry, Brad Paisley, Carrie Underwood, LeAnn Rimes, Sugarland, Clint Black, Ronnie Milsap, Sarah Evans, Pat Green, Dierks Bentley and Trisha Yearwood are but a few of the many artists that will appear on the spectacular.

Swinford specified a tremendous variety of fixtures including VL 3000s, VL 500s, Martin MAC 2000s, MAC 600s, and a host of other equipment. The show was controlled by two Grand MA and two Grand MA Lite consoles. Board operators were Mark Butts and Ken Hutson and Monica Rose was the gaffer. The production manager for the CMA was Chuck Young, a veteran of many ye

UK - Liverpool based Adlib Audio has spent £250,000 on revamping and expanding its warehouse, including the addition of a new mezzanine floor which enlarges the current working space by 500sq.m.

"This has enabled us to make massive improvements to the layout, efficiency and functionality of the building," explains Adlib's managing director Andy Dockerty.

Business has been so robust for Adlib over the last two years, says the company, and there's now over 50 full time employees at the Speke premises.

It was either a case of buying a new building and going through all the associated disruption of moving, or seeing how they could practically maximise the existing space. They decided on development of the existing site - for less interruption to the workflow.

More office space has been created as a result for sales hire and administration and there's also room

USA - Audio-Technica has added the new ATW-T371 handheld cardioid condenser microphone/transmitter to its 3000 Series. Employing A-T's Artist Series ATM710 cardioid condenser element, the ATW-T371 wireless mic is designed to be used as a handheld or mounted on a microphone stand. The ATW-T371 features rugged metal construction, soft-touch controls and a multi-function LCD display. It is powered by two 1.5V AA batteries with a life of 6-8 hours. A dual power switch permits selection of high power for maximum range, or low for extended battery life.

The 3000 Series is a 200-channel frequency-agile UHF wireless system designed for a wide range of applications including MI/live performance, regional touring companies, fixed installation, public address, AV rental houses and places of worship. The Automatic Frequency Scanning function automatically determines and sets the best availa

UK - At a informal on 6 July, Sean Albuquerque (Chair, RIBA South East) awarded Nicolas Chisholm (headmaster of the Yehudi Menuhin School) and ABTT member Mark Foley (principal of architectural practice Burrell Foley Fischer LLP), a RIBA Award lead plaque for Foley's design of the The Menuhin Hall situated within the school at Stoke D'Abernon, Surrey - a winner in the RIBA Awards 2006 - South East category.

Described by the judges as "magic in maple", the full award citation reads: "This building has been delivered on an exceptionally tight budget but is none the poorer for that. Set in the green belt and within earshot of the M25, the hall is conspicuously located in a prominent position on a site that slopes gently away from the loose collection of school buildings strung along the skyline.

"The Hall is the building. Externally, it is simple, econo

UK - In the history of performing arts, Oscar Hammerstein and Jerome Kern's Show Boat ranks as something of a landmark, being one of the first ever musical theatre productions of its kind to hit Broadway.

A completely new production, staged in the round by Raymond Gubbay at the Royal Albert Hall in London, has become one of the world's first productions to use a revolutionary new technology which tracks the positions of the actors to help create authentic audio localisation that matches their positions on stage.

At the heart of the system, supplied by Out Board, is a 16-input 32-output TiMax Audio Imaging delay matrix driven by a Track The Actors (TTA) system. TTA comprises a Cordis Radio Eye mounted in the grid above stage which receives signals transmitted by small radio tags worn by each actor. These are fed via Ethernet to the TTA software which analyses them to der

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