USA - Elation Professional has introduced a low-lying fog effect machine that doesn't require dry ice or any connections to external units. The company's Antari DNG-200 Low Fog Generator is a self-contained unit that produces a continuous output of low-lying fog while running on X-Fog Ice fog fluid.

Featuring a 3M fog conducting hose, the DNG-200 creates low-lying fog straight from its nozzle, just like a regular fog machine. With no CO2 installation to hassle with, the DMX-controllable DNG-200 is operator-friendly, says the company.

"Until now, most low-lying fog machines had to use dry ice to generate fog that stays close to the ground," said Eric Loader, director of sales for Elation Professional. "Another alternative was to buy a 'fog chiller' machine that ho

The Netherlands - Dutch pop star Jan Smit is touring the Netherlands to promote his latest album. Prolyte supplied the complete staging and trussing set, through its distributor Controlled for Triple show Techniek.

The mobile stage was designed as a multi-level stage to enable him to have optimum contact with his audience. Beside the visual aspect, the technical specifications also played an important role. Due to a tight touring schedule, production time to build the stage was limited. Prolyte advised to use the Easy frame C system, as support frame for the entire staging area, which assembles rapidly and without the need for extra tooling of forklifts.

(Jim Evans)

USA - Symetrix Inc, the US-based provider of signal processing technology for the installed sound, broadcast and recording markets, has announced the return of Jim Latimer in the position of northern regional sales manager, following a two-year spell away from Symetrix. With Latimer joining an already successfulsales team, Symetrix says it will be able to support its representatives, dealers, and customers with even greater service.

"I'm back because I missed the company, the people, and the products," Latimer explained. "I look forward to reconnecting with some of my old customers, friends, and serving the growing Symetrix client base to the very best of my abilities. Recently I visited the factory and was genuinely impressed with the company's team spirit and unified sense of purpose. It's very exciting."

Paul Roberts, Symetrix director of sales, is parti

South Africa - Gearhouse South Africa's Cape Town branch swung into action supplying staging, sound, lighting and LED screens to production company Celebrity Services/Maximum Exposure for the annual festive lights switch-on ceremony along Adderley Street, performed by Mayor Helen Zille and attended by 70,000 people.

The show included performances by several high profile artists including headliner Loyiso Bala, supported by Loading Zone, Dr Victor and the Rasta Rebels, Denim and Dozi, all MC'd by comedian Wayne McKay. The event was project managed on site for Gearhouse by Zane Carim.

The main stage was a 22m wide by 14 deep Layher construction, with a Slick Dome roof giving 12m of headroom.

Upstage of this was a Lighthouse high-resolution LED screen. Most of the artists performed before dusk, but it was dark by the time the main ceremony swung into action. This plus three del

UK - Video was used for the first time to project giant images onto the 353ft high Shell Building on the South Bank of the River Thames for the Mayor of London's 2008-09 New Year's Eve celebrations.

E/T/C London created a projection concept and suggested that they harness the flexibility and power of video for the first time on this event, on which E/T/C has worked for producers Jack Morton Worldwide for the last five years. With LG Electronics coming onboard as a new sponsor, they wanted to up the production values, making the show something extra special and more spectacular this year.

E/T/C's Ross Ashton says: "It was another milestone in giant video projection for E/T/C London, and probably the UK's largest New Year video installation to date as well as a great opportunity for us to move the company forward."

E/T/C's Richard Porter designed the technical instal

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UK - Following its "unprecedented success and critical acclaim in the installation market" with its new VQ Series sound reinforcement loudspeaker range, Tannoy has now announced a new partnership with Paul Nicholson's Red Square Audio to develop and market a live/touring version of the product.

Having first heard the system at the 2008 ABTT Show, Nicholson had been keeping a keen eye on the product's early success in the installation market and felt there was great potential for VQ as a world class live system. Following some informal discussion of the possibilities, Tannoy welcomed Nicholson's extensive expertise to the table and he began consulting with their engineering team on adapting the existing VQ Series to suit the touring market.

Within a very short period of time Tannoy had responded to Nicholson's ideas, resulting in a new and radical departure for the co

Australia - ARX Systems has announced the appointment of Stockholm based Sennberg A.B as its new distributor for Sweden.

ARX managing director Colin Park commented: " I have been discussing the possibilities of working with Sennberg in Sweden with them for some time, their sales team felt our range of signal processing products was a very complementary fit with the other lines they currently represent, especially our newer USB and analogue interface and dynamics products.

"Sweden has always been important for ARX, it's one of northern Europe's trend setting markets. We're looking forward to working with Stephan Segermark and his team at Sennberg to consolidate ARX's position in the Swedish market and to reinforce to their customers the state of the art performance that ARX products can offer them."

(Jim Evans)

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UK - HSL supplied lighting equipment and crew to the most recent leg of UK rockers Thunder's Bang tour, LD'd by Ian Bintliff. It's the second Thunder production tour that HSL has supplied, and was managed for the Blackburn-based rental house by Howard Dean.

Bintliff states, "It's always a pleasure to work with HSL - their kit, crew and service is second to none, and they also came up with a very good deal."

The trussing structure comprised of four 5m pre-rigged 'fingers', each fully loaded with 24 PARs, and each length also forming an integral architectural element of the design. The fingers fanned out from a central point at the back, and in between them were three triangular pods. Each pod was rigged with four Robe ColorSpot 575E AT moving lights, four JTE PixelLine LED battens and a string of ACLs.

The impact of the pods was maximised by being moved in an

UK - Last year City College Coventry moved its various technologies departments into phase one of its new, purpose-built £50m Swanswell Centre. In advance of this relocation Mick Dabrowski, head of the college's Music, Multimedia & Computing sections (known collectively as the School of Creative & Information Technologies), set about specifying new facilities.

The new facility includes three identically kitted out broadcast studios, using Soundcraft mixing consoles - these house the College's 'Synergy FM' radio station, operating with an RSL over a restricted ten-mile radius. Meanwhile, on the top floor, two high-end studios for recording and mixing and a flagship commercial studio still to be specified will join four heavily-used project studios (also equipped with Soundcraft). All support a wide range of industry standard software, available on both Mac and PC.

Dabrows

UK - Stage Electrics co-founder Maurice Marshal has been awarded an MBE in this year's Queen's New Year's Honours List. The MBE, awarded to Marshal for his outstanding and dedicated service to drama, comes after a lifetime of dedication to an industry for which he has always had great passion.

After completing three years in the army as a tank mechanic, Marshal moved into theatre and has worked for much of the last 40 years as chief electrician for the Northcott Theatre in Exeter. Maurice has been committed to training new entrants to the industry for numerous years and many of today's top lighting designers and technicians have benefited from his tutelage.

In addition to his full-time commitments to the Northcott Theatre and to national training, Marshal co-founded Stage Electrics with managing director David Whitehead in 1979 and remains actively involved in the business tod

USA - Audio-Technica has been selected as the official headphone supplier for the recently-opened Grammy Museum in Los Angeles. More than 60 pairs of ATH-M30 Closed-back Dynamic Stereo Monitor Headphones have been selected for use in the museum's exhibits.

The 30,000sq.ft facility celebrated its grand opening with a slate of activities last month, the culmination of The Recording Academy's and the Grammy Awards' milestone 50th anniversary year.

"We are thrilled to be working with Audio-Technica," said Robert Santelli, executive director of The Grammy Museum. "The ATH-M30 Headphones will allow visitors to the museum to experience our exhibits in a richer and more exciting way."

(Jim Evans)

UK - Stage Electrics started 2009 in style by lighting the London Eye as part of the Marking Midnight celebrations, broadcast live on BBC 1. An estimated half a million New Year revellers braved freezing conditions in the capital to see in the New Year lighting and fireworks extravaganza on the banks of the River Thames.

This is the fourth year Stage Electrics has worked on behalf of the Greater London Authority to mark the New Year. Stage Electrics supplied MAC 2000 Wash moving lights in each of the 32 pods of the London Eye, search lights on floating pontoons (eight each side) and a wireless DMX control system. Lighting designer for the event was Durham Marenghi, who has previously worked on the lighting of the London Eye at New Year.

As with previous years, the importance of installing lighting units into all 32 pods quickly and efficiently was paramount to the succe

Spain - A ground-breaking experimental project conceived by artist Matthew Ritchie, The Morning Line is a fresh take on the concept of the architectural pavilion, offering a platform for musicians and artists whose work lies beyond normal artistic boundaries and the programming of traditional concert halls. Commissioned by Vienna-based Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary and with equipment support provided by Meyer Sound, The Morning Line is currently being inaugurated at the third international biennial of contemporary art (Biacs3) in Seville, Spain.

The Morning Line's unique structure, outwardly resembling the blackened remains of a cathedral or historic monument, contains a combination of sensors, intelligent cameras, and digital controllers, along with some 41 Meyer Sound MM-4XP self-powered miniature loudspeakers to form a multichannel, interactive sound system. The

UK - The Capital Radio Jingle Bell Ball took place in December at London's O2 Arena with an array of pop performers many of which chose to use Sennheiser microphone and monitoring technology.

Sennheiser's Mark Saunders, Dave Hawker and Sam Davison were all at the O2, offering RF equipment and technical support to the audio team from Wigwam Hire and the show's production company, Production North.

Nearly all of the performers on the night used Sennheiser ew 300 IEM G2 monitors, with The Script, Will Young and Alphabeat using wired evolution vocal mics and the Pussycat Dolls, Sugababes, Anastacia, Lemar and The Saturdays all using Evolution SKM 935 radio mics.

Rihanna used her own decorated Sennheiser SKM 5200 handheld mic with MD 5235 capsule, while the Capital Radio presenters all employed SKM 5200s with Neumann KK 105 heads.

Geoff Muir from Wigwam Hire says, "After t

Europe - SAE Institute is incorporating Euphonix MC Control and MC Mix media controllers into 25 SAE Institutes across four continents. The SAE Institute's audio curriculum includes training on the world's leading digital audio workstations to help prepare students for real world production situations.

"SAE is the world leader in audio and creative media training, and we are very excited to have our MC Control and MC Mix chosen for their state-of-the-art institutes," stated Martin Kloiber, Euphonix CEO. "The power and flexibility of the Artist Series is the perfect match for SAE's innovative teaching approach, and provides students with cutting-edge media controllers that can be used with virtually any audio or video application."

"We are delighted to be installing Euphonix MC Control and MC Mix media controllers in so many of our campuses around the w

France - i-Pix's BB4 LED wash fixture won an award for technical innovation at the 2008 SIEL Exhibition in Paris. The BB4 was entered into the 'Stage & Studio' category by i-Pix French distributor, Paris-based JC Lampes.

The Awards were judged by a panel of 12 industry experts, including Julien Pavillard, artistic director for Lyon's festival of light. They closely examined each nominated product, before conferring and making their final decisions.

The BB4 was selected as the winner for its intensity, colour mixing capabilities and its homogenised lightsource - all three qualities impressed the judges.

Since taking on the i-Pix distributorship in September, JC Lampes has already experienced great interest in the i-Pix range, which has also been boosted by winning the award.

(Jim Evans)

UK - HD Promotions recently promoted Gatecrasher at Leas Cliff Hall in Folkestone. Gravesend Sound & Light installed the lights for the event which was exclusively Martin professional lighting.This consisted of four LC Panels, 24 MAC 250 Kryptons, four MAC 600s, four MAC 500s, four MAC 550s all controlled with a Martin LightJockey.

Kev Harris of HD Promotions comments, "Our main aim with every event at the Live Nation venue is to push the limits with all lighting equipment and production. Martin was a pleasure to have on board with the Gatecrasher event."

Richard Bishop, MD of Gravesend Sound & Light adds: "This has been one of the most spectacular light shows we have done for a while. It was fantastic to work with HD Promotions and Martin and we definitely look forward to more of the same in the future."

24 of the Martin products were used in the trussin

Eurovision Update - Andrew Lloyd Webber has unveiled the six hopefuls he has chosen to bid for glory at the Eurovision Song Contest. Two male soloists, two female singers, a duo consisting of twin sisters and an all-male quintet will do battle in the BBC One show Your Country Needs You. Lloyd Webber will write the song for the successful act, set to take part in May's competition in Moscow. After a series of live shows, the winning act, which is chosen by the public, will be revealed on 31 January. The first live programme takes place on Saturday 10 January on BBC One.

In The Money - Madonna's Sticky and Sweet show was the highest-earning tour of 2008, taking $281.6m (£193m) worldwide, according to music trade publication Pollstar. It also became the eighth highest-grossing tour of all time in North America, Pollstar said.

Celine Dion's

USA - The Joint Training Initiative of The ESTA Foundation and the United States Institute for Theatre Technology (USITT) has announced a Control Protocols Workshop to be held two days prior to the annual USITT National Conference in Cincinnati, OH. The registration deadline is 9 March 2009.

This two-day course is designed for entertainment technicians at a basic to intermediate level. The session will be held 16 and 17 March at the Duke Energy Convention Centre. Training will cover current control protocols including Remote Device Management over USITT DMX512-A and Architecture for Control Networks. This course qualifies for ETCP Certification Renewal Credits for ETCP Certified Entertainment Electricians.

The Control Protocols course will be taught by ETCP Certified Electrician and ETCP Recognized Trainer Milton Davis, of Doug Fleenor Design. Davis is a member of the Control

Taiwan -Mipro has introduced the new MA708 portable wireless PA system, available for shipping worldwide during the second quarter of 2009.

The MA-708 combines the best features of the popular MA-707 and MA-808 wireless portable PA systems, producing 180W of power with D-class amplification and two-way speakers. Improved "limiter" circuitry reduces distortion and increases intelligibility for guaranteed powerful and clear sound, say Mipro.

The Mipro MA-708 is designed for portable wireless PA applications for medium-sized audiences. The system, with rugged, compact and lightweight enclosure design, is suitable for schools, places of worship, corporate multimedia presentations, trade shows, auctions and special events.

Designed for ease of use, the system features the industry's easiest and fastest channel set-up via AutoScan and ACT technology (common through most

UK - Stage Electrics has specified and installed a new RSS M-400 V-Mixing System into The Byre Theatre in St. Andrews, Scotland. The RSS digital console and two snakes are part of a package of kit supplied this year, which includes Sennheiser radio microphones and RCF monitor speakers.

As its name suggests, The Byre Theatre started life as a semi-derelict cow-shed, cleaned out and set up by a local theatre group, whose audiences sat on cushions on the floor. With the support of donations and local authority funds, a permanent theatre opened in 1970. Its latest incarnation, built by architects Nicoll Russell Studios of Broughty Ferry, was completed in 2001.

Named after its founder, the main theatre in The Byre is the A.B.Paterson auditorium, with a seated capacity of 220. Stage Electrics has installed the M-400 front-of-house console at the rear of the auditorium, with two S-16

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