UK - PEL Music & Media has installed a comprehensive professional sound system into the new Boffi kitchens and bathroom Showroom in Chelsea, London.

Opened in March 2008, the Boffi Chelsea showroom is the first Boffi owned showroom in the UK and has been designed by architect Piero Lissoni. It occupies 6,500 sq.ft and displays models of kitchens and bathrooms in an absolute minimalist style.

To aid the ambience in the new store, Boffi wanted a professional sound system and went to manufacturer Bose for a suitable solution. PEL Music & Media is a Bose Pro-Partner and was recommended by Bose for the system design and installation.

PEL based the design of the sound system around a Bose Professional System, featuring a multi zoned Bose FreeSpace 3 system driven by Cloud amplificat

Festival News - Half the tickets for 2009's Glastonbury festival have been sold already, eight months before the Somerset festival is due to take place. Tickets went on sale on Sunday morning and by early evening more than half the 137,500 places were snapped up. Spokesman John Shearlaw said he was "chuffed" so many tickets had gone for the event at Worthy Farm, Pilton. The early ticket sale comes after last year's event failed to sell out on the first day. Despite that, Shearlaw said he had not expected the tickets to sell out so far in advance. "That would have been extraordinary, without a line-up and eight months before the event," he said. "You can look at it from both sides because if they had all sold out, there would have been eight months of turning people away.

Church News - Guitarist Carlos Santana has said he wants to become a church minister when h

UK - Sustainable events came a step closer to reality with the announcement of the UK's single largest self-funded programme on implementing the new British Standard, BS 8901 Sustainable Event Management.

The programme, which commenced earlier this year, involves every part of the industry sector, from event clients to organisers, and venues to suppliers and features large corporate companies through to small and medium-sized enterprises.

This programme is managed by the Sustainable Events Group (SEG) and is due to run through until the planned review of the new standard early in 2009. Experiences from the programme will feed directly into the BS 8901 revision process undertaken by the British Standards Institution.

"The programme gives the UK event industry a real chance to lead the world in the application of sustainability principles to their activities and events,&q

Australia - Swinburne University in Prahran, Victoria, already a client of Coemar De Sisti Australia contacted the company regarding requirements for a lighting and dimming system for a new studio under construction.

They required a dimming system with patch facilities, so Coemar De Sisti Australia specified LSC. The installation was completed in just two days. Michael Ellul Coemar De Sisti's project manager attended on-site and commissioned the system immediately.

The studio is now up and running with a LSC EKO installation dimmer rack, LSC iPatch and Minim lighting console along with De Sisti Giotto over head cyc lights.

(Jim Evans)

UK Sunbaba was commissioned to provide over 4500m of branded signage for the Sky Sports Freewheel which took place on 21 September. The event was produced by experiential marketing agency RPM, Limelight Sports and the Greater London Authority (GLA).

An estimated 50,000 cyclists were given free rein of the city for a day as a central 12km route between the Tower of London and Buckingham Palace was closed to traffic. Some participants donned unusual costumes whilst others rode vintage penny farthing bicycles alongside the many families with children who were enjoying cycling without the pressure of heavy London traffic. Rest stops were placed around London offering refreshments and entertainment including live music, cycling limbo challenges and jugglers.

Sunbaba supplied 4000m of non woven Polyester which lined the main cycle route and 500m full colour Ultramesh covered

Germany - More than 50 DPA 4060 and 4061 miniature mics have been used for a production of Karlheinz Stockhausen's Gruppen - a piece for three orchestras - performed during the Berliner Festival in late September. The epic piece was performed four times as part of the festival finale by the Berliner Philharmonika with conductors Sir Simon Rattle, Daniel Harding and Michael Boder, in a 1930s aircraft hangar at Tempelhof Airport in Berlin.

Gruppen was written for 109 players divided into three orchestral units, each with its own conductor, deployed in a horseshoe shape to the left, front and right of the audience. The spatial separation was designed to keep simultaneously played, musically separate passages distinct from one another, but in some passages a single musical process passes from one orchestra to another. This setup required three discrete sound systems.

Singapore - D.A.S. Audio continues to host seminars across Asia. Singapore was recently chosen to host a workshop session led by Joan La Roda, D.A.S. sound engineer, attended by around 50 students from the School of Audio Engineering (SAE) of Singapore.

The four-hour session included the presentation Line Arrays: How they work, focusing on the technical features and applications of line array systems, as well as an explanation about subwoofer characteristics and configuration entitled Subwoofer Configurations and Time Alignment.

Eduardo Lopez, sales & marketing for D.A.S. Audio Asia joined Joan La Roda at this international event. With its strong practical flavour, the seminar also featured an explanation about how to take high precision acoustic measurements using two programmes designed specifically for this purpose, namely SATLive and Smaart Live.

(Jim Evans

UK - Show Presentation Services (SPS) was recently appointed to work with leading creative agency Neighbour to launch the Levi 501 Jeans by House of Holland on 18 September in store at Selfridges, London.

The brief was to provide a window display system visible to pedestrians passing by Oxford Street. The screen incorporated content prior to the launch of abstract images of models on a catwalk with text announcing the countdown to the launch. After the launch, the screen was used to show edited footage of the product being displayed on the catwalk at London Fashion Week.

Using a traditional display system such as plasma or LCD screen in a street-facing shop window would dramatically affect the screen visibility due to the high ambient light conditions. The solution provided by SPS was to use a high brightness indoor/outdoor Barco Dlite 7 LED display with a screen size of 2688m

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USA - Developer of system design and control software, Stardraw.com, has appointed Joel Schwartz as business development manager for North America. Schwartz joins Stardraw.com with 30 years experience in IT, consumer electronics, custom installation, commercial audio-visual and healthcare industries.

"I have had a great informal relationship with Stardraw.com for several years," says Schwartz, "and have enjoyed being something of a sounding-board for strategic planning. As Stardraw.com has accelerated its growth into new markets using cutting-edge technologies, the opportunity to cement that relationship was just too good to miss."

Schwartz's career began as a programmer and systems analyst in the days of punch-card computing. Since then he has held senior positions with well-known organizations including Harman International and Mordaunt-Short, and sat for

Qatar - When the Qatar Equestrian Federation (QEF) decided that a full upgrade of its public address system was necessary, following major improvements to their indoor and training facilities, they turned to AV-TECH, one of Qatar's leading suppliers of high end audio, video, broadcast and lighting equipment. After much deliberation, AV-TECH engineers eventually settled for a custom-designed solution from Meyer Sound and Community with amplification from Lab.gruppen's installation-dedicated C Series range.

The installation covered several areas including the main indoor arena and associated warm-up area as well as the main outdoor arena and its associated warm-up area. The areas to be covered were extensive and there were several logistical difficulties to overcome, but eventually the consultants and engineers agreed to adopt a surface element approach as that which provided opti

France - The 95th annual Tour de France was followed by hordes of passionate crowds cheering along the road. Covering the event for television with a highlights programme was Belgian national broadcaster VRT. Rosco provided gobos and a gobo rotator to animate the images.

VRT Broadcast presented its programme, which included interviews with cyclists and other TV personalities from France and Belgium, every night, in a different location along the route.

Set locations included places such as the courts of old castles as well as vineyards, with facilities supplied by Videohouse and lighting rented by Lites. Seeking visual interest for its coverage, VRT approached Rosco looking for a "bright and easy to use" visual aid that they could set up.

(Jim Evans)

UK - Fatboy Slim's Big Beach Boutique 4 took place on Saturday 27 September, attractingaround 20,000 people to the show on Madeira Drive, Brighton. The event marked the end of a 38-day world tour of festivals and beach gigs for the DJ.

LM Productions supplied multiple laser systems for the performance these included their powerful 40W emerald green lasers, two high powered full colour whitelight lasers, stage left and right, and a green diode laser positioned behind Fatboy Slim's booth.

LM Productions also supplied lasers for Fatboy Slims headlining slot at the O2 Wireless Festival in Hyde Park this summer.

You can view video footage of the Brighton event at www.lm-productions.com.

There will be more on Fatboy Slim's Big Beach Boutique in November's Lighting&Sound magazine.

(Claire Beeson)

UK - PLASA has launched a major new initiative on behalf of companies who work in, or supply to, the production and events sectors. In partnership with the Sustainable Events Group, PLASA has put together a programme of workshops designed to take companies through the development and implementation of BS 8901 - the major new event management standard that will influence how all events are delivered in the future.

Attaining compliance with BS 8901 will give businesses a significant market advantage as the new standard is already being specified by major organisations such as London2012 and is a core commitment of the recently-issued DCMS Sustainable Development Action Plan.

The programme, which is open to both members and non-members, is based on a series of five one-day workshops held at 4-5 week intervals, and has been specifically designed to provide a low-cost route to achi

Belgium / USA - To continue the worldwide promotion of the WARP series of profile spotlights, Belgian manufacturer ADB Lighting will be exhibiting at LDI in Las Vegas from 24-26 October, showing its WARP Motorized and the WARP Daylight fixtures for the North American market.

The WARP Motorized high-efficiency light output matches that of a standard 1200W profile spotlight, yet consumes only 750W. The WARP Motorized offers precision optics combined with beam shaping capabilities, accurate repeatability, and silent fanless operation.

The WARP Motorized has been chosen by major houses around the world including Opera Oslo, Opera Brussels, Palau de las Artes in Valencia, Casa de Musica in Porto, Bayerische Staatsoper in Germany, the English National Opera in London, Glyndebourne Opera House, Theatro Franco Parenti in Italy, the new National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijin

Sweden - The Europaporten Kongresscenter in the southern Swedish city of Malmö has chosen a Geo S12 line array system to reflect its unusual multipurpose identity; not only is this 820-seater auditorium the home of the Malmö Pentecostal Church, but it also actively markets its facilities as a congress centre and meeting hall.

Malmö's Europaporten is home to one of Sweden's largest Pentacostal congregations, but its spacious modern auditorium is also a popular venue for conferences, live music performances and corporate meetings. Its search for a new and versatile sound reinforcement system led to the consideration of several blue-chip brands, and the contract was awarded to Nexo after a series of on-site demonstrations.

"We prepared very well, studying the room's characteristics carefully and staging a very successful demo which showed off the Geo S12's strengths of au

UK - Close collaboration between the Barracuda Group and screen media content creation and delivery specialists, Kaleidovision, has provided the cornerstone for a marketing campaign throughout the operators' targeted Varsity Bars estate.

Following a brief from Barracuda, Kaleidovision's creative studio has designed a library of screen media aimed at the Varsity Bars' chain of 41 student bars; the new campaign kicked off this month to coincide with the start of the new 2008-9 academic year.

This year's promotion, titled Crazy Sexy Cool, encompasses a consumer competition to find the Face of Varsity 2009. All the channel content is focused on the VCard loyalty card, 650,000 of which were sold during the last academic year. To give it added currency, Kaleidovision has been tasked with animating the 25% discounts provided by the eight sponsor partners, which this yea

UK - An innovative new product which allows clients to light up their business image, in an easy to use, portable and compact format, has been introduced by Apticol Ltd. The new LED Imaging Spotlight, for use in applications which require full colour image projection or accurate beam shaping, has already attracted major interest from a number of sectors who have identified a variety of uses for the compact, high quality product, the company reports.

Applications for the LED Imaging Spotlight include advertising, logo projection and point-of-sale to name but a few, and is well suited to such environments as retail, pubs and clubs, hotels, museums, galleries and leisure facilities.

"Utilising LED technology, the Imaging Spotlight is both energy efficient and environmentally friendly, boasting long life-time and reduced waste", say Apticol. The company, which specialize

USA - Lighting manufacturer Elation Professional has announced that Everlast Productions, based in Dania Beach, FL, will serve as its East Coast Service Centre. The move will enable customers on the East Coast to have warranty and non-warranty authorised repairs on Elation products performed at Everlast by factory trained technicians.

"We're confident that this association will result in better service to Elation customers on the East Coast and faster turnaround on repairs," said Eric Loader, director of sales for Elation Professional. "Everlast is a highly regarded production company with experience in a wide range of lighting applications, and they share our strong dedication to quality and service."

Specialising in corporate events, outdoor events, night clubs, trade shows, HOW installations, hotels, stadiums, museums and more, Everlast Productions provi

USA - Open to university and college students nationwide, the registration for Shure's fifth annual Fantastic Scholasticrecording competition will remain open until 17 October 2008. A random drawing on or about 22 October will determine the 10 competing schools, each of which will receive a standardised 'mic locker' from Shure that must be used to complete every recording project submitted.

The names of registrants chosen as contestants in the random drawing will be posted on Shure's website. Competing teams from each school are required to record and mix an original piece of music. Their submission will be judged by a panel of industry professionals who will evaluate the recordings based upon their overall fidelity, clarity, sonic balance, and creativity in selection and placement of the microphones. Previous judges have included Dave Hewitt, Joe Barresi, Mike Fraser, El

UK - Horizon Control has published an Open Source section on its website for ET Marquee and Strand Light Palette lighting control software.

When it comes to software, there is never a shortage of ideas, but more-so a lack of skilled developers, especially in a niche market such as entertainment lighting. HCI's core technology is its internal fade engine and Universal Attribute Control, but with the release of the new Open Source area on its web site, there are now countless 'hooks' into this powerful software product, says the company.

Giving users that may dabble in software development the tools needed to 'poke and prod' the main fade engine allows them the ability to write powerful macros that go beyond recording a series of keystrokes. The mere ability to branch execution with a simple IF statement "opens the doors to possibilities that have never before been availabl

France - Following the successful PLASA launch of Innovason's new compact digital control surface, Eclipse, Innovason's Czech distributor, Music Data enjoyed a successful Muzika Expo trade show in Prague. In addition to showing the rest of the Innovason range, Music Data dedicated a specially commissioned OB van to showcase Eclipse, and were rewarded for their efforts by taking two preliminary orders at the show.

According to Music Data's Tomas Ourednicek, the show was a great success. "We decided to show Eclipse in an OB van that we had painted with Eclipse graphics especially for the show. It gave us an ideal environment in which to present the console away from the distractions and noise of the show floor. All of our customers loved the new control surface."

Ourednicek also took his first orders for Eclipse at the show: the first from a rental company who already

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