UK - King Sound Reinforcement is a well established regional sound company based in Bristol, that has been serving the south-western UK for over 12 years. The company has just invested in 12 SMX15 monitor speakers from French loudspeaker manufacturer APG, supplied by APG's distributor Red Square Audio.

Paul King, owner of King Sound comments, "King Sound has a reputation for never following the crowd when it comes to speakers systems - our only criterion is to buy the very best product for the job. I can honestly say that after exhaustive testing over a nine-month period of many premium monitor options, the APG SMX15s came out as the clear winner.

"Sonically they are excellent," he continued. "The innovative multi-position rigging bar gives us a five-angle w

UK - For this year's Big Chill festival, Adlib designed sound systems for two stages - Revellers' and The People's Ear.

Otto Kroymann led the Adlib team of seven - Mike Flaherty, George Puttock, Tommy Bradshaw & himself, who looked after the Revellers', while Simon Lawson, Alan Harrison and Chris Smethurst took care of things on The People's Ear.

The sound system on the Revellers' stage was JBL VerTec, suitable for an eclectic line up ranging from Club Zirconia to Kormac's Big Band and NZ Shapeshifter to Annie Nightingale.

The flown arrays each contained 10 VT4889 speakers a-side, run in combination with six VT 4880A subs a-side on the ground, Coda LA8 in-fills.

The main system was driven by Camco Vortex 6 amplifiers, with Labgruppen PLM20000s for the subs and fills.

They used the opportunity to further test a fibre optic Dante network, which took the signal from the FOH

UK - Manchester- based dbn Lighting has been asked to work on some challenging and quirky projects in its time, but Eclipse, a special performance by Malian musical superstars Amadou and Mariam for the Manchester International Festival was their first concert where the requirement was to 'light' it entirely to be dark.

The three sold out performances were staged at the 500 capacity New Century Hall in central Manchester. Eclipse told the story of the duo's work and life together, featuring a collection of songs - a fusion of pop, blues and Malian music - spanning their career which started over 25 years ago when they met at the Mali Institute for the Young Blind.

Amadou and Mariam specifically wanted the audience to experience the show in total darkness, so they could appreciate the psychological and sensory shifts involved in perception and experience that take

UK - SSE Audio Group has added four further Soundcraft Vi6 consoles to its inventory to meet the additional demands of the 2011 summer outdoor season.

This brings the company's tally to eight (with a further six Soundcraft Vi1's also in hire stock) - and according to project manager Pete Russell all have been out on front line duty more or less permanently since their arrival.

An early advocate of the platform since realising the easy transition to the digital world it offered analogue sound engineers, Russell said, "A lot of our business is supplying control and monitor packages, and the Vi6 is proving extremely popular with bands.

"Monitor engineers choose to take them because of their intuitive nature, their compact footprint and the fact they are good 'on the fly' when they have to be set up quickly. They also like the sound and the intuitive nature of the desk

UK - London based AV and technical production services company Presentation Rentals (PR) has become the UK's largest stock holder of Core Lighting's Point 20 battery powered wireless DMX controlled LED uplighter fixtures.

The purchase of 48 fixtures is part of a new investment to help service a busy summer of varied events and part of the ongoing planned expansion of PR's lighting department. This reflects a generally buoyant trading period over the last six months and a demand from clients for the latest in lighting technology.

Presentation Rentals works across all sectors of the corporate presentation, live and experiential event market, supplying full lighting, sound and AV equipment packages and crew. The company has built its reputation on providing excellent quality kit and technical expertise.

PR MD Ian Coull says, "Having the latest LED technology onboard makes

Singapore - Broadcast Professional and their sister company Electronics & Engineering have invested in an additional seven Green Hippo demonstration units for their three overseas offices. Their offices in Malaysia and Indonesia have each been furnished with a Hippotizer HD, HippoCritter and GrassHopper. The headquarters in Singapore is showcasing the Hippotizer HD and HippoCritter and has now added a GrassHopper to complete their demo stock.

"Broadcast Professional believes in providing the best solutions for customers and Green Hippo have proven themselves to be one of the best media servers to date with their powerful engine, flexible system and ease-of-use as well as a customisable ZooKeeper interface," says John Paul Tan, product manager at Broadcast Professional Singapore. "It is an all in one solution in a box for intermediate or advanced techies who would

UK - The Board of Directors for Neo Neon Holdings and Neo Neon UK PLC invite you to visit the company's new showroom facility in Milton Keynes. Neo Neon have invested substantial capital to provide the UK and European market with a new base to better service the requirement of its customers.

"Neo-Neon lighting can be seen enhancing the visual lives of millions of people around the world for the past 33 years," says the company. "Neo-Neon UK PLC is a subsidiary of Neo-Neon Holdings Ltd, and was the first to market with a complete range of SSL White LED based General and Commercial and Consumer Retail DIY products. For many years Neo-Neon has been at the forefront of LED Technology to cover all market sectors from Architectural to General task Lighting and extensively caters for the Entertainment lighting market also, with thousands of products to cater for all requ

Sweden - LumenRadio has announced support for the recently published Art-Net 3 specification. Support for Art-Net 3 will be released at PLASA 2011 in London and will be available immediately for the entire line of CRMX Ethernet products.

Since the CRMX line of products was launched back in 2009 LumenRadio has supported a wide variety of Ethernet protocols including industry standard protocols like Streaming ACN (ANSI E1.31), manufacturer proprietary protocols such as ETCNet 2 & 3 and ShowNet, and protocols available in the public domain like Art-Net 1, 2, & 3.

"By being the first company to officially announce Art-Net 3 support we continue to be one of the most network and user friendly, as well as proactive, companies in the industry," says LumenRadio's CTO Niclas Norlén.

Michael Karlsson, senior R&D Engineer at LumenRadio, adds, "The engineering team

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UK / The Netherlands - At this year's autumn exhibitions - PLASA 2011 in London and IBC in Amsterdam - Riedel Communications celebrates the MediorNet Compact Euro premiere. MediorNet Compact is the first 50 G multimedia stagebox with integrated WDM. It is the cost effective and easy-to-use entry into the Riedel MediorNet world of integrated media signal distribution and processing, says the company.

It provides the flexibility of a true real-time media network, including integrated signal processing, at the cost of simple multiplexing point-to-point products. With a network bandwidth of 50 Gbit/s, MediorNet Compact provides enough capacity for bi-directional transport of 12 HD-SDI signals, dozens of MADI streams or Gbit-Ethernet signals and hundreds of audio channels or intercom ports - suitable for streamlining the infrastructure of any mobile, studio or live event application.

UK - TMB will introduce a host of new products at next month's PLASA Show (Earls Court, London, 11 - 14 September).

Products premiering at PLASA include the Cygnus Incite 375W Profile, the latest addition to the Cygnus range of LED fixtures by Wybron - exclusively distributed in the UK by TMB. Incite offers unprecedented lumens-per-Watt efficiency, with a CRI up to 92 (5x the brightness of competing fixtures). The quiet, advanced thermal management system ensures optimal output and consistent colour for many years. Proprietary in-lens colour-mixing technology provides smooth, virtually rainbow-free shadows. Advanced electronics provide step-free dimming over the longest fades, and Incite is fully RDM capable. The Cygnus family also includes the super-bright LED Wash and Studio Series.

Exclusively distributed worldwide, new products in the ProPlex DDD - Data Distr

UK - Rosco is offering 'swag' to customers. "It works like this," states Rosco. "You submit a photo of a production in which you used an E-Colour, Roscolux or Supergel colour to achieve a specific purpose or goal. You'll need to tell us, in a couple of sentences, why you chose the Rosco colour you used and what you or the director or the design team wanted to convey with the colour choice. If you need more than one picture to tell the story, you can send up to five! You'll also have to fill out an online form giving us permission to share your work along with providing some of the detail of the production as well as all the credits.

"In return, Rosco will send you one of the most interesting pieces of swag we've ever created. It's a coffee mug, artfully coloured in a Roscolux colour, complete with the SED curve. (You'll receive one of the 10 different Roscolu

UK - London-based draping and dressing specialists Cover It Up (CIU) supplied and rigged a luxurious drape interior for the Gatsby Club, a VIP dining and social entertainment environment that ran during the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championships.

Cover It Up was working for Detail, who specialise in providing high end facilities to prestigious sporting events. The venue, run by event hospitality specialists Keith Prowse for the duration of the Wimbledon Fortnight, was a 400 - 600 capacity glass fronted De Boer structure that was located in the grounds of the adjacent Wimbledon Cricket and Golf Club.

The themed colours were spacious white, cool green and effervescent yellow. With the aid of flexible drape rig configurations, the room could also be sub-divided into different areas and tailored exactly to individual group booking requirements.

Cover It Up decked the space out usin

UK - This year's PLASA Rigging Conference, 12-13 September 2011, presents many of entertainment rigging's pioneering icons. Industry heavyweights - Alan Jacobi, LVO, Steve Colley and Chris Blakeley - will headline this year's unmissable conference that will give you the opportunity to hear from over 40 industry experts and provide an invaluable international networking opportunity.

Over the action packed two day conference, sharing their creative visions and a wealth of experience, speakers and panellists will include:

Michael Anderson, Ilan Bahar, Derrick Bailes, Rinus Bakker, Nick Barnfield, Chris Böettger, Ron Bonner, Harry Box, Simon Caldwell, Andy Charlesworth, Neil Darracott, Don Dimitroff, Tony Dickson, Robin Elias, Sally-Ann Dod, Cristiano Giavedoni, Amedeo Guizzi, Roger Hamilton-Smith, Marc Hendriks, Chris Higgs, Scott Johnson, Sven Knight, Oz Marsh, Abigail Matthews

UK - The first six pre-production prototype Components Co SMART:e fixtures have not sat still for long, no sooner had they been assembled and bench tested they were straight out of the door and on their way to London to be used at Ghost the Musical's press night party at the Corinthia Hotel.

Ghost associate LD, Tim Lutkin, got his first glimpse of the SMART:e whilst chatting to one of the product's designers recently and offered to give them their first real test.

"They're a fantastic bit of kit," says Lutkin. "I just can't get over how small and light they are, the battery life is great, the colour mix is brilliant, especially all the pastel shades you can get by adding the white in. But the best bit for me is their look, they are just so smart, they don't look like a marquee up-lighter and for me that is the deal clincher."

The SMART:e is the fir

UK - LD Systems has launched the DP2400X, the newest member of the DEEP family of power amplifiers. The key specifications are 2 x 1200 W at 2 ohms, 2 x 950 W at 4 ohms and 2 x 600 W at 8 ohms RMS power. Like the other power amplifiers in the DEEP series, the DP2400X uses class H circuitry powered by a conventional power supply.

The protective circuitry is also identical with that used in the DEEP2 series. It also follows the DEEP2 design in its integration of two temperature-dependent two step cooling fans. One special feature is a switchable 12 dB low-cut and/or 12 dB low-pass filter adjustable from 25 Hz to 150 Hz on both channels. This makes it possible to use the DP2400X as a bass amp or even realize a powerful bi-amping system. With the filters switched off, it becomes a conventional 2 channel power amp.

Andrew Richardson, managing director of Adam Hall UK comments, &quo

USA / Europe - Renkus-Heinz has announced the appointment of Swedish-born Håkan Sjöö as the company's new European sales manager.

Håkan has been the regional manager for Renkus-Heinz in India for the past two years, where he built up an extensive dealer network, assisted with the progress of several major sales and installations, and through this work acquired extensive knowledge of Renkus-Heinz and its products.

After spending three years in New Delhi with his wife and two sons, the family moved back to their home on the outskirts of Stockholm this summer. Says Karl Brunvoll, VP, international sales, "We are absolutely delighted that he has made the choice to stay with Renkus-Heinz and take on the responsibility of managing our distribution network in Europe."

In addition to working in the audio industry in various capacities since 1996, Håkan Sjöö holds a

UK - One weekend in Hackney's Victoria Park presented Martin Audio's Multi-cellular Loudspeaker Array (MLA) with three separate festivals to contend with.

Promoted by Eat Your Own Ears, Underage, Field Day and Apple Cart saw Capital Sound Hire return to the park with the same system they had fielded for the LED Festival a few weeks earlier - working alongside Loud Sound, the event management company, and LarMac LIVE, the production company.

This increasingly popular festival site is bordered on one side by trees, a canal and high-tariff residential properties. Thus environmental Acoustics experts Vanguardia needed to be satisfied that the sound would not bleed beyond the site perimeter and Cap's crew chief Nick Foots, supported by Martin Audio's development manager Phil Anthony, set presets that would comfortably ensure this, while being able to retain a threshold of 98dB-100d

Nicolas Kyvernitis Electronics Enterprises, distributors of Shure microphones and audio electronics in the UAE, Bahrain, Qatar and Oman have supplied MBC with 18 channels of the Shure UHF-R system. The sale also includes the new UR1H bodypack transmitter in addition to the dual channel receivers.

"MBC have been using the Shure UHF Premium series for many years now," commented Shajahan K K, Shure product manager. "After demonstrating all the new features and benefits with the UHF-R, it was only common sense for them to consider the new wireless system."

(Jim Evans)

UK - West London based Entec Sound & Light supplied the main stage sound design and a d&b audio system for the three-day 2011 Guilfest music festival, staged at Stoke Park in central Guildford, Surrey. It was the event's 20th anniversary, renowned for its diverse line ups and laid-back, friendly, family atmosphere.

It was the seventh consecutive year that Entec has supplied the event, for which Liam Halpin was crew chief, systems designer and radio supervisor. His successful sound design model has been used for the last five years, during which time it has been tweaked and honed to give an optimum sound on site - for a wide variety of artists and styles - producing the absolute minimum noise pollution in the surrounding areas.

The system consisted of nine deep left and right hangs of d&b's J8 large format line array speakers and a distributed bass array across the front of the

Michael Forever - Christina Aguilera, Cee Lo Green and Motown veteran Smokey Robinson are set to perform at a tribute concert in honour of Michael Jackson. More acts will be added to the bill nearer the time. The event coincides with the trial of the Dr Conrad Murray, charged over the singer's death. The gig takes place at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium on 8 October.

While the concert has raised the doubts of Randy and Jermaine Jackson, it has the full support of the star's mother and other siblings. British acts Leona Lewis, Craig David and JLS have also been lined up to perform at the gig. Several of Jackson's brothers will also perform, along with 3T, which consists of Tito Jackson's three sons. "We're delighted that such exciting and globally recognised acts have joined the line-up to pay tribute to a music legend," said Chris Hunt, president of concert promoter Glob

UK - Showsec helped the Olympic 2012 celebrations get off to a flying start, as they ensured the safety of thousands of guests at the One Year to Go countdown event in Trafalgar Square in London on Wednesday 27July, 2011.

Over 6,000 people attended and among the crowds were a plethora of special guests and VIPs including Prime Minster David Cameron, London Mayor Boris Johnson and Jacques Rogge, president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

The countdown, organised by Greater London Authority (GLA) in conjunction with Innovision event management company and Westminster Council, was televised live on BBC One. It saw David Cameron make a brief speech on the current planning and budgeting for the games, followed by dancing, live music from The Feeling and the unveiling of the 2012 medal designs by British artist David Watkins.

Dayo Adelugba, Showsec's head of se

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