Robe - LEADERBOARD - Feb 2025
Doughty - Banner - ABTT (27 May - 5 June)

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The Netherlands - Two lucky sound engineers, who each won a DPA d:fine single earpiece headset mic in a prize draw during the IBC 2011 show, have been putting the mics through their paces.

d:fine headsets have gone to Mark Graves, a member of the sound engineering team at his London church, and to Andrea Purchiaroni, chief engineer at Roman TV production company Etabeta.

"I was very pleased indeed to win a microphone," says Graves. "At St Pauls, Ealing, a large Anglican church in the New Wine network, we have a comprehensive PA rig manned by an enthusiastic volunteer team of PA operators. Our worship style is modern, with a full band in place for every service.

"On its first outing, the d:fine was used straight out of the box to mic the speaker, with no tim

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Spain - Christie has announced the opening of a Spanish branch in Madrid. Christie's new office is located in Boadilla del Monte, a town just 14.5 kilometres outside Madrid, and right next to Ciudad de la Imagen, an office and audiovisual leisure complex which is home to many TV channels, audiovisual producers, multiplexes, postproduction companies, film schools, audiovisual industry associations and film archives.

With a total surface area of 500sq.m, the new branch hosts a large showroom displaying Christie's latest technologies and products, including projectors and videowalls. It also has several rooms set aside for staging live demos, commercial meetings, seminars and training courses, plus a space dedicated to technical services. The new facility is also available to Christie's clients and partners for their own use.

Christie's Iberic branch will be headed by Marcos Fern

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USA - A large complement of Clay Paky Sharpy moving heads welcomed the start of the pro football season at the NFL Kick Off 2011 Presented by EA Sports, the high-energy, pre-game concert which aired live on NBC from the parking lot at Lambeau Field, home of the Super Bowl champion Green Bay Packers.

"The tradition of the NFL Kick Off started in Times Square in 2001 as a pre-game public event tying entertainment and sports together," says Spike Lloyd, the show's lighting designer. "This year the concert in Green Bay featured Kid Rock, Maroon 5 and Lady Antebellum. It started at 3pm and went until 6:30."

Lloyd deployed 36 Sharpy moving heads, which he acquired from Atomic Lighting in Lititz, Pennsylvania. "We used them at the back of the stage as floor lights very tightly packed and directed upstage of the band on a scenic piece shaped like a skat

Doughty - Banner - ABTT (27 May - 5 June)
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LD Systems ICOA PRO series – high-performance coaxial PA speakers for professional demands

The popular ICOA PA systems have been further developed to include two active full-range coaxial speakers – ICOA PRO 12 A and ICOA PRO 15 A – as well as the active 21″ bass-reflex PA subwoofer ICOA PRO SUB 21 A. With its professional features and high output power, the ICOA PRO series is aimed at ambitious bands, musicians and DJs as well as hire companies and commercial customers looking for a compact, robust and powerful PA sound system. The ICOA PRO series is rounded off with modern connection and control options via Bluetooth 5.1 and the specially developed ICOA PRO app, for use on smartphones and tablets.

ld-systems.com/icoapro

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UK - Earlier this year, Lighthouse LED screens were chosen by Carphone Warehouse Group (CPW), Europe's largest independent mobile phone retailer, for its building at Portal Way in London. The building faces in-bound London traffic on the busy A40 and the screen is being utilised by the company as an advertising medium.

The installation comprises 24 x 5 panels of Lighthouse's new Impact 12 and measures 18.5 m (w) x 5.8m (h). This innovative solution has 6000 nits of brightness, which makes it suitable for viewing behind glass and in direct sunlight, as at Portal Way, and the large panel size (each one measures 768mm (h) x 1152mm (h)) made installation a quick and easy process.

"CPW has owned the building for a number of years," explains head of finance, Rob Murray. "It was originally occupied by TalkTalk, which was part of our group at the time, and they had a su

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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. 

For more information visit us at www.etcconnect.com

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UK - Adlib's specialist installation division has designed and installed a complete new CODA Audio system - the first fixed install of its type in the UK utilising CODA's LA8 (compact) and LA4 (ultra compact) line array speakers at The Manchester Velodrome, the country's National Cycling Centre.

Adlib's sales and installations team, headed by John Hughes and Roger Kirby, was approached by ISG Regions, who were managing the building development works for Manchester City Council, about a fixed solution for the Velodrome track.

Once the plans for the system design were approved, the installation schedule was gruelling. It involved Adlib's crews working at height, in confined spaces and using a variety of mobile high level access platforms during five weeks of overnight shifts.

Adlib believed that a line array would deliver optimum unified audio coverage that was required. Havin

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UK - Drum 'n Bass DJ, Andy C, is currently on tour in the UK with a new show, based around the Allen & Heath Xone:DB4 digital FX mixer.

The concept of the ALIVE tour is to "take DJ'ing to a new dimension, incorporating visual and audio clips, which are controlled by the latest technology".

"ALIVE was not possible until the DB4 arrived - it is the piece of kit that cemented the fact I could do it," explains Andy. "The ergonomics and layout of the mixer was a culture shock at first, as the DB4 is different to every other mixer but I soon realised it was a new step, which would become a central point for control, as it's too complicated to flip between keyboards, controllers and computers - everything is controlled from the hub."

The Xone:DB4 controls various MIDI devices, computers loaded with Traktor and Ableton, three turntables, a

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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

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South Africa - The musical quiz South African television show, Noot vir Noot (Note for Note), is as popular as ever 20 years down the line. Blond Productions were approached four years ago to give the show an edge by adding a modern technical twist, and this season they included their new 12 Robe MMX fixtures to the production. The show is programmed on a grandMA ultra-light and incorporates a further 12 Robe 250s.

Blond were originally called in by Stemmburg Television to give the show a 'wow' factor. Noot vir Noot is produced and run by its original team, camera men included, and for Blond it has involved working with Alasdair Richards, who does the generic lighting.

"Every second season (comprising 24 episodes shot over a two week period), we've tried to give them something new," said Christian Ballot of Blond Productions. Ryan Lombard from Blond was

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UK - POLARaudio has recently launched its new dealer portal. The online resource permits all account customers to log in and manage their entire account profile. Users have access to a full range of accounts, sales and technical support tools.

The dealer portal is a secure website designed to allow customers to get fast accurate information, place orders or view their account 24 hours a day. The ergonomically designed and easy to use portal includes a host of tools designed to make it as easy as possible to do business, says the company.

The 'Your Account' tab enables registered users to view their balance, account status, order history and to print copy invoices and statements. The 'Return and Repair' tab allow users to arrange a repair or replacement of a faulty item, whilst the 'Spare Parts' tab gives customers access to detailed descriptions, images, prices and data sheets

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Germany - t&m Systems, based in Ibbenbüren, is launching the ProjectMix818, a flexible and competitively-priced eight-zone mixer with paging functions for installed public address and music applications.

The ProjectMix818 features four line and four mic/line inputs that can selectively be switched as the source for any of the output zones. Easy to read LCD displays for each zone show which input source is in use and a similar LCD display is also used on the remote control panels.

A further mic input can also be sent, with level control, to any or all zones in addition to their selected source. The ProjectMix818 also has 2 inputs for t&m paging mics. These paging mics have selection switches for each zone or all-zones and an expansion module can be used to expand the paging mic by another 8 zones if two or more ProjectMix818 units are linked together.

Each zone features an a

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UK - LED screen brand Pixled has significantly expanded its range of portable, lightweight screen surfaces.

The P-6 is a high resolution lightweight dynamic tile, offering 2000 Nits of brightness, available with either white or black faced SMD's, and a true 6 mm, budget friendly product, suitable for rental and staging companies and fixed installations.

Flex-10 is a newly developed ultra-thin flexible display module, currently available in 6 and 10 mm resolutions for convex and concave fixed installations. The bendable Flex-10 LED display opens many new possibilities for LED usage, says the company. It can be bent and flexed to fit curved surfaces of almost any shape or form, both convex and concave as well as horizontally and vertically.

The F-50C/F-75C/F-150C Soft Curtain LED "makes ideal stage backdrops and has great imaginative potential including for the cladding o

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USA - LSC Lighting Systems had a busy and successful exhibition at LDI in Orlando where the prototypes of two new models of the new Clarity LX console range were shown for the first time in the USA.

Following on from the initial preview of the Clarity LX300 console at PLASA in London in September, on show at LDI for the first time anywhere in the world was the Clarity LX900 console and it received wide acclaim.

The Clarity LX range comprises three models, the LX300, LX600 and LX900 all with touch screens, multiple programmers, unlimited undo/redo, Fader Ident TM for playback mode indication, media server integration, LED pixel mapping and innovative Rig Schematic patching, that allows importing of rig or venue images to overlay patched fixtures making fixture selection both quick and easy.

Built on the already debugged Clarity PC/Mac software base that has been in the market

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UK - Martin Professional's EMEA sales organisation has announced the hiring of Ritchie Reed as account manager focusing on theatre sales in the UK market.

Reed brings with him extensive experience in the UK theatre lighting market, which includes a detailed understanding of all aspects of lighting design, as well as practical experience in purchasing, inventory and management.

His new position as account manager at Martin UK began on 21 November and encompasses developing and managing business in the theatre lighting segment while maintaining direct contact with lighting designers and companies that supply the theatre production industry.

Reed joins Martin from Selecon Lighting/Philips Entertainment where he held a position in lighting technical sales, providing product training, technical support and lighting installation specification while overseeing the implementation of

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France - SLS is the second company in France to invest in Adamson's Project Energia as a beta partner. SLS's entire loudspeaker inventory is made up exclusively of Adamson products. With 15 full time personnel and 140 freelancers, their Adamson inventory includes Metrix, SpekTrix, Y10, Y18, SX 18, Point Series and M series monitors housed in a 36,000sq.ft building in Ales, with a second location in Montpellier.

Though the French sound company is focused mainly on festivals and corporate events, they do provide sound production for a few tours, their main client since 2007 being the French band Les Ogres Barback (often nicknamed The Ogre). The Ogre are currently on tour with SLS's new Adamson E15 system. The band has released 12 albums since 1997, and their vast repertoire of intricate songs and complex arrangements are "a wonderful showcase for the capabilities E15 system&q

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UK - XL Video UK supplied specialist LED and IMAG projection screens plus control to the 2011 MTV European Music Awards, staged at Belfast Odyssey Arena, Northern Ireland, and broadcast live to 45 countries worldwide.

The live music video production specialist has been involved with this high profile event for several years, and XL's Chris Saunders was project managing for the third year running.

The show included a dynamic, star studded line up of artists performing live, including Lady GaGa, Coldplay, Bruno Mars, Jesse J, Justin Bieber, the Red Hot Chilli Peppers and Selina Gomez, who was also hosting.

Technical challenges included fitting an ambitious and visually spectacular stage set designed by Es Devlin - complete with integrated screens - into the venue. Also the XL team had to be flexible enough to accommodate specific requests from some artists late on as their ind

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Germany - The Digital Workflow workshop was held at Lawo AG in Rastatt, earlier this month. Entitled Integrated and innovative - from the mixing console to the microphone, the free-of-charge seminar was led by experts from Sennheiser, Neumann and Innovason who presented the latest product developments and their role in the digital workflow. Further, this practical workshop, offered sound engineers the opportunity to try out the digital microphones and mixing consoles in small groups.

The lectures about Neumann digital microphones and Innovason's Eclipse GT digital live mixing console were focused on creating easy workflows; they were followed by explanations from Martin Kaiser of TSE AG who, as technical director of this event, illustrated the successful deployment of these devices at the Classic Open Air classical music festival in Berlin in July.

The af

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UK - Unusual Rigging is enjoying a busy winter season, with both new West End productions and UK tours, including Oliver! which opens on 10 December at Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff. Following the company's involvement in the show's record-breaking West End run at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, Unusual is providing 30 motors and rigging for lifting the FOH and stage lighting and scenic trusses for the 11 venue tour, which is booking until March 2013.

Unusual is also supplying lighting trusses on the current UK tours of White Christmas, South Pacific, Dirty Dancing and We Will Rock You, and looking forward to starting work on the new touring production of The Phantom of the Opera. Premiering at the Theatre Royal Plymouth in March next year, the Phantom tour will require some 80 chain hoists, putting the total out on hire from Unu

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UK - MTV considered bids from a number of cities before settling Belfast for its annual awards show. Star Events Group provided a VerTech 2015CPL stage system for live performances from local super group Snow Patrol.

The stage type and access features, specified by Duchess Iredale on behalf of MTV Europe, were built over the main gates of Belfast's iconic City Hall facing the main shopping thoroughfare of Donegal Place.

The gates and railings formed integral parts of the completed structure with the stage height set to allow smooth passage of rolling risers between the main gate posts. The construction took place over four days which meant minimal disruption to traffic despite the delivery of some 100t of equipment and use of an 80t crane to assemble the stage.

Ancillary structures including a multilevel front of house and follow spot tower, with an essential cable bridge ac

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Scandinavia - TTA, manufacturer of Stagetracker FX, has strengthened its sales and distribution network across Scandinavia with the appointment of two new distributors; Alfa Audio A/S in Denmark, and Drammen Lyd AS in Norway. The two companies already have a strong working relationship with each other, and also with Arva Trading AB who is TTA's long-established distributor in Sweden.

According to TTA's sales and marketing manager, Flemming S°rensen, the move made sense for all parties concerned. "Scandinavia is a small market, so it's very common for companies to collaborate between countries. Drammen Lyd and Alfa Audio already knew each other very well, and Alfa Audio is in fact owned by Arva Trading in Sweden, so the link there is clear. The result for TTA is a strong foothold in three Scandinavian countries - Denmark, Norway and Sweden - with companies who can suppor

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UK - London-based creative lighting and event design practice Renegade designed all the technical production and co-ordinated equipment supply - including lighting, video and visuals, set and scenic elements plus sound - for the high profile SHINE 2011 Benefit Dinner.

This was staged at Old Billingsgate Market, one of London's premium event venues. The evening featured a gala dinner for 500 guests, complete with charity auction, rounded off by a performance by Chic - headed by guitarist Nile Rogers. The event raised money for the charity, which supports additional educational initiatives encouraging children and young people to raise their achievement levels.

Renegade has worked closely with SHINE for the last eight years, producing all their live events. Each year for this special event, Renegade's Nick Gray comes up with a fresh and inventive visual theme for the evening.

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UK - A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET)'s specialist rigging division has provided a bespoke Prolyte trussing grid solution for Studio Three at Milton House on the campus of the University of Huddersfield, West Yorkshire.

Studio Three is a charismatic Grade II listed space within a former Methodist Church that is now part of The Milton Building, home to the University's Drama, Theatre & Performance department. It is a new area used for training students in lighting and sound on the University's new BA Honours degree course in technical theatre.

AC-ET was one of several companies invited to tender for the project by David Wainwright, senior technician and manager of resources for drama, theatre & performance, having previously supplied equipment to the University.

The Studio Three grid project was co-ordinated for A.C. Rigging by Adam Beaumont, and utilises over 90 custo

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France - The Tree Rings installation on the Champs-Elysées in Paris sees 200 trees each encircled by three specially created rings of LED lighting that add drama, movement and colour to the natural organic form of the tree.

In daylight hours, the inner lights of each ring emit a soft glow of light, and mirror garlands sparkle as they move freely in the breeze. At dusk, vibrant programmed displays begin, using both the inner and outer lights, continuing until 2am. The entire scheme is programmable to create vastly different effects; precise shifts in colour and tempo can be created, to focus on one tree or to create a sequence or group effect, with over 80,000 000 possible combinations of effects per tree.

The Tree Rings installation is scalable, from a lighting effect on individual tree to the orchestration of a light show involving every tree along the entire avenue. C

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