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14 March 2016

"Our existing sound system didn't offer the quality of playback that we need for guests using our landmark ballroom on 42nd Street in the heart of Manhattan," says Matt Adams, the hotel's VP and managing director."

The Empire Ballroom comprises six interlinked areas that together can host events for between 100 and 1,700 patrons. The larger ballrooms B, C and D are laid out in a row with dividing air walls, while ballrooms A and E plus the West Ballroom serve as satellite areas with interconnected AV systems. "Previously, Grand Hyatt has brought in music-playbac

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14 March 2016

Dreamland Aqua Park contacted Jean-Paul Jeannet, director of The Brain Concepts company - a special effects design company working for the entertainment industry - to be the show designer and constructor of the newly-built Volcano Dreamland attraction.

The Brain Concepts selected Medialon to be the main show and media control system of the attraction which is located in the water park and offers visitors a special experience inside the volcano itself.

When coming to the Volcano, visitors can watch a spectacular three-minute show filled with fire and water explosions, roar sounds and many other special effects.

One Medialon Manager V5 Pro license embedded i

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14 March 2016

Cover It Up helped transform the main Arena and the Pavilion areas of the venue into one of the biggest and most successful dance party events in the country, celebrating the start of a new decade with six action packed arenas and a dynamic line up of DJs and performers.

Cover It Up's main challenge with this one was to design and rig a sonic baffling system that would separate the sounds between the two principle spaces - the main One Nation arena and Hardcore Heaven - which were set up back to back in the NEC's Arena.

The client was primarily concerned about the potential bass seepage between the two arenas, but Cover It Up's Elliot Stennett r

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14 March 2016

The United Nations Climate Change Conference, or COP 15 for short, closed with top marks given for the lighting of the entire proceedings. Seelite A/S under the direction of lighting designer Lars Nissen, deployed more than 1000 GLP Impression fixtures to light the plenum rooms, television broadcast locations and other ancillary areas. Seelite used all of their own fixtures, which they originally purchased for the Roskilde music festival and sub hired the remainder from AED Rent in Belgium, knowing that the Impression could easily handle this task.

A goal for using the fixtures was the reduction in power consumption over previous systems, without compromising light quality. The Danish foreign ministry, Se

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14 March 2016

"As an engineer I wanted hands-on control and flexibility," says Meirlaen. "Audient Zen gives me all the control I need. Hooked up with my ProTools HD2 system, a rack full of outboard gear and a small patchbay, I can now do and control everything from one location, be it providing eight separate mixes for tracking several musicians at once, to mixing down 32 channels coming from PT and inserting outboard and adding FX without compromise.

"What's even better is that I've got 16 more great sounding preamps and a versatile bus compressor added to the already fantastically clean and crisp sounding desk.

"I need to be able to grab any opportunity or challenge t

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14 March 2016

John Hastie, operations director comments, "The site is aimed to reflect what theatre automation should be all about - it's easy-to-use, visually exciting, dynamic and we wonder how we ever managed with the old, static site."

(Jim Evans)

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14 March 2016

The new company will be lead by Frederic Opsomer, who assumes the position of CEO of Tait Technologies. The company will have its headquarters in Waardamme, Belgium.

By setting up Tait Technologies, both parties have taken a strategic decision to refine their focus on the converging video and scenic industry. The company will develop and supply standard and bespoke mechanical and automation solutions that allow easy and seamless integration of video and scenic products.

Backed by long-standing reputations in the live entertainment design industries, Tait Technologies will focus on providing the entertainment and event design ind

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14 March 2016

The principal loudspeaker of choice for these clubs is the multi-purpose, high precision, high power SMX15 monitor speaker from APG. Across the five clubs, a total of 20 SMX15s have been installed, supplemented by APG's TB218S subs, with the exception of Club Malibu in Krasnodar city which has four APG DS15S multipurpose Dispersion Series loudspeakers, supplemented by two TB218S subs.

The nightclub industry is clearly thriving in this part of Russia - each club boasts its own website and is sumptuously furnished and decorated. The biggest club, the Mo

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14 March 2016

For the last 25 years, Rose has lit every annual New Year's Rockin Eve (NYRE) show, and if you were tuned in on 31 December you couldn't have miss Martin's newest LED fixture prominently lined on each side of two performance stages.

"When I had the fixture in our light lab for pre-programming on the Disney Parks Christmas Parade I got a chance to explore its capabilities, I was quite impressed by it," Rose commented. "I wanted something for the NYRE stage that looked different, an LED fixture that didn't show discreet LEDs per colour."

Production designer for the event, Bruce Ryan a

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14 March 2016

Adlib's sound crew was chiefed by Marc Peers, who also mixed monitors. At front of house, James Neale also shared system tech duties with Richy Nicholson.

The JBL VerTec PA system was picked for its versatility and fast rigging capabilities. The main hangs consisted of 14 VerTec 4889 elements per side, with side-hangs of 10 4889s. There were four VerTec 4880A subs on the ground to add body and fullness to the sonic mix.

For front in-fills, Neale used four L-Acoustics dv-DOSC cabinets, with two L-Acoustics ARCs a side for out-fills.

The VerTec was powered by

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14 March 2016

Waves and DiGiCo have agreed to work together to integrate Waves' new SoundGrid technology into DiGiCo's single FPGA Stealth Digital Processing products for the live sound industry. Further details about this strategic alliance are to be unveiled over 2010.

Commenting on the agreement, Olesh stated: "DiGiCo has always been on the forefront in digital mixing technology. Their consoles have been acknowledged as an industry leader, and everyone at Waves is extremely excited to be able to work with their R&D team. We look forward to a close working relationship."

"The arrival of

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14 March 2016

Proprietor Andy Collins says he has been using various PR Lighting products virtually since setting up his sales and rental company back in 2003 - and He also has a quantity of PR's Solo 250 conventional moving heads in his hire fleet.

But it was the new XLED 590s, containing 90 high power 5W RGB LEDs, that really "provided the wow factor", after UK distributors MilTec (UK) sent Eclipse a pair to trial at a massive fireworks display.

When the pair of XLED 590s made their debut at the massive fireworks event in Ipswich's Christchurch Park, it wasn't only the pyrotechnics that amazed the 50,000 people.

Says Collins, "We had them on either side of a 40ft x 30ft stage for a Michael Jackson tribute act. The colour wash we got was fantastic. We gener

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14 March 2016

A statement from APIAS says: "The main reasons that have led the organizers to reschedule Show-Way stem from the acknowledgement that the professional entertainment world is going through a period of great change.

"New and different opportunities are emerging on the world scene for all sector players. Looking at other similar situations in the past, there is also no doubt that taking part in trade fairs in hard times such as this is not always profitable for companies.

"The Show-Way Professional Entertainment Technology Exhibition will therefore return to the Bergamo trade fair in the Spring of next year, with the same

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14 March 2016

Six candidates from across the membership put themselves forward for the four available places, creating an election campaign which generated one of the highest number of votes cast in the organisation's history.

Joining the Executive for the first time are Duncan Bell of Autograph Sound and Murray Gellatly of Artistic Licence who take seats on the committee following the departure of Adrian Brooks of LiteStructures, who stepped down in December after serving six years, and the death earlier in the year of long-serving committee member David Hopkins OBE.

Existing committee membe

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14 March 2016

"I was looking for the highest quality A/D and D/A converters possible - and for an amazing master clock. The Prism Sound ADA-8XR was an obvious choice," says Smith. "I looked at dedicated A/Ds and D/As and super high-end master clocks, but the Prism Sound unit won in every blind test that I did. I spoke to a lot of mastering engineers and everyone rated the ADA-8XR in terms of everyone rated the ADA-8XR in terms of sound quality and reliability."

Since buying the ADA-8XR, Smith has used it on all his mixes and tracking, mixing Taio Cruz's number one hit Break Your Heart and recording J

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14 March 2016

"This year's NAMM Show marks a critical turning point for the international music products industry," said NAMM president and CEO Joe Lamond. "A strong NAMM Show signals the beginning of a comeback with buyers returning to their hometowns with renewed energy, passion and hope for a strong 2010, and exhibitors enjoying strong floor traffic and sales as they in

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14 March 2016

"I've been working with them for about three years but it's mostly been a lot of fly dates," says FOH engineer and tour manager, Jay Phebus. "When they decided to do a real US tour, I knew exactly what I wanted to take on the road with me. iLive's got a great sound, small footprint, it's incredibly flexible, and the price point is amazing, which is a real factor in touring these days."

Vertical Horizon's equipment requirements comprise two guitars, three vocals, bass and drums, with some triggered percussion and keyboard parts from a hard disc machine to give an authentic feel to their hits. Both guitars are dual-output systems, with a piezo system complementing traditional pickups, which can be switc

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14 March 2016

Programmer Rob Halliday says: "The fixtures were only a short distance above Jude's head, and when they were in the reset position, pointing straight down, he thought he was going to bump his head on them. It's unusual for an actor to notice the moving lights, let alone comment on them - so we were very amused when he started saying they reminded him of something from the Star Wars movies. More importantly, in this incredibly precisely lit show, his understanding of what we were trying to do was remarkable and his positioning was always spot on."

The show was a transfer the Donmar Warehouse production of Hamlet, first seen at London's Wyndham's Theatre as part of the Donmar's year

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14 March 2016

Production manager Amanda Murray at Capitol House says, "We already have our own in-house lighting, but we contacted London Light because we knew they stocked Color Web, which we'd seen and loved at other award events.The first meeting with [London Light directors] Sam Crook and David Buffham took place around six months before the event, when they discussed the show's requirements with our lighting designer, Quentin Jarman, including programming the effects to go with the music that would be used. We were really impressed with their helpful and creative attitude - I wouldn't hesitate to use them again or recommen

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14 March 2016

AFA09, which took place at Singapore Suntec International Convention and Exhibition Centre from 21-22 November, included concerts by a power-packed list of Japan's top musical performers collectively themed as I Love Anisong.

Trio AV of Singapore supplied audio, visuals, trussing and lighting for the two-day event with a package that included Martin MAC 2000 Profiles, MAC TW1 Washes, MAC 2000 Washes and MAC 301 Washes with lighting control from a Martin Maxxyz Compact and two of the new MaxModules, MaxModule Submaster and MaxModule Button. Video clips for the wide projection screen were from a Martin Maxedia PRO media server.

Programming the Maxxyz Compact was Joel Tay who has worked with a number of different lighting d

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14 March 2016

Ofcom recently announced that from 4 January this year Channel 38 would be available (with regional restrictions) for radio mic use in the same way as Channel 69. This is to smooth the path to the loss of Channel 69 on 1 January 2012 (a direct result of the Ofcom spectrum sell-off following the Digital Switchover). Hand Held Audio says that it has put together an investment plan for 2010 that includes systems from AKG, Sennheiser, Shure and Trantec, covering a considered and diverse r

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14 March 2016

"HMP100 represents an alternative to the traditional distributed video from a single PC or individual PCs at each display which have previously been used to deliver content." said Serge Konter, marketing manager at SpinetiX, "The HMP100 is an incredibly small solid state solution with low power use and reliable operation."

"Datumstruct Group is very pleased to be able to offer such an innovative product in South East Asia and China," said Timothy Tiah, director and head of the technology business division. "SpinetiX' solution is unique in providing alternative PC solution for the growing digital signage market. The

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14 March 2016

Many larger churches use wireless microphones to transmit the voice of clergy and others leading services through a public address system. Some of these audio systems, in churches and cathedrals using four or more such 'radio microphones', currently use a channel dedicated for use by programme makers and special events production staff (along with other frequencies that are subject to geographical restrictions). But changes proposed by the communications regulator Ofcom, and supported by Government, to clear and sell spectrum currently used by radio microphones mean that this channe

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14 March 2016

It follows an exceptional few months for the London based company, which has provided production rigging design and installation for the BBC Sports Personality of The Year 2009, Children In Need, the Selfridges Christmas Lights switch-on, Harry Potter - The Half Blood Prince premiere in Leicester Square, Ford's stand at the Shanghai Motor Show, and live productions of the BBC's So You Think You Can Dance, Mama Mia in Oslo and Phantom of the Opera in Buenos Aires.

The Emirates project, created to emphasise the link between Arsenal's glory days at its former Hig