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UK - Bandit Lites UK is supplying lighting production for the UK and European leg of the Moody Blues' 2004 world tour. Bandit Lites Inc also services the band's lengthy annual American tours. Other territories on the current itinerary include Australia and New Zealand in early 2005.

Lighting designer Mick Thornton has worked with the band for the last five years, each tour turning the stage into a completely different and eye-catching visual environment for the performance. Keeping to a basic front and back truss format for his primary building blocks, this year Thornton added three overhead triangular trusses which move, and four vertical upstage towers.

The stage set - as devised by Thornton - is all in white, including the cyc, which has a four-channel star cloth behind it and the stage floor, which is covered by a white carpet. Parts of the set also have white scrim stretc

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UK - The Queen Elizabeth Hall on London's south bank has been closed for much of this summer whilst undergoing a substantial refurbishment programme. The stage area in particular required a major overhaul and has undergone significant modernisation. ELP were brought in to strip out the old rigging structures and install a brand new, high spec rig.

"We were well placed to take the job on" explains ELP project manager Toby Dare "as we already provide all the rigging services for the Royal Festival Hall next door. We proposed and designed a new grid system for the QEH which would be flexible enough to accommodate the diverse range of productions the Hall now caters for. These now vary from orchestral performances, through to theatre, circus and modern dance."

Over a six-week period, (from the end of July to early September 2004) the ELP crew stripped out all

Doughty - Banner - from 6 June 2025

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USA - To coincide with the US launch of its new digital mixing console, the D1, DiGiCo will be giving away two DiGiCo D1 USB MP3 watches in a free prize draw at LDI. The draw will take place half an hour before close of show on Friday and Saturday on DiGiCo Booth #2728 and all entrants must have taken a demonstration of the new D1 console during the show.

"We're very excited about both the launch of the D1," says DiGiCo marketing director, David Webster. "And we're celebrating this with a prize that fits the occasion. Our original USB watches have proved to be incredibly popular, having all the convenience of DiGiCo's D5 pocket sized USB key, which can store all the desk settings for an entire show, with the added convenience of a watch. Now we're giving away all that plus an integral MP3 player. It doesn't get much better!"

(Sarah Rushton-Read)

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UK - Warrington Borough Council has built a new 24-hour security monitoring control room facility to improve its continued commitment to combat crime. A command wall system incorporating JVC's high resolution D-ILA DLA-SX21 projector and rear projection CinePro screens was specified by Industry Consultant Faber Maunsell.

Jason Todhunter, associate director at Faber Maunsell designed and planned the new facility, and has undertaken all technical project supervision. "Warrington Borough Council required a cutting edge control room facility. Previously CCTV monitoring was undertaken from an outdated control room within Warrington's police headquarters. The new development incorporates Warrington Borough Council's security monitoring as well as care call and emergency planning services," commented Todhunter.

Images displayed on the JVC command wall system are fed from ex

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Italy - Although Italian EMI recording artist Vasco Rossi is over 50, he's definitely still the country's rock "enfant terrible" and his huge popularity with young fans was once again confirmed by the crowds at his recent Clear Channel-produced tour to promote his latest album "Buoni e Cattivi" (the Good and the Bad). In fact, the tour kicked off with a sold-out gig at Rome's Olimpico soccer stadium and ran to packed stadia, before finishing with a free show in Catanzaro, to a reported audience of 400,000.

Vasco's fans expect maximum visual impact from his shows and this was no exception: Grandi Schermi (Large Screens), a business unit of Euphon Communication, was responsible for the supply, installation and technical assistance for The three Lighthouse Technologies LED screens used on the impressive set designed by Giò Forma, and Rome's Limelite supplied a

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UK - The London School of Economics, one of the hotbeds of student radicalism in the 1960's, has recently revamped its three student entertainment spaces and QSC's AcousticDesign sound systems are prominently featured throughout the new venues.

Following a similar project at nearby Kings College, London's Clarity in Sound, Light and Vision has performed a major redesign on two of the three spaces: The Three Tuns, a 400-capacity traditional bar, and the 300-capacity Underground live music venue. Combined with a third venue, the Quad, the LSE can now provide entertainment for up to 1300 and route the signals from the live venues to patrons at the bar.

Clarity director Stuart Graham opted for a complete QSC-based system to meet the multi-purpose live and background music needs of the Three Tuns. Featuring a pair of AcousticDesign AD-S82 full-range enclosures, augmented by six AD-

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USA - SAND Network Systems will host ETC, Martin, Pathway Connectivity, and Wireless Solutions at this years LDI Connectivity Pavilion. On display is a wide variety of networking technology with emphasis on emerging standards and protocols including ACN, RDM, and W-DMX.

New hardware and software will give visitors a preview of the future of networked show and lighting control. Hands-on demonstrations will highlight the new and exciting possibilities these technologies offer specifiers, designers, and users. Important features like manufacturer interoperability and gateways to legacy equipment will be explained in detail. Staff from several manufacturers will be present to discuss the technologies and answer questions. The Connectivity Pavilion is located in Booth #3607 and get a glimpse of the future!

(Sarah Rushton-Read)

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UK - The Marquee Club is back up and running this autumn in a new venue, with Aztec, Audient's flagship live desk forming part of the new PA system, hand-picked and installed by Terminal Studios. Back again in its spiritual home in Soho, the Marquee Club is only a short walk from its famous Wardour Street location. With a capacity of 1000, the new venue at Number 1 Leicester Square needed professional help with the sound system.

Terminal Studios were chosen due to their wide experience of installing PA systems. Terminal's managing director Charlie Barrett says: "We knew that the sound system would be crucial to the success of the club. We wanted tried and tested equipment that engineers and bands would be familiar with. Turbosound Floodlight was the obvious choice of speaker as Terminal already had large stocks available. The Audient Aztec, however, was not originally on t

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UK - The PLASA award-winning InMotion 3D / CyberHoist motion control system is set for a strong UK presence following an announcement today that Vertigo Rigging, the rigging and height access specialists, has become the UK Service Point for the InMotion 3D motion control system by XLNT Advanced Technologies. The system won a PLASA Award for Innovation at the PLASA Show last month in conjunction with the CyberHoist intelligent motor by Verlinde and the DataMotion and PowerMotion system components from XLNT.

Vertigo director Rebecca Loughran said: "Designers in all environments are embracing the vast possibilities this technology can deliver. For Technical Managers the time saving advantages, reliability and unbeatable VGB-C1 safety standard, are making this the 'must have' motion control system for the professional entertainment industry."

The UK Service Point will pr

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USA - LDI 2004 will not be business as usual as far as Chauvet is concerned, the company promises. The manufacturer will cast its newest luminaires as supermodels on a fashion show runway, under the theme 'Welcome to the Future'.

"This is sort of a coming out party," said product development manager Barry Abrams, adding that hitherto-unseen technology will be on display, reflecting its largest-ever product range.

The new autumn collection includes four moving-yoke lights: the Legend 250RT Spot, Legend 250WT Wash, Legend250 Zoom and the 18-channel Legend 575 Zoom.

Also on show will be the Trackscan 250 DSR- ILS scanner. Housed in a silvery casing, it's accompanied by an entourage of models including the Trackscan 250 DBR-ILS, curvy Colortrack 250DCR-ILS, and the powerful ILS Control Center, all endowed with technology conceived to ease and widen programming options

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USA - ETC and Cast Software jointly announced changes to their worldwide distribution relationship today. From January 1, 2005, Cast Software will take over worldwide marketing and distribution of WYSIWYG, while ETC, in partnership with Cast, will continue the development and marketing of its own Emphasis control system. Cast will also supply ETC with WYSIWYG Perform Console Edition for distribution with several of its control products including the Avab, transtechnik Lichtsysteme and Emphasis product lines.

In a joint statement, the two companies said the decision to amend the distribution agreement was based on a number of factors. Since forming the original partnership with ETC four years ago, Cast and WYSIWYG have enjoyed strong growth, while ETC has expanded and grown its product portfolio. Now, "ETC and Cast have mutually agreed it is the right time for Cast to take o

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Denmark - Martin heads to LDI in Las Vegas with an array of new products including a new digital media server and a flexible wing extension for the popular Maxxyz lighting console. New Mania series lights - new flower effects, a new promotional projector and the first scanner in the Mania series - expand this range for DJs and clubs. A new powerful, portable smoke machine will also be on display, along with a number of other lighting tools and updates - and what the company calls "a few special surprises".

The new Maxedia Digital Media Composer is designed to provide a new level of digital lighting creativity. Maxedia, which includes integrated DMX control, provides full control of both lighting and video elements and promises various advantages over other digital media servers including a maximum of 20 layers simultaneously, 3D effects with unique real-time manipulati

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USA - Wybron, Inc. has announced its appointment as Lighting Innovation's exclusive North American distributor for the new Super Beam 1200.

Lighting Innovation has successfully distributed Wybron products in Austria for several years, resulting in a strong relationship between the two companies. Lighting Innovation's founder, Hermann Sorger, known worldwide as the main engineer behind the successful Pani projectors, said he is was very happy with the new direction the alliance is taking: "I am very excited about working together with Wybron. The Super Beam is a perfect product for the North American market, and Wybron is our perfect partner."

The newly-launched Super Beam 1200 has been heralded as 'the next generation super bright beam light'. The Super Beam 1200 uses a new Philips 80V 1200W lamp, which together with sophisticated double reflector optics, gives an un

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France - PLASA Award-winner Sunlite is introducing its new Color Manager software at the LDI show on Booth 1341. This new tool allows designers to work with RGB or CMY fixtures with the ease of use of a drawing software package, with familiar tools such as pen, colour picker, paint bucket and copy/paste - and also features powerful wizards including images and video loading, text scrolling and more. The tool is compatible with LED device matrices as well as conventional fixtures. Color Manager will be included with Sunlite 2004 and Easy Stand Alone software from November onwards.

The Easy Stand Alone, a winner of the PLASA 2004 Awards for Innovation, will be on show in its new IP version. The Stand Alone USB-DMX interface has been a great success since it was released and the new Stand Alone Ethernet DMX 512 interface (IP version) makes it possible to work either locally or via

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UK - The UK tour of Andrew Lloyd Webber's 'Starlight Express' is the country's first touring theatre production to feature 3D film, thanks to a stereoscopic video projection system supplied by London-based 3D specialists Inition.

The 'Duality' projection system - installed and maintained by Inition - recreates the high speed skate races that made the original London show one of the capital's most successful musicals of all time. The new tour builds on the achievements of the 2003/4 US Troika Tour - but, says Inition, "adds even more edge of the seat 3D sequences and jaw-dropping special effects".

Now the same projection system is heading to the UK for a new tour opening in Manchester on November 1st and stretching from Bristol to Edinburgh. Inition is again providing technical support and expert know-how to integrate the system into the UK production.

It marks the

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Norway - The Christian Church congregation of Norway recently held the grand opening of their new 7,500-seat Brunstad Conference Center main hall and facilities. The new PA installation is the largest installed sound system in Norway and Europe's largest house of worship installation. The system featured the largest number of Crown I-Tech Series amplifiers in a European installation to date, with 100,000 watts of total amplifier power.

LydRommet AS, Harman Pro distributor for Norway, was responsible for system design, installation, trimming and quality control. The congregation's technical department handled all cabling and termination themselves.

Twelve I-T4000s and ten I-T6000s were used, in addition to one CTs 1200 for front fill, one CTs 2000 for stage fill, and four CTs 2000 for monitors. All loudspeaker control including crossover, equalization, delay and limiting is han

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UK - The Music Industries Association's (MIA) annual Awards Dinner, held on 6th October at Sound in Leicester Square, brought together over 280 guests from across the music industry to recognise the winners of the MIA Awards.

Sponsored by Classic fm, Future Publishing, Sound on Sound Magazine and MB Media, the event covered all areas of the industry with awards for classical, contemporary and high tech instruments, and music publishing. There were also awards for outstanding retailers and suppliers and special awards for Stephen Richards (for Outstanding Contribution to Trade Associations) and Michael Doughty (for Lifetime Achievement).

Among the highlights was a speech by Feargal Sharkey (Chair - Live Music Forum), during which he continued the theme of his speech at the PLASA Awards in celebrating the vibrancy of the British music scene. Reminding guests of the issues thre

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UK - London-based rental company John Henry's Ltd has acquired the rental division of Sensible Music Ltd. The deal, struck between John Henry and Sensible Music owner Jeff Allen, will see the expansion of John Henry's backline and audio rental fleet, consolidating its position, says the company's statement, as the UK's largest multi-disciplinary rental organisation.

The two companies have been 'friendly rivals' for many years and John Henry commented: "Jeff was looking to concentrate on his growing studio and events operations and we were best placed to incorporate the rental business into our portfolio." Jeff Allen described the outcome as "a logical progression for us both". Sensible Music's studio and events divisions are unaffected by the takeover.

(Mike Lethby)

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UK - The Welsh football team's international away fixture against England at Manchester United's Old Trafford ground on Saturday October 9 was seen live at the Millennium Stadium Cardiff courtesy of a giant inflatable Airscreen.

Thousands of Welsh football fans enjoyed the excitement of the World Cup 2006 qualifying international in the comfort of their home stadium, viewed on the largest outdoor screen ever seen in Wales. Erected on the pitch in just 20 minutes, the 18m x 14m (60' x 45') screen was the focal point for the presentation staged by Munich-based TAPE New Media, who also provided the projection. Two Barco projectors with a total light output of 24,000 ANSI lumens were used to provide the larger than life pictures.

The stadium's huge retractable roof, the first of its kind in the UK, was closed to create the perfect surroundings for the big picture show. The match w

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USA - For the fifth election cycle in a row, Audio-Technica was the premier mic supplier for the USA's presidential debates. Audio-Technica provided wired and wireless microphone solutions for the presidential debates in Coral Gables, Florida on 30 September, St. Louis Missouri on 8 October and Tempe, Arizona on 13 October. A-T also provided onsite technical expertise at the first two debates of the series and had a strong presence, including onsite technical expertise, at the vice presidential debate at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, near A-T's Stow corporate headquarters.

A leading audio resource for high-profile broadcast events, A-T has been outfitting the debates since 1988, when the Commission on Presidential Debates assumed sponsorship and production responsibilities. With the company again acting as the premier mic supplier for all four debates this

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UK - Allen & Heath has recently appointed three new distributors to its worldwide network of resellers. In Romania, Senia Company 999 Ltd. will now exclusively manage sales of the manufacturer's portfolio of professional audio mixers, while Lexon S.A. and Tech Top Ltd. have taken over responsibility for the brand in Spain and Israel, respectively.

Allen & Heath's sales director, Bob Goleniowski, commented: "We are very pleased to welcome these new distributors to the Allen & Heath network and feel that their in-depth knowledge of the pro audio market, as well as the installers, rental companies, contractors and consultants in their territories, can only strengthen the position of the Allen & Heath brand now and through our continuing expansion."

(Mike Lethby)

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New Zealand - Selecon has unveiled two new ranges of theatre lighting luminaires that promise more light and a smooth well-controlled beam with seamless blending, evenness and consistency. Available as single, 3- and 4-way battens, single luminaires can also be joined together to create custom battens using Selecon's unique slot lock joining system. A choice of lamp options provide all the light required with no distracting spill.

The new HUI range replaces Selecon's Acclaim Cyc, Flood and Groundrow range from October 2004. Fitted with a 500W lamp, it is suitable for cycs up to approximately 5m high. The use of the 800W P2/11 lamp allows for high intensity colour saturated cycs, smaller studios and to light higher cycs where luminaire hanging height is limited.

The LUI range of 1000W luminaires is designed for larger cycs or longer throws, particularly for users unable to affo

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UK - Yamaha Commercial Audio Dealer Orbital has announced two UK sales of Yamaha's award-winning PM5D digital FOH console.

Bill Kenwright Productions has acquired the console to operate at the FOH position of their legendary musical 'Blood Brothers' at The Phoenix theatre in London's West End, whilst Sussex-based sound rental company KAVE Theatre Services has augmented the potential of its hire fleet with the addition of the PM5D.

Combining the features of Yamaha's DM2000 and the ground-breaking PM1D in a mid-priced digital console, complete with a third generation operating system, it is designed as a robust workhorse for all but the largest sound reinforcement projects.

Bill Kenwright's Production Manager, David Stothard, commented: "We have a long-running relationship with Orbital - their support and equipment demonstrations enabled us to make an informed decision

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UK - At the end of September, the Institute of Chemical Engineers (IChemE) held its Annual Awards amid the Baroque splendour of Hawksworth's Christ Church, Spitalfields.

AV company Creative Staging, which has worked with IChemE for many years along with their event-management company, Peter Vary Associates and production company MCB, says it is "used to the challenge of creating a modern awards event in unusual locations". The newly restored Christ Church features authentic 18th century wood panelling and stonework, around which the stage set and equipment had to be sympathetically and carefully installed and operated, to create an empathetic environment for the celebration of the awards.

Creative Staging planned and supplied the set and three screens, with multi-camera live relay, along with extensive sound and lighting systems. An external generator was also suppli

  1. White Light at ETS-LDI
  2. ARX adds Iso De Balancer to AudiBox Range
  3. SSL console makes live sound debut in Sweden
  4. Super Vision signs deal with Spectrum
  5. Trantec S6000 stars in new Paris musical
  6. Mobos benefit from CT's cut-glass image
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