Hong Kong - Citizens in Jakarta, Indonesia will now see a new multi-colour landmark in their skyline due to a lighting installation using light emitting diode (LED) technology provided by OptiLED. The eye-catching lighting effects created on the exterior of the 25-storey Indosat building are vivid and sharp, even from many miles away, and has set it apart from the rest of its neighbours dotting the skyline.

Indosat is the primary provider of international telecommunication services in Indonesia and is involved in all forms of satellite and communication media. It wanted a facility that truly reflected its technologically advanced nature and drive for innovation not only in the interior environment but also projected on the exterior.

The scale and magnitude of the project required 400 units of LOA-333 Linear Optical Array (LOA) to create two giant rings - one at the top of the

UK/France - A.C. Lighting has sold a Yamaha DM2000 digital mixing console to a leading rental company in Monaco. SES is a mid-size touring rental company which specializes in providing quality, advanced technology products to the entertainment industry. The company recently purchased one DM2000 as an upgrade to their existing stock of O2R digital audio consoles - Yamaha's original digital desk, which has remained the professional standard for mixing consoles since it launched in 1995.

Yamaha's flagship, award-winning DM2000 sets the standard for the next generation of high performance digital mixers, which provide users with total production control. The console offers uncompromised audio quality, extensive facilities and innovative features such as 96-kHz audio, surround monitoring, studio manager software and DAW Control.

Gilles Laguionie, audio buyer at SES commented: "

USA - Recent weeks have seen a ground-swell of opinion among LED lighting manufacturers following the granting of US patent 6,788,011 to Boston-based manufacturer, Color Kinetics. The patent appears to give Color Kinetics ownership in the US market of any control of two or more colour-changing LEDs for illumination purposes - something which has caused great concern among lighting professionals.

In a meeting organized by Super Vision International and Artistic Licence (UK) Ltd in October, over 30 lighting manufacturers pledged their support to this group, which calls itself 'The LED Alliance' and is calling upon all interested parties to submit any related prior art on the subject of colour mixing. Specifically, the call is for prior art information dating prior to August 1997 on the following applications:

1. Utilization of Pulse Width Modulation with LEDs; 2. Utilization

UK - Mackie has added to its growing collection of awards by winning the prestigious Music Industries Association accolade for Best PA Product of 2004. The award, for the Mackie SRM450 Active PA speaker, was presented to Martin Warr, Loud Technologies' head of UK sales, by MIA president Bob Thomas at the Association's annual Awards Dinner, which took place in October at Sound in London's Leicester Square.

Over 260 guests from across the Music Industry attended the event, at which 40 MIA awards were presented. Commenting on the success of the Mackie SRM450, Martin Warr stated: "It's a great honour to receive this award and we're delighted that the MIA has recognized the impact Mackie's SRM450 speakers have had on the PA industry. For a small speaker the SRM 450 offers incredibly wide dispersion allowing the whole audience to hear clearly, whether they're in the front, back,

UK - A demonstration of the latest in LED lighting production technology was given by MCL-NEC on the Suzuki stand at this year's International Motor Cycle and Scooter Show. Held at the NEC, it formed the centrepiece of an integrated sound, lighting and video package provided by the turnkey service company.

Working for production company Big Blue Media Ltd., LD Rob Merrilees designed the stand around MCL-NEC's new inventory of Color Kinetics ColorBlaze 48's and ColorBlast 12's, using 18 of the former and 24 of the latter.

ColorBlaze 48 is an intelligent high-performance LED 'border light' that provides far-reaching casts of colour and colour-changing effects, while ColorBlast 12 is a stylish, compact wall-washing light that generates rich, uniform colours and colour changing effects - ideal instruments to fuel the creative imagination of Rob Merrilees.

The designer us

UK - Katie Melua's 2004 UK tour has seen some experimentation that led to permanent changes in what the Georgian-born songstress hears every night from her monitor system.

Russell Sladek has the responsibility for Katie's and the band's stage sound. "On this tour, we have been working with new JBL floor monitors," says Sladek. "The speaker processing that came with the system sounded OK on Katie's monitors, but we tried out an XTA on them and the sound just opened up. It was a night-and-day comparison. "We though it was worth trying and it proved correct. I have used XTAs before and love them. I have done a lot of work with their GQ600 graphic EQ at home in Finland and these are the best."

The other element Sladek wanted was some dynamic compression to work the low-mids on the wedges themselves. "The DiGiCo D5 has so much processing power, but I h

UK - Singing legend Donovan was recognized for his services to the Scottish music industry at this year's Tartan Clef music awards on Saturday 6 November. A native of Glasgow, Donovan collected the coveted Tartan Clef, sponsored by Sennheiser UK, for Outstanding Contribution to Music - in recognition of his varied and colourful music career, which has spanned more 30 years.

A contemporary of The Beatles and the Rolling Stones, Donovan is known to generations of music lovers for his guitar playing and his passionate concern for the environment and search for spiritual awareness and knowledge.

Donovan, who recently released Beat Café, his first new CD in eight years and is currently writing his autobiography, was presented with his award by John Steven of Sennheiser UK, before a 500 strong crowd at Glasgow's Radisson SAS hotel. This year's Tartan Clefs, traditionally a highli

Italy / China - At the end of September 2004, the HQ of Chinese multinational company 'Neo-Neon' hosted a demonstration of the Butterfly line array system from Italian manufacturer, Outline. The demo was attended by 50 of the country's top rental companies, as well as contractors, dealers, sound engineers and professors of acoustics. The rig installed, which was sold after the demo, consisted in 12 CDH483 high-packs, plus four CDL1815 low-packs and six subs per side and was powered by the company's Series T amplifiers and controlled by Genius 6 processors. The vast area chosen for the demo enabled the team to calibrate the Butterfly setup for even coverage from 20m to 120m, and allowed a listening distance of over 200m. Outline's powerful V.I.P. aiming and simulation software was used.

During a workshop held during the same period, the concepts and numerous innovative patents

UK - Leading RF manufacturer Trantec has recently supplied its innovative S6001 wireless microphone system to broadcast and live events specialists The Wireless Works for the filming of The BBC's topical TV series - Fat Nation.

Screened on prime time TV on BBC 1 and BBC 3, the eight programme series offers practical advice and raises the nation's awareness of the issues of obesity. The Wireless Work's MD Tristian Bickerton specified a number of S6001 systems to join their fleet of OB equipment on location in a residential neighbourhood, north of Birmingham.

Integrated seamlessly to the OB system, The S6001's were used with two fishpoles and RF amplifiers to enable the sound crew to freely run up and down the streets "picking up" crowd effects surrounding the residential area. Deployed also for interviews, the S6001s delivered with an exceptional clarity.

As

UK - Metropolis AV & FX has completed its latest sound, lighting and AV design and installation project for Sports Café UK, at their newly opened Leeds site. It's the third SCUK that Metropolis has been involved in since Manchester in 2002, and follows hot on the heels of Glasgow, which opened in the summer.

The Sports Café continues to enjoy great success as a leading UK sports orientated multi-entertainment venue. Metropolis's Head of Engineering Shane Winterbourne explains that the company has perfected a flexible technical formula designed to adapt and work for all sites in the group. The entertainment system needs for each are fundamentally similar, although the individual venues are all unique in layout and space.

A mix of top quality brands are selected specifically for SCUK's venues, including HK and JBL loudspeakers, Allen & Heath sound processing, QSC amplification

Spain - The Artistic Investigation Festival, known as Observatori, was recently held at the Prince Phillip Museum at the City of the Arts and Sciences of Valencia. After five years, this multi-disciplinary, cross-media event has become one of Europe's most renowned experimental festivals.

A 30 x 40m venue was setup alongside the visually striking building that makes up Valencia's City of the Arts and Sciences. Concerts were held every night of the three-day event with a daily attendance of over 3,500 visitors. The 15m wide stage and the D.A.S. Aero 48 line array sound reinforcement systems were provided by Valencia based sound rental company Acustic Crom, S.L.

Six Aero 48 large format line array systems were flown from the truss at a height of six metres and the built-in rigging hardware facilitated the installation of the systems in the venue. According to Ricardo Masc

New Zealand - The Holy Trinity Anglican Parish Church in Tauranga, New Zealand, has risen from the ashes of a disastrous 1999 fire as a striking new structure of concrete and steel, its centerpiece a 900-seat, semi-circular worship auditorium, where a stunning acoustical ceiling treatment (made with rare kauri wood salvaged from the old church) conceals a nearly invisible system of Meyer Sound self-powered loudspeakers. Church music director Peter Minson says of the sound in the new church: "It has a very sweet, natural sound to it. The comment we get from outside people coming in for concerts is that they are not even aware of amplified sound."

The semi-circular seating arrangement made four UPA-1P compact wide coverage loudspeakers an appropriate choice for the main system. These are mounted in the gaps between the overhead acoustical panels, in a left-right-left-ri

UK - Sting and Northern Sinfonia are to perform the classic Waters of Tyne, which will be specially arranged by composer David Lang whilst high wire artist Philippe Petit crosses the Tyne gorge to the upper façade of The Sage Gateshead on 21 June 2005. Lighting for this event is to be designed by Tony Award-winners Fisher Dachs Associates.

Sting - world-renowned singer, composer, actor and activist - will join forces with Northern Sinfonia in June 2005 in his native Northeast. The international chart-topper, who rose to fame as the front man of The Police and went onto global acclaim as a solo artist is to sing Waters of Tyne in an event, which forms part of The Sage Gateshead's opening year of celebrations. Sting commented: "It's really exciting for me to know that this spectacular building The Sage Gateshead will enable visiting musicians to experience this

UK - Cardiff International Arena, Wales' premium concert and events arena, owned by ClearChannel Entertainment, has appointed Star Rigging to ensure the rigging procedures on all events are implemented safely and within all legal guidelines. This contract sees Star Rigging building similar ongoing relationships with Newcastle Arena, Manchester's MEN Arena and London's Wembley Arena.

The company will manage all technical aspects of the rigging by careful planning and by supplying an in-house rigger to assist incoming riggers. In addition, directors Mark Armstrong and Phil Broad have produced a safe working procedures document specific to the venue.

The CIA venue manager Graham Walters commented: "We are aware of the reputation of Star Rigging and hope they will bring the same level of professionalism to the CIA as in the other venues they work in. Bringing in Star Rigging

Switzerland - The Compulite Vector Blue console was used on the Miss Switzerland contest staged on 18 September 2004 in the TPC studios in Zurich, broadcasted live. Show lighting was controlled with two Compulite Vector Blue consoles linked in master / slave mode (the second console supported by Feiner Lichttechnik Germany). The show had also been pre-programmed with Capture visualizer software which was then used during the live show.

Other lighting equipment used included; two Compulite Emix II converters, three Compulite splitters, 26 Mac 550, 17 Mac 2000 Wash, 10 Mac 2000 Performance, 02 Mac 2000 Profile, 06 VL 1000. The show director was Max Sieber, scenery; Pit Fischer, show lighting operator; Matthias Kern, TV lighting operator; Rolf Waldvogel.

Operator Kern was completely satisfied with the work on the Vector: "The clear structure of the graphical user interface a

UK - Large format projection specialist E//T//C UK covered the 323ft high Shell Centre on London's South Bank with giant projected poppies for Remembrance Day 2004. E//T//C was working for media and production company The Bank, who produced the event for Shell UK. This is the third year running that E//T//C UK has illuminated this prime site with high impact projections for the event.

The 26-storey building - once the tallest in the UK - was covered by eight 6kW PIGI projectors that were sited 100m away on the edge of Queen's Walkway (the corresponding riverside path), housed in a curtain-sider truck. Six of the projectors, complete with double scrollers running vertically, produced the poppies, three targeted at the top half of the tower and three at the bottom.

The stunning red on turquoise background images were overlaid to maximize brightness, and were scrolled faster th

UK - Working with two key suppliers, Northern Light and New Box, Kelsey, the leading manufacturer and supplier of professional audio and lighting cables, has taken a central role in the infrastructure for The Performance Academy, the new further education music, performing arts and media centre opened by Newcastle College, and the largest of its kind in the UK.

One of the first such centres for mixed media studies, the building provides accommodation for all Newcastle College's music, performing arts and mixed media courses. It contains a 250-seat flexible theatre, a music venue for an audience of 500, a 60-seat studio theatre, 10 recording studios, rehearsal rooms, television studio, drama and dance studios, and a radio station.

New Box and Northern Light were involved in different areas of the Performance Academy's construction. However, both turned to Kelsey Acoustics for h

USA - 24,000sq.ft of luxury retail space opened at the Prada Epicenter Store on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills on 16 July, and Pathway Connectivity helped deliver the unique design for this high-concept environment. Prada is renowned for avant-garde architectural design; the Epicenter stores blend commercial functions with "experiential and spatial typologies," a working laboratory for application of new material, technologies and service strategies.

It begins on the exterior - or rather the absence of one: the entire 50ft along Rodeo Drive is open to the street, without a storefront or glass enclosure, inviting the public into the space. At night, an aluminium panel seals the store by rising from the ground. When open, an air curtain controls the interior temperature and repels environmental elements such as rain.

Plasma screens, both hanging and imbedded in stor

UK - Lighting Technology Projects (LTP) has designed, supplied and installed Phase 1 of a bold architectural lighting scheme to illuminate an impressive central stairwell and three floors of the new Cornerhouse shopping, leisure and entertainment complex in Nottingham. The Ethernet controlled lighting scheme involves Color Kinetics ColorBlast 12 LED fixtures and Martin MiniMAC Maestro gobo projectors. The latter were supplied complete with custom gobos to so the various outlets in the building can taker advantage of the advertising and branding opportunities.

The Cornerhouse offers bars, restaurants, a 14-screen cinema and the biggest nightclub in town, all under one roof. LTP's brief was to produce a discreetly placed, low-maintenance, energy efficient lighting scheme to enhance the energy and life within the building, and ultimately to attract more people.

The design was c

The Netherlands - The Dutch national broadcaster NOS from Hilversum has chosen the Marantz PMD670 as the standard ENG device for its radio reporters in news and sports, placing an order for 65 units with specialist dealer Onyx. The order includes 65 Marantz PMD670 Compact Flash card recorders, and a full range of accessories such as carrying cases, rechargeable batteries, microphones, headphones and cables.

After extensive research and testing throughout the summer, NOS settled on the Marantz PMD670 as the universal choice by the several news and sports departments of NOS radio (Radio 1 journaal, Langs de lijn). It was considered to be the most user-friendly recorder, admired for its traditional design and layout of controls. Five solid-state recorders were tested, and journalists praised the easy and reliable operation of the PMD670, voicing a preference for working with exter

UK - Edinburgh lighting specialist black light has become the first UK stockist of Le Maitre's Stadium Hazer. The Stadium Hazer is designed to deliver large volumes of non-toxic haze for big indoor spaces and, as such, is ideal for use in a wide range of productions - from live music to ice rink shows, large corporate launches and television productions.

"Lighting - and particularly lighting that is highly visible - is ever more important in large-scale productions," says black light's Gavin Stewart. "A product like this is far more efficient and cost-effective of achieving that than the current use of multiple haze machines employed to achieve the same effect. It also means less haze fluid is used, which can only be a good thing."

The Stadium Hazer's fluid is non oil-based, which means no residue is left, and the unit features a patented delivery system

UK / Europe - An Avolites Sapphire 2000 console is being used by James Thompson to control all lighting on the current UK and European leg of Joss Stone's hugely popular world Mind Body Soul tour. The show is a co-design between Siyan's Bryan Leitch and Thompson, a lighting design/technical graduate of the Central School of Speech & Drama. Both are keen Avolites users and Thompson has used Avolites since the start of his professional career.

Leitch initially specified a Sapphire for Joss Stone because they wanted a powerful console that was good for 'live' operation. While much of the show is planned cues, the organic and jazzy nature of Stone's set also means certain elements of the performance lend themselves to the lighting being improvised, in tune with the mood of the show and audience, and the nature of the room. The kit being controlled by the Sapphire - all suppl

USA - The Zero 88 range of Frog lighting consoles is becoming a popular choice for churches and places of worship across the United States. One such is Saddleback Community Church - a sprawling 120-acre campus in Orange County, south of Los Angeles. Started in 1980 by Rick and Kay Warren, it has grown from a seven-person bible study group to an average weekend attendance of 20,000 with 80,000 names on the church roll. It has also spawned the 'Purpose Driven Movement' - which has trained over 350,000 pastors and church leaders. Looking more like a mall than a church, Saddleback boasts six separate venues and seven distinct types of service each weekend. As well as a main worship centre and separate meeting rooms, the Saddleback campus uses three permanent tent structures as additional venues.

Although the main worship centre boasts 28 moving lights and a Wholehog III control sys

UK - Tony award-winning American composer, lyricist and virtuoso pianist Jason Robert Brown wowed London audiences last month with a four-night run at the intimate New Players' Theatre in London - with state-of-the-art sound reinforcement courtesy of EM Acoustics. The system, comprising three EMS-121 enclosures, two EMS-215 subwoofers, three I-1 front-fills, two EMS-81 delays and a single M-12 monitor, was powered by MC2 amplification and was supplied by Autograph Sound Recording to a specification from sound designer Mark Dunne.

Jason Robert Brown was joined for the production by several of the West End's most revered leading ladies, including Golda Rosheuvel, Clare Burt and Frances Rufelle in a cabaret-style performance of his most popular songs. "Although the performances consisted of just vocal and piano, the fidelity of the sound system was paramount to the production,

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