Italy - The International Laser Display Association (ILDA), is an organisation of over 100 of the largest professional laser show companies from some 30 countries. The umbrella organisation of the laser show industry, founded in 1986 in the USA, it serves not only to define exchange formats and standards for laser performances, but also offers a forum for the exchange of expertise and the latest technological advances among professionals within the framework of an annual conference.

Following on from Brussels and Las Vegas, this year's event took place for the first time in Rimini, Italy, in conjunction with the SIB light and sound trade fair. The conference again included the presentation of the ILDA Awards, which honour the best laser shows of the year, considered to be not only to be the laser show industry's Oscars, but also the most objective yardstick as to the state of la

UK - The Guildhall School will give seven performances of Martin Crimp's version of Molière's The Misanthrope at the Bridewell Theatre this May. Moliere's greatest comedy is reworked in this blistering contemporary version, with its fierce argument between conformity and non-conformity.

The Guildhall School welcomes award-winning lighting designer Rick Fisher to work on the production, saying "his involvement provides a remarkable opportunity for Guildhall School Technical Theatre students to work with one of the best lighting designers in British Theatre".

Fisher has most recently been at the Victoria Palace where he designed the lighting for Billy Elliot, The Musical. Fisher is currently chairman of the British Association of Lighting Designers (ALD) and his prestigious CV includes work on Jerry Springer The Opera (National Theatre / West End)

UK - A Studer Vista 8 digital audio console has been chosen for the new recording studio at the recently-refurbished Glasgow City Halls. Performances given by the venue's principal resident, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, in the Grand Hall will all be recorded in the new studio for broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and Radio Scotland.

"Vista 8 technology confers significant practical benefits as well as outstanding audio quality," explains Studer's Andrew Hills, UK sales director. "Using the new fibre optic infrastructure, in conjunction with Studer's portable Stageboxes, the City Halls team will make noticeable savings on set-up time, as they move from venue to venue within the complex."

Glasgow's City Halls houses the Grand Hall, The Old Fruitmarket and the Recital Room. Now merged into one complex, these adjacent, Grade I listed Victorian venues, dating fro

Belgium - "It was so easy to work with the Maxxyz that I actually had time to sleep!" Such was the comment from Maxxyz programmer/operator Steve Demarsin of Painting with Light after using the user friendly Martin lighting console on the Belgian theatre tour of Me and My Producer.

"I used another lighting board before, but for the Me and My Producer tour we decided to use the Maxxyz," says Demarsin. "We didn't have a lot of time for preparation so pre-programming and learning the Maxxyz was done in a matter of three days, thanks to the great support and the controller's ease of use. It was so easy to work with, that I actually had time to sleep! I'd like to thank Marc Colemont and Jo Van Geite at R&D International for their wonderful support."

Set and lighting design was by Luc Peumans of Painting with Light who used 13 MAC 600NT was

South Africa - Mike Goldberg, Selecon's sales and marketing director for Europe, recently announced the appointment of Electrosonic SA as its official distributor for South Africa.

Selecon said: "Duncan Riley of Electrosonic, together with his father Dan Riley, led the discussions resulting in this decision and both companies are looking forward to a successful collaboration in developing the theatre market in South Africa. It is our hope that this appointment will directly affect the specification, after-sales and back-up of Selecon products for the coming years and it seems that we are off to a good start."

Recently, Duncan has been responsible for successful Selecon sales at the State Theatre Pretoria, Origins Museum of Rock Art and the Cradle of Humankind at the Sterkfontein Caves and Interpretation Centre, recently opened by President Mbeki.

(Lee Baldock)

Singapore - A Soundcraft GB8 40-channel mixing desk is at the hub of a Harman Pro church integration package in Singapore, designed and supplied by system contractor, Electronics and Engineering Pte Ltd (E&E).

Since Christ Methodist Church arrived in Singapore in the 1930s, it had been sharing its church premises with two other congregations for almost three decades. Today located on Singapore's East Coast Road, CMC has not only acquired and financed its own plot of land, but has taken steps to upgrade its sound systems at its congregation halls in the Sanctuary Hall, Berckman Hall and Sunday School Hall.

CMC knew they wanted to replace their existing low-quality MI speaker systems in the 600-capacity, highly-reverberant church with a high quality professional speaker system, and at the same time address the intelligibility problems of those seated at the back of the Church -

UK - The Pharos Lighting Playback Controller (LPC) is lighting up the London skyline atop a landmark new residential and retail complex near London Bridge. The Tabard Square development includes a 22-storey tower of luxury penthouse apartments complete with a glass 'barometer' beacon on the roof.

The beacon is a light-box about two storeys high. Paul Hamilton, the technical manager for Berkeley Homes explains: "In consultation with the London Borough of Southwark we envisaged this representing a 'beacon of regeneration' for the area as a whole. Arup Lighting proposed and designed the barometer scheme and worked with Architainment Lighting, the UK distributor for Color Kinetics, to select the fixtures and the Pharos LPC to receive data triggers from the barometer."

The Pharos LPC controls the colour of the beacon depending on atmospheric pressure readings from a digit

Russia - BSS Audio, a Harman International Company (NYSE-HAR) has announced that Mega Music, a long-established system integrator and strategic partner of the Harman Professional Group, has carried out a multi-zone installation in Moscow using integrated products from the Harman Pro catalogue.

The new 500-capacity Rover Club, which opened this month, occupies a prime position within the recently reconstructed historic shopping arcade of Gostiny Dvor - in the very heart of Moscow, close to Red Square.

Owned by Rover, the major Russian consumer electronics manufacturer, the club has been divided into six zones, incorporating a restaurant, discotheque, virtual reality hall, VIP disco and VIP hall.

Sound systems in the respective zones are controlled by a standalone BSS Audio Soundweb London BLU-16 with four mic/line inputs and 12 line outputs. A control PC running HiQnet London

UK - Vaughan Sound Installations (VSI), part of the PAI Group, has completed an integrated sound, lighting and AV installation at Castle Leisure in Nantgarw, the latest new build venue of the ever-expanding Castle Bingo brand. VSI teamed up with architectural lighting specialists i-Vision and HLN Architects from Cardiff early on in the project.

The Castle Bingo site in Bridgend had included feature lighting for the Tower Room hospitality suite during a recent refurbishment. The concept was so successful that owners Castle Leisure decided to expand the theme and further invest in lighting and technology at the 1000-seat Nantgarw site, north of Cardiff.

Richard Vaughan led the project for VSI. "We've enjoyed a long and productive relationship with both Castle Leisure and HLN, and benefited from a client and architect who are willing to consult and listen to their suppliers

The Netherlands - Ampco Pro Rent (APR), founder member of the Synco Europe Network, Europe's leading pro audio rental franchise, has announced another significant purchase of Renkus-Heinz loudspeaker systems.

APR has purchased a total of 100 Synco 18 RR Subs in a Tufftex finish, and 50 Synco TRX81/9 (90°H x 60°V dispersion) cabinets from Renkus-Heinz. The new stock joins APR's existing stocks of Renkus-Heinz Synco Touring System and Synco by Martin Audio line array PA systems.

The Synco Subs are are driven by the Synco/Martin Audio 4.2 amplifier, and are compatible with both types of PA operated by APR and the Synco Network. They also complement the recent purchases by Synco Network members of additional Synco by Martin Audio line array systems.

The TRX81/9s are powered by Crest CPX amplifiers. They feature an 8" low frequency driver and 1" horn loaded HF unit, a

Germany - Digidesign is pleased to announce that the ICON D-Control worksurface and Pro Tools 7 software were honoured at the MusikMesse International Press Awards by winning the Mixing Desk (High End) and Recording Software categories respectively.

The annual MusikMesse International Press Award ceremony (MIPA) now in its seventh year is one of the most anticipated events at MusikMesse; Europe's largest professional music industry tradeshow located in Frankfurt. MIPA is widely regarded as the most prestigious music industry awards with fifty eight magazines from all over the world nominating three products in each of forty categories before finally choosing each category winner.

Digidesign's ICON D-Control worksurface received the award for the best product of 2005/2006 in the Mixing Desk (High End) category beating other nominees AMS Neve88D and SSL AWS900. In the final awar

UK - 3M Digital Signage has opened a UK office with a mission to bring its portfolio of software and display hardware solutions to a European customer base in retail, entertainment, leisure, corporate, education and other key markets. The business will bebased at 3M UK's head offices in Bracknell, Berkshire.

Simon Birkenhead has been appointed UK sales and marketing manager for 3M Digital Signage, and a team of technical and sales specialists is currently being trained, say the company, adding that it will use this UK office to support a rapid expansion across Europe using 3M's existing offices in most European and Middle East countries.

Although new to Europe, 3M Digital Signage has a 15-year history in the US. In August 2005, 3M acquired Mercury Online Solutions and its FRED content management software. A pioneer in the digital signage market since 1996, Mercury Online acqui

UK - Stage Technologies have been awarded the contract for stage automation equipment onboard the latest cruise ship to be ordered by Cunard. The Queen Victoria is being built by Fincantieri in Marghera, Venice, for delivery in 2007. Whilst the ship is not on the same scale as the Queen Mary 2, the last ship to be delivered to Cunard, the 800 seat Royal Court Theatre, styled after a London West End theatre will be well equipped. The design has been developed jointly by architects GEM, and consultants NED.

Stage Technologies will supply and install the complete stage automation system. This will be the first non Princess ship to be fitted with Stage Technologies second generation BigTow 2 winches and TanJent guidance system, which guides a fly bar through its travel from the upper to lower limit, not just the top half of the travel as often seen on board ships.

The stage will b

USA - Eat to the Beat was delighted to work alongside AEG on the inaugural AMGEN Tour of California in February. 16 teams comprising of 127 riders from around the world competed over an eight-day, 700-mile race on a route that passed through the California redwoods, wine country and the Pacific Coast.

Eat to the Beat provided corporate hospitality for the sponsors, press and VIP guests at the start and finish of the race each day. During this period, two teams, one for the 'start' locations and one for the 'finish' locations, the 56 staff prepared and served over 70,000 items of food to more than 9,300 guests in 10 cities at 13 separate events.

Logistically this was a challenging project which involved liaising with different suppliers in each city from San Francisco on day one to Redondo Beach in Los Angeles at the end of the race on day eight. Everything had to be packed up

Azerbaijan - Dynamic play of light, color and shadow for prominent World Heritage site Gyz-Galasy Tower, or Maiden Tower, in Baku, Azerbaijan is a significant medieval monument from the 12th century. Its historical function uncertain, the Tower may have been part of an ancient castle wall or even served as a temple for fire worship. Today, Maiden Tower houses a historical museum and serves as a meeting place and pilgrimage site for tourists.

"As an architectural monument, Maiden Tower plays a great role for all of mankind as proven by its presence on the UNESCO list of World Heritage sites," says Kirill Pavlov, director of A&T Trade Distribution Company. "Culturally and socially its significance is on par with some of the world's great treasures. Any lighting solution for Maiden Tower would therefore need to take into consideration its cultural, political and soci

Australia - BSS Audio, a Harman International Company (NYSE-HAR) has played a pivotal role in the new upgrade at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG). Preparing for the 2006 Commonwealth Games, the Melbourne Cricket Club undertook a substantial renovation of the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), which included building a new Northern Stand and the installation of a new property-wide public address system featuring Harman HiQnet protocol technology.

The previous public address system consisted of a single speaker cluster positioned at one end of the facility, providing limited speech intelligibility. Answering the call for complete and intelligible speaker coverage for every seat in the stands, Rutledge Engineering and Acoustic Directions, in conjunction with audio consultants Marshall Day Acoustics, designed a new fully distributed sound system featuring Harman HiQnet protocol techn

USA - XL Touring Video was chosen as video contractor for the Queen & Paul Rodgers North American Tour 2006, which is promoting their recent live DVD and CD release, Return of the Champions.

XL worked closely with video consultant, Aubrey "Po" Powell, one of the founding members of the influential 1960's album cover design groups, Hipgnosis, which is responsible for many of the famous Pink Floyd album sleeves, as well as Led Zeppelin and Bad Company.

President of XL Touring Video, John Wiseman says: "It was exciting to hear from Robbie Williams, who I had the pleasure of working with on Pink Floyd years ago. Then to find out that Po was also involved immediately made me realize that this was going to be a first class project and I was honoured to be a part of it. From the design, all the way down to the video handoff from Freddie Mercury to Paul Ro

New Zealand - Allen & Heath's New Zealand distributor, Jansen Professional Audio & Lighting, recently installed an Allen & Heath iDR DSP system in Auckland's Epsom Girls Grammar School.

Opened in 1917, Epsom is recognised as one of New Zealand's most prestigious private schools, and boasts an alumni, which includes New Zealand Prime Minister, Helen Clark; TV personality, Petra Baghurst; news presenter, Kate Hawkesby; and New Zealand's first female District Council judge, Dame Augusta Wallace.

Jansen were tasked with replacing the sound system in the School's main hall. Equipment includes Proel speakers, powered by Phonic amplifiers, all controlled by an Allen & Heath iDR-4 16x16 matrix mixer. There is also an accompanying PL-6 remote 8-fader panel controller, to simplify standard functions.

"The new sound system is very easy to use and I have been able to let the studen

UK - Leading names in UK theatre architecture and consultancy will be providing facts, figures and ideas at the Theatre Engineering & Architecture Conference 2006. Speakers will include Mark Foley, Susie Bridges and Jonathan Adams, along with consultants, Anne Minors, Neil Morton, Iain Mackintosh, Andy Hayles, Michael Holden and Richard Brett.

These speakers will be complemented by a number of international players - including Himanshu Burte from India, Sergio Pascolo from Italy, Martien van Goor, Louis Janssen and Gerbrand Borgdorff from the Netherlands, Gerry van Hezewyk from Canada and Duncan Webb, John Coyne and Peter Rosenbaum from the US. Representatives from many other countries will be involved in the debates and discussions about the form of auditoria, backstage facilities, uncomplicated spaces for drama, and theatre building on a budget. Present booking from overseas r

Germany - A golden CA 106 was presented to Michael Mandel, member of the executive board of Neumann&Müller (N&M), on 29 March at the ProLight&Sound exhibition in Frankfurt, to mark the sale of the 10,000th CA 106 to N&M in December 2005.

In 1997, N&M (one of the largest event technology suppliers in Europe) challenged Kling & Freitag to develop a small, lightweight and economical speaker for speech applications. In the spring of 1998, say K&F, the CA 106 took part in a comparative test with products from other manufacturers and emerged as the winner. Since then, N&M have added around 350 of the speakers to its hire stock. "The CA 106 is incredibly reliable. Most of the damage to them results from negligent use," says Michael Mande, technical director of N&M.

To date, the CA 106 has seen success in more than 30 countries around the world, say K&F.

(Lee Baldock)

Germany - City Scene is a newly created high-end multi purpose venue that combines the needs of the performing arts, theatre, musical concert and club worlds. The sound system was designed by Terje Engedahl from Lyd-Systememer AS together with house engineer Jon Karstensen and features 24 channels of Lab.gruppen C Series amplification supplied by AVAB/CAC, Oslo, Norway.

The facility was built around a former nightclub in the Hotel City at Fredrikstad, Norway. To facilitate live performances a stage was added in an earlier atrium. City Scene's capacity (in theatre mode) is 448 persons; 330 on the main floor and 118 on the mezzanine developed around the old dance floor.

City Scene has already played host to a diverse range of performances including, Cityfjolls til Fjells (a comedy theatre production), Olsenbanden Jr. på Cirkus (musical theatre with a circus theme)

UK - Stylised and sleek British four piece Kubb have just recently played a sold out show at London's Shepherds Bush Empire to support their 'Mother' album. It was a taster to a Spring UK tour of universities, clubs and small theatres and the summer festival circuit. The show was designed and operated by Neil Trenell who has previously designed shows for Lucie Silvas and Daniel Bedingfield. Neil has worked with Kubb on various showcases over the past year gradually building the show into what it is today.

The lighting rig features 24 James Thomas Engineering's PixelLine 1044s, 10 moving fixtures, bars of pars, bars of ACLs and floor pars. Neil discussed various lighting ideas with the band. With these taken into consideration and the practical implications of a smallish rig he set about the design. He explains: "I wanted to create a very high impact show with a lot of shado

Canada / USA - CAST Software has formed an alliance with BOXX Technologies Inc of Austin, Texas, which increases the usability of CAST's Vivien - Virtual Event Designer and WYSIWYG Production Design Suite - the popular pre-visualization tools for the entertainment industry. Testing completed by CAST revealed that running WYSIWYG on a BOXX 7400 Series Workstation increased overall functionality by producing Shaded Views and Renderings up to four times faster, opened large files quicker, and general application performance proved to be much more responsive, say CAST.

"Partnerships such as this continue to make our users happy because we deliver what they desire - the opportunity to use tools that constantly improve their design experience," says Gilray Densham, president of CAST Software. "As innovators in this field, we offer solutions that increase productivity, p

UK - XL Video UK is supplying Westlife's 2006 Face To Face arena tour - which follows hot on the heels of their number one album of the same name and chart-topping single, "You Raise Me Up".

The tour is up-tempo and innovative to match the massive energy of the new stage show, which is being artistically directed by Alan MacDonald and Will Baker (renowned for their work with Kylie).

XL has supplied Westlife's video requirements since their first Coast To Coast tour in 2001, and video has always been an integral element of their live work.

This year, with the musician's positions located offstage either side; video once again takes centre stage along with the boys (Nicky Byrne, Shane Filan, Kian Egan Mark Feehily). Some truly spectacular screen interactives include "Uptown Girl" when the boys - choreographed by Priscilla Samuels - dance in un

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