USA - When Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire was published in 1976, it quickly became the most popular vampire tale since Dracula. Nearly 10 years passed before Rice wrote more vampire stories, which have since continued in a steady stream of books totaling a dozen volumes as of 2003. Naturally, several movies have been made from this colourful body of work, but it was only in 2005 that a full theatrical production was mounted based on Rice's vampire writings. Now opening on Broadway, Lestat is a musical scored by the Sir Elton John and his longtime collaborator, Bernie Taupin. The elaborate production's complex soundtrack is rendered by a sound system built around a powerful LCS Audio Matrix3 digital audio system and an extensive complement of self-powered Meyer Sound loudspeakers in an innovative configuration.

Lestat premiered at San Francisco's Gea

Italy - A spectacular music event took place in Italy recently to mark the end of the two-day celebrations to launch Turin as the Book Capital of the World. Organised by the band Subsonica, a four-hour concert was staged at the Olympic Palasport (Palaolimpico Isozaki) in the city, named Volumi all'Idorgeno.

This was Subsonica's only performance of 2006, and joining them onstage were Africa Unite, Linea 77, Marlene Kunz, Mau Mau, Perturbazione, E'LIA, Gatto Ciliegia and Wu Ming in an evening that didn't just set out to be a concert but a major 'happening'; all the bands worked between themselves, building a cross narration through a game of quotations, turning several books into music which ran across various video screens.

The marathon show ran continuously, without change of stage, almost like a rave of electronic images, lights words and music. The name of the evening,'Volum

USA - Imagility, a holding company that invests in illumination, imaging and related technology, today announced it has acquired the assets of Ribbonlift, a designer and manufacturer of advanced lift systems known for their exceptional portability, reliability and ease of use.

Ribbonlift's patented lift equipment is used to position cameras, lights, projectors, communication devices and more for motion picture shoots, live events, construction, industrial, military and other applications. Based in Owatonna, Minnesota, its clients include Walt Disney Imagineering, Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, U.S. Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Department of Defense.

Founded in 1998, all employees of Ribbonlift are expected to remain with the new company in Owatonna - a wholly owned subsidiary of Imagility - while certain corporate functions such as finance and strategic

Canada - MediaTech s.r.o., a leading pro audio company, has been appointed Adamson's distributor for the Czech Republic. Established in 1991 in the former Czechoslovakia, the company has grown from its four founding members to close to 40, and has compiled an impressive line card that includes Lab.gruppen and it's parent company t.c.electronic. MediaTech headquarters are about 100km east of Prague in the town of Chrudim and a regional office is located in the eastern part of the county. Mediatech s.r.o is also a majority shareholder of Mediattech Spol.s.r.o in Bratislava, Slovakia.

Their Adamson demo stock consists of 16 Spektrix, six Spektrix Subs, a turnkey solutions package that includes Lab.gruppen fP3400's and fP6400's amps, Adamson's DX6000 Processors, Adamson's European Touring Series panels, and Adamson European A/C Panels.

MediaTech's employees attended Adamson's trai

Spain - Fridays' Project, Barcelona's largest multiple brand fashion store located at the most exclusive part of the Paseo de Gracia, was recently outfitted with a D.A.S. Audio sound system. Installed by the Fidel Color company, a custom sound system comprised by a total of 64 Factor-5TE speakers (wall-mountable with line transformer) were distributed throughout the store's three stories using 32 white and 32 black enclosures. Powered by two Energy E-12T amplifiers and a Dateq ACE mixer, the system provides musical ambience to two women's and one men's fashion floor.

Thanks to their elegant and discreet design, the Factor speakers have been seamlessly integrated into the store, providing a warm and cozy musical ambience, transforming the customer's store visit into a comfortable and pleasant experience. This, in turn, is essential to further the length of their shopping visit. T

USA - When it comes to live work, no one knows more about front of house soundthan Kevin Pruce. Over the last 23 years he has worked with the biggest names in the business including Madonna and Bjork. So what gear does he take on tour with himΩ Focusrite.

Reading Kevin Pruce's live engineering credentials is like looking at a who's who of icons from last three decades of pop. It includes Duran Duran, Adam Ant, The Human League, Tears For Fears, The Style Council, Sinead O'Connor, Bjork, Lemon Jelly, Starsailor, Yoko Ono, Meat Loaf and, last but by no means least, Madonna! And with all that experience, it's difficult to ignore what this man has to say about which equipment to use for liveduties.

"When it comes to FOH, spec the right equipment for the job, not what is flavour of the month," he says. With that in mind it's not surprising to find that an engineer o

UK - LD Nick Jevons of Electric Fly Productions chose an Avolites Diamond 4 console as the primary control desk for the main stage at Radio One's Big Weekend in Dundee.

Headlining artists included Razorlight, The Streets, The Editors, Muse, Snow Patrol, Mylo, Pink, Keane and the Sugababes. For the first time, the event was recorded for broadcast on the digital channel, BBC 3.

The high profile two day event - Radio One's biggest Weekend to date - was the first time that Jevons has used a Diamond 4 - although he is experienced on other Avo consoles. "I always like pushing the technical boundaries for these shows," he enthused. "I needed a powerful desk and it was an absolutely ideal opportunity to use a D4," he says.

A week beforehand, he went into Avolites' training room for the day in London and did a crash course on the console - which he f

UK - On ticket sales alone, the current tour by Take That has taken everyone's breath away. Having split up 10 years ago, it's a tribute to their status as Britain's first real boy band that they can attract even bigger audiences today than in their heyday. But the passage of time imposes certain burdens, as tour production manager Chris Vaughan explained: "The key difference between this tour and the ones in the nineties is that this has to be as spectacular as we can make it."

Building that scale of spectacle has involved the talents of Bill Lazlett and Simon Tutchener for stage set and lighting respectively. At the behest of band svengali Kim Gavin the presentation also includes arguably the largest LED screen ever used for an arena show, as supplied by large-scale screen specialists Creative Technology (CT). "It's a Unitek Version Mk3 - a screen I love,"

Australia - Australia's leading dance music event organizer, Fuzzy, has specified Allen & Heath Xone DJ mixing consoles for all its forthcoming events. Fuzzy's programme includes the biggest, highest profile events on the continent including Shore Thing (NYE Bondi beach), Field Day, Summer Field Day, 360, Park Life, Harbour Life, Sydney's Metro, The Basement, and 'After Hours' - a weekly event at YU.

"Fuzzy have taken this unprecedented step in order to guarantee good sound quality," said John Wall, CEO of Fuzzy. "We only want the best at our events and that's why we're using Allen & Heath. Despite the fact that many of our international guest DJs have personal mixer endorsements, standardising on Allen & Heath hasn't been difficult - it's the console every pro is happy to use."

"This is a fantastic relationship for us," commented Jamie Kaye, Aust

USA - Making big improvements to a live venue's sound doesn't have to be complicated. When new ownership took over an existing 600-person club in New York named Revolution Hall, they expected it would take a lot of work to turn around its infamous negative sonic characteristics. Instead, all they had to do was install a new live sound system from Danley Sound Labs.

"My goal with Revolution Hall was to create an all-purpose venue where you could perform all genres of music with the highest quality sound," says John A. Chiara, owner. "Installing loudspeakers from Danley Sound Labs has been instrumental in achieving that. A drummer that played in this venue regularly over the years told me that it has gone from being the worst-sounding club he ever played to the best-sounding. Then he asked me what acoustic adjustments I'd made. I said, 'None yet, I just changed the

Iran - The 300-seat Talan Honar theatre is an antique building located in the heart of Tehran, the capital of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The theatre is mainly used for multipurpose applications, such as theatre, drama, live music and - being equipped with 5.1 Dolby equipment and a 35mm cinema projector - for screening movies.

The theatre is owned by the Municipality of Tehran and its refurbishment was recently completed by one of Iran's largest Iranian companies (Sazeman Farhangi Honary Shardari), which renovated the hall, changing the interior decoration, seats, screen, acoustic treatment and wall covering, as well as the sound reinforcement system and lighting fixtures.

The project manager in charge for the municipality was Masood Roostaei and the upgrade began in August 2005 and ended in February 2006. The sound equipment was provided by Italian manufacturer Outline, and

UK - Clarion Events Ltd, organisers of PLASA06, have announced details of the seminars to be held at this year's PLASA Show at Earls Court in London (10-13 September). With the broadest agenda in the show's history, the seminar programme will offer something for everybody, with expert advice on both technical and business issues.

New technologies are right at the top of the bill with Sunday's opening seminar presented by Kevin Williams, director of out-of-home leisure consultancy KWP Ltd. Out of Home Leisure Entertainment will look at the application of interactive and 4D technologies and the potential for crossover between the worlds of themed attractions and theatre, including the latest generation of projection and audio systems.

Sunday afternoon will see GMTV's lighting director, John Allard, address the rapidly expanding topic of LED lighting. In Lighting with L

UK - RCF are in the process of appointing a select number of market strategic dealers for their 4PRO and TT+ Active range of speakers. The latest addition to the scheme is Sabre International, based in Reading Berkshire.

RCF's Phil price says: "With companies such as Sabre, who specialise in large outdoor events, especially with student unions and universities. Having the right type of speaker systems can be critical. With introduction of the RCF 4Pro series, it gives us the opportunity to offer a much wider range of speakers for the mid to large size events."

Paul Bridgman MD of Sabre added: "During the year we get a lot of our business through rental and hire to student venues. With the kind of service RCF are offering with their larger speaker ranges, including the 4Pro 7001 speakers, it allows us to undertake a much wider range events, using the same family

Germany - For the fifth time, Lightpower GmbHm of Paderborn has successfully staged its 'Open Days' - what it calls "the German 'trend and further-training' forum for the lighting industry". More than 1,200 lighting professionals were invited to attend the Show at Heinz Nixdorf Forum, Paderborn, between 15-16 May to visit the high profile seminars and the product exhibition. Also, on day one, more than 800 visitors came together to party at the Capitol music theatre, enjoying the music of a first-class live band.

Established in 1994, the Open Days take place every third year and have become a leading German forum for lighting professionals from all disciplines. Lightpower says it "always aims to talk and listen to the users, whether they are convinced by the products distributed by Lightpower or critical about them. The only important thing - they had to be profes

UK - XL Video supplied Little Britain's UK theatre and arena tour, the live rendition of Matt Lucas and David Walliams' phenomenally popular cult TV show that sold out multiple dates across the country.

Projected video backdrops were an essential element of the stage set. It allowed locations and timeframes to morph seamlessly throughout the energetic set, which leapt from school classroom to the prime minister's office - and every imaginable location in between - in two hilarious 50 minute halves.

Additionally, for the arena shows, XL supplied a five camera PPU and Kayak control for IMAG that was beamed onto two side screens. This was directed by Geoff Posner of Pozzitive Television, who also directed the award winning BBC TV series.

XL's project manager Malcolm Mellows again worked with promoter Phil MacIntyre's production manager, Andy Gibbs - they'd last done this on the

UK - In response to the continued and growing interest in the Pharos Lighting Playback Controller for installation projects worldwide, Pharos Architectural Controls is signing up new partners to provide more region-focused sales and support operations.

New agreements are already in place with Stockholm Lighting in Sweden, Pacific Lighting in Hong Kong, CSI in France and LSC in Australia. These companies will offer experienced project-based sales channels as well as installation and technical support services. Pharos will shortly announce new dealers for other territories.

Ian Fanning, project manager with Stockholm Lighting says: "We are very excited to be representing Pharos in Scandinavia. This is an active market with public and private sector projects that need an all-round control device, and we are well placed to get the Pharos LPC on these jobs."

The award w

Canada - Canada's Acoustix Québec, located between Farnham and Cowansville in Quebec, Canada, is a sound and lighting company with a musical instrument store. The company was recently purchased by Eric Tremblay and his partner François Loiselle and with new owners has come a new outlook on business. "The business was more store and rental oriented whilst doing some small venues for out town Farnham," said Tremblay. "We are now aiming for larger projects; we have changed the store display and bought a lot of new lighting gear.

"We now have five employees plus we have to hire some technicians for the bigger shows. However, we want to get some bigger venues, to go on tour, and we are beginning to work for corporate shows in Montreal where the action is. At the same time we are trying to have better and more equipment in the store."

Tremblay was lo

USA - As a key part of recent expansion and company development initiatives including the appointment of several new members of staff, new distributors and even a new company logo, InnovaSon has announced its expansion into the US with the inauguration of an InnovaSon office based out of the internationally renowned rehearsal facility, Soundcheck, in Nashville, Tennessee. The move coincides with the appointment of industry specialist, Kevin Madden, to the position of national sales manager.

"This is an extremely positive step for InnovaSon," commented sales and marketing director, Xavier Pion. "We've been looking for a suitable solution to further service the US market for some time, and the opening of a US office, especially here at Soundcheck at the heart of the US music scene, offers us the best of everything. In addition to all of the usual office facilities,

USA - Feld Entertainment has purchased almost 100 Clay Paky fixtures for their newest Disney On Ice production. Feld Entertainment's Dennis Flenniken was keen to use the Clay Paky Alpha range for the new show after they were demonstrated to him by Clay Paky America's Eric Mueller. "What impressed me most is that it has 20 gobos," Flenniken remarked about the Alpha Spot 1200 HPE. "In our search to find the best light for this production, we did not come across anything comparable that could spin 20 gobos. When you put the animation disc in front of the static gobos, it looks like they are rotating in several directions.

Lighting designer Peter Morse was also impressed with the fixtures after he received a demonstration at Clay Paky America's office in Valencia, California. "They are a nice light," remarked Morse on the Clay Paky Alpha range. "The big

UK - Yamaha Commercial Audio recently invited dealers, consultants and prospective clients to two days of presentations and listening sessions at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London's Swiss Cottage.

The aim of the open days was to provide more in-depth knowledge and experience of the recently-launched Installation Series speakers and power amplifiers and to allow guests to meet the newly expanded Commercial Audio team. The open days also supported ambitious plans for the install markets.

One of the people particularly impressed was LMC's managing director Paul Hinkly and he comments: "Both myself and the entire LMC team really enjoyed the day. It provided a valuable opportunity to listen to the new speaker systems, including the new power amplifiers in a controlled setting and in the challenging environment of a working theatre. I have to say that the perform

Canada - Adamson has signed another partner company in Colombia. Producciones Carlos Vallejo is based in Manizales, a small city about a 5 hour drive Northeast of Bogota and is known as the "University" town of Colombia. 12 Universities and Colleges are based there. With its youthful population's appetite for culture keeps Manizales' concerts and events calendar busy throughout the year. Manizales offers annual international festivals for Theatre, Jazz, Bolero, and Images; equestrian expos, and a long list of concerts featuring local, national and international artists.

Producciones Carlos Vallejo was officially established approximately 12 years ago. Carlos Vallejo is a musician at heart and an engineer by profession and had 20 years of previous involvement in the music industry. With his passion, the company has grown to provide sound reinforcement solutions, lightin

UK - Blitz Sound continues its successful association with Olivier award-winning sound designer Mike Walker by supplying the audio and communications equipment for the critically acclaimed theatre production of Mammals, produced by The Bush Theatre in Shepherd's Bush, and subsequently for an eight-week UK tour.

The equipment specified by Walker included an Akai S6000 sampler along with a Mackie HDR 24/96 digital recorder system for sound effects replay. Sound effects control was from the Akai S6000 front panel. Yamaha amplifiers powered a selection of JBL, Tannoy and Meyer loudspeakers, with audio control by a Soundcraft Spirit Digital 328 mixer.

Walker and his team at Loh Humm Audio developed a simple system for controlling some of the sound effects. He explains: "The play is set in a kitchen with a lot of action involving an offstage front door. We had the produc

Canada - Sennheiser provided world-class wireless for the long-anticipated staged version of The Lord of the Rings under some of the most demanding RF requirements to date. The production is the latest high-profile public event to rely on Sennheiser's wireless technology, and joins a long list of the world's most watched events, including the Summer and Winter Olympic Games, Live 8, the FIFA World Cup, the Eurovision Song Contest, and the Grammy Awards.

At the World Premiere Gala at the Princess of Wales Theatre, in Toronto, Canada, The Lord of the Rings fans heard a spectacular score and the talents of over 70 actors, singers and musicians thanks partly to a virtuoso performance by Sennheiser. A total of 155 wireless devices were used simultaneously in one location - a frequency management achievement on its own - not to mention the frequency fight going on throug

USA - When you're the hottest night club in twin Cities area, you can't have just any light show. Working with Metro Sound and Lighting, Tomcat USA created a customized package befitting Myth - the midwest's finest entertainment venue.

Equipment provided by Tomcat included two truss MD circles: one 35' OD and one 18' OD. The circles were spilt in two separate sections creating a unique appearance while allowing adjustment to one side of the grid and access to one side as needed. Six 6' sections and two 5' sections of MD truss provide additional support and panel points for hanging the fixtures.

Another important part of the equipment list was a complete motor package including twelve CM Model L, 1-tonne hoists with 60' of lift, a Skjonberg control unit and a cable management system fabricated by Tomcat. This system allowed all power and control cables for the hoists and light

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