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UK - In November 2004 Dirty Dancing transferred to the stage in Sydney Australia. The London production - the latest in what is to be a worldwide roll out - opened at the Aldwych Theatre in October 2006, and is slated as being the fastest selling theatre show in the West End, with future sales already grossing an incredible £30 million.

Responsibility for the audio design was put in the hands of Bobby Aitken, who has made his first foray into the XTA DP4 Series processors for speaker control, plus some tried-and-trusted Dynamic EQ for tricky vocal parts.

The front of house loudspeaker system is predominantly d&b with a centre cluster of dVDosc and EM Acoustics' new small size base cabinets in the corners of the auditorium. Crossovers and system management is from six XTA DP448s with XTA SiDDs across some of the vocals. "The actors all wear mics up in their ha

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UK - XL Video Uk supplied screens, cameras and PPU for two separate events at the recent Russian Winter Festival, staged in London's Trafalgar Square.

The Festival was organised by Eventica - a Russian-EU relations event management team - for the GLA. XL was working for production company Out Of The Blue for the first, a London v Moscow ice chess match, who in turn were brought onboard by PR company Freud Communications.

XL supplied one of their Barco B10 mobile trailer-mounted screens for the ice chess which took place live via a two-way satellite link between London and Pushkin Square in Moscow. The screen measured 10 square metres and was located right next to the action taking place on a giant chess board made from Steeldeck.

Team London was led by UK Grandmaster Nigel Short, the strongest British chess player of the 20th century, helped by author Peter Ackroyd and 8-yea

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UK - The huge educational technology show BETT, the world's leading educational information & communications technologies (ICT) event, attracted 600 educational suppliers and over 28,000 visitors to Olympia for four days of innovation and inspiration.

Organised by EMAP, this year's event saw a significant trend towards live demonstrations and presentations on stands, according to Lauren Steadman, manager of PSL Exhibitions, the approved supplier of all audio-visual services for the event. "In the field of business-to-business (B2B) exhibitions, this is one of the busiest shows on our calendar. However, this year, we saw a significant rise in the number of sound systems and plasma screens we were providing for live events on the stands."

In addition to providing full AV facilities for more than 50 exhibitors, including Adobe, LEGO and Tomi, PSL serviced the four prese

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Elba - When high-tech giant Motorola decided to host a special event to cement relationships with several hundred VIP clients, the firm's European division regaled its guests with a fete at the Villa San Martino on the island of Elba, off the coast of Italy, best known as Napoleon's 'summer residence' during his exile from France nearly 200 years ago. In addition to stunning views and sumptuous Italian cuisine, Motorola's favoured few also enjoyed live entertainment from Diana Ross, who was heard through a system of Meyer Sound's M'elodie compact curvilinear array loudspeakers.

Sound reinforcement design for the event was entrusted to Chris Marsh, Ross's FOH engineer and a close associate of Wiltshire, England-based sound hire company Major Tom Ltd. "The brief called for a compact and lightweight full-range system," Marsh says. "The producers wanted a big, excitin

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UK - London's first festival of light, 'Switched On London', will be switched on at the Pool of London tomorrow night at 6pm and will continue until 16 February in conjunction with The ARC Show (Business Design Centre, London, 12-13 February).

Members of the lighting design and architecture community from all over the world are being invited to attend the festival to examine the relationship between light, architecture and the city consisting of temporary lighting installations and a series of light related events with an overall concept theme of 'theatre'.

The Pool of London is a natural amphitheatre within the city, encompassing the River Thames, bordered by Tower Bridge and London Bridge and including many famous landmarks. A number of iconic landmarks in the area including The Tower of London, Tower Bridge, HMS Belfast and City Hall will be temporarily and spectacularly li

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Italy - Rome-based rental company Brokershow is the latest Italian hire company to invest in Robe Show Lighting's new DigitalSpot 5000 DT.

Massimo D'Aiello (one of the three brothers who own the company) explained that they have invested heavily in Robe moving lights over the last three years, and now have over 60 Robe products including ColorSpot 1200 ATs, ColorSpot and Wash 575 ATs and ColorMix 575 ATs. They like the brand because the fixtures are reliable and hard wearing - essential features for a busy rental company.

When the DigitalSpot was launched, they were keen to get the new fixtures into their hire stock, and went ahead with the purchase of two units. "It was a hugely versatile, new and exciting product and we knew we would have work for them immediately - so we didn't think twice about it," says D'Aiello.

Brokershow was founded five years ago. They sup

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UK - March once again brings the RSAMD (Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama) Graduate Exhibition and Trade Show (21-22 March, 10.00am - 5.00pm). For two days, final year students of the Technical and Production Arts Course will be exhibiting a broad range of work from their three years of study in the Chandler Studio Theatre.

At the same time, the Academy's main theatre, the New Athenaeum, will become an exhibition space for the Technical and Production Arts Programme's sponsors and suppliers, enabling them to demonstrate and discuss their most recent equipment and products with prospective clients and visitors to the Academy. Companies such as Black Light, Stage Technologies, ETC, MA Lighting, Green Hippo, Selecon, Martin Professional and White Light will be taking part.Alongside this, a range of seminars will also be taking place over the two days, lead by Bernie Davies

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UK - The sound design for the London production of Dirty Dancing includes a DiGiCo digital mixing console. But the new D5T12 that sits at front of house brings a little extra to the power of the D5T platform.

The show was first staged in Australia two years ago, with a further production in Germany last year. The film was named one of the most popular of all time and London's Aldwych Theatre is seeing a replication of that popularity for the stage show, a fact that is being born out by an estimated £30 million of forward sales.

The team that is now in place is second to none, and claims amongst its credits a sound design by Bobby Aitken, at whose behest the D5T12 exists - the new console is hybrid of the D5T digital theatre mixing system, but with an additional four faders, taking the number to 12, rather than the standard eight and providing more DCA control with

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Hong Kong - The Canon Corporation has recently installed the latest Laservision LED technology at its prominent Kowloon skyscraper base, called Oterprise Square, so that the building can participate in Hong Kong's record-breaking Symphony of Light Show.

"Artificial light accounts for almost one-fifth of the world's electricity consumption - substantially more than the output of all the nuclear power stations in the world. Within 25 years, the global demand for artificial light is projected to be almost twice today's level as the developing world moves towards western living standards," say Laservision.

The company says that a shift in global climate trends and an international focus on sustainable energy has seen high-rise buildings around the world favouring energy efficient lighting design as a means of retrofitting structures for modern times.

Many governments a

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The Netherlands - At the recent ISE Show in Amsterdam, the Dutch professional video distribution specialists Pixlvision, part of the Ampco / Flashlight Group, were appointed as distributors for Holland by two of the world's leading names in video technology - Altinex and Christie. In the case of Altinex the distributorship is exclusive. Pixlvision is headed by video industry specialists Hans Denekamp (sales manager) and Robert Kaarsmaker (account manager).

The company was appointed by Christie, the leading provider of visual solutions for business, entertainment and industry, as a distributor for the Netherlands from 1 February. It will handle the complete range of Christie's business products and solutions and provide full technical support to the Dutch marketplace.

Christie manufactures purpose-built systems for professional use. Over the last 30 years the company's systems

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UK - Members of the industry are being asked to join PLASA in supporting The National Skills Academy for the Creative & Cultural Industries by completing a consultation questionnaire. The Academy is designed to address shortages in offstage and technical skills for live music and the performing arts. Detailed plans being prepared by Creative & Cultural Skills, the employer-led Sector Skills Council, will be submitted to government in April 2007.

For more information on the National Skills Academy and for the chance to give your opinion on what skills are needed you can complete the online questionnaire at the web address below by 28 February 2007.

(Lee Baldock)

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UK - The 2007 edition of the Total Production International Awards was staged at the Novotel London West in Hammersmith, west London on Monday 5 February. Hosted by Suggs, the frontman of Madness, the TPi Awards drew a record-breaking audience of almost 1,200 people from across the live music production industry, and included special guest presentations by Sir George Martin, Queen guitar legend Brian May, Feargal Sharkey, Jeff Wayne of The War Of The Worlds fame and The Smiths' Andy Rourke.

During the 'Swinging Sixties'-themed ceremony, TPi Awards creative director Mark Cunningham announced that the event is set to grow even bigger in 2008, to coincide with the 10th anniversary of Total Production International magazine. Details will be officially announced by Mondiale Publishing later this year.

This year's winners were:

Production Manager of the Year (sponsored by R

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Italy - The Mole Antonelliana dominates the skyline of Turin. At over 167m, La Mole was the highest brick building in the world at the time of its completion and remains the tallest building in Turin. To celebrate International AIDS Day, architect Daniela Fabbris began a search to find a lighting fixture capable of projecting a logo directly on to La Mole from a terrace at a distance of 30m.

Alessandro Fantin from Vari*Lite distributor Audio Link explains: "During the meeting I had to personally guarantee that the VL3500Q spot would be able to project the standard colour of the red AIDS logo - as it was impossible to do tests due to the city location of La Mole and the webcams connected. A risky promise, but one I knew the fixture could deliver!"

The Turin government have embraced the project as previously the only logos that could be projected and seen on the brown

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UK - VME, a specialist in the hire, sale and installation of professional sound, lighting and AV equipment, has taken delivery of two 56-channel Soundcraft Series FIVE consoles from Harman Pro UK. VME director Dion Davie says the desks were ordered for a specific purpose - to handle the audio at the annual Wakestock Festival, which takes place during July at the Pwllheli Marina in Wales.

Inaugurated in 2000, Wakestock is Europe's largest wakeboard competition, attracting some of the world's best riders who compete for the title of Wakestock Champion. Each year's event is supported by a two-night live music festival that has previously featured appearances from top DJs and bands such as the Zutons, The Automatic, Carl Cox & Friends, Athlete, Soul II Soul, Judge Jules, Goldie Lookin' Chain, DJ Yoda and Reef.

VME has had a long association with the Festival, supplying both sound

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UK - Musion Systems, the projection technology behind the seminal video holograms of Sir Richard Branson, Madonna and virtual band Gorillaz, have installed the largest virtual 3D video hologram ever to appear in a single unit retail outlet - the projection of a full-size Toyota Auris family car spinning in mid-air, complete with a life-size human test driver.

The ground-breaking project at the Bluewater shopping centre in Kent was undertaken on behalf of Toyota GB in collaboration with creative agency Brandwidth Marketing and video production house Square Zero. High definition digital video projection of the 5m wide x 3m high image is achieved using a single Barco R12+ Performer fitted with a special high brightness short-throw lens and an HD digital interface card installed and configured by Barco UK. The image reflects from a Harkness Screens high contrast grey front projectio

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South Korea - The burgeoning South Korean pro audioindustry is proving profitable for Prism Sound, the company reports, particularly since it appointeda new distributor in the territory to handle its range of multi-channel analogueand digital audio converters and processors.

Seoul-based Audio Network Korea (ANK) is renowned as a distributor of high endpro audio products working on behalf of companies such as AMS Neve andDigidesign, for whom it acts as a repair centre. Headed by former recording andmastering engineer Tom Kim, ANK also undertakes systems integration projects forKorean music and post production facilities.

Tom Kim says: "Prism Sound products are of the highest calibre and are very wellregarded by audio professionals around the world. I first used the company's EQprocessors when I was working as a mastering engineer and was always impressedby the great result

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USA - The Vilar Center located in the heart of Colorado's Beaver Creek Resort, features a 530-seat theatre that presents a variety of year-round performances, such as jazz, comedy, dance, film, musicals, theatre, family shows and more. The intimate performance space was designed to exacting specifications to create perfect acoustics and unobstructed views from every seat.

The upgrading of the conventional sound system was greatly driven by the demands of visiting performers. The theatre found itself having to rent systems for more demanding performers that were visiting, and found it hard to control the coverage and SPL from one performance to the next (often from a single piano concert to a full blown rock show), and frequently working with an unfamiliar system that wasn't ideal for the space.

The theatre's technical team started to assess their choices and thorough shootouts

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UK - Spains Hall in Essex has been a family home for ten centuries. It has recently completed a prestigious conversion and extension of its listed stable buildings. Although the Hall itself dates from the early 15th century, installation company CGA Integration has equipped its function rooms with modern audio systems from Electro-Voice, part of Bosch Communications Systems.

CGA Integration was commissioned to provide zoned audio for a wide range of functions. Scope for future developments was part of the brief from the outset. Audio quality came top of the list for project requirements, with system flexibility and ease of routine use close behind. From the ceremony room to the vaulted dining rooms, separate zones were installed, all requiring individual design, while installation needed to be impressively finished to match the venue's high standards of decor.

Audio flexibilit

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USA - Located on Broadway in downtown Oakland, California, the Paramount Theatre is a slice of history. With its magnificent, 2,992-seat, Art Deco design, the Paramount was the last studio-owned movie palace built in the nation. Over the years, the theatre changed hands several times as both the downtown film market and the building itself slowly decayed, and in 1970, the doors were shut for good. Or at least until 1972, when the Oakland Symphony (now the Oakland East Bay Symphony) purchased it and restored it to its original grandeur, reopening it as a performing arts centre. Shortly thereafter, it was declared a National Historic Landmark, and ownership was transferred to the city.

Today the Paramount is one of the Bay Area's prime spots for high-profile concerts, lectures, theatre, and film, but one recurrent complaint has dogged the theatre in recent years: mediocre sound. &

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UK - Richmond Studios' Toby Alington will produce the audio for his 13th consecutive Brit Awards at Earls Court on 14 February, with the event being broadcast live-to-air on ITV at 8pm in the UK for the very first time.

Building on the success of last year's move to a fully digital Brits audio production, Richmond Studios have contracted Floating Earth to provide their latest mobile recording solution with its SSL200 digital console, fibre optic connection to the stage, and digital output to the broadcasters. Richmond Studios will once again do the sound-design and dub for Hello Charlie's nomination packages.

The show is set to be an unforgettable celebration of a year in which seven of the Top 10 bestselling albums in the UK were by British artists, whilst Oasis have been confirmed as winners of the prestigious Outstanding Contribution to Music Award.

The acts

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UK - Summit Steel is once again supplying rigging infrastructure and associated support services for Cirque du Soleil's acclaimed production of Alegria at the Royal Albert Hall.

It's the seventh Cirque production that Summit has put into the venue. Alegria was also the first Cirque production which Summit were involved with in the central London venue, back in 1998.

The 2007 project involved the preparation of over 100 points of rigging, for which Summit has supplied 40 of their own Lodestar hoists in addition to using the house hoists.

Summit also designed and installed truss mothergrids, lighting and drape masking trusses, utilising nearly 400m of James Thomas Supertruss. This is needed for Cirque to produce their daring, highly acrobatic production in a Grade One listed venue, as opposed to staging it in their own purpose-built big top.

Before Christmas a

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UK - Showsec has gained SIA Approved Contractor Status (ACS) accreditation in two sectors: Door Supervisor and Security Guarding. With an overall aim of supplying the best customer service Showsec has invested heavily in training and internal business systems over recent years. This was acknowledged during the independent audit during process undertaken to gain the SIA ACS approval, which considered everything from recruitment through training to actions in the workplace. This process involved many key members of Showsec staff who reached (and sometimes exceed) the stringent criteria of the SIA audit requirements.

Managing director Mark Harding said: "I'm very proud of the positive comments we received from the independent assessors that related back to our staff at all levels. Following on from being awarded 'Investors in People' in 2006, this SIA approval re-iterates our

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New Zealand - Selecon and Philips hosted a seminar in Taiwan that highlighted the supply chain from lamp manufacturer to end user. "We had a challenging situation" says Phil Sargent, regional market manager for Selecon, "you can do a nice presentation together with product demonstrations but it really doesn't do justice to the whole background story behind the optical system development and thousands of hours of R&D time."

Normally the partnership between the luminaire and lamp manufacturer's R&D teams is glossed over and presenters move on to more product specific areas, and this leaves the story of the collaboration untold.

"Philips and Selecon have the same dealer in Taiwan, and when Mr. Anthony Wu, managing director of Ming Li approached us with his idea of a joint seminar, we were delighted to be involved" says Sargent. "After discussin

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World - Lighting designer Bryan Leitch has specified Avolites to control lighting for Justin Timberlake's extensive Future Sex/Love 2007 world tour which kicked off in San Diego in January and hits the UK and Europe in April and May.

As soon as Leitch won the design contract, his company Siyan immediately purchased two additional Diamond 4s from Avo. Siyan's three existing D4 consoles were already committed and spec'd onto other tours running during the same period.

Leitch co-designed and developed the Future Sex/Love show with programmer Nick Whitehouse. The two had worked together on Coldplay's 2003/04 Rush of Blood To The Head tour which also utilised a D4.

Fixture-wise, the D4 is controlling over 120 Vari*Lites - a mix of VL4s and VL3000 spots and washes plus 12 VL1000s; 120 ColorKinetics ColorBlasts; 20 Syncrolites - eight 1Ks and twelve 3ks; 40 Ato

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