World - The harmonies of Crowded House have reunited in song on a worldwide tour. In control of the show are two Wholehog 3 consoles.

LD/set designer Paul Normandale and lighting director Glen Johnson have carried Wholehog 3 consoles on a number of tours the past few years.

Says Johnson: "Its Only Natural (referencing a popular Crowded House song title) that I would choose the Wholehog 3 console again for this tour after my faultless year with it on James Blunt."

UK's Lite Alternative provided the two Wholehog 3 consoles, along with two Playback Wings, a full-size Expansion Wing and 2 DP 2000s. Upstaging is the lighting contractor on the US tour.

"Crowded House have a catalogue of 100-plus songs with over 70 programmed in the console," Johnson explains. "While I am given a set list every night of 20 songs, it is rare for them to keep to the set, an

UK - KV2 Audio had much to showcase on its stand at PLASA 07. Alongside a UK product launch, the company recognised both KV2 UK Installer and KV2 UK Dealer of the Year, and unveiled the company's new brand image, demonstrated in the stand design and the recently updated company brochure and website.

KV2 CEO Jonathan Reece-Farren commented: "The new brand image was tried out at Frankfurt last year and everyone loved it and this has now been rolled out into the new brochure and website to reflect our intention to align the image of the brand alongside the high level perception that our products enjoy, something that hasn't necessarily been the case in the past and it was about time to change.

"The website is easier to navigate and provides a very simple format in which to store a large amount of information whilst looking fantastic. And the brochure is similar. It's pa

Australia - Novatech Production Services have used the power and reliability of LSC to bring Australia the third annual Roc Tha Block series of concerts, the biggest urban experience ever to be staged in the Southern Hemisphere.

Novatech provided all the sound, lighting and video production services that were required, including the logistics for touring three states in 72 hours: Vodafone Arena in Melbourne, the Adelaide Entertainment Centre and the Sydney Entertainment Centre.

The concerts presented a huge challenge due to the close proximity of the tour dates and the tyranny of distance which needed to be covered, some 5,600km, with Novatech arranging the logistics, equipment and staff for the shows as well as the actual production.

Lighting control included a combination of six LSC ePAK dimmers and numerous LSC Delta DMX splitters to ensure that the shows ran smoot

USA - Aviom was an important element in the audio system for the production of Love In: The Musical, a theatrical celebration of the music of 1967 featuring legendary artists recently held at Birch North Park Theatre in San Diego.

The event featured the award-winning Pro16 personal mixing system, with an Aviom digital snake distributing all of the mixes to a Yamaha PM5D console outfitted with an AVIOM16/o-Y1 A-Net Interface Card.

Adams Entertainment, who also produced last year's live documentary/concert Primal Twang: The History of the Guitar, filmed the Love In performances for commercial release in 2008. That meant that the show's audio producer, Henry Austin of Professional Production Associates, had to design a system that would serve the needs of both the live and recorded elements of the production.

"I selected Aviom for this mission-critical gig fo

Canada - Rush are currently on a world tour backing their latest album Snakes & Arrows. This 62-city run is scheduled across Canada, the United States, the UK and Europe.

After being involved with the Rush in Rio Vapour Trails Tour, Pyrotek Special Effects was consulted to brighten up a number of songs for their present tour. Long time lighting designer, and agent, Howard Ungerleider approached pyrotechnician John Arrowsmith to come up with a number of special effects.

With a focus for a concussion effect to emphasise a specific moment in their newest hit single Far Cry, the requested effect was to synchronise upon the completion of the course. Arrowsmith collaborated with Doug Adams (designer & president of Pyrotek Special Effects) to design an element to the theme which ends with a big punctuation.

During production rehearsals at the Hershey Centre (Mi

USA - High End Systems (HES) has announced the completion of a new $9 million line of credit with Wachovia Bank, NA.

"Our strong financial performance during the last three fiscal years has allowed us to team up with one of the largest banks in America," said Frank Gordon, HES CEO. "We intend to use the new facility to further support technology innovation and its global sales effort."

"High End sales revenue continues to grow dramatically in Europe, the Middle East and Asia and we have now strengthened our position to provide customers more financing options and to support dealer sales with more demonstration equipment," said Bill Morris, HES executive vice-president.

Merritt Belisle joined High End Systems as chairman in January. "I was excited by the outstanding team of innovators when I joined High End," Belisle said. "The sea

UK - When the first Eurostar pulls into St Pancras on 14 November 2007, it will be the culmination of a project some 10 years in the making. To celebrate the incredible construction, a lavish event recently took place to mark this piece of landmark engineering.

Lighting designer Vince Foster created a breathtaking centrepiece for the 4,000 revellers - a moving LED chandelier structure featuring 100 PixelArt video battens and 50 PixelLine 1044s. Over 100 Pixeline 1044s highlighted the enormous ground support truss and another 50 provided a chevron video wall on the live acts stage.

Foster enthuses: "PixelLine 1044s are one of my favourite LED fixtures and are constantly specified in my designs. I am very impressed with the new PixelArt video batten, the resolution is outstanding, creating further design flexibility."

To enable the guests to see the trains going in a

Australia - Robert Juliat has announced the appointment of Show Technology Australia as its new exclusive distributor, responsible for promoting and distributing Robert Juliat products throughout Australia.

Show Technology marked the occasion by holding Robert Juliat showcase events at their Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane offices. Special guest was Lionel Garraud, Robert Juliat's international sales director.

Products on display included the Cyrano followspot, the Quincy architectural profile, the Lutin fresnel and the award-winning Super Korrigan followspot (2006 Live Design International Products of the Year).

Show Technology's managing director Emmanuel Ziino commented, "The market has shown a great acceptance for Robert Juliat and there is pent up demand for the product. We have committed to building up stock and consequently will have showroom stock in all of our b

Philippines - Sound firm Sound Check deployed a large, multi-zone JBL Vertec line array system for Christina Aguilera's 6 July outdoor performance in Manila. The concert was part of Aguilera's 2007 Back to Basics world tour.

"Christina Aguilera's production team brought in much of their stage equipment including mixing consoles, band gear, LED screens, and the stage set. This was transported in about eight 40ft cargo containers," noted Jaime Godinez, owner of Sound Check. "Our primary task was to ensure a properly-deployed sound reinforcement system for sound mixer Tony Blanc, so that he would be able to present this dynamic show to a 30,000-person outdoor crowd."

Sound Check's main speaker system consisted of 56 Vertec midsize full-range loudspeakers, configured as 36 cabinets of Vertec VT4888DP's with JBL DrivePack technology for the left and right

Russia - FusionPro+ MultiViewer technology from Zandar Technologies, a leading technology innovator and pioneer in MultiViewer systems, has been installed in one of Russia's leading TV channels, TRK5.

Based in Saint-Petersburg, TRK5 uses the FusionPro+ to process video and audio signals for the display on a 16-display videowall in its sports news department, and the second unit is used with a four-displayvideowall in a talk-show studio. The latter setup is configured so that the four displays can be used to display a large single image.

Anastasia Mikhailova, marketing manager for Viking Russia, reports, "We specify this equipment to all of our broadcasting and television studio clients due to the advanced image processing qualities and competitive price. Our client, TRK5 required a solution that would combine multiple inputs in all the commonly used formats such as HD, SD

Australia - The recent AOG (Assemblies of God) National Conference staged at the Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre, Queensland, hosted Christian bands each night of this three day event, while each day leading speakers led thought provoking sessions around contemporary Christian concerns.

Sound system supplier IJS was contracted to fulfil all audio requirements. The brief was clear, as IJS engineer for the event, Rob Bird explained: "The show requirements were specified by Hillsong Church; they submitted a generic rider that you would expect to see for any large touring act. They asked for Yamaha PM5D consoles and the rest was pretty much a list of the usual along with detailed stage plots and line lists. They tour all their own engineers."

Bird, in collaboration with fellow IJS engineer Nathan Davis, determined a d&b J-Series system best suited the mixed d

UK - DPA Microphones has awarded London-based Sound Network with its 2007 Distributor of the Year award, recognising the huge contribution to sales and service that the company has provided over the past 12 months.

Sound Network director Ralph Dunlop attributes the company's success to its continued belief in providing the best advice and service to the professional sound industry, together with continued support from a loyal group of clients who recommend Sound Network to a growing number of new customers.

"After being involved personally with B&K and then DPA for over 20 years, it is a real honour to be awarded Distributor of the Year," says Dunlop. "In the last two years we have made concerted efforts to introduce DPA Microphones into a variety of new market areas, and due to the products' enviable build quality and versatility we have been very successful.&q

UK - Robe moving lights, Anolis LED fixtures and Avolites lighting control have been specified for the new 1,350 capacity Carling Oxford Academy, the latest £2 million live music venue to be opened by Academy Music Group (AMG).

Bristol-based lighting specialists, Utopium have once again worked with AMG to introduce state-of-the-art facilities to the design of its three-room operation at Carling Academy Oxford.

Richard Maides, Academy Music Group's operations manager says: "We have worked with Utopium on a number of installations at our venues in Newcastle, Bristol, Liverpool, Islington and Glasgow and as a group we invest heavily in both our PA and lighting equipment. We aim high in our production values so that all AMG properties offer the same excellent in-house production facilities for both international touring acts and the very best for upcoming talent looking

Austria - DiGiCo's Austrian distributor, TON Eichinger Professional Sound Systems, has recently made significant sales of DiGiCo and Soundtracs consoles in the Austrian market: the first is to ORF, the country's central radio facility; the second is to the Landestheater, St Pölten in Lower Austria.

ORF's central radio facility, in the capital of Vienna, comprises small to medium sized studios used for recording radio talk shows and small live music shows as well as high-level post production. Its recent purchase of three Soundtracs DS-00 digital consoles - two for its Vienna facility, the third for its Eisenstadt regional studio - is part of a series of such installations there.

"ORF have used Soundtracs consoles for some time, having had DS3s previously, and are familiar with the way they work," says Othmar Eichinger of TON Eichinger. "So when it was time to u

UK - LXCO was contracted to light up the stage at the Arundel Festival which took place at the historic Arundel Castle, in West Sussex, from in August.

The four-day festival hosted an eclectic mix of performances from a 40-piece orchestra to Girls Aloud. LXCO designed and supplied the production lighting for the festival, transforming the lighting set between each of the shows. Among the lights hanging from the truss were 54 PAR cans creating colour washes on stage as well as 14 Martin MAC 500s and 18 MAC 600s. The rig was developed over the four varying gigs, to suit the music and the mood of each event.

Mark Wheatley, LXCO's lighting designer commented: "We wanted to try and give it a different look each night for people coming back to the festival; suiting the style and genre of music. We knew there would be activity and rehearsals on the stage during the day so our te

Middle East - Creative Events, a sound reinforcement company serving the Middle East, recently added EAW UX8800 digital processors with Gunness Focusing technology, as well as EAW KF760 Series and KF730 Series line arrays, to its growing inventory of top-flight professional audio equipment.

Creative Events is one of several companies of Creative Communication Group (CCG), a full-service event management and production venture based in Qatar. Under the direction of managing partner Jalal Dudin, Creative Events provides sound reinforcement systems and services to numerous high-profile concerts, theatrical productions, festivals and other events held throughout the Middle East.

For example, a notable Creative Events project was supplying all audio, video and technical support at more than 110 sports venues during the 2006 Doha Asian Games 2006. In addition, they've supported firs

USA - Built in 1914, Chicago's Wrigley Field is one of Major League Baseball's legendary landmarks. Having long ago been designated one of the city's historical landmarks, improvements to the park are carefully evaluated and overseen, not only by the city's historical society, but by fans and the public. The installation of lighting in 1988 to allow for night games was preceded by several decades of controversy. And the field's original scoreboard, with per-inning and pitch scores changed by hand, has been untouched by progress (or pitches) since its construction in 1937.

Not surprisingly, the project to upgrade the park's audio system was also subject to the limitations of historic preservation. "Because of the park's landmark status, any proposed changes have to run through a number of lengthy and complex approval processes," explains Kevin Tucker of Chicago-based Ad

UK - White Light - and the members of the White Light family of manufacturers that the company distributes in the UK, report "a hugely successful four days" at PLASA 07.

Leading the move into Earls Court 2, which the PLASA Show expanded back in to this year, White Light created more than just a conventional stand: a White Light Zone featuring White Light itself and ELC DMX Tools, LDDE, Look Solutions, LSC, Rainbow, Robert Juliat and Wireless Solutions.

Notable events in the Zone included the launch of the new Robert Juliat Victor 1800W MSR followspot presented by Francois Juliat, and the new Redback dimmer from LSC Lighting presented by LSC's Gary Pritchard. In addition ELC marked the milestone of supplying their 2007th FocusHand/Brain hand-held remote in the year 2007 by presenting the unit to the 2007th customer, Stuart Lodge of Wimbledon High School.

The unit's

UK - When Rosco launched #313 Light Relief Yellow Supergel filter in 2003, the hope was that the colour would provide the Light Relief charity with a steady income from its sale for years to come.

Developed with the help of Rick Fisher, co-founder (along with the late Tony Gottelier) of the industry charity which supports lighting designers in difficult times, Light Relief Yellow is a vibrant colour, suitable for raising awareness of the charity.

Since committing to this programme, Rosco has presented Light Relief with an annual donation based on the sales of #313. At PLASA 07, Rosco's president Stan Miller presented Light Relief with a check for $3,172 bringing the total to date over $10,000.

"What has been remarkable about Rosco is the continuing nature of its support for this charity, which is there to provide practical assistance to those in the Lighting Industry wh

UK - Blackout has completely overhauled its website for ease of navigation. The site has been given a fresh new look, with seven separate sections in addition to the homepage.

These sections include an up-to-date product listing, which includes information on Blackout's new Rigging Mast and Gabled Truss products; a list of the services provided, from sales and rental to temporary and permanent installations; a look at the people who make the company tick; and an in-depth image gallery showcasing some of Blackout's most recent projects. There is also a contacts page with full details of the company's London and Paris offices, and a recruitment page.

Steve Tuck, Blackout's managing director comments: "The old website was fine up to a point, but we wanted something that any potential customer would find easy to navigate, even if they were from outside the events industry.

USA - Following last week's announcement of an AES seminar on the subject of Digital Networking, hosted by Renkus-Heinz, the company has confirmed two further seminars.

The first is titled 'Iconyx Digitally Steerable Arrays: Technology, Applications, Innovations', from 2:45 PM to 4:15 PM on Sunday 7 October.

Secondly, Ahnert Feistel Media Group (AFMG) will conduct two seminars on 'Tools & Techniques for Measuring & Optimising Loudspeaker Systems', and will discuss actual applications of EASERA and the new EASERA SysTune software. The seminars will be held in Room 1E04 at the Javits Convention Center on Friday 5 October.

(Jim Evans)

UK - Freelance broadcast sound designer Oliver France, who originally designed the sound for Deal Or No Deal, has replaced the game show's inventory of 23 Audio-Technica Engineered Sound gooseneck contestant microphones, re-equipping the production with the newly re-engineered Engineered Sound Series models, featuring the UniGuard RFI protection circuitry.

The decision to deploy the new ES Series mics, was made to take advantage of the new RFI protection circuitry on set. "There are large numbers of the public to marshal on this show, and some of them do sneak in with their mobile phones switched on in silent mode," explains France, "The new RFI protected microphones provide us with a guarantee against that additional possibility of something else going wrong with a live studio audience. The RFI protection also guarantees against interference from other RF

UK - Delta Sound has a reputation for working on unusual projects and one Friday evening in mid-September heralded another atypical job, the UK premier of Alvin Curran's Maritime Rites, which required ingenuity and versatility from both equipment and engineers.

A DiGiCo D5 Live sat at the bankside Front of House position, with XTA digital signal processors controlling two hangs of VDosc loudspeakers. Nothing unusual there, but with a barge moored in the middle of the river Thames as the main stage, that was where convention ended and inventiveness took over.

Commissioned by Tate Modern, Maritime Rites is the first collaboration between Tate Modern and the London Symphony Orchestra and is part of UBS Openings: Live, a series of bi-monthly performance events at the gallery, which is a regular Delta Sound client, and marked a prelude to the start of the Thame

France - At this year's 60th anniversary of the Cannes Film Festival, Meyer Sound signed on as a sponsor of the Cannes Legend celebration, employing the new, self-powered UPJunior ultra-compact VariO loudspeaker to deliver audio to the esteemed guests and performers. Cannes Legend is an exclusive week-long spree of animation screenings, presentations, fashion shows, and soirees held in conjunction with the festival itself.

Paris-based Dispatch, France's largest audio rental house, supplied the audio equipment for Cannes Legend, including four UPJunior loudspeakers and four USW-1P compact subwoofers for a tented dance floor on the beach, six UPJunior cabinets on the terrace surrounding the tent, and four more UPJunior units at the hotel's seafront garden, where another tent hosted a series of smaller gatherings.

Versatility was of key importance in choosing the Meyer Sound syst

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