Robe - LEADERBOARD - Feb 2025
Doughty - Banner - from 6 June 2025

Business

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Australia - Over 100 Robe moving lights supplied by Clifton Productions were used to light the 2007 Brownlow Medal event. Awarded to the 'best and fairest' player of the season, it is the most prestigious annual accolade on the Australian sporting calendar.

It was the first time that lighting designer Robert Coia had used Robe's new ColorWash and ColorSpot 700E AT fixtures on a major show, and also the first event in Australia to utilise Robe's powerful new ColorSpot 2500E AT units.

Staged in The Palladium at Melbourne's Crown Casino complex, the 2007 Brownlow Medal dinner was attended by 1500 sporting celebrities and VIPs. It was broadcast live on the country's Channel Seven TV station, topping the evening's ratings with an audience of over 1.5 million people.

Coia worked closely with scenic designer/art director Mal Nichols to develop the room's aesthetics and look for the

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Germany - In the southern Westphalian town of Siegen, the newly-refurbished Siegerlandhalle has re-opened after a year-long revamp. Now the region's largest events venue, the Siegerlandhalle has a 1,800 m² Great Hall, with a new gallery that has capacity for 2,500 sitting or 4,300 standing audiences, encouraging big-name artists and groups to book the venue.

When it came to choosing the sound reinforcement equipment, the essential criteria were very good sound quality and very good value for money. Clear transmission of the spoken word was also an important feature, as the Siegerlandhalle not only hosts musical events but also conferences, congresses and trade fairs.

The bid-winning design was proposed by the Siegen company Trendco, which also provided and installed the stage mechanics and lighting system. In charge of the project was Jens Schmidt, who drew up the design toge

Doughty - Banner - from 6 June 2025

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USA - Elation Professional has entered the architectural lighting market with the introduction of two IP-rated LED products for indoor-outdoor use. The Elar EXFlood and the Elar EXPar, an LED floodlight and LED par can respectively, are the first of as many as 50 new products that will be offered in the new Elation Architectural series by early 2008 at price points never seen before, the company says.

The move into the architectural market is a natural expansion for the company, which has focused heavily on advanced LED technology in recent times, said Eric Loader, director of sales for Elation Professional. The emergence of LED lighting and RGB colour-mixing have changed the nature of architectural lighting, making it a more dynamic concept, according to Loader. Elation's product development expertise in this area fits in well with this growing trend.

"Our new Elation Ar

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USA - Belmont University is now offering courses in Tour Production Management and Production Design, compliments of Bandit lighting designer Chris Lisle. An experienced tour manager and lighting designer, Lisle is currently the lighting designer for country music superstars, Sara Evans and Phil Vassar.

Lisle was brought on board as an instructor at Belmont after doing the 2006 Curb College of Entertainment and Music Business Showcase Series, a student production put on by Belmont University students.

Bandit business development officer, Brent Barrett commented on Chris' involvement: "When we were looking for someone to design the 06/07 Concert Series, Chris very graciously gave of his time to do so without hesitation. Chris Lisle has the talent, knowledge, attitude and approachability to serve as a very positive role model in our industry as well as an instructor at Belm

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EMEA - Entry for the EMEA InAVation Awards 2008 technology and project categories are now open, the organizers have announced.

Finalists this year will be decided by a judging panel of editors from the leading international and regional industry media resources, whilst the winners of the technology categories will once more be decided by the region's industry professionals, via online voting on the dedicated awards website. The 2007 event generated 7,639 individual technology votes from over 60 countries.

This year's awards programme sees the introduction of French, German, Italian, Russian and Spanish portals whilst the prestigious gala awards dinner will be held in the grand ballrooms at The Hotel Okura, Amsterdam on Monday 28 January, prior to the first day of the Integrated Systems Europe (ISE) exhibition.

(Lee Baldock)

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UK - Leading communication company Imagination today announced it has been awarded the contract for Shell's global exhibition programme, after an intense pitch process which involved five eminent design and event agencies.

Imagination will be responsible for ensuring brand consistency, design and content management and the implementation of all Shell exhibitions and trade shows worldwide.

The appointment is a significant win for Imagination, which operates a network of 10 offices worldwide. It has delivered the global autoshow programme for Ford Motor Company since 1999.

Founder and CEO of Imagination Gary Withers said: "This is a very important client for us to secure. We look forward to supporting Shell worldwide, drawing on the resources of our network to deliver a wide range of communication."

Danny Van Otterdyk, Shell's manager for Visual Media, added: "

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Germany - A four hoist Martin lighting rig totaling 40 MAC TW1 tungsten wash luminaires (80 V) and 16 MAC 2000 Performances graces the Saxon State Opera House in Dresden, Germany, better known as Semperoper.

Built in 1878 by the famous German architect Gottfried Semper, the building excels in its magnificent architecture. Destroyed in 1945, Semperoper was rebuilt in its original form complete with four balconies and a lavish interior abundantly adorned with paintings and stuccowork. Reopened in 1985, the Opera seats nearly 1300.

Theater-Architekturlicht (TAL) Chemnitz supplied the Martin lighting systems with installation by Semperoper technicians in cooperation with TAL. Jan Seeger, lighting crew chief at Semperoper, and Mathias Meyer, manager of TAL Chemnitz, first saw the TW1 at the Pro Light and Sound exhibition in Frankfurt and agreed on the luminaire's potential to open

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Slovakia - With three stages featuring Electro-Voice pro audio equipment, the new Slovakian National Theatre in Bratislava meets the highest international standards. EV's Slovakian partner, SBL Acoustics, undertook the audio installation - including 200 EV speakers - with support from local installation specialists Proeling.

"One of the principal stipulations for the sound systems was the provision of even coverage throughout each auditorium," says Stanislav Lehen, manager, SBL Acoustics. "This standard request proved trickier than expected. The architecture of the rooms posed a number of problems. They were all very wide and open. To arrive at a homogeneous sound image, therefore, we had to come up with something exceptional."

The theatre's technical specialists were unanimous in favouring Electro-Voice when it came to selecting the sound equipment. "

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UK - Projected Image Digital (PID), and architectural lighting design practice Indigo, have designed specified and installed a spectacular Element Labs VersaPixel ceiling effect for the house gymnasium of a leading investment bank in London's Canary Wharf.

PID supplied 1500 25mm square VersaPixels, a VersaDRIVE C1 driver and a, Pharos LPC1 architectural lighting controller for the project, which was co-ordinated for them by Sam Douglas.

PID also designed and manufactured custom steel mounting brackets for the VersaPixels which are installed in the room's ceiling panels, and created 17 special clips of digital content, working to a brief from Indigo's Paul Nulty and gym staff.

The content includes athletic-themed figures running, skipping and rowing, a heart trace graphic equalizer effect etc., plus a selection of more ambient, 'mood' style clips like clouds and flocks of fly

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UK - Rental and production company, Chameleon pro audio and lighting has recently augmented its hire stock with a rack of four Crest Pro200 Series amplifiers. Designed with touring sound professionals in mind, Crest Pro200 Series amplifiers offer increased power, lower weight and a smaller enclosure than competing amplifiers from other brands, in an extremely economical package. Chameleon opted for a rack comprising one Pro5200, two Pro8200s and one Pro9200, the high power 'Big Brother' of the range.

"We have a great number of amplifiers in stock from a wide variety of well known manufacturers," noted Chameleon MD Stewart Duckworth. "However, in order to meet increasing demand for powerful, lightweight racks at a reasonable price point, we needed to increase our hire stock, so I started to have a serious look around at what was available."

After several dem

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Germany - One of Germany's most impressive new sports and leisure parks can be found in the automotive capital of Stuttgart. Here, the mighty Gottlieb-Daimler-Stadium in NeckarPark, home to VfB Stuttgart FC, has been joined recently by the 15,500-capacity Hans-Martin-Schleyer concert hall, and the Porsche and Carl Benz Arenas - all linked by a giant concourse, with common parking facilities.

Soundweb London DSP devices from BSS Audio play a significant role in the signal distribution across this complex.

Much of the NeckarPark development, including the Carl Benz Center (which houses the Arena), has been financed by one of the most important private investors in Stuttgart, Rudi Häussler of the Häussler Group. In addition to the Arena, the Carl Benz complex contains the four-star Hilton Garden Inn Hotel, a supporters' shop, fitness centre and restaurant as well as being the b

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USA - Eclipse Marketing has announced its sponsorship of D-Tools' 5th annual Design Awards with an electronic newsletter marketing campaign that is personalised for the winner. This exclusive award will be given to a residential dealer who submitted an exceptional project that was created with D-Tools System Integrator 5 software.

Dealers submitted entries to D-Tools' development team and Certified Partners who then reviewed the projects and selected winners. The entries will be judged on a number of criteria, including originality, most thorough use of D-Tools' software functionality, overall visual quality of designs, plans, and schematics. Judges will also look at which projects best communicate the system designer's vision.

Says Leslie Stevens, president of Eclipse Marketing: "It's an honour to sponsor D-Tools' 2007 Design Awards. We know that D-Tools wants to provide

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World - When the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater was kitting out its latest world tour, lighting director Al Crawford chose the multi award-winning Eos to replace the company's Obsession II, also from ETC.

Says Crawford: "I am aware that we have one of the first Eos consoles available. The product team are really excited about the development of the desk and listen carefully to their end users. For example, there was one time when we had an issue with the software - not a fault, but we needed it to operate differently. We contacted ETC and received a software update within 24 hours. We felt they completely supported during the Eos's tour around the world. That is unprecedented in my book - they truly stepped up to the plate."

Alvin Ailey was among the first to use an Eos lighting control desk from ETC, which recently won a PLASA Award for Innovation, completing a

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UK - Earlier this week, two pallets of Kramer Electronics equipment were stolen from the back of a lorry in Hemel Hempstead, UK.

Amongst the long list of items stolen were the first VS-42HDMI 4x2 HDMI matrix switchers to be brought into the UK, and the first FC-31 UXGA-DVI converter. Products suitable for broadcast, professional AV and custom install were stolen.

If anybody has any suspicions about Kramer goods being offered to them, they can contact PC 2129 Fontenelle from Hertfordshire Constabulary, on 01442 271017, quoting crime ref DI/07/8568.

(Jim Evans)

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UK - Metallica's recent European tour has justifiably been trumpeted by Midas as the acid test for its new XL8 digital live mixing system. But it was also a perfect demonstration of the quality and reliability of the components the design team specified. A case in point is the link between the console and the stage, one of the areas singled out by Metallica's engineer, Big Mick Hughes, as making a real difference. As he noted, with short leads from mics to stage box and a digital signal thereafter there was no discernible loss in frequency response - "an intelligibility and clarity that I've never really heard before", as he put it.

The link from the stage box is fibre optic to ensure that integrity of signal is matched by high-speed, zero-latency data transfer. The only question mark at design stage was over the flimsy plastic 'LC' connectors routinely supplied with f

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USA - The production team of Walmartopia chose the new Light Palette VL console for the off Broadway production in New York. Programmer Jon Dunkle said: "This console offers everything I have been looking for in a theatre desk. It offers the ease, speed, and familiarity of command-line data entry and the convenience of touch screen selections. The powerful fixture library and abstract control model allowed me to adjust all parameters of intelligent devices as easily as bringing up a dimmer. All possible attribute selections were conveniently displayed in an understandable vocabulary - I never had to think about a numeric DMX value when manipulating a fixture. Also worth mentioning is the easy to use effects engine. Intuitive and useful effects are built in, and are easy to access, apply, and manipulate for any given fixture or parameter."

Bobby Harrell, lighting contro

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UK - The first of three Hawthorn @ Home events were held a Hawthorn's Leicestershire base last Friday. The event focusing on Moving Lights was a great success with both visitors and exhibitors expressing their delight at the event.

Companies taking part were Robe Show Lighting, Martin Professional, ETC and Clay Paky. Clay Paky's area manager, Emilio Cornelli commented: "This is a great opportunity for us to get our products in front of the users themselves and Hawthorns are always great hosts."

The next Hawthorn@ Home will be held on Friday 26 October. 'Pyro and Effects' is an opportunity to see a pyrotechnic demonstration by Le Maitre, as well as lighting effects from other companies such as Rosco/DHA and Martin Professional.

(Jim Evans)

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Canada - The Warped Tour is an ultra-hip vehicle for bringing punk, ska and hardcore metal tempered with a dose of extreme sports to the masses. Now in its (lucky) thirteenth year and sponsored, as ever, by Vans, the über-cool skate, surf and BMX shoe and garment manufacturers, Warped 2007 covered the length and breadth of the United States and Canada, bringing up to one hundred bands per show to legions of adoring fans.

The Canadian dates saw Warped 2007 partner with Union Label Group, a Montreal-based punk record label, who sponsored their own Union Label stage in order to showcase Canadian punk and ska bands. Union Label turned to Sennheiser Canada, long-time distributors of InnovaSON consoles in Canada, for technical support and advice in setting up the stage. Sennheiser Canada's Vaino Gennaro, after discussions with well-known Montreal sound engineer Kevin Holland and repr

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Austria - Visual Productions has confirmed the appointment of Vienna based company Klangfarbe Sound & Light as a new dealer for its lighting control software products.

Founded in the 1980s to supply musicians with the newest gear combined with a high level of service and support, Klangfarbe today consists of four divisions - E-Guitars, Acoustics, Studio & Keyboards and Sound & Light.

The Sound & Light division focuses on pro-audio and light solutions for installation into, amongst other venues, museums, shops and bars. With the addition of VisualDMX lighting control software to their product range, says Andreas Prochaska, light sales director, the "seamless integration of a touchscreen and the visualisation tool Visual3D, usually only found in much more expensive gear" gives great opportunities for smart, affordable lighting control.

(Jim Evans)

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UK - Swansea rock band The Storys recently completed their support role on Elton John's tour of the UK and Europe with a Soundcraft Vi6 digital live mixing console.

The tour played notable arenas and sports grounds up and down the UK and out as far as Malmo in Sweden to crowds of up to 30,000. "The Vi6 performed perfectly", said Dale Hanson, The Storys' FOH engineer. "No matter what conditions we performed in, including at the Sor Arena in Norway where all the crews were experiencing problems with the continuous rain, the Vi6 never hesitated and gave us a perfect show every time. The first time I got my hands on a Vi6 was at the O2 Arena's club - Indigo2, that immediately made my mind up - we had to use one on tour."

On the road for six weeks, the band played 10 venues. Hanson adds: "Being the support band, we often have to wait our place in the queue

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USA - Philips Solid-State Lighting Solutions, the new entity formed by Philips' acquisition of Color Kinetics, marks the nation's 16th annual Energy Awareness Month with continuing support for programmes that increase awareness and use of energy-efficient LED lighting. Among these programmes, the company will support the 2007 Solar Decathlon - an international competition sponsored by the US Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.

Philips Solid-State Lighting Solutions will provide a total of $19,500 in LED lighting equipment to the teams representing the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Maryland, who will compete to design, build and operate the most livable, energy-efficient, completely solar-powered house. The 2007 Solar Decathlon takes place 12-20 at the National Mall in Washi

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USA - Houses of worship often represent a challenge for sound system designers. With a wide range of services and other events to be accommodated during a typical week, flexibility represents a key parameter. And increasingly larger contemporary choirs with on-stage musicians can present a challenge to trained audio engineers, let alone volunteer staff.

When Faith Chapel Foursquare Church of Billings, MT, went shopping for a console for its 1,100-seat sanctuary, the list of requirements was long and complex. "We ultimately chose a Soundcraft Vi digital console," explains chief audio technician Kelly Olp. "It's an unbelievable sounding board with a great variety of routing options, onboard effects processing, and equalization. We couldn't be happier with the purchase of this outstanding console."

The church also needed to make sure that its new console would

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UK - When Robert McWhir, the director for I Love You Because, wanted to put on this new musical premiere at the Landor Theatre, he was aware that it would be challenging to find the right combination of lighting fixtures and control system that would allow moving lights, LED fixtures, conventionals and video to be seamlessly integrated. Part of the challenge was the need for a single control system which would minimise the budget on rental and operator costs. The solution was to use grandMA.

With the assistance of Entec Sound and Light, a package was put together that included a grandMA full-size for programming, a grandMA light for playback, an MA NSP to distribute the DMX and act in conjunction with an in-house PC as backup system, and finally a second PC as media server running grandMA video.

In line with the method favoured by theatrical productions today, the rehea

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USA - Having been used to great effect earlier this year on the National Football League's (NFL) Superbowl trophy, Lighthouse Technologies' ultra fine resolution R4 4mm LED screen is being used for broadcasting Sunday Night Football on NBC at 8pm every Sunday this fall.

Hosted by Al Michaels giving play-by-play commentary and John Madden as the colour announcer, the show broadcasts Sunday night's primetime games.

New York-based full service production company AG Light and Sound is responsible for the installation and operation of the screen, which is positioned at the rear of the onsite broadcast booth. An XClyps video playback system from Chyron supplies the video feed from NBC's mobile production studio. The system is composed of an HD background loop with a live feed of scores and HD-SDI input. This data is then fed through a Lighthouse LIP-KX Interface Processor to the scr

  1. AAA leads the way with KIVA
  2. LSC moves to larger premises
  3. TSG Installs Audica down on the Farm
  4. Wisconsin University invests in Nexia
  5. Positive signs for Show Way 2008
  6. Scotland's EFX orders two Midas XL8s
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Astera - Large MPU - June 2025
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