France - Fa Musique's extensive rental inventory, comprising Midas Venice, Verona, XL3, Heritage 2000 and 3000 consoles has recently been extended with the acquisition of an XL8 digital console.

"We had enough of computers disguised as mixing consoles and wanted genuine analogue ergonomics and unmatched sonic quality," says Frederic André, Fa Musique managing director.

EVI AudioFrance's Jean Marandet provided technical training for the Fa Musique engineers enabling them to take the XL8 on tour as soon as possible. The new console will make its first appearance at the Francofolies festival taking place in La Rochelle in July.

Eric Garnier, EVI Audio France director of sales, comments, "Although Fa Musique was one of the last rental companies in France to purchase a Heritage 3000, it is the first in the country to buy an XL8, demonstrating a new commitmen

Italy - Aethra SpA reports that all video communication services for the fifth Summit of Heads of State and Government of Latin America, the Caribbean and the European Union (LAC-EU) are being provided exclusively by Aethra in collaboration with its partner in Peru Speednet Telecommunications.

Personnel from Aethra and Speednet are providing six dedicated videoconferencing rooms fully equipped with state-of-the-art Aethra vc solutions, including the set-top systems Vega X5 and Vega X3 and the next-generation videophone Maia XC.

These videoconferencing services are available during the event to the 60 heads of state and government and their delegations, the 1500 national and foreign accredited journalists following the proceedings, the event organization committee and the Peruvian Minister of External Relations.

The dedicated videoconferencing rooms will be utilized in partic

UK - Multiple London venue owner Billy Reilly, famous for his exploits with The Cross and Canvas in Kings Cross, has now diverted his attention to Pacha, the Ibizan club brand which he set up in London six years ago.

Midway through an £800,000 refurbishment, which will also see the creation of a roof terrace, he has commissioned Bernard Mani at Systems Etc to replace the old sound system with a new Martin Audio WT3 rig, processed via Martin Audio's new Engineer 418 DSP.

"Originally the club was specced with Martin Audio H3s but I wanted to achieve a more theatrical and accurate sound. I knew all the components of the WT3 so was confident in what a fully active system would sound like - and that is predominantly a much smoother midrange and greater warmth," says Mani.

The compact three-way trapezoidal system's mid-range and HF are generated by compound mid-hi

Switzerland - Gahrens & Battermanns provided over 73sq.m of Mitsubishi Electric IDT series LED screens at the prestigious Geneva Motor Show. One of Europe's leading display hire businesses, the company operates the largest fleet of Mitsubishi's high resolution IDT6 and IDT4 Black Package indoor screens in Europe - all of which were in action over the 10-day event on behalf of Chrysler, Honda, Lexus and Bentley.

Motor shows are notoriously demanding applications for big screen displays, and especially so for LED screens as colour fidelity, contrast and image quality must be maintained over wide viewing angles and close distances. Having already experienced the superior performance of the Mitsubishi screens at the Frankfurt Motor Show last year, Chrysler, Honda, Lexus and Bentley once again specified IDT4 4.00mm and IDT6 6.00mm Black Package screens for the main video features on

Argentina - The Buenos Aires Live Show (B.A.L.S.) deployed a large VerTec system for Rod Stewart's recent concert at Velez Sarsfield Stadium in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The show was part of Rod Stewart's current world tour supporting his latest release, 'Still The Same - Great Rock Classics of our Time'.

The 11 April concert at Velez Sarsfield Stadium drew a sell-out crowd of 40,000 people. To meet Stewart's concert rider specifications, B.A.L.S. used a total of 52 VerTec line array enclosures. The main left/right arrays featured 14 VT4889-1 full-size line array elements per side, with 12 VT4889-1 elements per side for out fill arrays. For additional low-frequency output, B.A.L.S. used both stacked and flown subwoofers - a total of 32 enclosures - to complement the full-range VerTec system. JBL's new VerTec V4 DSP presets were used.

JBL's new VT4889-1 full-size line array loud

UK - Artistic Licence has been celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, marking the time during which the company has evolved from its rock 'n' roll origins into a company focused on architectural lighting and installations, whilst simultaneously developing its international presence.

Talking to Robert Bell in 2004 for his book Let There Be Light, managing director Wayne Howell says: " I take the company name quite seriously. Lateral thinking is the most important part of a design . . . (in addition) you make it as future proof and reusable as you can."

By focusing on the two halves of the company - product development and project design & installation - Howell has developed a product range which can be taken both as total solutions or as components for incorporation into individual designs.

Feedback has always been of prime importance to Artistic Licence

UK - Powys-based installation company Sound Induction Systems has just completed the sale of Sennheiser Tourguide systems to two Welsh language translation companies, Menter Bro Dinefwr from Llandeilo and Trosol from Cardiff.

Menter Bro Dinefwr is part of Menter, a government-funded group promoting the Welsh language. The translation part of the organisation, Dewis, has four full-time translators providing live simultaneous translations for public meetings and conferences in Carmarthenshire. Dewis hands receivers to non-Welsh speakers at public meetings, ensuring that when someone asks or answers a question in Welsh, non-Welsh speakers can hear the translator translating the Welsh into English.

Sound Induction Systems provided Menter Bro Dinefwr seven sets of Sennheiser 2020D digital Tourguides. "They have seven boxes of headsets with transmitters," Philip Nicholes o

The Netherlands / Belgium - In an operation involving almost 200 staff in two countries and hundreds of tons of stock and equipment, the Ampco Flashlight Group has just completed a series of office and warehouse moves designed to relocate almost all its operations into three brand new, purpose designed facilities in Holland and Belgium.

Over the course of two months, three buildings have been completed, fitted out and equipped in Utrecht, Holland and Boom, Belgium to house all but two of the group's 14 separate companies including the head office of the parent company, Ampco Flashlight Holding.

The final piece of the jigsaw was put in place when lighting rental company Flashlight Rental moved into the massive 15,000 square metre (162,000 square foot) Rental and Technology building at Proostwetering 50, on a new industrial park outside the centre of Utrecht.

In the same build

UK - Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean's Dancing on Ice: The Live Tour is a nationwide tour following on from the successful series of Dancing on Ice which was broadcast on ITV1.Durham Marenghi designed the lighting for the tour using two grandMA full-size and four MA NSPs. The idea was to emulate the TV show on a grander scale whilst making everything visible and attractive to an arena audience.

The grandMA is the console of choice for programmer Tim Routledge who comments, "With both a video and lighting element, certain parts were programmed simultaneously using both consoles networked together. Even a last minute request to drive some monitor software over Art-Net was not a problem and easily integrated into the show."

The lighting rig includes 56 x Vari*Lite VL3500Q wash, 34 x Clay Paky Alpha Spot HPE 1200, 20 x Clay Paky Alpha Beam 300, 20 x Clay

USA - Bosch Communications Systems pro audio brands Electro-Voice and Dynacord co-sponsored the first annual Live Indie Rock Wars, held at Lake Las Vegas in April.

The event showcased the top 21 bands from this competition. These up-and-coming bands were all in the running for the $50,000 grand prize and two year management deal. The winners of the event, The Underground Rebels, also won a complete EV mic package.

Bosch Communications Systems pro audio rep Buck Tallman was on site to support the show: "This is what it's all about! A live, full-bore rock n roll war. We were there to provide hands-on support and meet the bands - we're committed to supporting new talent, and that fact was heard loud and clear over the course of the competition, with EV mics all across the stage and an array of EV, Dynacord, and Midas PA equipment (provided by FBP Group of Las Vegas) ensuring

UK Adlib supplied sound and lighting equipment and crew to the recent John Barrowman UK tour. FOH sound engineer Walter Jaquiss (whose current clients include the Sex Pistols) has worked with Adlib on many previous occasions. He worked closely with Adlib's systems engineers James Neale (FOH) and Ben Booker (monitors) on this tour.

Jaquiss chose L-Acoustics dvDOSC for the left and right arrays, 12 mid-high boxes a side, along with 4 dvSUBS and eight of the new L-Acoustics SB28 subs, all of which were ground stacked, and they used eight ARCS cabinets for in-fill.

"It sounded superb," says Jaquiss, "It was the perfect system for the largely cabaret style show."

They took two Soundcraft Vi6 consoles, used for both FOH and monitors. It was the first time Jaquiss had used a Vi6 on tour. "It's a good sounding desk," he comments, "It's designed to

Bahrain - Almost a year to the day after Creative Technology (CT) formally established its Dubai operation, the company has again played a major part in the Middle East's flagship Bahrain Formula 1 Grand Prix.

The event, in its fifth year; has taken place at the spectacular Sakira Circuit in the Gulf Kingdom of Bahrain has involved CT every year since the inaugural race in 2004. This year however saw the introduction of several new products from the CT inventory.

CT works alongside long-time partner Screen Visions, who are responsible for the overall project management, logistics and production of the circuits dedicated closed circuit TV channel 'Fan TV'. In previous years this required a fully equipped PPU (Portable Production Unit). This year CT streamlined the production with the introduction of the "Slate", a revolutionary PC-based production system which incorpo

In the increasingly digital environment we work in, interested parties are making big efforts to explain the potential benefits. The Roland Systems Group (RSG), for example, is to host a series of Open Afternoons to introduce the new M-400 Digital Mixer and the Digital Snake, the latest technologies from RSS by Roland. RSG is recruiting specialist support from allied companies to provide a fully rounded programme for "a day rich in hands-on opportunities".

The major lighting story of the week is Clay Paky's announcement that it has signed Production Resource Group, LLC (PRG) as the exclusive distributor of Clay Paky moving lights in the US, English-speaking Canada and Japan.

China continues to offer great business opportunities for specialist manufacturers and installers. In total, the multiple venues of Guangzhou University City utilised 124 Community R2, 124 R.5 systems,

Turkey - The CRR (Cemal Resit Rey) Concert Hall annually hosts a wide variety of live shows, concerts and events - including rock, pop, jazz and classical in addition to conferences, theatre and dance productions.

ELIT, L-Acoustics distributor in Turkey, supplied and installed a complete L-Acoustics FOH line source array in the 860 seats venue. The system consists of nine dV-DOSC and three dV-SUB cabinets per side, all driven and protected by six LA8 amplified controllers. In addition L-Acoustics self-powered coaxial enclosures 112P and 108P are being used as mobile systems for monitoring and fill applications to suit the various production requirements.

Cédric Montrézor, technical support engineer for L-Acoustics, comments: "I was very impressed by the professionalism of ELIT's crew and by the quality of integration in this project. Our combined engineering

UK - Academy Music Group (AMG) has agreed terms with Portmanor Projects to acquire the Dome on Bristol Street, Birmingham, for development as a live entertainment venue. AMG proposes a full £4m refurbishment programme of the 45,000sq.ft purpose-built 1970's nightclub, which has been closed for many years.

Birmingham has welcomed major regeneration in recent years, including the Bullring Shopping Centre and in 2006, Birmingham City Council granted planning consent to Martineau Galleries for a £600m Eastside Parks development, including the Priory Square Shopping Centre and Dale End, incorporating the existing location of Carling Academy Birmingham and surrounding area. The project team proposes a mixture of retail, leisure, office and residential spaces, with work anticipated to start in 2009. The Academy will continue to trade whilst development of the new venue take

Spain - The Carnaval de Vinarós in Valencia is one of the most famous Spanish fiestas. The whole town is given over to two weeks of highly colourful festivities including parades, concerts, and this year's highlight, a spectacular drag queen fashion extravaganza. Full service production company, E.J.R. Systems SL based in Benicarló was responsible for the complete system used throughout the carnival, with collaboration from two other production companies, Dodinuf and Yapadú Produccions.

Dodinuf and Yapadú Produccions, who were responsible for the audio element, opted for Lab.gruppen amplification throughout, in the form of 10 fP Series fP 6400s, eight fP 3400s and two FP 13000. Processing was courtesy of Dolby Lake with an EAW KF730 system on the front end.

Eduardo Soriano, Yapadú Produccions co-owner and sound technician specialist reports, "I honestly enjoy my job

UK - The Association of British Theatre Technician's ABTT Theatre Show is approaching its 30th anniversary event in London's Royal Horticultural Halls, 11-12 June 2008.Many new innovations on the lighting front will be showcased this year with an emphasis on energy efficiency in line with the Theatres Trust conference on sustainable theatres to be held on 10 June. Selecon will showcase its new 80V power supply with direct DMX control removes the need for any dimming products. When combined with the Philips 80V 100W energy saving lamp it delivers the appearance of 2kW of white light from the Pacific range or the Rama 175 high performance Fresnel.

ETC will also highlight products that offer low cost of ownership and sustainable solutions. Its highly efficient Source Fours will be on display. These fixtures are currently being deployed in Hackney's Arcola theatre being powered by a

Slovakia - Rock band Team has just completed a tour with Allen & Heath's iLive digital mixing system and an ML4000 VCA console. Headed by singer and guitarist, Pavol Habera, Team embarked on a 17-date Best of tour covering the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Allen & Heath's ML4000 VCA console was used as the FOH mixer, with the digital iLive system, comprising an iDR10 mix rack and iLive-144 control surface, managing monitor sound.

(Jim Evans)

USA / UK / Germany - At the beginning of March the film production of the Sony Foam City commercial took place in Miami. The foam effects were provided by well-known special effects rental company Back Stage Technologies from Wiltshire (UK). To carry out the job they expanded their special effects rental equipment by eight MBN F-630 foam generators, an MBN FC-500 foam cannon and an MBN F-300 foam generator. Also, a large quantity of MBN foam fluid was used.

Back Stage Technolgies copied the idea of a concert speaker system - i.e. the complete system was made up of many smaller systems that were bolted together. The foam machines were made in such a way that they became modular and, like the speaker systems, could be bolted together on location and suspended in arrays. In this way they could create a foam generating system that was both portable as well as giving them the

UK - The Roland Systems Group (RSG) is to host a series of Open Afternoons to introduce the new M-400 Digital Mixer and the Digital Snake, the latest technologies from RSS by Roland. RSG is recruiting specialist support from allied companies to provide a fully rounded programme for "a day rich in hands-on opportunities".

The V-Mixing System from RSS, comprising the M-400 48-channel digital console and 40-channel digital snake, will be offered up for test drives. Sister company Edirol will be presenting professional video technology and addressing topical issues such as audio-video integration.

Sound reinforcement system manufacturer RCF will be demonstrating its new line array and power amplifier designs. Sennheiser will offer a selection of wired and wireless microphones to be tried out in a real live environment, with real live musicians.

RSG's Open Afternoons wi

Norway - Norwegian projector manufacturer, projectiondesign will be exhibiting for the first time on stand B117 at ITEC 2008 and will present their comprehensive range of high resolution and specification projectors.

The ITEC exhibition is dedicated to defence training, simulation and education and takes place at the Stockholmsmässan in Stockholm, Sweden from 10 to 12 June 2008.

The projector range includes models at 1,920 x 1,200 (16:10), 1,920 x 1,080, (16:9) and 1,400 x 1,050 (4:3) resolutions, all of which are based on DLP technology. They are available in a variety of platforms and applications and come with multiple lenses and optics, advanced colour and black-level processing, interfaces and asset management properties. The projectors are designed, hand-built and made for each specific application in Norway and are ideal for the most critical and consistent operations

UK - Currently celebrating their 30th anniversary, North London-based John Henry's Ltd have constantly kept their equipment inventory at the cutting edge. Specialising in primetime TV productions and artist showcases, late last year JHL purchased their first Soundcraft Vi6 digital console to mark the new BBC series of Strictly Come Dancing.

The purchase was recommended by JHL's general manager (and head of audio) Robert Harding. It proved so successful that it's now incorporated it into the regular control and PA package on the new series of Later ... With Jools Holland (BBC 2) - which now incorporates a live-to-air show, broadcast on Tuesday evening, as well as the regular show that airs on Friday.

While Harding also project manages Later..., it is JHL's Aden Gregory who has started operating the Vi6 on the show. He comments: "We started doing this s

Dubai - Islamic architecture proved to be the inspiration and motivation for creative architectural lighting specialist Speirs & Major Associates. The international lighting design company garnered two awards at the Middle East Lighting Design Awards, which included the prize for 'Project of the Year', for their innovative lighting design for the Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan Mosque in Abu Dhabi.

The Mosque which accommodates more than 30,000 worshippers and is the sixth largest in the world also provided the perfect canvas for Speirs & Major to win the best interior lighting design for a 'Public Building'.

Speaking about the multi-award winning project, Jonathan Speirs, director at Speirs & Major Associates commented: "To win not just one but two awards for the same building is a testimony to the talent and dedication within our team as well as the quality of our lig

Dubai - Having experienced success at the PALME, Dubai exhibition earlier this month, Robert Juliat have decided to return to the region for the Light ME fair, also to be held at the Dubai International Exhibition Centre (25-27 May 2008).

"We attended PALME with the express intention of demonstrating the superb capabilities of Robert Juliat profiles for long-throw projection of images onto building exteriors," explains Robert Juliat sales director, Lionel Garraud. "The response amongst event and advertising companies from all over the Middle East was phenomenal. The full potential of this form of promotion and branding is now being realized and our clients are eager for us to help them fulfill their ideas."

At Light ME, Robert Juliat will be showing clients how to transform their own brand with clear, bright, eye-catching projections. Robert Juliat will be

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