UK - Adlib Audio continues its busy spring, with their new V-DOSC system once again in action, this time on the recent Matchbox 20 UK arena tour, specified by industry veteran FOH engineer Jim Ebdon. It was the first time Adlib has worked with the band but had worked on Rob Thomas's last UK production tour.

Adlib supplied their most experienced V-DOSC systems engineers - Tony Szabo and James Neale, plus monitor guru Marc Peers who looked after everything onstage.

The spec comprised 12 V-DOSC elements and 3 dV-DOSC under-hangs per side for the main arrays with four V-DOSC left and right for the side- hangs, complete with six dV under-hangs per side. Ground-stacked were 16 of the new V-DOSC SB28 Subs, eight per side.

For in-fills they used two L-Acoustics ARCS cabinets per side, and four dV-DOSC fills were positioned along the front lip of the stage.

The whole system was run

USA - Bandit Lites is touring with Carlos Santana on his current Live Your Light world tour.

Featured equipment includes Vari*Lite 3500 Washes, 3000 Spots, Coemar Infinity Washes, Martin Atomic 3000 Strobes, MAC 600s, American DJ LED Pars, and Lycian M2 Spots. Lighting was controlled by two grandMAs.

The tour's lighting director, Lee Gipson programmed the US. leg of the tour at Bandit's Nashville facility with Bandit programmer, Trevor Ahlstrand. Additional Bandit crew includes crew chief, Chuck Hastings and lighting technicians, Paul Holst and David Hauss.

Santana is currently playing shows in Europe. He will continue touring throughout Canada and the western United States before closing out the world tour in mid-October.(Jim Evans)

UK - LD Paddy Sollitt is using Robe moving lights for the UK section of the Pigeon Detectives world tour. The energetic Leeds indie rockers have just released their new album Emergency.

For this tour, Sollitt's design is based on multiple layers of lighting, the idea being that he has an infinite variety of beam patterns and effects at his fingertips to deal with the sharp, punky, flashy nature of much of the set. It's a heavily back-lit show, with a 'wall of death' upstage. This style of lighting is very much suited to the band's frenetic set which has no dull moments, with lead singer Matt Bowman engaging in some spectacular acrobatics particularly on top of the monitors.

This tour is also a big step up for Pigeon Detectives in terms of it being their first with a proper full production, kicking off in style with two gigs at Millennium Square in their hometown of Leed

USA - Chicago's Spybar re-opens this month following an extensive refurbishment. After bringing in new partners and recruiting a new management team, the group worked alongside design firm Simeone Deary to "conceive a fresh, sophisticated approach to cast Spybar as the premier nightlife destination in Chicago".

The 4,200 sq. ft. space features lush banquettes and can service up to 300 guests. Spybar will continue to usher in renowned DJ's. In collaboration with establishing the club as a premier nightlife experience in Chicago, Spybar has installed the Dynacord Alpha-Concept sound system. The system is one of only eight of its kind in the United States and the only model present in the Midwest.

(Jim Evans)

Belgium - Barco has partnered with IBM Global Financing (IGF) to develop a new lease offering to help rental and staging companies more easily acquire Barco projector technology.

The new CLM Lease Offering, backed by IBM Global Financing, gives companies the opportunity to access Barco's CLM line of projectors, designed and built specifically for the demanding rental and staging market.

"For years, large concert promoters and event planners have relied on the Barco name to bring high-tech visualization and lighting technology to the stage," said Paul Foulkes, vice-president, vendor financing, IGF. "Thanks to the CLM leasing programme, smaller rental partners will also get the chance to acquire Barco's state-of-the-art CLM projection technology. We are delighted to incorporate a financing programme with Barco to support those companies grow their business."<

Serbia - Eurovision lighting designer Per Sundin once again controlled the TV spectacular with a sophisticated grandMA system. Four grandMA full-size at the FOH were joined by an equal number of consoles as backup. 23 MA NSPs (Network Signal Processors) spread the commands to a massive lighting rig.

The show used, besides many others, 136 Clay Paky Alpha Spot HPE, 24 BigLites, numerous Martin moving lights, approximately 120sq.m of Barco OLite 510, 24sq.m of Barco SLite 10 and a number of Martin LED screens. A giant stage construction was built on the arena floor which was 25m wide and 27m deep. 72 tons of light equipment were mounted to nearly 2,500m of truss.

Procon Event Engineering Germany, was the general technical supplier and provided lighting, sound, video, stage building, rigging and power. Production designer was Goran Joksimovic. Sven Stojanovic worked as art direct

France - Large format projection specialists E/T/C Paris will supply video expertise to create 200m wide seamless video images on the 18th century Place de la Bourse as the highlight of the 10th Bordeaux Wine Festival.

E/T/C will utilise its multimedia production and display control platform, OnlyView, with four Christie Roadie 25K and three Christie Roadster S+20 projectors to achieve spectacular results.

Covering an area of approximately 4000sq.m, the high definition video will be in excess of 12 million pixels, a resolution six times greater than that of professional HD digital video.

The show, entitled Hommages, is a collaboration between E/T/C, video designers and producers Cosmo AV and audio experts Les Ateliers Lumière. The imagery for Hommages will be produced by Jacques Nougaret, Pierre-Yves Toulot and José Christiani from Cosmo AV.

(Jim Evan

UK - Being a major venue for many different events, the London O2 Arena was legally obliged to provide audio assistance for visitors that are hard of hearing. For that the owners of the O2 turned to Vivid Acoustics, who in turn recommended Sennheiser products for the job in hand.

Traditionally, these needs would have been met by an Audio Frequency Induction Loop or an Infra Red Transmission system. However, due to the huge size of the O2 Arena and certain other factors, a special radio-based solution was implemented. The O2 Arena took delivery of 200 customised EK 1038 body pack receivers, 200 EZT 1011 neck induction loops, 50 GP 03 earphones, 100 L 2015 chargers with one SR 300 IEM G2 rack-mountable transmitter, one A 5000CP antenna and one custom built linear UHF amplifier, built by Sennheiser's chief engineer Andy Lillywhite to increase the power of the transmitter to cover t

UK - The radical remodelling of a Council-owned Hertfordshire swimming pool between 1989-1991 resulted in a new type of building geometry, topped off with a giant hyperbolic roof which at that time was the largest of its type in the world.

During the first quarter of 2006, The Finesse Leisure Partnership, who manage the Hatfield Swim Centre for Welwyn Hatfield Council, completed a £750,000 council-funded refurbishment of the technical infrastructure for the local authority.

At that time the facility's system integrators Clarity in Sound, Light and Vision introduced Finesse to the idea of LED lighting to enhance the discharge lighting in the high-humidity environment.18 months ago the integrators specified and fitted 12 of Pulsar's ChromaFlood 200 fixtures (each containing a combination of 66 Red, Green and Blue LEDs).

Finesse's health & fitness manager, Amanda Morris,

UK - Servicing a client located on the other side of the Atlantic can be a challenge for an event services company, but London-based PSL has forged a successful working partnership with American production company A Caspian Production.

Under the direction of A Caspian, PSL delivered the full staging solution for this year's 2008 Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship, an annual forum and Awards ceremony to mark the distribution of more than $30 million of grants by the Skoll Foundation, the largest foundation for social entrepreneurship in the world.

For a two-night programme culminating in the Awards, A Caspian Production booked one of Oxford's architectural gems, the famous Sheldonian Theatre. More than 700 people attended the ceremony, which boasted former US President Jimmy Carter as one of its speakers, as well as Jeff Skoll, first president of Ebay and founder of t

UK - Current Thinking, based in Sunderland, has supplied the massive network of integrated fire telephones and disabled refuge points installed throughout the Wimbledon Lawn tennis complex during the multi-million redevelopment of the world's most famous tennis centre.

The system, called VoCALL is a fully distributed Emergency Voice Communication System (EVCS), complying fully with BS5839-Part9:2003 and combines both fire telephones and disabled refuge points. It covers all buildings including offices, media centre, main court complexes and museum across the South London site.

Chris White of installation company Comlite said: "I hadn't worked with Current Thinking or the VoCALL system before this project, and though the learning curve was steep I have found the company easy to work with and was and was impressed by the attentiveness of its staff, technical support, system

UK - On 1 June, during excavation work in preparation for the 2012 Olympics, an unexploded WW II bomb was found in a river less than 50 yards away from the Three Mills Studios in Bromley by Bow. The 1,000kg bomb was the largest discovered in the past three decades. Bomb disposal experts from Royal Engineers went to work on making the device safe, and on Friday 6 June at around 6.00p.m. a controlled (yet bigger than planned) explosion was finally carried out.

Working under instructions from the Army, Police officers evacuated the area, whilst a 200m cordon was put in place, forming an exclusion zone around the bomb. This effectively resulted in the immediate closure of the entire Film Studios, affecting all current productions in 15 stages totalling 114,000sq.ft and resident on-site businesses plus 200 production offices.

One of the oldest tenants in 3 Mills Studios, Rigging Se

USA - Rational Acoustics LLC has announced its official debut into the professional audio industry. The company, based in Putnam, Connecticut, has been founded by industry veterans Jamie Anderson, Karen Anderson, Calvert Dayton, and Adam Black, and will focus on providing a range of training classes and product sales within the specialized field of acoustic test and measurement and system alignment. The company is also developing a variety of new system alignment software and hardware products.

"The art and practice of system alignment is as varied and expanding as the people, equipment and applications that encompass the field," says Jamie Anderson, company CEO and resident Educator Guy. "Anyone that understands their tools can create new and effective ways to use them, and our goal is to help that process along for the benefit of the measurement community as a w

On the eve of what is predicted to be a buoyant and well-attended ABTT Show in London, we have to report that console manufacturer Cadac Electronics has gone into administration. Managing director Bob Thomas said: "It is heartbreaking to see this great company go under at this stage. Although additional bank finance had been put in place to complete the S-Digital development and to get its production under way, the sudden slump in forecast analogue sales over the next few months meant that Cadac would be unable to maintain the underlying cashflow necessary for its survival." Sad news indeed.

The announcement that L-Acoustics has signed an Icelandic distributor, Nyherji, is further evidence that this North Atlantic outpost has established itself as a leading player on the international live sound circuit. Many international tours now include Reykjavik in their itineraries, whi

UK - After 40 years of operation, the directors of Cadac Electronics plc have announced that the company is to be placed into administration following a sudden and unexpected fall-off in anticipated sales of the company's analogue products in the coming months. Anthony Kent of Maidment Judd, Harpenden, has been appointed as administrator.

Having recovered from its financial difficulties of the last three years, Cadac was close to putting its new digital console into production to fulfil an anticipated order book of approximately £2m. The directors are hopeful that buyers can be found for Cadac, as not only is the S-Digital console approaching production, but also the sales, service, refurbishment and new production of Cadac's analogue desks (F-type, J-type, R-type and S-type) is an ongoing business.

Managing director Bob Thomas said: "It is heartbreaking to see this

France - L-Acoustics has confirmed the appointment of Nyherji as its new distributor for Iceland. Nyherji is a leading IT corporation that provides a full set of audio video and system integration and related services in Iceland.

On the fixed installation side, Hrannar B Kristjanssson will focus on installing L-Acoustics systems to venues, club and sports halls.

On the rental side, Gunnar Moller, Nyherji rental manager is very enthusiastic about the dynamism of the rental market and foresees the future as "very promising".

(Jim Evans)

Brazil - An Adamson SpekTrix system was recently installed in the Espaço Brazil Telecom Theatre, located in Brasilia.. The newly opened theatre, which is in the Brasilia Alvorada Hotel, promises a continuous line-up of performances including music, theatre, literary workshops, and lectures.

Marc Systems was contracted for the lighting and sound design, which on the sound side included four SpekTrix enclosures, two SpekTrix W, and two SpekTrix subs. The small 350 seat Brazil Telecom theatre's concert hall called for a system that would smoothly cover the wide room, without overpowering its intimate quality.

"The theatre will showcase performances by famous artists, but will also include performances by new regional talent," said Ricardo Knoepfelmacher, president of Brazil Telecom. "We want to guarantee diversity, and allow all people to have access to art and cu

Canada - Celine Dion is back on the road with her Taking Chances production tour, and is the first major artist to carry two Studer Vista 5SR digital audio consoles to handle front-of-house and monitor mixing.

Dion's world tour kicked off in South Africa on Valentine's Day 2008 and is due to run until the end of January 2009. Audio for the tour is being supplied by Canadian PA company Solotech, which has had a long relationship with Celine Dion; in fact, most of the tour's key personnel have worked with Dion for nearly 20 years, including tour manager Denis Savage, front-of-house engineer Frankie Desjardins and monitor engineer Charles Ethier.

Frankie Desjardins took over front-of-house duties last year, replacing Denis Savage who has stepped up to become tour/production manager. Together with Charles Ethier, they began the search for the tour's control systems while Ce

UK - The National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh has recently opened a permanent exhibition of letters and historical items from one of the most important literary archives, the John Murray Archive.

Lighting designer Nich Smith was brought in to design a lighting scheme which would form both an exciting interactive experience for the visitor whilst fulfilling the conservation requirements demanded by the sensitive exhibits.

The result was a series of 'Character Showcases', each of which contain significant props and archive materials pertinent to the individual author. The showcases are left intentionally dim until activated by a visitor using interactive touch screens to fade lights up on the appropriate object. This has the dual effect of restricting light exposure of the manuscripts, and engaging the visitor with the case contents.

The showcase lighting is a mixture of

UK - Broadcast sound specialists Red TX was in Edinburgh last weekend to capture the audio from the first Vodafone TBA gig of 2008.

Introduced last year, the Vodafone TBA gigs started out as small, secret venue gigs in front of an invited audience and with just one artist on stage. However this year the format has been expanded and Vodafone TBA is now taking the form of multi-artist mini festivals, the first of which took place on Sunday in Edinburgh's Princes Street Gardens. This was broadcast on Channel 4 with just a half hour delay.

Three bands took part in the gig - the Sugababes, the Feeling and 'odd-pop' trio, the Hoosiers. They performed live on the Ross Stage in front of an invited audience and also gave exclusive back-stage interviews to presenter and XFM DJ Dave Berry, which were subsequently broadcast as part of Channel 4's coverage.

Red TX was commissioned to han

USA - Described as having a "retro-chic French touch," with a "calculated racy edge," Josephine's is Washington DC's newest and most exclusive hot spot in a city reputed for its burgeoning nightlife. The club opened to rave reviews in April 2008 complete with a Lab.gruppen-driven EAW sound system designed and installed by the BAHA Design Group.

BAHA Design's Alex Haje explained that the design process for Josephine faced a number of challenges: "The main issue was overcoming the limitations imposed by the height restrictions and the many structural supporting columns and beams in the space. My partner, Mood Bacho, was integral to the project's success with his background in installation, construction, and nightlife venues. He brings years of experience to the table working at clubs and lounges; which contributes greatly during the design and installatio

Ireland - Performed at the Glór Theatre, Ennis in February, before going on tour later this year, Out of Time explores Dunne's private world as a dancer rooted in the Irish step dance tradition, looking to the past for simple beginnings as he examines his relationship with a tradition that has shaped his life.

Dunne wanted find a way to present traditional Irish dance within a contemporary piece and an introduction to Sean Westgate of media server specialist Green Hippo by director Sinead Rushe, was the beginning of an evolutionary creative process which was to do just that.

"It is nearly a year ago since we all first met in London," recalls Dunne, "me not really knowing anything about film technology at this end - and Sean not knowing anything about bloody Irish dance at his end! We were not sure what the Hippotizer was really about and were a bit intim

Germany - Almost 2,000 people participated in the Dynacord prize draw competition at this year's ProLight+Sound trade show in Frankfurt. The winner has been confirmed as Maria Weinfurtner of Ludwigshafen.

The central attractions of the prize draw competition was the ultra-compact Dynacord D-Lite 1000 system and a Streamliner BSC-090 bicycle. Around 2,000 visitors vied for the stretch-bike with the longest single-seater frame in the world; exactly 587 of them correctly answered the questions posed regarding the technical details of the new D-Lite1000 system.

Custom-modified, the bike winged its way to Frau Weinfurtner just in time for the summer season.

(Jim Evans)

Russia - Aero line array are the systems of choice for a number of large venue sports projects in Moscow, including the CSKA stadium, Central Sports Army Club Moscow which is noted internationally for its major league football, basketball and hockey teams.

This centre celebrates sports events with wide media coverage. Bossman, D.A.S. distributor for Russia, was responsible for this project and chose D.A.S. Audio's Aero 38A.powered line array systems. 16 of these units were installed as a central cluster and eight Aero 218 subs as bass reinforcement.

Bossman installed 16 powered Aero 38A systems, divided into three zones. In the first and second zones they installed two clusters with three Aero 38A units each. A third zone includes a cluster of four powered Aero 38A modules. This configuration and the precise aiming provided by the rigging system offers a uniform coverage throu

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