UK - Innovason has appointed Red Square Audio as its exclusive distribution partner for the UK and Republic of Ireland. Red Square is headed up by industry veteran and live mix engineer Paul Nicholson.

According to Innovason sales and marketing director, Xavier Pion, the timing for such a venture couldn't have been better. "All the pieces just seemed to fit together," said. "After ten excellent years handling L-Acoustics in the UK, Paul was looking for new challenges; on our side, we had just launched Eclipse, and were looking for a proactive partner in the UK to handle sales and technical support. As a sound engineer himself and having managed high end pro audio sales in the UK for a well known and respected brand for the last decade, Paul's knowledge of the UK market and the people in it is comprehensive to say the least. He is an ideal partner for Innovason in

Israel - An In2Structures Maxi Dome made its debut in Israel as the VVIP Arena backstage at Paul McCartney's recent concert in Tel Aviv.

In2Structures is a South African based custom structures design and manufacturing company that is part of the Gearhouse SA Group. The 800sq.m capacity two-bay Dome at the McCartney show was supplied to Tel Aviv-based staging and rigging company Stage Design, provider of most of the overall event's technical infrastructure.

The Dome - launched by Gearhouse In2Structures as a fully flexible, aesthetically pleasing, structurally robust solution for all types of events - offered 12.5m of headroom and was located behind the main stage.

Its interior was fully fitted out and dressed by Market King complete with comfortable seating areas, a large central bar, a buffet area and a chilling one. A full lighting rig was hung on a circular truss above t

Italy - Veline, the TV show hosted by Ezio Greggio took on a summer tour through 12 Italian cities, shooting several episodes in each. The aspiring 'Veline' who won each episode made the final , held at the Mediaset studios in Cologno Monzese (Milano), with record viewing audiences.

The final lighting system was fully built with Clay Paky material: 50 Alpha Spot HPE 1200, Stage Color 1200 and Alpha Beam 300. Photography director Massimiliano Cavenaghi stated, "I mainly used effects and spot lights on the public and backlighting for the girls' performances. The nature of the show favoured close-ups on the 'Veline' so we had few wide angles. Consequently, stage lighting needed to be white and restricted."

The Alpha Beam 300s were placed along the edge of the runway that led from the stage to the public and underlined the switches between the various performances

UK - High Bentham on the western fringes of North Yorkshire has a new RGB LED-based colour changing cross. Designed, built and installed by Iain Henshaw of S1B.com, the cross is manufactured from 50mm diameter clear acrylic tubing and is 1.2m high.

The forward-facing element uses high-powered single-chip RGB sources to give full range colour changing, preferred over individual colour LED chips. The front of the cross is diffused using Lee 129 Heavy Frost filter to reduce the high intensity spots of the LED and give more uniform lighting.

The drop shadow uses an array of single white high-powered wide angle LEDs to create a permanent background improving contrast and lifting the cross from the stonework. Peak power consumption (with all LEDs at full brightness) is just 34W - less than that of a single T8 4ft fluorescent tube.

The cross generally sequences through a rainbow co

UK - Stage Electrics is supplying all lighting and video elements for the 50th anniversary UK tour of West Side Story. Stage Electrics is working with the Ambassador Theatre Group, producers of this new production, which started its run at the New Victoria Theatre, Woking, and will continue to play at venues across the UK for a year-long tour.

The tour marks 50 years after the show made its London debut and is a vibrant new production of the original classic, directed and choreographed by Joey McKneely.

Stage Electrics is supplying an ETC EOS console, complete with tracking back-up. An ETC ION console has also been employed to make the moving light focus easier. Moving lights have been specified in the form of 16 Martin Professional MAC 700 Profile Units, 16 MAC 2000 Wash Units, two MAC 2000 Performance units, 20 Stagebars and 50 scrollers.

The video set-up includes t

UK - The rising cost of energy has a serious impact and an increasing number of businesses continue to explore ways to reduce overheads. While CSR specialists continue to deliver carbon reduction targets, finance directors are demanding greater return on investment from energy-saving technology.

"As lighting constitutes 20% of western societies' energy bills, it's a huge concern," explains James Millar, Greenled's managing director. "It's also an obvious starting place to begin saving energy. It uses electricity, is easily addressed and cost correlations are highly visible."

The level of interest the company received at the Energy Solutions Expo, held at London Olympia in October, was evidence of a genuine interest in the benefits offered by Greenled's LED lighting, the company reports. Enquiries came not only from CSR/energy management and carbon reductio

USA - Loud Technologies has announced a reorganisation of its marketing, sales and engineering functions which will, the company says, "generate a net reduction of 90 full-time positions". The restructure is expected to be implemented by the end of 2008.

Under the new organisation, product strategy, development and marketing for the company's MI and Pro businesses will be managed by separate, dedicated product management teams, while marketing communications for all Loud brands will be consolidated and managed by a shared marketing support team.

The company's worldwide engineering resources will be scaled accordingly to support a more focused product development schedule. Loud says it will also move North American sales from its current captive sales force to a group of independent sales representation firms and consolidate portions of its international sales force.<

UK - O2 and Live Nation/AMG have announced a strategic alliance to launch O2 Academy venues across the UK, which are majority owned by Live Nation alongside fellow shareholders, leading UK concert promoters, Metropolis Music and SJM Concerts. The alliance will boost support for future music talent and enhance the music experience for fans visiting the venues as well as allow O2 to offer a number of benefits for its customers, says a statement issued this morning.

From 1 January 2009, the 11 AMG venues will be renamed O2 Academy. O2 customers will gain priority access to tickets to all gigs at the venues, as well as other Live Nation events across the country. In total, O2 customers will gain special access to as many as 4,000 Live Nation produced shows a year in the UK up to 48 hours before they go on general sale.

"Our customers tell us that they really value having pri

UK - The first Robe DigitalSpot 7000 DTs have been installed in the UK - into the new Leeds Academy live music venue, which also includes a substantial Anolis architectural lighting scheme.

Robe and Anolis were the preferred lighting brands chosen by LD Angus Chinn from Bristol-based Utopium for this project. Chinn worked closely with the AMG Group and their team to design and specify production lighting facilities for the venue.

Chinn comments: "We really put production values at the top of the agenda here, so I chose leading brands with proven track records for reliability. They offer a flexible, dynamic creative package to benefit all the events and shows that will be staged in Leeds Academy."

The two Robe DigitalSpot 7000 DTs "bring an exciting new live video element to the space with their onboard media servers and myriad of features" says Chinn. The

USA - Dan Erickson of General Communications was recently named NSCA University's Educator of the Year. Erickson received NSCA's top education award based on student feedback from his course, Networking Issues that Impact AV Integrators and Designers which he taught for the College of System Design during NSCA University at InfoComm 08.

Winners are determined based on evaluations completed by students participating in NSCA University courses. Instructors are evaluated on areas such as topic knowledge, engagement with students, and topic relevance. NSCA will recognise the 2008 recipients at the annual NSCA Member Meeting and Industry Forum as well as the President's Reception at InfoComm 09.

Additionally, individual Instructors of the Year were awarded for each college within the University. Recipients include: Karl Rosenberg, Extron Electronics, David Marsh, Pelton Mars

UK - In response to postings on Internet bulletin boards and "general disinformation" within the industry, PSLL, the new company formed by directors of Presentation Services Ltd (PSL), has issued a statement to the press.

The statement reads as follows:

"A new company has been formed by Gary Davis, Darren Glossop, Paddy Collier, Lauren Steadman and Divyang Mistry which saves the jobs of nearly 100 employees of PSL after adverse circumstances forced the Potters Bar-based event services operation into administration.

"Last month, PSL entered into a legal process called 'pre-pack administration', a routinely-used mechanism recommended by many insolvency practitioners to protect valuable parts of a business. It has strict compliance issues, formal valuations of assets and intellectual property, and requires personal guarantees from the directors. The process

USA - In a move that could prove a precursor to future decisions in the UK, the United States' Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has voted to allow technology companies like Google, Microsoft, Dell, and Motorola to produce 'white spaces' devices that will use the same radio frequency (RF) spectrum now being used by wireless microphone systems.

Final text of the rules is not yet available, but the order is purported to greatly reduce the amount of clear spectrum available for use by professional audio and communications equipment.

The Commission adopted certain important elements of Shure's recent wireless microphone interference protection plan. However, Shure is concerned that, despite technical evidence to the contrary, the Commission's action opens the door to a new breed of wireless gadgetry that relies on unproven technology as a safeguard against interference to wi

India - At the recent PALME India exhibition in Mumbai, Rivera International, the Mumbai-based pro audio distributor representing Lab.gruppen and Kling & Freitag among its portfolio of brands, marked the sale of eight Lab.gruppen PLM10000Q 'Powered Loudspeaker Management' amplifiers to audio rental company Sound.com, also based in Mumbai.

Rivera International's managing director Rajesh Sadarangani was joined on the stand at the show by Lab.gruppen's Thomas Mittelman and Warren D'Souza and Sunil Karanjikar of Sound.com.

(Lee Baldock)

France - Pope Benedict XVI recently made his first visit as pontiff to Paris, praying together with more than a quarter million followers on the lawns of the Esplanade des Invalides. Sound designer Fred Goguet created a mammoth audio system for the event, using Meyer Sound components provided by a coterie of French audio firms, including Dispatch, Ateliers Lumiere, Projectis and Audio-Technique.

Spread over an area nearly 500m wide, Goguet's design comprised a total of 96 Mica, 78 M'elodie and 20 Milo line array loudspeakers, along with a handful of UPA-1P and UPM-1P loudspeakers for fill.

"Considering the architectural perspectives of the scenery and the constraints of limited heights and no scaffolding, I created a distributed system of 22 main and ten secondary arrays," Goguet explains. "The coverage was seamless across the entire audience area, with excellen

Turkey - Around 20 participants from Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Turkey, and the Lebanon took part in the Telex RoIP Radio Dispatching Academy in Istanbul at the beginning of October. Conducted by Dan Bixby and Paul Mayer, the three-day workshops dealt primarily with Telex radio dispatch systems. In addition to a number of lectures outlining the latest technological developments from a theoretical perspective, the radio and VoIP experts attending the course were offered plenty of opportunity for practice-oriented, hands-on training.

"On the first day, we laid the theoretical foundations," reports Kamil Swobodzinski, sales director ACT&CCS for the regions Europe, the Middle East and Africa. "We built on this in the following days, through intensive lab sessions in small groups in which the participants were able to put what they had learned into practice."

The Tel

UK - As part of its ambitious plans for 2009, The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust will be opening a new exhibition and visitor centre at Shakespeare's Birthplace. Following a competitive pitch, the Trust has appointed UK creative design and AV specialist Sarner to redevelop the visitor centre and give the Bard a modern makeover.

The attraction, entitled Life, Love & Legacy: A New Introduction to William Shakespeare, is due to open in April 2009, and will see visitors journey through five zones in an immersive experience bringing the history of Shakespeare to life. Set within the grounds of the house where Shakespeare was born, the visitor centre is the centrepiece of the five houses that The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust opens to the public in and around Stratford.

Utilising its in house creative and AV departments, Sarner has designed a fully automated dark 'walk through'

USA - Bandit Lites recently assisted with the production of the 2008 Town Hall Presidential Debate held at Belmont University. The Nashville, TN private university was chosen as one of three locations to host the presidential debates this year.

The debate took place at the Curb Event Centre in front of 125 undecided voters chosen by the Gallup Organization. Tom Brokaw, of NBC News, moderated the debate between Republican Senator John McCain and recently appointed United States of America President-elect, Senator Barack Obama.

Lighting designer Chris Lisle was asked to create an architectural lighting design for Belmont University during the debate broadcast. The design consisted of lighting the three major focal points of the evening. "The east entrance of the Curb Event Centre was the most important area because this was not only the media entrance to the debate, but it

USA - Biamp Systems, the manufacturer of audio and conferencing solutions equipment, has said it will appeal a judgment against it in the US District Court of Central Utah in a lawsuit with ClearOne, a provider of audio conferencing systems.

In 2007, ClearOne named Biamp Systems as co-defendant in a suit claiming that it knowingly licensed an acoustic echo cancelling algorithm from a third party that ClearOne alleges was stolen from them. Biamp stopped using the software in question prior to the filing of the lawsuit, and has denied any knowledge or guilt in the case and maintains that the facts do not support the claims.

Company president Ralph Lockhart is adamant that Biamp Systems would never enter into a licensing agreement that would knowingly infringe on a trade secret or steal intellectual property from another entity.

"We were shocked when we were named in this

USA - Abundant Living Faith Centre (ALFC) is a nondenominational, multicultural church located in El Paso, Texas. With over 15,000 active members the ALFC offers a diverse mix of ministries and activities.

Following a major expansion and renovation project, the church now occupies a new 3,600-seat main auditorium - which features 36 PixelPar 90s centre stage, installed behind opaque panels creating a back-drop of colour washes.

ALFC's lighting director Jimmy Salas reports: "The PixelPars are great. We wanted easy and reliable colour-changing lights that wouldn't require a lot of power. I get the colours I want, when I want them - they're very bright and use hardly any power. I run 36 Par90s on two outlets."

The PixelPars add another dimension to the stage and integrate seamlessly alongside the generic and moving lights. All the lighting fixtures, both in number and

UAE - Mamemo Productions has taken delivery of the first Adamson system present in the UAE. Mamemo Productions which was awarded several distinctions during the 2008 Middle East Event Awards, is an events management company headed by Sam Katiela. Its portfolio includes a spectrum of projects including corporate, sports and private events, galas and exhibit solutions, as well as promotional video and film production.

The multi-city festivities for the announcement of the world's first Michael Schumacher World Champion Tower, which will be located in a spectacular setting in the Central Business District of Reem Island in Abu Dhabi, were hosted on 57ft Yachts parked at Marinas in both Dubai and Abu Dhabi. For the multimedia shows presenting the new tower and the performances by soul-diva Salhar & Band, Mamemo relied on Adamson.

Mamemo's mobile stereo system is made up of two Ada

USA - The new 700 seat home of Shelter Cove Church in Modesto, CA provides its parishioners with services that have an intimate and personal feel. But when the house audio started to compete with the monitor audio, Shelter Cove turned to Aviom's Pro16 Series of monitor mixing systems to bring balance to the church.

In the new space, the congregants are situated around the stage area. A key challenge for West Coast Sound and Light, who handled the audio, video and lighting for the sanctuary, was to ensure that the stage audio was loud enough for those in the audience to hear without drowning out the people singing or speaking on the stage during worship services. Compounding the issue was the short distance between the stage and the audience, making it difficult to keep the stage sound from overwhelming the audience, especially if those performing used speaker monitors.

"I

USA - An in-depth look behind the scenes of some the hottest venues in the city brought a crowd to Backstage Las Vegas, partially sponsored by Wybron, at LDI 2008.

Nearly 100 industry pros toured several theatres and a nightclub during the three-day event, which gave attendees the chance to quiz the technicians and designers who make the venues shine.

"It's a great opportunity to meet others in the industry and learn from its experts," said Ellen Lampert-Gréaux, head of Backstage Las Vegas and director of LDI. "They really get to see how different problems are solved in these different theatres,"

Backstage Las Vegas kicked off with a performance of Jersey Boys at The Palazzo followed by a question-and-answer session with production staff. Day two gave attendees a look inside theatres at Planet Hollywood, The Palms, and The Pala

UK - Avolites was the lighting control brand chosen by Angus Chinn from Bristol-based Utopium for installation into the UK's newest live music venue - The Academy in Leeds. Chinn worked closely with the AMG Group and their team to design and specify production and architectural lighting for the venue.

The production lighting rig is based around Avolites control and Robe moving lights, a combination that Chinn has used for several other live music venue installations. He comments: "We really wanted to put production values at the top of the agenda here, so I chose leading brands with proven track records for reliability. They offer a flexible, dynamic creative package to benefit all the events and shows that will be staged in Leeds Academy."

The 2000 capacity main room specification includes the first two Robe DigitalSpot 7000 DTs in the UK plus eight Robe ColorSpot 7

UK - The production of Alvaro's Balcony at London's Landor Theatre employs a grandMA light and a grandMA video media server for lighting control.

Associate lighting designer Jonny Milmer said: "There's never enough time to programme a show of this scale and having two desks connected with different users really helped. I was able to programme the show on the grandMA full-size as the cast rehearsed with Martin (Terry) playing back the show on the grandMA light to keep us in the correct lighting cue."

Technical manager Martin Terry continued: "It's nice to be able to focus on the cue points in the script and music and practise these during rehearsals without having to also worry about cue modifications that were done on a grandMA full-size console which was only used during rehearsals."

"Having such a flexible system meant that I could have my l

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