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14 March 2016

"We could run around anywhere in the arena," Barry Graul says. "To be able to keep the crowd behind us entertained and included in the show...I mean I just couldn't have done it on a wire. I'd have needed a 50ft cable. And on the technical side, we can retain our guitar tone with these Shure wireless units."

With touring plans laid out before them until June 2009, MercyMe will stay on the road playing in churches, auditoriums, performing arts centres, and even on a Royal Caribbean cruise ship sailing out of Port Cape Canaveral, Florida.

(Jim Evans)

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14 March 2016

"This was a team effort," says Craig Hylton of Performance Audio. "We worked closely with Monte Wise, Dave Larsen, George Georgallis, and Robert Deyarmond of EV every step of the way to really raise the bar for stadium sound with this install."

Comprising 52 XLC 127DVX loudspeakers deployed in four arrays, the new system provides seamless coverage to the arena's upper and lower bowls. FRX+640 loudspeakers were installed beneath the scoreboard for full-court coverage. The system is powered by 29 P3000RL remote-controlled amplifiers and controlled and supervi

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14 March 2016

Nils Nilsen, managing director of NC Electronics, was recently at HK Audio headquarters where he attended a training seminar. Afterwards he made the decision to acquire a Cohedra 2x8 system, which has already been expanded into a 2x10 system consisting of 20 CDR 208 mid/high units and 20 subwoofers. Nils Nilsen went for the flyable version of the subwoofers, the CDR 210 F, and remains impressed with their performance.

"When we checked out the system during the training sessions at HK Audio headquarters in St.Wendel, we simply could not believe that such compact cabinets could pro

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14 March 2016

"I've been DJing on Allen & Heath mixers since my first days as a resident DJ at Fabric and now the Xone:92 is an integral part of the Unkle Live eight-piece band show," comments Lavelle.

The tour follows the release of Unkle's new studio album War Stories, and included dates in the UK, Norway, Belgium, Holland, Slovakia, Poland, and Ireland, performing at all the major summer festivals, before embarking on an autumn tour of North and South America.

(Jim Evans)

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14 March 2016

Only six or eight places are available for each course, with a maximum of two people per desk, so each student will get plenty of hands on use. All the courses are free and include lunch.

Introduction to Ion and Introduction to Eos courses being held in mid January, February and March both teach the basics and nuances of these control systems. Students will learn to programme conventional and moving lights, work with palletised data, groups and submasters, and learn to create cues and use effects.

If you are about to become a Congo or Congo jr user, you can learn to use those desks in a hands-on, user-friendly environment with a two day introductory course at the end of No

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14 March 2016

David Marshall, managing director at Sound Technology Ltd commented: "Samson and Hartke have been fantastic brands for us and we are very grateful for the opportunity Samson have given us over the years. However our purchase of Harman Pro UK earlier this year necessitated a review of existing brands to ensure that there is no possibility of conflict. Although we are sorry to be letting these brands go, we wish Korg UK every success in the future."

Peter Jostins, vice-president of International Sales for Samson sa

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14 March 2016

Sennheiser's involvement goes beyond financial backing. As a permanent exhibition documenting the very best of British music, the creators of the British Music Experience needed quality audio equipment that sounded superb and is extremely resilient. This is why 225 Sennheiser headphones, the HD 215, have been used throughout the entire exhibition, says the company.

Sennheiser's microphone technology has also been used at the exhibition that will cover 2,500sq.m in The O2 bubble, The O2's exhibition space. Visitors will have the opportunity to experience the professional recording environment at first hand; singing along to a classic British hit through a Sennheiser evolution e 935 microphone in the Sennheiser Vo

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14 March 2016

The new Tour Grade trunks each house one 50-inch screen display, and include separate compartments for detachable speakers plus an integral space to incorporate a fitted mounting bracket.

5 Star's MD Keith Sykes says: "We enjoy working with companies like Production Plus who follow the same basic ethos and principals of excellence that we do. Consequently there are many parallels between the way we run our respective businesses, and we all strive to complete projects to the highest standards."

(Jim Evans)

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14 March 2016

"We tend to do many things our own way," says Juan Pablo Banchik, sound director of Latin American Idol. "From a production standpoint, standardised methods that apply to Idol shows in other countries don't often work down here."

Banchik works for FremantleMedia, the UK-based production company behind the Idol franchise worldwide. "Fremantle has a series of 'technical bibles' that explain how every aspect of the show should be produced," he says. "I

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14 March 2016

Trevor Gilligan has been Front of House engineer for the band since the beginning of the year. Since then he's weaned the band, all of who provide lead vocals or harmonies, off their previous mics and onto Sennheiser e 935s.

"The old mics sounded fine," explains Gilligan, "but I can get more level out of the 935s. I can get a much more placed in vocal sound with the 935, and I like the background noise I get from it. The stuff it does drag in sounds a lot nicer than what you get from some other mics. If you're working on a loud gig and it's hot and sweaty, and everyone's talking, the 935s cut through that really well. In a live situation, that's the way I like it."

Gilligan also impressed the rest of the engineering c

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14 March 2016

Lighting director Dave Davidian put together a rig that includes 20 Elation Impression LED moving heads and 180 American DJ 64B LED Pro par cans. According to Davidian, Browne himself was "pivotal" in the decision to switch to LEDs.

"Jackson was very pro-active in looking for LEDs, because he's a very green-oriented person," said Davidian, who has worked for Browne since 1990. "He felt this would be a way to save power and do the right thing as far as his beliefs were concerned. For myself, I was curious about LEDs too."

Davidian selected products from Elation and its sister company American DJ on the basis of recommendation from his supplier,

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14 March 2016

The band's mission involved transforming an old swimming pool into an acoustically balanced rehearsal facility. The greatest sonic anomaly involved early reflections off the plaster walls surrounding the pool, which is kidney shaped with curved walls, making it difficult to predict the angle of reflections. Sound was reflected in every direction with little attenuation due to the hard wall surfaces. Intelligibility of sound sources was almost completely lost, which resulted in hearing/ear fatigue.

"I've us

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14 March 2016

Avix Tech made contact with VMB in PLASA 2008 and recently displayed and demoed the product at last month's KOSOUND.

Avix Tech president Chang, Joo Hong said: "I am very pleased to have been able to introduce the VMB speakers to the Korean market through KOSOUND. It was a very successful launch for us in Korea."

VMB's export manager, Ben Sinclair commented: "We are really pleased that Avix Tech is going to take over the distribution for Korea. It has all been very sudden. We made initial contact at PLASA and within six weeks we received them here in Spain for meetings, signed the contract and were over in Korea demonstrating the product at K

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14 March 2016

The venue, a former restaurant converted to nightclub use, lies in British Columbia's sparsely populated north and features the biggest dance room in a 350 km radius.

Spaced evenly around the perimeter of a 21' x 21' truss suspended 16ft above the club's dance floor are Martin smartMACs, Mania SCX600 scanners and Mania EFX700 and Mania EFX800 effect lights. Surrounding a cluster of 17 mirror balls at the centre of the truss are Atomic strobes and Mania EFX500 effect lights.

Dispersed around the club's ancillary areas and providing a splash of wall décor are M

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14 March 2016

Lighting designer Paul Normandale was tasked with devising a new means of integrating the visual components for the current Viva la Vida tour.

"For my part the band's desire for a viewing surface without the use of LEDs, was an interesting challenge, and one for which the Pufferfish system of internal projection provided a unique solution," states Normandale. "It allows not only media content, but also live relay footage (via the Hippotizers) in large scale arenas worldwide."

In all, six PufferSpheres were commissioned for the tour, forming a major part of the overall visual design as well as

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14 March 2016

The Palladium, built at a cost of AED120 million (US$32.6 million), will be the first venue of its kind in the Middle East and North Africa, edicated to cater for a wide array of events.

Raymond Gaspar of ICE - International Communications and Entertainment, awarded the prestigious contract to TAO Group to consult on the technical fit out of the venue, stewarding and medical appointments, traffic and pedestrian planning, occupational safety and to prepare technical specifications to ease the attendance of touring production.

General manager of The Palladium, Raymond Gaspar said, "This venue can be set-up in a variety of creative ways to suit any event theme and size. We will provide all the elements to facilitate the work of promoters and event org

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14 March 2016

The producers are looking for a writer, director, costume designer and production designer to join the team. No experience is necessary as the Skins creators will be mentoring the winners and providing support. Not only that - they get to join the set of series 3 for paid work experience. The mini episode will be screened online in 2009.

Entrants need to be between 18 and 23 years old and the closing date for all four competitions is Tuesday December 9th at 6pm.Directors: Skins are giving one budding director the opportunity to ge

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14 March 2016

The concert - Wenn Nicht Jetzt Wann Dann (If Not Now Then When) - which featured special guests Guildo Horn, DJ Ötzi and the Kölner Symphonie, was televised by German broadcaster WDR and recorded for a live CD. While popular across Germany, the band are enormous in their hometown of Cologne and sing in the local dialect of that region.

Cologne-based PA rental company Event-Solution put together a large and complex L-Acoustics system to cover the stalls and lower balcony of the arena.

Event-Solution's Jochen Gotzen used 12 V-DOSC line source cabinets per side as the main PA system, with a total of 20 dV-DOSC compact line source speakers: three per side as down-fills and seven per side as out-fills.

T

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14 March 2016

Brighton's Evening Argus newspaper reported yesterday that "at least a dozen businesses involved in the Beachdown Festival have complained they have either not been paid or their cheques had bounced since the event in August".

Many of the businesses involved are angry that tickets for Beachdown 2009 went on sale last month despite the unpaid bills. However, the organisers have said they will be able to pay people once they receive an expected tax rebate.

Winner Plant in Worthing provided fork-lift trucks to

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14 March 2016

Collaborating on the design of the new Centre were the Beijing Institute of Architectural Design and the American firm of Heitz-Parsons-Sadek, which specialises in high-end hospitality interior design. The installation of the sophisticated AV and communications systems was completed by China Construction Third Engineering Division. Corp.

China Construction has a long-established working relationship with TICO, the Chinese distributor

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14 March 2016

PA Plus utilised 80 Crown I-Tech amplifiers to power the large format JBL VerTec line array. "In order to maintain both group and independent control over all the arrays, we chose to use the Crown I-Tech amplifiers along with HiQnet System Architect software to provide all the required processing," stated Mark Radu, systems engineer of PA Plus.

"We tuned the basic 30,000 seat system within System Architect and stored it as a preset. As we added array sections to attain coverage up to the full 55,000-seat capacity, the system was re-tuned and saved as a preset. The Crown I-Tech amplifiers and System Architect gave us all

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14 March 2016

All lighting was supplied by High Wycombe-based Siyan for the third consecutive year. Lighting director Bryan Leitch utilised 16 i-Pix BB7 LED wash lights and 20 BB4s. Leitch came up with an original design concept that was developed by himself and Nick Whitehouse who produced all the technical drawings and programmed the show together with Leitch.

The design was shaped to fit the natural architecture of the building, accentuating the curves and spheres of the quirky Victorian former train-turning shed. The creative goal was to provide a dynamic multi-layered visual backdrop for the myriad of artists appearing over five all-action days of performance, including headline slots by Oasis, Burt B

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14 March 2016

The Academy in Oxford, which was opened just 15 months ago, recently asked Adlib Audio to install a new front-of-house PA in its main venue, capacity 1,020. The club required a brand-name system that would support its endeavours to attract a strong calibre of international touring artists to the city.

Roger Kirby, Adlib Audio's sales manager, describes the unusual room acoustics of the Academy's main room. "It has a very low ceiling, and is a long, asymmetrical shape, which makes it quite a tricky proposition acoustically. After our experience with Nexo's D10 cabinets at the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall and in the Academy in Sheffield, we felt that the v

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14 March 2016

New additions to the site (www.stage-electrics.co.uk) include case studies detailing the range of completed Stage Electrics projects from educational installations to West End shows. There is a new look web shop with over 4,500 items available.

(Jim Evans)