Russia - Rental company Live Sound Agency is enjoying an extremely busy autumn/winter season following its recent investment in 32 Lab.gruppen Powered Loudspeaker Management (PLM) systems earlier in the year. The PLM devices, which are used to power their L'Acoustics V-DOSC rig, were supplied by Lab.gruppen's Moscow-based Russian distributor, I.S.P.A.

Live Sound Agency's Yuriy Sokolov reports: "The combination of one of the world's greatest system processors, Dolby Lake, with the tried and tested amplifier technology from Lab.gruppen in one single device is a stroke of genius. There is no discomfort for the user in that everything is already familiar to him and there is a good preset library to work from initially. After that, it's easy to customise if necessary. The result is that you are efficient straight away because your time is spent tuning the system, and not having

UK - An issue that has cost electronics manufacturers worldwide a great deal of time, effort and money is the Restriction of Hazardous Substances directive, which restricts the use of many materials, most noticeably leaded solder and cadmium plating on connector shells.

UK-based Bryant Broadcast has now introduced a fully RoHS compliant version of the MIL-C 26482, 26 and 41-pin connectors, which are historically the connector of choice for the outside broadcast industry in the UK and are used in conjunction with 8- and 12-way 'Star-Quad' cables in audio multicore systems.

These new connectors have zinc cobalt black plating finish and heavy duty arctic grade ribbed coupling rings. Both the standard convention of cable-end male connector with locking ring to panel female receptacle with bayonet posts; and cable-end receptacle to mating panel mount plug are available. Both male a

France - Projection specialists E/T/C won first prize for 'Innovation contributing to the Events Industry' at the 2008 Heavent Expo Awards held at the Hippodrome de Longchamp in Paris last week. The Award was created four years ago by the exhibition organisers and the ANAé (Association des Agences de Communication Evénementielle) to pay tribute to and encourage the technical "savoir-faire" of companies or individuals in the event field.

E/T/C was rewarded for its technical contribution to The Image Mill, the spectacular show created and produced by Robert Lepage and Ex Machina for Quebec City's 400th anniversary. The ground-breaking show saw the installation of 27 Christie 20K video projectors, which were programmed and controlled by E/T/C's multimedia platform, Onlyview. A monumental image 657m long was beamed onto the Bunge grain silos running al

UK - Brilliant Stages has designed and manufactured the infrastructure for the spectacular focal point of AC~DC's Black Ice Tour 2008, the Rock 'n' Roll Train. Conceived by Fisher Studio's Jeremy Lloyd and Mark Fisher, the centrepiece is inspired by the first track of AC~DC's new album and requires a 'life size' steam locomotive which appears to have crashed onto stage.

The locomotive needs to be hidden upstage at the top of the show before, self-supported and powered by crew alone, moving 4.5m downstage to slew round into its final position between two video walls and over the walkway.

Various effects needed to be incorporated into the design, including lighting, pyrotechnics, smoke, C02, headlights, a brass bell and deployable, light-up devil horns, not to mention concealing - and then supporting - a huge inflatable known as Rosie.

The complete centrep

Slovakia - Over 100 Robe moving lights were used to light Cat Girls, a new Slovakian TV project launched "to find the sexiest girl in the country".

Lighting for the show, staged in the Expo Arena in Bratislava in front of an enthusiastic live audience and broadcast live on Slovakia's Markiza network, was designed by Martin Kubánka, who was brought onboard by production company MAYA. All lighting and sound equipment for the event was supplied by Q-99, and it was one of the biggest TV productions yet seen in the country in terms of lighting and video technology.

Kubánka's creative challenge included producing an integrated lighting and video design that looked equally as good on camera as it did for the live audience, and that also fulfilled the usual demands of 'light entertainment' television. He worked closely with show director Karol Vosátko, camera direc

Jordan - Amman's PRO4 Total Event Solutions has upgraded its rental sound systems with Meyer Sound self-powered loudspeakers to meet a variety of production needs in the area.

"Our goal was to raise the quality standards for live audio production in Jordan. This was why we invested in Meyer Sound," says Hisham Al Asad, production manager of Onstage, a division of PRO4 Total Event Solutions.

PRO4 is now stocked with Mica line array loudspeakers, 700-HP subwoofers, and a Galileo loudspeaker management system.

The first deployment of the Mica system was at the annual Amman Summer Festival, a 24-day marathon of social, cultural, and musical events held in the city's huge King Hussein Park and attended by more than 150,000 people. "Our client, the Greater Amman Municipality, was very satisfied with the high-quality audio production at the event. Of course, we are v

Italy - Litec, one of the leading companies in the construction of aluminium structures for entertainment worldwide, has launched a new website, www.litectruss.com

The site has been filled with new content and redesigned with a vibrant look in line with the new corporate image of Litec, says the company.

Among the most important innovations is the Products section. The new section aims to make the whole range of Litec products more understandable. Each product is listed with its main technical features and users can also download all technical documents as well as having a look at a gallery of installations where the various products have been applied.

It is also now possible to find a product by typing its code or part of it in the search box of the site. All information about a single product will be collected quickly and directly on one page. "This will certainly hel

UK - Scottish hire company Ward Steedsy Associates recently held a free training and demonstration day at The Bongo Club in Edinburgh, to highlight the benefits of its new Allen & Heath iLive digital mixing system, comprising an iDR10 MixRack and iLive-112 Control Surface.

Over 40 delegates from a range of backgrounds, including students, freelance engineers, youth music workers, event co-ordinators and promoters attended and were trained on the concept and use of the Allen & Heath's iLive digital system by Allen & Heath's product manager Leon Phillips.

There were also presentations by Funktion One, demonstrating the Resolution 4 system, and Polar Audio, who showcased the Beyerdynamic Opus drum microphones. A large Yamaha drum kit was miked up and the audience was given the chance to hear the Opus microphones, iLive and Funktion One systems in a live situation with local cover

UK - This November has seen the Top Gear Live show wreak its particular brand of motorised mayhem around the British Isles. Screeching to a halt at London's Earls Court, Birmingham's NEC and Dublin's RDS Simmons Court, the audio for Jeremy Clarkson, James May, The Hamster, The Stig and the thousands watching has been in the hands of Gareth Davies, front of house engineer for the entire tour.

"I've done this show for the past three years," he says. "We have had issues with RF in the past so when I approached Stage Audio Services of Stourbridge to put together the specification and the quote for this year's show I said it had to be Sennheiser RF technology."

With the three presenters in the middle of a large arena floor, often surrounded by speeding cars, reliable, clear audio was an absolute necessity. Which is why Davies specified Sennheiser SK 500 b

USA - Daktronics recently upgraded the sound system at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium, home to the University of Mississippi football team in Oxford. The audio upgrade is part of a $6 million overhaul that includes the largest high-definition video display in the NCAA Southeastern Conference.

Home to the Ole Miss Rebels since 1915, Vaught-Hemingway Stadium holds more than 62,000. As part of the Southeastern Conference (SEC), Ole Miss faces some of the top college football programmes each year. With the addition of the large high-definition LED screen before the 2008 football season, an equally powerful audio system was needed.

To that end, Daktronics designed and installed an end-zone system consisting of 12 JBL VLA601H line array loudspeakers configured in left-right hangs of six loudspeakers each. The system is supplemented by two JBL PD743 loudspeakers and two PD5212/64 loudspeak

France - The famous crocodile logo celebrated its 75th anniversary and René Lacoste's presence was once again felt in Paris as the Roland Garros stadium hosted the first-ever commercial event to be staged on the famous centre court.

Attended by 800 fashion and tennis fans, the presentation celebrated 75 years of Lacoste Clothing. Production company Prodeo had pulled off a coup by staging the event at the Roland Garros stadium, where Lacoste, the first true French tennis star, won three French Open championships.

Nicknamed the Crocodile by the press and his fans because of his pugnacity on court, in 1933, he introduced his tennis shirts with the famous crocodile logo, probably the first time that a brand name appeared on the outside of an article of clothing.

For the corporate celebrations, event services company Euroson constructed two stages on court, to accom

UK - Stage Electrics supported World Diabetes Day by lighting up the Liverpool Playhouse in blue. The historic Grade II listed theatre was lit in blue for one evening only as part of the Monument Challenge. World Diabetes Day Monument Challenge involves iconic buildings and landmarks around the world lighting up in blue as beacons of hope for the millions of people worldwide living with diabetes.

The event coincided with the production of Horrid Henry! - Live and Horrid presented by Watershed Productions in association with Sheffield Theatres. Stage Electrics provided a selection of Lee Filters Gel along with 10 150W MBI floods with blue lamps to create the blue effect. The floods provided worked alongside existing exterior lighting.

Robert Longthorne, building development director at the Liverpool Playhouse comments, "With Stage Electrics' generous help, we rose t

India - Ohm's Indian distributor, Harness Overseas has been busy of late with two major dance club renewals.

After two years of continuous use, Mumbai's premier nightspot, Poison has been renovated and re-opened in October. Club owner Aqueel, one of India's top DJs, loved his original Ohm TRS system but wanted to upgrade to something "out of this world" says the company.

Harness reworked the system completely and after carefully studying the venue suggested a Saturn system. Given seven days to reinstall the system, it was completed two days before the official opening. "Poison now has a three way active system, which not only rocks the venue but sounds sweet like honey. It is now truly an 'iron glove in a velvet hand.'" says Harness principal, Lalit Chopra.

The 6000sq.ft club has a 2000sq.ft foot dance floor, three VIP decks and three bars. The Ohm syste

UK - Showsec was the official security partner at this November's international Sports Event Management Conference and Sports Security Summit two day event. Six Showsec staff from the London office secured the conference area within the Novotel St Pancras (London) throughout the two day conference.

Managing Director, Mark Harding, spoke to the prestigious audience on the second day of the event, focusing on the critical issues around training in the UK. Speaking alongside the BSIA's Olympic 2012 project director David Evans, Harding focused on the potential benefits and pitfalls for the UK security industry presented by the 2012 London Olympics.

Harding stated: "The security industry contains a lot of experienced, qualified professionals and it should be those people driving the agenda towards the Games. The training programmes and qualifications infrastructure for the Ga

UK - The new division of XL Video, XL Events supplied cameras, LED screens and a PPU for the Top Gear Live arena at the 2008 MPH Prestige & Performance Motor Show exhibition at Earls Court, London and the NEC, Birmingham, and for its first ever show in Dublin.

Top Gear Live, a co-presentation with the BBC, is an all-action 90 minute performance car spectacular fusing theatre with stunts and turbo-charged fun for petrol-heads. Presented by Top Gear anchors Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May, at the 2008 MPH Show, it was staged in a 5000 seater arena that sold out up to four shows a day.

Simon Aldridge from PMI production managed the live show with XL's managing director Lee Spencer acting as project manager. Phil Woodhead directed with the show being engineered on site for XL by Richard Shipman.

XL supplied a four-camera PPU featuring three Sony DXC5

Finland - Stagetracker, the performer tracking and audio localisation system from Norwegian theatre specialists TTA, has been installed in the Svenska Teater in Helsinki.

The Swedish National Theatre is situated in the heart of the city, one of six professional theatres in Finland to serve the Swedish-speaking population, and is considered to be the Swedish national stage. Why Swedish? Because Finland was part of Sweden until 1809 and its ties to the country remained strong until it became a sovereign state in 1917. Swedish is spoken by 6% of the population with roughly 40.000 Swedish speakers living in Helsinki.

Built in 1866 by a Russian architect, much of the Svenska Teater's interior is original. The auditorium has three balconies and a proscenium arch stage. On behalf of the theatre's sound team, Andreas Lönnquist describes the current system. "We have a L/C/R PA, w

Sweden - DPA microphones, including the newly-launched 4099 instrument mic range, were used for the grand opening ceremony of a major new Swedish venue, the Malmö Super Arena. The microphones were rented by DPA Soundco, a Danish rental company situated in the Örestad region, for this joint Swedish/Danish venture.

With a capacity of 15,000 for concerts and 12,500 for sports, the Super Arena is the largest in southern Scandinavia, able to attract international performers and pro sports, particularly ice hockey.

The opening ceremony featured a group of Swedish musicians playing alongside the Malmo Symphony Orchestra, a 300-piece choir and eight solo artists, giving a total of more than 200 input channels into the sound system. The musical theme for the shows was The Wonder of Swedish Music, drawing from such influences as early folklore, ABBA, Roxette, Europe and Robyn.<

World - Celine Dion's Taking Chances tour takes in five continents, 24 countries, 84 towns and features 124 shows. Lighting designer Yves Aucoin uses an MA Lighting grandMA system composed of one grandMA full-size plus one as back-up, one grandMA replay-unit, seven MA NSPs and four MA 2Port Nodes.

The lighting rig controlled by the grandMA includes 188 x Ayrton Dreampanel Floor 256, 122 x Ayrton Moduled 150 AWW, 48 x Ayrton Arcaline 50 RGB, 24 x Ayrton Dreampanel Wall 64, 1.080 x Element Labs Stealth LED-modules, 88 x Vari*Lite VL3000 Spot, 32 x VL2500 spot, 22 x VL3500 wash, 18 x VL3000 Wash and eight Robert Juliat Cyrano follow spots.

Jamie King works as show director, Louis-Philippe Gaudreau operates the grandMA. Francois Desjardins is working as FOH-technician. Solotech delivered the lighting equipment. David Bergeron is the project manager for Solotech.

(Jim Evan

USA - Concert sound provider Firehouse Productions, known for its tours with Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails, Peter Gabriel and other innovative artists, chose to deploy L-acoustics LA8-powered Kudo arrays for FOH on Sigur Rós' recent North American tour leg.

In addition to typically flying nine boxes of Kudo per side for the four-piece ethereal Icelandic post-rock band, Firehouse positioned six dV-DOSC across the lip of the stage for front-fill and set up four SB28 subs per side in a cardioid configuration for LF reinforcement. Two ARCS cabinets per side were also flown or ground stacked for out-fill in venues where the seating configuration wrapped around the stage. Furthermore, the tour utilised four of L-acoustics' new LA-RAK touring racks, each featuring three LA8 amplified controllers.

According to Firehouse systems engineer Jamie Pollock, who did a system prediction using S

USA - Mount Saint Mary's University is the oldest independent Catholic college in the United States. 'The Mount' boasts a history of 125 years of collegiate baseball, culminating with an NCAA Division 1 title in 2008, and a $400,000 upgrade for the school's E. T. Straw Family Stadium.

Audio-Video Group of Frederick, Maryland outfitted the field with two Community R5-66 coaxial loudspeakers, mounted on the centre field scoreboard to provide coverage to the field and adjacent areas, along with three compact R.25-99 full-range two-way loudspeakers hung on the press box behind the bleachers to cover the spectator and dugout areas.

AVG also upgraded the University's Waldron Family Stadium, home to the school's NCAA Division 1 lacrosse and soccer teams, creating a winning environment for matches. The 1000-seat venue has been outfitted with a pair of Community R-5 loudspeakers coveri

UK - The exhibition windows at Harrods, Knightsbridge have been brought to life with a Chroma-Q LED lighting installation to promote the launch of the latest James Bond movie - Quantum of Solace. The collaboration between the famous department store and the world's longest running franchise in film history sees the main Brompton Road windows decked out with scenes and products from the new film.

Lighting & AV consultant Andy Evans of Practical Creative Solutions approached A.C. Special Projects to supply the lighting for the window displays, and design an AV solution to pipe the two-minute movie trailer to HD TV screens in all other windows along the Brompton Road frontage. Evans wanted a cutting-edge LED lighting scheme to give the window scenes an overall 'wow' factor, bringing them to life when viewed day or night, both highlighting and enhancing the various props.

Romania - The club La Mania on Romania's Black Sea coast which is only open in the summer months features a newly installed Dynacord alpha system. Located in Mamaia, the club can accommodate around 2,500 guests at a time.

Cornel Petcu of the Romanian Dynacord partner HSA Audio described how the system was put through its paces for the benefit of the La Mania team: "The club's sound technicians were already fully informed about the system before we arrived. They knew all about the Dynacord alpha's international references. Even so, when they actually heard the system for the first time with their own ears, they were totally convinced not only by the sound pressure levels the system was delivering but also by the quality of the reproduction."

(Jim Evans)

Belarus - Distributors FE Belimlight supported German band The Scorpions recently when their Humanity World Tour played in front of 7,000 people at the Sport Arena in Minsk.

Lighting technician Ilya Piotrovsky said that in contracting FE Belimlight, the promoters were seeking a service company with a good reputation and list of complex production credits under their belt. Working with the Scorpions LD, Rainer Becker, Piotrovsky helped design the show around eight of PR Lighting's XL Wash 700, eight XL 700 and 72 Pro Pars.

"The main idea was to select fixtures that could implement fast and precise changes," he said. "The XL spot and wash lights were used right across the stage while the Pro Pars were clamped onto the front, side and back trusses." These central effect were complemented by conventional Par 64's.The lighting was controlled from a Hog iP

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