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UK - Drapes and rigging specialist Blackout was appointed by The Millennium Stadium in Cardiff to design and install a revolutionary arena system, which has enhanced its main bowl's potential as a multifunctional and versatile indoor venue.

The system features as part of £1 million joint venture between the Millennium Commission, caterers, Letheby and Christopher, the Welsh Tourist Board and the Millennium Stadium, to expand on the original design of the stadium. It allows the main bowl to be divided into four possible staging configurations, accommodating events for audiences between 12,000 and 46,000. As the first arena system of its kind in Europe, Blackout's team headed by MD Steve Tuck and project manager Ken Nock collaborated with The Millennium Stadium's Chief Execu

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UK - CGA recently modernised the audio system at All Saints church in Ascot. Winning by tender, the project gave CGA Integration the opportunity not only to improve the audio and increase flexibility, but to use modern sound engineering to solve several traditional problems associated with amplification of church services.

The system had to accommodate a wide variety of trained and untrained vocalists in a challenging acoustic environment, say CGA. Non-intrusive fixtures, cabling and racks were also a priority to preserve the ornate décor and ambience. Operated by non-technical personnel, simplicity was important and preferably automated as far as possible. CGA's Chris Gunton explains: "CGA Integration are specialists in this kind of sympathetic installation and take great care to ensure that the original building is not scared by the installation. These buildings have bee

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Australia - The new Craigieburn Bypass now provides a freeway link between the Melbourne Metropolitan Ring Road and the Hume Freeway in Australia's second city. Amongst the unique features of this road-building project is the world's first traffic controlled lighting effect, conceived by landscape architects Taylor Cullity Lethlan and engineers Webb Australia in conjunction with local artist Robert Owen. The system was then designed and installed by Lightmoves Pty Ltd.

A 300m matrix of colour changing LEDs, forming part of an acoustic barrier to reduce road noise, was installed parallel to the road. The design brief required the lighting effects to be controlled and regulated by transducers in the road. Lightmoves turned to Artistic Licence to provide the necessary control software via Colour-Tramp.

Colour-Tramp is best known for its ability to control colour changing arrays w

Riedel - Banner - August 25
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Strictly FX, Pushing Boundaries

Strictly FX was founded in 1996 by industry veterans Mark Grega and Ted Maccabee. Our expertise and knowledge of the world’s leading pyrotechnic, laser, and flame manufacturers allows us to curate astonishing live events. With over 500+ shows performed a year, there’s good chance you’ve seen some of our work!

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USA - The Light CoPilot III is a new analogue chase control system from Elation Control Systems. A complete package for controlling multiple sound-active effects, it features Elation's popular 16-channel Light CoPilot II analogue chase controller, plus two 4-channel LC-4SP power packs and two 25-foot connector cables.

With two power packs included in the system - as opposed to one 8-channel pack - the Light CoPilot III gives DJs and clubs more options for configuring their lights. For example, they can string four fixtures in two different areas of a club, rather than having to rig all their lights on one truss or T-bar. Plus, users will have fewer messy extension cords and wires to hassle with.

"The Light CoPilot III's extra power pack really expands what you can do with your light show," said John Lopez, national sales manager for Elation Control Systems. "It

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UK - While celebrating its 21st birthday, the Global Infusion Group has been working flat out this summer on a multitude of events including Live 8, the G8 Summit at Gleneagles and The International Festival of the Sea, as well as touring with Coldplay in both Europe and the US.

The corporate catering division, Chevalier Event Design, worked with innocent to provide a picnic and BBQ for 1,500 at this year's Fruitstock Festival in London's Regents Park, while Stratfield Saye House in Reading was the location for 2000 Microsoft employees to enjoy their After Hours summer party. The division also catered for 1000 artists and VIP's at the Download Festival in Castle Donington.

In addition to providing the production catering at the G8 Summit, sister company Eat to the Beat provided crew and media catering at Live 8 in Hyde Park. Other festivals catered for included Glastonb

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UK - Prolyte will exhibit in a new setting at this year's PLASA Show (11-14 September, London). Set against a theatrical and welcoming background, Prolyte will present a range of its old and new products.

The Prolyft C-One hoist is fully compliant to the strict BGV-C1 regulations, including controllers, and will be available in three types, ranging from 250 to 1000kg. All C-One hoists will have the same standard features as the regular Prolyft Performance range, but will be fitted with the special BGV-C1 options, such as double brake system, dual limit switches with LED indication,electronic under- and overload protection (including slack chain detection) and a design factor of 10:1.

Prolyte has developed a hybrid coupler (CCS6-610), an innovative product for the 30 and 40 series truss. The hybrid coupler is a combination of metal, encapsulated in synthetic material. The coupl

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UK - Audio communications specialist HM Electronics will exhibit at PLASA for the first time in conjunction with its sole UK distributor, Orbital Sound. Orbital will bring the potential of HME's range of wireless digital intercom systems to the UK market, including the Award-winning DX200 and HME's new Pro 850 2-channel UHF intercom. Chosen by HME as a specialist in its field, Orbital boasts the technical know-how and the sales customer base to expand its market share across applications as diverse as broadcast, theatre, conferencing, and live events. Orbital's technical support team also offers round the clock support in line with HME's rigorous standards, say the company.

Having scooped the ABTT 2005 Sound & Comms Product of the Year Award in June, the DX200 has built on its immediate success in the UK, already being deployed by Orbital on UK theatre tours, including Beauty

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ETC Halcyon Silent

High End Systems Halcyon Silent builds on ETC’s legacy of fanless automated fixtures by incorporating features from the highly sought-after Halcyon family. Halcyon Silent perfectly balances silent operation with brilliant output of 18,400 lumens and high-impact features. 

For more information visit us at www.etcconnect.com

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UK - When Elmhurst School for Dance made their move to new purpose-built premises in Birmingham, they once again turned to Harlequin for their dance floors. The new facilities were fitted out as standard with wood floors and needed Harlequin Cascade to achieve the right performance surface. Working to a tight schedule during the summer break, Elmhurst moved the 140 miles north from its home in Camberley, Surrey to the University area of Birmingham. Not content with a move to the Midlands, the construction of a brand new school on a green-field site and the rigours of an unforgiving construction programme, principal John McNamara gave himself the task of persuading parents and staff of the necessity of this move. The wisdom of the decision is clear when you consider that Elmhurst is now close to the Birmingham Royal Ballet, to which it acts as a 'feeder' school.

One aspect of the

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UK - ECT continues to expand its POPscreen range and says that high quality images are produced with them, thanks to the manufacturing process which employs casting techniques rather than extrusion. With the aid of chemical enhancements ECT has developed a screen that "maintains the high quality of quartz crystal screens at a price that reflects the economies of scale production".

The methods used in the manufacture are critical in the performance levels that can be enjoyed. The casting process ensures the quartz crystal diffusion particles are poured into the liquid acrylic before polymerisation, and settle to a very fine layer within the thickness of the acrylic sheet. This process creates a fine image-capture plane, so that images projected onto the screens are of high quality and have a very wide angle of viewing. Another distinct advantage of the POP screen, conti

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Argentina - MA Lighting has appointed Daniel F Ridano as technical manager to respond to the technical needs of customers in Latin and South America. His responsibilities include answering all technical questions about the grandMA range and other sophisticated solutions from MA Lighting. In addition, Daniel will support customers regarding up coming projects. Furthermore, he'll be organizing special workshops for grandMA consoles, grandMA video, MA digital dimmers and other MA lighting products.

As a specialist with a Bachelor's degree in digital electronics, Daniel F Ridano has a broad technical knowledge and more than 12 years of practical experience in the lighting business. Being one of Latin America's first-call grandMA operators, he worked for musical productions such as Peter Pan and Aladdin as well as being in demand as a moving light technician for interna

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Spain - Nacho Acha-Orbea from Entertainment Equipment Supplies based in San Sebastian has recently delivered an outdoor roof system and two stages to Kulteperalia based in Madrid. The system is being used in the city's bull ring in Madrid to allow the venue to become a multipurpose facility.

The roof system is 19 by 16m, with PA wings both sides measuring 9 by 7m. The roof is flown at 14m trim on 15m high towers. The main roof grid is designed to support 12 tonnes and each PA wing 7 tonnes. The Arena Deck stage is variable in height from 1.55 to 2m and the stage is rated at 8kN/m2. The stage area is also equipped with side and back walls made from the same silver outside and black inside PVC polyester fabric as the roof cover.

Kultuperalia intends to stage a variety of events from flamenco to opera. In addition to this equipment, Total Solutions Group has been contracted to pr

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USA - Lighthouse Technologies, a leading developer, manufacturer and global supplier of state-of-the-art large scale LED video screens, is donating the use of 112 large screen displays for this weekend's 'Art for Life East Hampton' event organized by the RUSH Philanthropic Arts Foundation. Taking place in East Hampton, NY, at the estate of Russell and Kimora Lee Simmons, the July 30 gala fund-raising event will benefit more than 70 youth arts organizations in New York City and Palm Beach County, Florida.

Lighthouse LED screens are part of a unique display configuration designed by LED artist Teddy Lo. The display - totaling over 108sq.ft - will be used in the staging for various performances taking place at the event. Lo will debut a new LED visual display presentation produced specifically for the event and will exhibit his latest LED concept piece, Traffika.

The Light

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UK - Bandit Lites is supplying UK techno punk band The Prodigy with lighting production for their current summer run of festivals and shows, in the build-up to the launch of their new album. Under the working title of 'Always Outnumbered Never Outgunned', the album is the first studio work by The Prodigy since 1997's seminal 'Fat of The Land'.

Lighting designer Ian 'Mac' MacEwan has worked with The Prodigy for nine years, "Nine LOUD years," as he puts it. This year, Bandit Lites was chosen as lighting supplier for the first time - a move which Mac says has been excellent in terms of "getting the service and attention we need". It also reacquaints Mac with Lester Cobrin, as this is the first time the pair has worked together since Cobrin joined the Bandit UK team in 2004 as business development manager.

Cobrin comments: "I've been working with Mac on va

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USA - For many in the operatic world, using vocal microphones for live performances is at worst viewed as a no-no, and at best, a necessary evil. Citing the numerous challenges of performing in an unflattering acoustic environment, Jim Elliott, technical director for the Amarillo Opera in Amarillo, Texas, has miked opera singers, but always quite regretfully. Finally, Elliott felt that it was due time for "a better solution" than their well-worn, 15-year-old wireless microphone systems.

"The most important thing to know about opera is that it and microphones don't mix," explains Elliott, laughing. "It's an insult to most opera singers if you put a microphone on them - it's something that's just not done very often. Our problem is that we currently perform in a venue that seats 2,400 people and doesn't have a balcony. It's a long, flat room, and there are

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The Netherlands - Lumileds Lighting has announced an agreement for Royal Philips Electronics to purchase Agilent Technologies' interests in the company. The acquisition is structured to allow Lumileds to continue operating as an independent business group, within the Philips Lighting organization, supporting its customers as it has since the company's inception. Customers will continue to work directly with Lumileds and its authorized distributors including Future Electronics for all their product needs. Lumileds manufacturing operations in San Jose and Penang, business offices, sales, marketing, engineering and R&D organizations remain in place and continue to serve the needs of customers around the world.

"Throw away last week's charts that show expectations for LED performance," said Mike Holt, CEO of Lumileds. "Increased access to and closer working relationsh

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USA - XL Touring Video provided equipment for Duran Duran on several legs of their tour. The Azusa, CA touring video company provided a Chromatek 15mm LED on the first leg, which Production and Lighting Designer, Alex Reardon arranged in 5 columns behind the band. The summer leg was equipped with 60 Custom XL MiPix Modules. Touring on behalf of XL was LED Technicians Frank Van de Cayzeele and Oliver Derynck.

Says John Wiseman, president of XL Touring Video: "Alex did something unique that we don't see in touring that often. Each leg of the tour he did a different video configuration and design. Most recent was MiPix and an all low-resolution show. Duran Duran has always been a cutting-edge band and is continuing to be so visually with Alex's innovation. Each leg of the tour had a new and interesting look which was refreshing."

(Lee Baldock)

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UK - Long Eaton-based Questmark Ltd has been awarded a three-year framework agreement by the NHS Purchasing and Supply Agency (PASA) for the supply of video-conferencing systems and services. The agreement covers any part of the NHS including Care and Hospital Trusts, GP surgeries and the Medical Research Council together with other Public Sector organizations in Central and Local Government, suppliers providing services on behalf of the NHS, and other public bodies.

The NHS says that video-conferencing is playing an increasingly important role in its management and administration, enabling faster decision-making and more personal contact between staff. At the same time, it is reducing travel costs and ensuring better utilisation of staff time. The use of video-conferencing in the NHS is extensive and represents some of the best utilised networks in the UK for this technology.

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UK - One of the features of Digidesign's presentation at this year's PLASA Show will be the opportunity for sound engineers to appraise themselves of the operational functionality of the company's state-of-the-art digital live mixing environment, the Venue. Whether or not engineers are familiar with Digidesign's industry-standard ProTools workstation and plug-ins (which the Venue supports) the company is throwing down the invitiation to pre-register on one of the back-to-back training courses.

"We will be operating intensive training sessions throughout the show," said Mike Case, Digidesign's European sales manager. "But spaces are limited and we will be filling places strictly on a first-come, first-served basis." Away from the training room Digidesign will be welcoming their top grade sound engineers, who have helped the company towards an outstanding first

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UK - The latest addition to Academy Music Group's live venue estate is Carling Academy Newcastle, the North East's newest live music venue. In October, the company behind other Academy venues in Brixton, Birmingham, Bristol, Glasgow, Liverpool, Islington and West London's Shepherd's Bush Empire, will open the 2,000 capacity venue - previously the Gala Bingo Hall on Westgate Road - in Newcastle city centre.

Originally built as a Picture House (The New Westgate) in 1927, the new Carling Academy Newcastle site will also house a secondary stand-alone 400 capacity 'Academy 2' venue in addition to its main room for gigs and clubs, which follows the same concept as it's sister venues in Liverpool and Birmingham.

Both venues are production complete with system integrators, Marquee Audio, building on the high specification model that they had delivered to Carling Academy venues in Live

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UK - PLASA 2005 sees VisualDMX controlling 4,000 channels via the unique Matrix Mania! element of the software package. Visitors to PLASA are invited to see the use of matrix patterns, scrolling text and animated GIF graphics, demonstrated live on the new Lighttech floor panels from TDE.

VisualDMX is available for personal demonstrations throughout the show, offering an insight into the fast, live and programmed control of lighting, including the new Conventional and Intelligent sequence editors. For those with a sense of fun, the company is offering the opportunity to explore the full strengths of the VisualDMX software editing their own animations in Matrix Mania.

VisualDMX can be found on the stand of Lightstorm Trading, B39.

(Lee Baldock)

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UK - Will Young has recently completed a one month tour of castles and stately homes throughout the UK, equipped with a full range of Sennheiser evolution mics and IEMs. Monitor engineer, Graham Blake, commented 'With a long list of spectacular outdoor venues that included Leeds Castle, Warwick Castle, Chatsworth and Kenwood House, we were delighted to use a mic set-up that matched the quality of both Will's voice and the aura of the surroundings'. He adds, 'I've been a great fan of the Evolution G2 range and I felt that the wireless ew935 was particularly suited to Will's voice - accentuating the warmth and smoothness in his performance. They have great presence and you can drive them really hard before even a hint of feedback. As far as monitoring is concerned, Will prefers in-ears to stage monitors and I have always recommended the ew300 G2's for both their impressive sound and
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