UK - JTE's new PixelEights are rocking the streets of London as part of an exciting new window display at the Levi's Flagship Store in Regent Street. The rock & roll set is being used to promote the Levi's Ones to Watch 2005 Tour campaign that supports a number of new bands on a tour across the UK in December.

In conjunction with Levi's, communications agency Logistik created and installed a window concept, recreating the atmosphere and excitement of the Barfly venue in Camden using brick walls, backline, sound system and lighting rig.

Logistik's project director, Attila Keskin explains, "I wanted to add some pizzazz to the generic par rig - something that would really wow the people in the street! The PixelEights were recommended by PRG and as I had used PixelLine 1

USA - This year marks dual milestones in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, for the 175th anniversary of the church's founding and the 200th birthday of its founder, Joseph Smith. Two of the most ambitious celebratory events were hosted in Utah, home to the church's headquarters, at the 11,000-seat Dee Events Center basketball arena at Weber State University in Ogden.

With a cast of over 2,200 performing in the round on the arena floor, the challenge for sound system provider Webb Audio Visual was to mount a system that could provide full, high-fidelity coverage to every seat without spilling onto the stage area and causing feedback issues. Webb AV's Scott Webb opted for a self-powered Meyer Sound system and cross-rented a MILO high-power curvilinear array system from Audio West of Yorba Linda, California.

From a technical standpoint, the show was distinctly diff

UK - Bosch Security Systems has enhanced its popular Praesideo Public Address and Emergency sound system with a new remote call station and call station interface that uses standard CAT-5 (Category 5) network cabling.

The new technology extends the reach and allows remote call stations to be located up to one kilometre away from the call station controller, making it suitable for voice evacuation in medium and large buildings including airports, hotels, conference and exhibition centres, passenger terminals, factories and offices. It also allows simplifies installation and provides greater flexibility in system design.

The use of CAT-5 cabling, the industry standard for data communications in computer and IP networks, has many other advantages - it does not add to the Praesideo's system bus length and it makes call station installation much simpler and easier, says Bosch.

Th

UK - Sir Steve Redgrave is to flick the switch at 6pm on Sunday, November 20 - triggering a spectacular pyrotechnic display and more than four miles of lights across the city of Liverpool.

The five-time Olympic Gold Medallist will be joined at St George's Plateau with Everton FC's Australian ace Tim Cahill and Liverpool FC's Norwegian star John Arne Risse. Ex-Atomic Kitten singer Liz McLarnon, who tops a live music bill including X-Factor finalist Tabby, will also join them at the hour long show.

Professor Drummond Bone, Chairman of the Liverpool Culture Company, said: ''This year's switch-on will be a stunning show and is a celebration of the many successes for the city this year - not least by our two football clubs. It's fantastic that we are also ending our culture themed year Sea Liverpool, with one of the greatest watersports legends - Sir Steve Redgrave.''

The Liverpo

UK - The Riverside Studios has installed a new 16-zone digital paging matrix system from Australian Monitor in its multi-arts facility in Hammersmith, London.

Funded by The Arts Council, the new expandable DigiPage architecture was engineered by consultant Matt How's, to a conceptual design by Richard Noxell Sound Services, and replaces the previous system described by Theatre Studios Manager, Barbara Egervary, as "totally inadequate".

The Riverside is an expanding facility which today embraces two main performance studios, a cinema,TV studio and production galleries,rehearsal/workshop space,numerous offices and a large contemporary cafe/bar and terrace.

The complex has been divided into 16 zones on DigiPage, each of which has a dedicated local mic/line input, with six global inputs routable to any of the zones; these are currently used for show relay and COMs from

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USA - Midas consoles are playing a lead role on Sir Paul McCartney's US tour. McCartney's long-time FOH engineer Pab Boothroyd has one of his XL4s at FOH, having been using the desk almost exclusively since its launch ten years ago; monitor engineer John Roden is using two Midas Heritage 3000s on stage.

"I've always favoured the XL4 for many reasons - sound, touring reliability and familiarity when mixing a multitude of tasks in a hectic live environment instantly," says Boothroyd.

Roden is also a long-time champion of Midas consoles and has been using the Heritage since its launch. "It sounds great and is reliable too," he says. "Money and space requirements are not an issue with McCartney, I can have whatever I need to do my job and the temptation to change to a digital format was strong, but we have done several tours very successfully using the two

UK - ACC Productions of Belfast has become the first company in Northern Ireland to purchase HK Audio's Cheddar Compact Coherent Dynamic Response Array system.

"We are trying to expand the market to which our sound systems are pitched," says ACC owner Alsatian Kerri. "We do a lot of theatre and corporate events that our existing HK systems are great for, but we want to start looking at systems for bands and small outdoor festivals for which the Cheddar is ideal."

ACC has purchased 16 CDR 108 mid/high units, eight CDR 210 C sub woofers and two PRO amp racks with additional controllers to enable two smaller systems to go out on hire at the same time. The company already has a substantial inventory of HK AUDIO systems.

Access introduction to Cheddar Compact came about when UK distributor John Horny Skews brought over a demo system for the Indian Community Me

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Italy - Author SpA has signed an agreement with DAL, Advantage Distribution Limited, to become a new authorised Author distribution partner for the UK. DAL is now supplying the full range of Author products which includes videophones, desktop video conferencing systems, set-tops, large group conferencing products and solutions, and the new Vega X Line products.

"Considering the importance of the UK video conferencing market, we want to approach the UK with the best partners and the right tools", declared Marco Viezzoli, Author CEO. "For this reason we opened a new office in London last Spring and now we are selecting carefully high level partners to work with us in order to set up strong business relationships."

Dave Travers, business development manager of DAL, said "We are extremely pleased that Author, a producer of high quality, cost effective comm

USA - During LDI in Orlando, Capture Sweden will be showing the latest developments of Capture 2005. On show will not only be the latest changes to the Basic Edition, but also some of the new features in the upcoming Extended Edition which is to be released shortly after the trade show.

The new Capture 2005 product family features a large number of major changes from the previous Capture 3.0 version. Says Capture, "Most of the software has been reconstructed in order to make it faster and easier to work with and the large number of console connectivity options which are now plug-and-play makes Capture 2005 the most efficient visualisation and design tool on the market."

(Jim Evans)

UK - To the delight of older guitarists and wannabe rock stars throughout the UK, the Music Industries Association (MIA) has announced the nation-wide launch of its Weekend Warriors campaign.

The campaign targets 35-60 year old rock fans - who either used to play in a band or are simply keen to try - and places them into groups, organising a number of rehearsal sessions before getting them up on stage to perform live in a local rock concert.

The project which works in partnership with the UK's MIA musical instrument retailers, has been brought to the UK from the US. Following two hugely successful pilots in Stockton-on-Tees and Reading, additional Weekend Warrior programmes are now up and ready to run in Warrington, Stockport, Nottingham, Leicester, Portsmouth, Glasgow, Leeds, Birmingham, Southampton, Bristol, Harlow and Darlington with many more expected to laun

UK - Stage Electrics is now supplying ice rinks as well as more traditional lighting and sound kit they are known for providing. The company has become the sole UK distributor for the Dutch company Ice World, providing rinks and boots throughout the UK.

Stage Electrics is providing the ice and infrastructure, including lighting and PA equipment for venues ranging from shopping malls to parks across the UK. A more unusual location for one of the rinks is on the first floor of a shopping centre in London's Victoria.

Stage Electrics' production manager Andy Loveday last week led the team which tested the first rink to be delivered from Holland. Working in partnership with Aggreko who provide the chilling equipment, a 30m x 10m rink was constructed in an empty warehouse close to the company's branch in Avonmouth, Bristol. "It's been a new experience for us," he said, &qu

In case anyone had forgotten what happens to the audio at the end of all these systems, Renkus-Heinz exhibited some good old-fashioned loudspeakers. The Iconyx column speakers are very discreet, but have sonic performance specifications that will attract reverberant applications such as houses of worship. "We tackle the acoustics by having a tall array of very compact drivers, so we're able to achieve tight pattern control in the vertical plane," explained VP Ralph Heinz. "Plus, by applying DSP, we're able to do some beam steerage as well."Beam steerage in a church . . . now there's a revelation.

UK- Trafalgar Square 200 'The Spirit of Nelson' show was authored and created by production company Innovision and staged in London's most famous Square in front of 10,000 people. The hour-long live show celebrated the Royal Navy's role at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805 and at other crucial points in the history of Britain.

Innovision called in the services of leading production industry companies, including large format projection specialist E/T/C UK and rigging specialist Summit Steel. Durham Marenghi came on board as lighting designer.Projection was beamed onto a special retractable 'sail' made from Sunbaba's Austronet 204FR fabric, and rigged onto the centre of three masts depicting a symbolic version of Nelson's flagship, HMS Victory.

The PIGI 6kW projector (complete with 'hot' backup) was located in a specially built hide, with a 17m throw distance, and fitted with a Ba

UK - The newly-opened Alma De Cuba restaurant in Liverpool, owned by the Lyceum Group, is housed in a converted church. Dating back to the late Eighteenth century, the building has been vacant since 1976 but has now undergone a major refurbishment programme.

It has been sympathetically restored and many original features have been retained including stained glass windows and archaic artwork.

The sound system has been carefully designed and installed by B+S Sound & Light of Liverpool to overcome the inevitable difficulties of such a wide open reverberant space and to provide the required music level in each of the six designated zones.

Depending on the restaurant activity and time of day, volume can be adjusted via three simple controls positioned in the main bar area. The system uses a Cloud Z8 zoner, 4 x Tannoy TDX1 and Ecler amps to drive an array of Tannoy speakers in var

UK - A.C. Lighting's Special Projects Division has supplied and programmed fixtures for the new Portsmouth Spinnaker Tower, which opened this Autumn.

The 170m tower is the UK's tallest publicly accessible building outside of London and offers visitors a unique 'window on the sea' from its three observation decks. Forming the focal point of the Portsmouth Harbour Renaissance Project, the tower is expected to attract thousands of visitors to the area every year.

Main construction contractor Mowlem plc engaged Mark Hensman of Equation Lighting to create the exterior lighting design, which features two distinct elements: the white light projected onto the rear concrete legs andthe lower shaft below the cruciform to the front, and the dynamic coloured light projected within the arcs and to the front of the main spire.

Following a competitive tender, A.C.'s Special Projects Divisi

In truth, it isn't often that the AES Convention - or any pro audio trade exhibition, for that matter - throws up a genuine surprise. Revelations are normally confined to the Gideon's Bible in everyone's hotel room, and not even New York itself can always liven up the routine of stage-managed marketeering.

However, EAW drew genuine intakes of breath with the - for once - justified expedient of white drapes over a mysterious bulging chassis, which turned out to be the UMX.96 digital mixing console. The model ID may not be as exciting in itself, but the arrival of a totally unexpected new player on the digital live console pitch certainly stirs things up plenty.

The formation of Loud Technologies in September 2003 has clearly influenced the kind of technical cross-fertilization behind the UMX. Teams involved in the product have included the DSP team at Acuma Labs in Victoria, BC; the a

L-Acoustics announced the new, self-powered P Series - currently comprised of the 108P and 112P. These are 2-way loudspeaker enclosures combining proprietary coaxial point source technology with self-powered performance and DSP.

The 108P is a bi-amplified, digitally processed, full-range loudspeaker containing a 1" exit HF compression driver coaxially loaded into an 8" LF transducer. The coaxial approach is designed to provide coherent point source radiation and 100° axisymmetrical directivity - i.e. identical horizontal, vertical and axial coverage. The coaxial design is also said to offer superimposed LF/HF dispersion characteristics, free of the polar lobing effects typical of traditional horn and woofer combinations.

Intended for touring or fixed installation, the 112P features rigging accessories, digital system EQ and network control and monitoring. Four application-

UK - Lumidrives has launched Colourdriver RF, a new low cost, simple to use, remote control lighting controller for LEDs. Colourdriver RF makes the creation of dynamic lighting effects, dimming and colour changing for example, as simple as installing ordinary light fixtures, claims the manufacturer.

Colourdriver RF is an intelligent driver system which is controlled by a radio remote control. It can be simply plugged into the mains, making the selection and control of light effects as easy as operating a CD player. Its entry level cost also means it has potential for use where current control systems would not be practical.

Radio remote control removes the need for control cables and means Colourdriver RF can be retrofitted to existing lighting installation or even integrated with track lighting systems.

Gordon Routledge managing director at Lumidrives says, "Colourdriv

The whole EAW event came to somewhat overshadow the launch of the other digital live console du jour, Yamaha's M7CL - which, having first been unveiled to the world in the UK at PLASA, was receiving a slightly lower-gear US debut. Yamaha Corporation Of America's Larry Italia and Dan Craik did the honours, however, and the booth was busy for the whole show with visitors weighing up the potential impact of this desk on the US market. With or without the presence of the UMX.96, that impact is likely to be substantial much further down the verticalities of end user territory - where budget means what it always implies.

UK - The Stage Electrics Plymouth production team rose to the challenge of lighting the historic Royal Albert Bridge which runs across the River Tamar near Saltash for a high profile photo shoot.

The structure was built by Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1806-1859) and designed to carry the Cornwall Railway at a height of 100 feet across the water. It was opened in May 1859 and measures 2,187ft in length.

The bridge was lit using 24 Arena Visions and 16 Opti Visions, the resulting picture will be used as a background shot in the new ITV1 West Country Regional Newsroom during the early evening broadcast.

Stage Electrics also supplied equipment to light the studio set including Pulsar Chromaflood Pars and Strand Bambinos. During the studio refurbishment works the company helped to keep the show on the road by building a temporary set and providing studio lighting.

(Jim Evans)

Every day, month or year is an anniversary of something or other, and this month happens to be the 20th anniversary edition of L&SI magazine.

L&SI was launched for the Professional Lighting and Sound Association by publisher John Offord at a time when the Association had only recently changed its name to reflect its broadening scope: the British Association of Discotheque Equipment Manufacturers (BADEM), which emerged from the 70s disco boom, had become PLASA in 1983.

Looking back at that first issue, the first thing that strikes you is facial hair - particularly at the first ABTT North trade show, which the debut issue covered. As someone - let's call him 'John' (what the hell - let's call him 'John Hastie') remarked to me at the ABTT show this summer, this industry no longer has much to offer the committed trade show beard spotter. The November 1985 issue just underlines the

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