UK / Italy - AIM listed Screen Technology has announced a major commercial order with Sambers Italia SPA - Hantarex, a leading manufacturer and supplier of flat screen displays.

Under the terms of the initial €1.7 million deal, Sambers Italia SPA - Hantarex, which is based in Milan, Italy will purchase Screen Technology's proprietary ITrans tile components which it will use to create high resolution modular displays and supply them into its own customer base. Sambers Italia SPA - Hantarex is anticipating a significant increase on this initial order during 2007.

The ITrans modular system offers customers displays that can be configured to any size or aspect ratio without any compromise on image quality simply by seamlessly bolting together modules. Incorporating the features of Screen Technology's standard large format displays - high resolution, high brightness and image qua

Hong Kong - Bosch Security Systems has supplied fire and emergency voice alarm systems to Hong Kong's new AsiaWorld-Expo exhibition and events centre.

Completed in December 2005, AsiaWorld-Expo adjoins Hong Kong's Chep Lap Kok International Airport built on a man-made island 25 kilometres from the city. With more than 70,000sq.m of rentable exhibition, conference and entertainment space, the new centre is Hong Kong's largest event facility.

Bosch has provided AsiaWorld-Expo with equipment and accessories from its Universal Intrusion and Fire Alarm Panel 2000 Series together with the Fire Monitoring System and Praesideo, the world's first fully digital public address and emergency sound system. The systems are integrated with each other and with external control and emergency monitoring systems. The total project is the largest of its kind in the Asia-Pacific region for Bosch S

Norway - Norwegian city Trondheim has recently been changing the local Dock House into a concert hall called Dokkhuset. Owned by Trondheim Jazz Forum, Jazz Centre of Middle Norway, Trondheim Baroque Music and Trondheim's association of classical soloists, the venue's schedule is consequently turned to both classical and jazz music; Dianne Reeves & Mory Kante feature among the artists who have performed recently at the Dokkhuset.

Scandec Systemer, L-Acoustics distributor in Norway, provided an L Acoustics sound system for the venue. The configuration is comprised of two arrays of thre ARCS, and two stacks of SB218 subs. Two 112P self-powered speakers are used as first delays in mid point of the audience, and two 108P are located at the rear restaurant as second delays.

Bj°rn Johnny Valsgård, sales manager in charge of the project at Scandec Systemer, explained: "The m

USA - GE Consumer & Industrial announces a call for entries for the 24th Annual GE Edison Award competition. Through the competition, GE recognises excellence and quality in professional lighting designs that employ the significant use of GE lamps.

The GE Edison Award competition is open to professional designers, architects, engineers and consultants. Entries are judged on the following criteria: functional excellence; architectural compatibility; effective use of state-of-the-art lighting products and techniques; appropriate colour, form and texture revelation; energy effectiveness and cost effectiveness.

Projects scoring the highest number of points will qualify to receive Awards of Merit or Awards of Excellence. The GE Edison Award Winner is selected from among the Awards of Excellence.

Awards for Sustainable Design are given to those projects that demonstrate exemplary,

Germany - LED specialist Lagotronics has reported the latest example of its services for customized LED projects. As a classical example of custom designing, these two venues were quoted in 2005, taking the time to fine-tune the DecaLED Pixeldot Pro and making this project a huge success for both Lagotronics and its partners in June 2006.

On the Spielbudenplatz, two large stages were constructed during the early months of 2006 and fitted in June with 2560 DecaLED Pixeldot Pro (rated IP55), 80 LagoLED USB-i 505 controllers and 1.5km of cabling (rated IP55). The lighting designer's vision was to create two stages with DMX-controllable LED fixtures. All the DecaLED Pixeldot Pro fixtures are controlled by two Ecue video systems (one on each stage) that translate video into DMX, creating endless possibilities for lighting designers and operators to give the whole stage an interactive

UK - Wigwam has announce its sponsorship and participation in the launch of The Charlie Jones Scholarship Scheme - names in memory of a man who played a very important part towards the growth and development of Wigwam over the past 20 years.

Wigwam say: "In recognition of his service and desire to develop the next generation of Sound Engineers, we feel it is time for a company like ours to get involved in providing a training scheme that is worthwhile and that will hopefully will lead to employment within the audio industry."

The past 10 years has seen major developments in technology used within live audio, and the company sees a need for engineers and technicians to have specialist training to use the equipment available to achieve the best end results. "If we can train young people wishing work in our industry in the continued advancements in working practice

UK - As a brand new state-of-the-art venue, the Arena and Convention Centre Liverpool will be a trailblazer as an environmentally conscious business, proving both sustainability and profitability can be achieved simultaneously.

The management team at ACC Liverpool is committed to being an environmentally aware and socially responsible employer. The "four Green Rs" will be followed wherever possible: Reduce, Reuse, Repair, Recycle. They are committed to reducing overheads and running costs, cutting waste, and encouraging both staff and visitors to "think green" whenever feasible and practicable.

Rain falling on the vast impressive roof space will be collected and used in utility blocks around the building, reducing the water needs of the Arena and Convention Centre by 7.5% ACC Liverpool will produce half of the emissions that would have been generated withou

UK - British rock band Razorlight have completed the UK leg of their 2006 tour, enhancing a minimalist stage set with the addition of live action screens, video and effects projection, all supplied by London rental company, PSL Music.

For all shows, PSL set up a 40ft wide white drop centre screen, using a Catalyst digital media server playback source, operated from front-of-house lighting control. Featuring black-and-white stills, moving graphics and effects, as well as simple colour washes, projection on the main screen was fed by PSL's new Barco SLM R12+ units.

Under the direction of crew chief Rod Martin, PSL also supplied a four-camera PPU system and operators Simon Hudson and Bruce Selkirk. Additionally, three mini-cams on the drumkit of Andy Burrows gave video director Steve Price and the PSL engineers a choice of seven feeds from which to mix a rich and dynamic visual c

Poland - Duran Duran performed a corporate gig in Warsaw, Poland in the second half of September, with plenty of input from grandMA. Lighting Designer, operator and programmer for the concert was Pawel 'Spider' Pajak. To control his rig he specified one grandMA full-size, one grandMA light, grandMA onPC with NSP and grandMA 3D.

"I decided to use the grandMA control and pre-programming system because it always gives me an opportunity to save a lot of time on the venue," states Pajak. "I've used grandMA 3D to set-up the stage positions for the lights and then to program all the necessary presets, effects and looks. Then I've started to create the whole lighting for each song. In this project my co-programmer, Tomasz Szwelicki, and I used the "world function" to work separately on two consoles . . . it saves a lot of time. This was an advantage because I ha

Australia - Based on the life, songs and music of the entertainer and songwriter Peter Allen, and performed for the first time in 1998 in Sydney, The Boy From Oz has just closed after a sell-out three-month Australian tour. This new production of the original musical especially designed for arena format venues (more than 10,000 people), include a 25-piece live orchestra and 100 singers from the Australian Girls' choir. Australian V-Dosc Partner, Jands Production Services, was chosen to design and supply the sound reinforcement.

Sound designer Michael Waters, who won a Helpmann Award for Best Sound Design for Dusty the Musical, specified a turnkey L Acoustics V Dosc system which includes 36 V Dosc, 27 dV-DOSC, 4 ARCS and 18 SB218 subwoofers.

Jim Straw, general manager of Jands Production Services, stated: "The Boy from Oz is a complex and ambitious are

Worldwide - As The Who begins its world tour with rave reviews and a packed calendar of gigs in the US, the grandMA begins its work behind the scenes controlling innovative lighting design that puts the group in the forefront of artists performing today. The tour, which has been dubbed Uncut. Uncensored. Unrepentant, features "the first new Who music in 20 years," according to lighting designer Tom Kenny.

"There are six new songs and a mini-opera in the middle of the show. When we went into it, Pete Townshend asked me to treat the show in a very different light - literally. He wanted it to look very different from what we've done in the past, but we couldn't use haze or smoke since Roger Daltry has a smoke allergy."

The result is a "unique-looking show, very high tech, very 2006," says Kenny. "There are different types of backdrops, re

UK - Advanced Audio & Vision Ltd (AAV) has completed the latest phase of an audio visual project for BBT Thermotechnology UK in Worcester.

Part of the Bosch Group, BBT (better known for its Worcester, Bosch Group brand) is the largest supplier of heating products in Europe, with an estimated turnover of approximately €2.5 billion. Around 1,800 personnel work for the UK division, many at the headquarters, based in Worcester.

Last year, as part of a £3.5m expansion project, the company commenced work on building an 'Energy Atrium' to showcase high efficiency and renewable energy products, as well as develop meeting room and conference facilities. By the time AAV Ltd were invited to take over the project at the start of the year, the AV fit out had become something of a fast track proposition. Tasked by BBT's IT and Network Project administrator, Gary Whenman with equippin

UK - The Arts and Entertainment Technical Training Initiative (aetti) has announced a new qualification. The Awarding body Edexcel has approved their submission for a BTEC Award in Sound. The approval lasts until 2011. The first course will be delivered at the Assembly Rooms in Derby in February 2007.

The new Sound course will sit alongside the existing BTEC qualifications; Technical Skills in Live Entertainment and Stage Lighting, Rigging and Operation.

Loughborough College's head of enterprise and workforce development, Chris Garner, says: "The original proposal required some altering to suit the Edexcel criteria for a formal award and I would thank the aetti members for responding quickly to ensure that the delivery of the programme can proceed as planned. If the BTEC in Sound is as popular as the existing Lighting course then we would expect more than a 150 technician

UK - Every year, British digital signal processor manufacturer XTA Electronics rewards those of its distributors that have achieved the most significant business growth for XTA products over the previous year, known as the Xemplary Territory Awards.

This year saw Ampco Belgium, Sennheiser Canada, R&A Services in China, Prodance from the Czech Republic, SC Sound APS in Denmark, Estonia's Eventech, TM Audio from Holland, Pro Audio & Light Systems in Russia, Swiss distributor Decibel, Turkey's Sevcan Electronics, Group One from the United States and PAXT in the Middle East and Africa all take awards back from PLASA.

"We've got an extremely good distribution network," says XTA marketing manager Guy Lewis. "This means the companies that won awards have done exceptionally well as sales have been exemplary on a global scale."

PAXT's Tim Pollard agrees: "We

Eastern Europe - Over 400 visitors attended four ISE Roadshow events in Eastern Europe which concluded at the Istanbul Hilton last week. The organisers reported that attendee levels exceeded all expectations and the events attracted positive and enthusiastic comments from both visitors and sponsors alike.

Mike Blackman, ISE managing director was delighted with the results, which justified the decision to take this event beyond the existing European frontier. "Attendance was excellent and initial feedback has been extremely positive. We had visitors who came ready to talk and were prepared to do business. They brought with them an optimistic approach to the exciting opportunities in the AV and electronic systems industry. These events have demonstrated to us how influential and exciting the Eastern European and Turkish markets are for our industry. In every location attendee

UK - The Light Viper 32/8 digital line system has provided The X-Factor sound supervisor Robert Edwards (of Video Sound Services) with a neat fibre transmission solution, overcoming the obstacles created by a complex set at Wembley's Fountain Studios in an environment rife with RF.

On Edwards' recommendation, production company talkbackThames purchased the Light Viper system to cover signal transmission from mic to desk, and for talkback via returns on the latest series of the reality show.

With transmission to ITV1 and ITV2, VSS were looking for a more efficient means of delivering the sound from the studio floor to the control room, and turned to a FiberPlex Light Viper VIS-1832/VIM-1832 fibre-optic snake to create far more effective tie lines over greater distances.

Light Viper's fibre optic system offers immunity to ground loops, RFI, EMI and electromechanical noi

UK - ETC is making good use of its new premises with two Congo training courseslined up before the end of the year. Each course lasts two days, allowing delegates to learn about Congo and its sibling, Congo jr and will take place on 22-23 November and 6-7 December.

Training will be hands on, with no more than two people per console, and space for only ten percourse. This is in addition to courses which run throughout the year, offering technical training in how to set up, operate and repair all ETC's products.

Day one introduces users to Congo and Congo jr, covering all the majorfunctions and allowing them to navigate the console and to program bothfixed and moving lights, including creating dynamic effects. The second dayfocuses on the software, editing and using multiple sequence lists.

The Playhouse at Gypsy Corner, as the demo theatre is known, is the stunningfoyer of ET

Europe - During the summer months VisualDMX was used at several festivals around Benelux. From Wesley in Concert at the IJssportcentrum in Tilburg, to the ID&T Sensation VIP rooms at the Amsterdam Arena, VisualDMX is becoming the preferred choice of software controller for many freelance programmers, especially when requiring a Matrix controller, says the company.

Tom van den Heuvel also used VisualDMX and Matrix Mania! to great effect at the TMF Awards VIP after show party on a 12 x 7 metre LED dance floor. Van den Heuvel felt compelled to use VisualDMX because he believes Matrix Mania! is "powerful and very easy to patch and make into a matrix: doesn't matter if its small or big as you can adapt easily and quickly the size and the patterns of the programmed images too."

At the open-air Mystery Land festival, VisualDMX came into its own with the programming of Allar

Germany - The sun has set and the Mercedes Sprinter door closed for the last time this year on the Tannoy & Friends Tour 2006 in Germany. This year the Tannoy tour team was the strongest it has been to date, with special guests Panasonic, Shure, Crestron and Simax all on board and presenting their latest new products. Kicking off in Frankfurt on 17th October, the tour travelled clockwise around the country stopping at seven cities in nine days! (Frankfurt, Remscheid, Hamburg, Berlin, Halle, Munich and Stutgartt).

Celebrating 80 years in business this year, Tannoy presented their latest products to feature their renowned Dual Concentric drive unit. Since its invention six decades ago, the Scottish-based loudspeaker manufacturer's point source drive unit technology has been constantly refined. The latest incarnation of the 'Dual', a miniature 4" version, is used in the highly

UK - Stardraw Control, the multi-award winning control application from design and control software systems developer, Stardraw.com has been named as a finalist for the Technology InAVation 2007 award in the category of Most Innovative Control Product for Commercial Use. The nomination coincides with the landmark 5,000 user tally, an astonishing achievement in just over twelve months when the product was still only in beta form.

Stardraw's marketing director, Rob Robinson, is delighted that Stardraw Control has qualified as a finalist for the inaugural Technology InAVation Awards which will be held at the forthcoming ISE show in Amsterdam next February. "Stardraw Control has already been recognised at several prestigious industry awards, and the Technology InAVation nomination serves as further testament to the truly innovative nature of the product," noted Robinson. &

UK - ChristChurch, London, has recently purchased an Innovason Sy48 Evolution digital console package to handle all of their FOH and monitoring needs at their new venue, the 1200-seat Piccadilly Theatre in London's West End.

Technical director Rhys Scott was looking for a console that would be intuitive to use, flexible, fast to work on and with high audio quality. Furthermore, as the console is largely used by volunteers, it needed to be accessible and logically laid out. "I met the Innovason team at the Messe in Frankfurt earlier in the year and was given a demo of the Sy48. It was extremely impressive, and there was no doubt that it met all of our criteria," said Scott. "We were looking to have the new console in place before we moved to our new venue at the Piccadilly Theatre, and fortunately for us, Innovason launched their 'New for Old" initiative just

France - Blackout, a supplier of drapes, rigging, starcloth and track, will exhibit on stand F67 at Heavent 2007 alongside three individual expert event suppliers including ETC Audiovisuelle, G-lec and Lumison. Heavent will take place between 21 - 23 November, 2006 at the Hippodrome de Longchamp in Paris.

"We have seen a rapid growth in recent years whereby the four companies products are often used alongside each other in a vast range of events ranging from exhibitions, seminars, parties, fashion extravaganzas and even multi-site product launches," explains Dominic Peissel, Gerant at Blackout France. "Heavent provides the perfect platform to showcase each company's expertise, talents and specialised products in an integrated show scenario."

On the stand, Blackout will feature their drapes, rigging, LED starcloth, track and Easi-Build Pipe and Drape system.

Egypt - 2006 marks the hundredth anniversary of the late Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen's. As a main event and closing ceremony of the worldwide 'Ibsen year', Peer Gynt was performed in Giza beside the Sphinx. For lighting control AVAB/CAC Norway who supported the project, used one grandMA full-size, one grandMA light and two NSPs.

Lighting designer Torkel Skjerven and his assistants Andreas Glad and Stefan Dombeck created a sophisticated show. "The lighting equipment was provided locally by High Lights Egypt while AVAB/CAC provided the grandMA control system," reports Skjerven, "We ran a network of grandMA full-size together with grandMA light as well as multiple grandMA onPC laptops. When dealing with multiple types of fixtures, grandMA gives a great overview of groups, presets as well as colour mixing. Its use of colour coding and different views make

Canada - An Allen & Heath ML5000 VCA mixer has been installed in the fictionalstudio of the popular Canadian TV show, Instant Star. Now in its thirdseason, the TV drama chronicles the life of a feisty young rock star,Jude Harrison, who has won a recording contract with G-Major studios.

"Our main objective with Instant Star is to make the series as realisticas possible to accurately reflect the music industry, which is why wehad to have a fully functioning board and not just a set piece. This isenhanced with the presence of the Allen & Heath ML5000 mixer, which isthe centrepiece of our recording studio set in the fictitious 'G Major'Studio," explains executive producer, Stephen Stohn. "Many of the show'sfans are intrigued by the music business, so the challenge is to haveall the equipment working as a real studio with the mixer at the coreoperating as

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