Zero 88's Graham Eales and Clare House were at the show, supporting distributors in various markets. The company has also committed to an African aid charity called Lean on Me: instead of giving out t-shirts or other swag, Zero makes a donation to the charity which supports people affected by AIDS across Africa.

German manufacturer Fohhn Audio introduced a range of DSP-controlled active, lightweight speakers for fixed installations and mobile applications. The self-powered compact speakers in the 12"/1"CD, 12"/2"CD and 15"/2"CD class can be operated remotely, are network-compatible and are equipped with fully programmable 10-band EQs, delays and dynamic processors. Parameters are easily configured via the 4-line LCD display or a laptop and can be saved as presets. The speakers are equipped with digital stereo amplifiers (2 x 1000W/8ohm) and can be connected to other passive Fohhn Tops or a passive Sub.

There's a new lease of life for flat-panel loudspeakers: Layered Sound is a new venture by Canadian concert pianist and inventor Shelley Katz, who has developed a combination of conventional and NXT-style distributed mode loudspeakers (DMLs). "He was in search of the perfect digital piano," revealed Ian Gair, well-known for many years at Fane Acoustics and now Layered Sound's executive for Commercial Audio. "Having found that the speaker output was the real problem, he identified NXT speakers as the potential equivalent of the piano soundboard - but it only worked when he combined them with conventional ones. One set deals with the direct onset of sound, the other handles the early reflections that provide clarity and depth."

One PhD later, funding was secured and Layered Sound went into business. Obviously, digital pianos aside, all of the previously identified app

JBL showed several new products including the new VT4887ADP three-way line array element and VT4881ADP powered subwoofer, which features JBL's newly-developed Ultra Long Excursion 460mm (18") woofer with 2000W continuous (AES), 8000W peak power handling capacity, the model 2269. Using the company's patented Differential Drive dual voice-coil loudspeaker technology, the 2269 provides high output capabilities with an "extremely advantageous" power-to-weight ratio and is used in JBL's two newest Vertec subwoofers, the VT4881ADP compact powered unit and VT4880A full-size passive. Adding to the VRX portable line array series, JBL is introducing the VRX915M two-way, 15" floor monitor designed for live performance. The company was also showcasing its Venue Performance (VP) Series of powered loudspeaker systems.

Sound Projects introduced the baby of the family, the Gluon, which is an extremely small speaker system with high acoustical output. It is designed as infill- or spot monitor. Also introduced was a new fly-able self-powered sub-low system: the SP18, which will make any small system sound big. Sound Projects' Dreamline Line-array system in a prefab housing was introduced at the show. Each Dreamline is individually configured by Sound Projects to match the location parameters. Its low weight of around 100 kg (depending on configuration), makes the Dreamline compliant with most standard theatre rigging points.

Tannoy was showing two new Precision monitors - Precision 6iDP and 8iDP. These intelligent active monitoring systems combine the Tannoy Dual Concentric and WideBand technology with the latest digital processing from TC Electronic. In the V-Series loudspeaker range, Tannoy has announced active versions of various models under the 'PowerV' banner. The in-ceiling range of loudspeakers is being extended with four new compact high performance models.

Meanwhile Ampco Belgium and TM Audio, divisions of the Ampco/Flashlight Group, announced their joint agreement with Peavey Electronics (see news last issue). The deal sees Ampco Belgium and TM Audio distributing, supporting and promoting Peavey products through dedicated vertical market sales teams, reseller product training schemes, product marketing support programmes, educational support initiatives and user endorsement programmes.

Uniquely, Peavey will integrate Ampco Belgium and TM Audio into its European logistics system, enabling access to its huge inventory of MI and pro audio products. The move signifies Peavey's ambition and commitment in the region, and in a statement Marc Kocks, MD of TM Audio, said, "Peavey is one of the world's largest MI and pro audio brands, and has enormous potential for growth in Benelux. Both TM Audio and Ampco Belgium have had long experience w

Steinigke Showtechnic previewed a couple of new products before Frankfurt, with their PHS-250 - a small mover - and PHS-1200 or 1200E (denoting electronic ballast) - the top model at the other end of their pro-line. Matthias Schwab explained that the PHS-1400 will follow.

UK - Three innovative products, 11 stand-out projects and a UK lighting designer were the outstanding winners at the Lighting Design Awards at the Royal Lancaster Hotel, London, on 30 March.

PLASA and the PLASA Show played a key role in the evening, sponsoring the new Entertainment Lighting Award, designed to give lighting designers recognition for their creative work. Following a rigorous judging process, the Award went to the Old Man of Storr in Trotternish on the Isle of Skye, which became the centrepiece for an extraordinary night-time event as an average of 200 people nightly took the midnight walk to the spectacular rock pinnacle. The Storr forest, cliffs and corrie provided the backdrop for a subtle and imaginative light and sound installation by Dave Bryant.

Peterborough Cathedral, which dates to 1118, won the Heritage Lighting Award for a scheme,

UK - Blitz Sound was commissioned by religious organisation, the Christ Embassy to provide audio and video equipment in support of a three day Easter rally at ExCel involving 5,000 people on site, plus a further seven million people world-wide via a live satellite feed.

The event was a charismatic renewal conference which started with all 5,000 devotees gathered in the main hall for a welcome and worship. A programme of interactive events including teaching and prayers then took place all day Friday and these were followed by an overnight vigil. A further two shows ran on Saturday and Sunday featuring charismatic leader, Pastor Chris preaching from Lagos. This sermon was transmitted via a hard satellite feed to Excel ensuring it could be watched in both London and South Africa. Blitz Sound recorded both audio and video throughout the four days, which were edited, remixed and sol

Greece - Christie partners AVC Productions recently provided complete technical support for a multi-venue Global Symposium on Vision Correction in Athens, on behalf of McMenemy Hill Live Communication, whose client is the eyecare specialists Bausch & Lomb.

Working with Bausch & Lomb's appointed communications agency McMenemy Hill, AVC supplied reinforcement for fifty presenters over the three days, using four of their newly purchased Christie (SXGA+) S+12Ks. These 12,000 ANSI Lumen, 3-chip DLP devices projected in 4:3 aspect ratio onto two butted displays, were soft-edge blended to create a widescreen canvas measuring 6m x 2.37m.

Fitted with 4.5-7.3:1 long-throw lenses, the S+12K's, ground-stacked at the back of the room on 10ft Dexion mounts, were able to provide the perfect solution, delivering razor sharp images over the 22m distance, and capturing the stunning detail of th

Europe - Hailed as one of the key pop lyricists of his generation, he made his name as the vocalist of the highly influential British rock group The Smiths. Morrissey's latest tour of Europe has been carrying full production provided by SSE Audio Group, featuring a Nexo Geo T system with Camco amplification.

The tour, which started in Sweden, has visited a diverse list of venues, from well-known arenas to town halls. Used in full at the largest shows, for example at London's Alexandra Palace, Morrissey's Nexo Geo T tangent-array sound reinforcement system comprised left and right arrays of 12x T4805s and three T2815s, with a centre cluster of two T4805s plus three T2815s. Sub bass was delivered by Nexo CD18s and the entire system was powered by Camco Vortex 6 amplifiers, with Vortex 4s to power the stage monitor system.

FOH engineer Dave 'Milky' Millward explained: "It's

UK - ADLIB Audio continues its excellent working relationship with the Charlatans, supplying a JBL VerTec line array system and full sound production and crew for their latest UK tour.

The band have just released their new Simpatico album, and with a loyal concert going fanbase, all the gigs have been packed with punters and enthusiasm.

The tour visits a variety of venues and is being mixed by FOH engineer Dian Barton. For the larger spaces, the standard configuration is 12 VerTec 4888 elements a side, together with six ADLIB 418 subs a side, explains ADLIB's systems engineer and FOH 'babysitter' Steve Pattison.

VerTec is an ideal system for a band like the Charlatans, who combine a serious rock 'n' roll attitude with power, driving guitars and intricate lyrics. They are not a band that requires rocket science to get a good sound, as they all play well and solidly, it

Thailand - Visualization specialist Barco is delighted that its products were selected for the MTV Asia Awards in Thailand on 6 May 2006. The Siam Paragon in Bangkok was illuminated not only with international and Asian stars celebrating the fifth spectacular MTV Asia Awards 2006, but also a host of Barco's leading creativity products were on set to provide the visual displays.

The highly creative set design was built around two OLite 510 LED displays totaling 30sq.m of modular LED blocks. Set back from the OLite were a total of 8,000 MiPIX blocks which gave the set depth. Two SLM R12+ projectors provided the 4,600 capacity crowd with a front seat view of what was happening on stage, as well the MTV short animation film that played at intervals throughout the show.

All Barco products were supplied and installed by Tedtronic Pte Ltd of Singapore, one of Barco's la

Belgium - Barco, pioneer in creative LED technology, is again centre stage at this year's 2006 Eurovision Song contest. With an impressive and varied combination of the latest LED technology and projectors, the show is set to be the biggest ever and is a tribute to Barco's leadership in international events.

As the eyes of an estimated 400 million viewers across the world tune-in to watch the semi-final and final in Athens, Greece on 18 and 20 May, they will see one of the most spectacular stage designs ever, featuring more than 1,100 of the industry's standard Barco ILite 6 XP LED tiles, 4,800 OLite 510 modules and 8 high brightness SLM-R12+ projectors all being controlled by the Encore show control system. Barco rental partner Procon (Germany) - ETF (Belgium) delivered all visualization equipment used on the show.

Integrated into the gigantic 13-metre-wide stage floor

USA - Danley Sound Labs is introducing the SH-100B at InfoComm 2006. This new addition to the popular SH Series gives the user the additional power of a tapped-horn subwoofer wrapped around the popular two-way Danley SH-100 loudspeaker.

With a maximum SPL in the upper 120dB range, a beamwidth of 110 x 110, and frequency response to below 40Hz, the SH-100B is destined to become a favourite loudspeaker solution for audio designers, contractors, and staging/rental companies, says the company. Its compact size, 29.5" x 20.5" x 19", make the SH-100B extremely mobile.

Applications for the SH-100B include houses or worship, commercial theatres, live music venues, performing arts centres, and discos.

"Pound for pound, dollar for dollar, the SH-100B is one of the most powerful loudspeakers out there," says Mike Hedden, president of Danley Sound Labs. "Us

UK - RF specialist Trantec is delighted to announce that it has further expanded its range of innovative wireless radio mic systems with the addition of its new 4-channel UHF S4.4 system, which offers a cost effective and flexible alternative for vocals, presentations, and musical instruments.

Designed to the highest specifications at Trantec's London based HQ, the S4.4 systems offer four license-free switchable UHF frequencies which can operate simultaneously.

By virtue of its advanced diversity receiver, it optimises interference-free reception in the most challenging application environments and features an adjustable squelch function to guard against interference. In addition its unique dynamics processor ensures a crystal clear and natural sound.

The Vocal system comprises a hand-held transmitter with a dynamic capsule and a diversity receiver. Delivering a punchy and a

France - University of California Berkeley's Centre for New Music and Audio Technologies (CNMAT) is a hotbed of research into areas of music and sound technology as diverse as music languages and protocols, gestural controllers, and new methods of radiating and spatializing sound. Meyer Sound's long-time dedication to advanced research and the physical proximity of their facilities (Meyer Sound headquarters is barely two miles from CNMAT), made it entirely natural for an alliance to form between the two organizations. The relationship that developed has encompassed several projects over a number of years.

Currently, Meyer Sound is supporting a CNMAT effort to create a loudspeaker array capable of mimicking the kinds of radiation patterns exhibited by acoustical musical instruments. The most recent prototype array is a 10-inch-diameter icosahedron incorporating 120 1.25-inch driv

France - As one of the very few loudspeaker system manufacturers, Alcons Audio will be present at the coming AES convention in Paris. On the show, Alcons will be exhibiting with a sample of each product category; the first product of the completely new 'S-series', the SR9.

The SR9 is an ultra-compact ribbon loudspeaker, specifically designed for applications where ultimate fidelity response needs to be projected with wide horizontal and precise vertical coverage, such as low-profile stage-lip/front-fill, upper-/under-balcony or stair risers or walls.

The rapidly acceptance-gaining Q-series will be on show, with a 2 metre stack of QR36 and a stand-mounted QR18 ribbon column array. "Ultimate controlled projection" are the key-words here, says the company.

The already famous flexibility of the LR14 ultra-compact ribbon line-array is shown with the unique BRK3LR14 brac

France - Barco are the official supplier of digital cinema projectors at 2006 Cannes Film Festival. Recognized as an industry leader in digital cinema, Barco will be the sole supplier of digital cinema projectors for all 2K digital screenings at this year's festival.

The Festival de Cannes continues its strong association with Barco in awarding the responsibility of supplying projectors for all the 2K digital screenings of the festival. Barco's 2K digital cinema projectors, based on Texas Instruments' DLP Cinema technology, equip the Lumière, Debussy, Bazin and Bunuel auditoriums during the Festival and are provided in partnership with XDC. In addition, Barco will also supply digital projectors to the Marché Du Film in the auditoriums of Bory, Palaris D, E and F.

Nico Vernieuwe, VP sales and marketing of Barco's media and entertainment division says: "We are delig

Canada - PALM Expo 2006 (formally known as CALM Expo) will bring more than 1200 exhibiting companies with some 130,000 qualified visitors together, over the four days of exhibition. This international exhibition spans over 12 halls in the China International Exhibition Centre (CIEC), between 31 May and 3 June in Beijing.

Brock Adamson, founder and CEO of Adamson Systems Engineering will attend China's 15th annual PALM expo and will be present at booth 8120, hosted by Adamson's Chinese distributors Eastern Acoustic Development. EAD will exhibit Adamson's newest products the T-21Sub and M15 multipurpose enclosures, along side with Y-Axis Y10's and Y18's. Mr. Adamson will show power point presentations and report further on the new T-21 Sub's driver ND-21 design and on the Adamson Co-Linear Drive Technology.

Adamson Systems Engineering develops and manufactures high-end loudspeak

UK - LD Nick Jevons of Electric Fly Productions chose an Avolites Diamond 4 console as the primary control desk for the main stage at Radio One's Big Weekend in Dundee.

Headlining artists included Razorlight, The Streets, The Editors, Muse, Snow Patrol, Mylo, Pink, Keane and the Sugababes. For the first time, the event was recorded for broadcast on the digital channel, BBC 3.

The high profile two day event - Radio One's biggest Weekend to date - was the first time that Jevons has used a Diamond 4 - although he is experienced on other Avo consoles. "I always like pushing the technical boundaries for these shows," he enthused. "I needed a powerful desk and it was an absolutely ideal opportunity to use a D4," he says.

A week beforehand, he went into Avolites' training room for the day in London and did a crash course on the console - which he f

UK - Clarion Events Ltd, organisers of PLASA06, have announced details of the seminars to be held at this year's PLASA Show at Earls Court in London (10-13 September). With the broadest agenda in the show's history, the seminar programme will offer something for everybody, with expert advice on both technical and business issues.

New technologies are right at the top of the bill with Sunday's opening seminar presented by Kevin Williams, director of out-of-home leisure consultancy KWP Ltd. Out of Home Leisure Entertainment will look at the application of interactive and 4D technologies and the potential for crossover between the worlds of themed attractions and theatre, including the latest generation of projection and audio systems.

Sunday afternoon will see GMTV's lighting director, John Allard, address the rapidly expanding topic of LED lighting. In Lighting with L

Germany - For the fifth time, Lightpower GmbHm of Paderborn has successfully staged its 'Open Days' - what it calls "the German 'trend and further-training' forum for the lighting industry". More than 1,200 lighting professionals were invited to attend the Show at Heinz Nixdorf Forum, Paderborn, between 15-16 May to visit the high profile seminars and the product exhibition. Also, on day one, more than 800 visitors came together to party at the Capitol music theatre, enjoying the music of a first-class live band.

Established in 1994, the Open Days take place every third year and have become a leading German forum for lighting professionals from all disciplines. Lightpower says it "always aims to talk and listen to the users, whether they are convinced by the products distributed by Lightpower or critical about them. The only important thing - they had to be profes

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