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Visual Productions' focus was on the Matrix Mania, a lighting tool for the control of LED matrixes, which has covered considerable ground since its launch at the show a year ago, and can now render full animations. The company's newest hardware device, the Frontier, was launched at the show and is a playback unit with the capacity for 16 pre-programmed sequences. A new VisualDMX software version is also available.

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News from ADB included their EuroDim dimming system, which now offers silent dimming of practically any load using new sine wave modules. The dimmer offers self-protection against short circuits, self-limitation of peak current, elimination of lamp filament noise and noise induced in audio equipment. The sine wave dimmer modules for the EuroDim ranges can be retrofitted into existing installations, and can coexist with conventional thyristor modules in the same cabinet.

ADB's WARP lighting fixture range was on display, with new improved features and discharge light sources. A low-noise colour changer with an adaptor plate that reduces spill light from the front of the fixture has been introduced. WARP/HMI is a new fixture range that uses HMI/MSR discharge lamps and flicker-free electronic ballasts; the fixtures are silent due to their fan-less design.

ADB's Phoenix and Mentor console

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L-Acoustics announced the availability of Version 1.3.0 of Soundvision, its three-dimensional sound design program. The latest software incorporates temporal mapping, speaker grouping and subwoofer visualization. Temporal mapping utility conveniently enables users to optimize the performance of their delay systems by displaying, in real-time, whether speakers are within or outside of a useful time delay. The new speaker grouping feature allows enclosures to be grouped by categories within the loudspeaker control panel. Models of L-Acoustics' subwoofers have been added to the program, allowing users to see the physical existence of low-frequency enclosures in a system design.

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Spotlight were exhibiting as at SIB, but new for Frankfurt was the Accurate BLITZ Stage, a powerful 5W moving-head laser, complete with gobos, animations and frost effects, which is also DMX controllable.

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USA - A trade exhibition is where everyone talks to each other. But NSCA is where everything talks to each other.The machines are taking over the conversation, and contractors are having to start listening in.Harman Pro and Loud Technologies once again dominated. Version 1.08 was launched of BSS Audio's HiQnet London Architect - not be confused with version 1.1 of HiQnet System Architect. It's for the SoundWeb London platform at the moment, but there is a plan to migrate over to System Architect so that absolutely all Harman product is available under it.

"It's a legacy thing," said Ian Gregory, product manager at BSS Audio. "The development cycle for SoundWeb London just predated HiQnet, at which point it was decided that a completely new software application would be written from the ground up. This would then be the central control softwar

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Amongst other products, LSC Lighting showed the DNAnet/R which is a DMX/ArtNet converter, as both an input or an output module. The unit includes a fully working RDM for bi-directional communication with RDM enabled devices. ArtNet View software enables full configuration and monitoring of any number of DNAnet/R units via ethernet networks. Also exhibited was the e24 v2, an evolution of LSC's e24 compact touring dimmer system.

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Anolis, the architectural LED lighting manufacturer formed just over a year ago in a joint venture between Robe Show Lighting and Australian distributor ULA, was again exhibiting adjacent to Robe, and was one of the companies reporting a good level of interest from overseas buyers at SIB. General feedback from Anolis was that one year on from its inception, expectations are being exceeded and general manager John Saunders was positive about the future.

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Last month, the total number of visitors to the combined shows reached 100,000 for the first time, a 10% rise over last year, while exhibitors increased by 5%. And this over just four days, with a 16% rise in overseas visitors. No wonder there are long queues at the taxi ranks.

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The new Pro Lounge opposite Hall 8 is actually a marquee, erected in one of the many inter-hall plazas that break up the Messe site into architectural respites. In it you can actually hear audio - including, at 4:00pm on the first day, the redoubtable Thomas Blug & Friends. "If you like the guitar playing of Jeff Beck and David Gilmour," said the poster, "it's a safe bet you'll like Thomas Blug."

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Belgian manufacturer Apex began with analogue EQs, 10 years ago, went digital in both signal processing and speaker management, but has now returned to high-end analogue with the dBC-8 and dBG-8 - an 8-channel compressor and 8-channel noise gate respectively. "There's a developing sector that wants to save rack space without going digital," says product specialist Filip De Vos. "These address the same need that PA companies have for more and more compact kit, each with eight channels in one unit. They also avoid too many control knobs and switches that people don't have the time to set. There is definitely still a middle range of users who want the analogue sound quality, the ease of use and the cost-effective price.

"The more digital we go, the fewer racks will be needed. Some will remain for the esoteric units, and there are those who don't have the budget to go h

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Neumann showed its stage microphones, the KK104 and KK105s. The capsule head of the KMS vocal microphone, compatible with the Sennheiser SKM 5000 / 5200 wireless system, makes wireless Neumann sound possible on the stage.

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Martin Professional's Tungsten MAC TW1 was a a bit of a crowd puller but I was able to grab a few moments with Martin's Harry de Lon who walked me through the fixture due to ship in the summer. CMY colour mixing providesa full range, from delicate pastels to deep saturation. The standard lens gives a variable range of 20-40° with other options available. The company says that the MAC TW1 1200W fixture is the brightest in its class, and also that it is exceptionally quiet - a feat achievable through a new, (patent pending) silent cooling design which traps the heat and dissipates it away from the back of the fixture. The MAC 700 Wash was also on display (for more on this, see our Technical Focus review, pages 84-89), and other important launches include Maxxyz PC, a PC-based version of the popular Maxxyz console.

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Another Italian lighting manufacturer, DTS has been around for many years, but has only recently begun to make its mark in the moving light market. It had a strong presence at SIB, showed a number of new products including its powerful new XM 1200 Spot. Features include CMY colour-mixing plus a colour wheel (seven colours plus white), two gobo wheels with six gobos plus open on each, and an effects wheel with a rotating and indexable beam-shaper, three prisms and a frost. Using a Philips MSR 1200/SA discharge lamp, the luminaire boasts a 5,600°K colour temperature output, an intelligent cooling system, protection circuitry and power-saving mode. The rugged unit has an anodized aluminium body with ABS covering over the yoke and head, and comes with a two-year guarantee. Comprehensive technical support is offered online. DTS also conducted tours of its nearby offices and factory premis

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Court Acoustics presented its Vocal Management System, designed for both live and studio applications. The VMS provides the singer with all the sound processing they could require, in a 1U rack-mounting box. Designed by Stephen Court in a joint venture with Recording Studio Design Ltd, and described by him as "a complete voice control and enhancement system which doesn't require any technical set-up".

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Prior to a special presentation of HK Audio's swathe of new gear, African drummer Christian Bourdon warmed delegates up with a spot of mbala. HK then rolled out the new generation of the 8-year old LUCAS family of compact, active enclosures featuring several innovations - not least Digital Dynamics Optimisation (DDO) technology, an integrated, preset-configured digital controller. The new ConTour Array also features a higher-spec'd version, DDO-Pro.

"Contour follows on from Cohedra and Cohedra Compact," explained HK Audio's Marketing Manager Philipp Wrede. "But unlike Cohedra it's an active system, something the market demanded from us. It's very fast and easy to set up, with presets according to how many units you're using and whether you're flying or stacking - great for small-to-mid-range applications, say between 200 and 800 people. Cohedra remains the large-scale fl

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Nexo has finally sequelled its successful Geo S and Geo T tangent-array systems with the Geo D and Geo Sub, which as much as anything offer refinements implicit in previous models rather than breaking the mould: both Hyperbolic Wavesource and NX242 gain upgrades. Once again, the new generation "allows an unprecedented entry point" to line array technology, and it's the small-to-medium sized occasions that will get the benefit.

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XLNT Advanced Technologies made the first European showing of the expanded CyberHoist / InMotion 3D motion control system. Two new CyberHoist intelligent hoist motors join the original 500kg-capacity, 0-20m per minute CyberHoist 500. These are the CyberHoist 250 motor, capable of lifting 250kg at variable speeds of 0-40m per minute, and the new invertible CyberHoist 1000, with a 1-tonne lifting capacity at variable speeds of0-10m per minute. The matching InMotion3D control software is capable of operating all three types of motors singly or in one object.

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The usual A.C. Lighting welcome was extended, with the team excited about the Jands Vista S3. Designed to compete in the Frog 2 / Hog 1000 market, the Vista S3 is a compact piece of kit which provides full functionality of a Vista console, run in conjunction with a PC or Mac. Shipping in the next month. ColorWeb aplenty was also on show, offering a cost-effective modular solution. Each 1sq.m panel has 16 DMX LED colour cells, with panels clipping together.

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Martin Audio debuted the W8L 'Longbow', a product to stretch even tauter the muscles that fire the arrows of line array. "It's abouta 10dB extra HF improvement on the W8L," said Martin Audio design guru Jim Cousins, "so it's for situations where you need a very long throw - particularly in dry air conditions where you get a lot of air absorption. It also has a new LF driver with much better headroom, so generally speaking it has a wider bandwidth at much greater distance than similar-sized line arrays."

The W8LCD is a downfill addition to each of Martin Audio's line array series, with 120° horizontal dispersion, 20° vertical. "It means you can run the array straighter," added Cousins, "so you get more projection and it works more like a line array should. It completes the range. But, as with other Martin line array, you can use it separately i

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Arri was exhibiting the new ArriMax 18/12, "the most powerful HMI light on the planet". By the looks of this monster, it meant business. Combining the variable beam spread of a Fresnel and the light output of a Par, the ArriMax uses a unique reflector concept for beam control which eliminates the need for spread lenses. The unit takes a new 18kW or 12kW lamp

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Shure unveiled its new Digital Conferencing Processor, DCP 1248, which offers Diversity Echo Cancellation per channel for clean and consistent speech quality, regardless of environmental conditions. While one Echo Cancellation processor is active, the other processor simultaneously monitors the channel to compensate for changes in the environment.

The DCP 1248 Conferencing Processor includes 12 mic/line level inputs, each with logic inputs and outputs, four line level inputs, and eight line level outputs. Through Shure's CABus network, up to eight units can be linked, resulting in up to 96 x 64 auto-mixable microphone channels.

Also launching was a wired version of Shures's KSM9 wireless capsule. KSM9 is the first live vocal microphone with a dual-diaphragm design and switchable cardioid/supercardioid polar pattern, crafted to deliver vocal subtlety, flexibility and durability, say t

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Beyerdynamic's 'line array microphone'-based desktop conferencing solution, Revoluto, promised at ISE in Brussels at the start of the year (see L&SI February 2006) was still in the prototype stages and only partially operational. "September" was the new touted launch date.

Each station contains 14 capsules, but the unit is no larger than conventional gooseneck models. Revoluto is also a networked system, enabling up to 1,400 stations to operate from one control unit, distributed around multiple rooms or buildings and PC-configurable into precise scheduled sessions - all of which thinking has arisen from Beyerdynamic's acquisition of Interkom, the German conferencing technology manufacturer and, by sheer coincidence, neighbour of Sennheiser.

New products actually on the beyerdynamic stand included the Opus 89 dynamic microphone, and the expansion of the Tourgroup series of m

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Meyer Sound were showing M'elodie, its new high-power curvilinear array loudspeaker, and the latest addition to the MILO family of self-powered loudspeakers. M'elodie has a smaller footprint than the MICA, making it ideal for fixed installation in venues that might otherwise have seemed too small for a line array solution. Also announced was the news that the company's MAPP Online Pro acoustical prediction software is now available directly from the website, making it accessible to all.

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UK manufacturer Audient has been tinkering with its ONE loudspeaker control solution, contributing to the general trend towards cutting down set-up times and generally making it easier and more intuitive to navigate around PA systems - a bit like the way digital recording packages help you navigate around your session.

"We now have control software so you can run every parameter in the box from a PC, using a really slick user interface," explained Audient-LA Audio product specialist Ross McFarlane. "You can do that to control a single unit, already built into the box, or with an optional network card you can do it for up to 100 units. It looks and behaves much like a Pro Tools plug-in, so it's really easy to understand."

It also allows you to store and recall banks of programs, so with multiple units in comparable systems it's possible to transfer data from one en

  1. Celestion
  2. 18 Sound
  3. Doughty and Prolyte
  4. Community Professional Loudspeakers
  5. Roland
  6. Bosch
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