Dubai - Lighthouse Technologies has confirmed that Staging Connections, the event and exhibition services group with its Middle East subsidiary Gearhouse Staging Connections in Dubai, has purchased a total of 200sq.m of its R16i/o-II 16mm indoor/outdoor LED screen for the region. The deal, worth US$5m, was completed at PALME Middle East.

The Staging Connections Group, headquartered in Australia, operates from over 90 locations around the world. The group delivers production, design, staging and venue solutions across a wide spectrum of live events and exhibitions as well as providing venue services.

The purchase decision was made for a variety of reasons, as Gearhouse's managing director, Peter McCann explains: "Gearhouse and the Staging Connections Group have been instrumental in bringing the latest and best technology to the Middle East, introducing high-definition solu

Korea - The 17th edition of the Korean International Broadcast, Audio & Lighting Equipment show (KOBA) was held earlier this month at the COEX centre in Seoul.

For the sixth consecutive year Proel Korea was present at the show. The theme of the stand was based around the Proel touring and sound systems catalogues, with the main emphasis being on the Axiom Vertical Progressive array systems.

The centre pieces of the stand were composed of a column of 10 x Axiom AX3210P speakers with the EDGE121SP 21" subwoofers and the new AX2265P Axiom Compact system.

David Yoon, president of Proel Korea commented, "We are quietly confident that with the new Axiom Compact System we will be able to repeat the outstanding success of the AX3210P. This type of compact vertical array means that we will be able to provide small and medium sizes concert halls and churches with very high q

UK - Registrations are strong for this year's AGM with well over 100 members and 50 guests signed up for the event which is to be held on Wednesday 6 June at the Hurlingham Club in West London.

The event, which is free to all members, has a strong agenda this year and will feature a key vote on a major membership restructure, updates on the radio licensing issue which threatens every aspect of the industry and a highly respected guest speaker in former MP, Tony Benn.

The AGM, which begins at midday, will cover the key activities of the last 12 months, including the ongoing development of qualifications for the sector, PLASA's commitment to improve member services, the launch of an events division and the most recent developments in the organisation's high-profile lobbying campaign to challenge the auction of vital radio frequencies.

The AGM will also address the future as th

Finland - The 52nd Eurovision Song Contest was held at the Hartwall Arena in the Finnish capital of Helsinki in early May. A record 42 nations participated in what is becoming an ever-more complex and sophisticated technical production event that was broadcast to an estimated global TV audience of 100 million. Following the success of last year's Eurovision show in Athens, it was decided that a similar system be used in Helsinki. Sound company Akun Tehdas was called in to supply a total of four InnovaSON digital mixing consoles to equip both FoH and monitor positions.

Akun Tehdras put in place a dual redundancy system throughout, which effectively meant two of everything, one of which was purely for back-up purposes. As InnovaSON's technical field manager, Matthieu Le Failler pointed out, "When your show is being performed in front of 12,000 people and going out live to 100

USA - Bill Sapsis has announced the formation of the North American Theatre Engineering and Architecture Conference (NATEAC).

Based on the model of the TEA conferences produced by Richard Brett in London in 2002 and 2006, NATEAC (www.NATEAC.org) will offer more than 50 panellists speaking at over 20 sessions on topics ranging from current rigging technology to the makeup of stage floors, as well as a discussion of where the proscenium will be by the year 2020.

The conference will take place on 20 and 21 July 2008 at the Michael Schimmel Centre for the Arts at Pace University in downtown Manhattan, NYC.

"The goal of the North American Theatre Engineering and Architecture Conference is to promote communication between the architects, engineers, consultants and manufacturers responsible for designing and building new theatres and renovating existing facilities in North Ame

New Zealand - Selecon Performance Lighting has several new product debuts planned for the ABTT Theatre Show 2007 in London next month, including the long throw Toru 4º-8º followspot, the third and final model from the Performer Series range of followspots.

Previously seen in preproduction mode and now in full production, the Toru 4º-8º followspot has been well received with several orders for major theatres including two units destined for the Barbican, and five Toru 4º-8º followspots for Norway's new National Opera House in Oslo, together with four short throw Tahi 18º-24º models.

ABTT Theatre Show visitors will also have the chance to try out the newly remodelled Acclaim Fresnel and PC which introduce heat management to 500W / 650W luminaires, typically used in schools and community theatres. This new feature ensures operators can focus these versatile little stage l

Abu Dhabi - German sound reinforcement manufacturer Kling & Freitag has appointed ESE Special Electronics as its sole distribution partner in the GCC with immediate effect. The signing ceremony took place at PALME Middle East 2007.

"Kling & Freitag is a recognised brand in the UAE and we're proud to be offering their range of speakers, amplifiers and controllers in our overall catalogue" said ESE general manager Faris Al-Azzawi. "The UAE market is a competitive one for any state of the art audio-visual equipment. Having the rights to distribute Kling & Freitag's audio equipment gives us a niche in the market."

"We are proud to engage in this strategic alliance with ESE, as they have a proven track record in the industry," said Kling & Freitag export manager Martin Schlockwerder. "We have been discussing the logistics of this appointment and I

UK - At this year' ABTT Shows, XL's touch screen media delivery systems will be highlighted on the stand. These are designed for easy and quick visualisation during a performance, where manual operation is appropriate. The operator simply touches the chosen icon to start 'play' of a sequence or single clip of media. The system can be used with or without audio.

Recent tours for this system have included Tony Robinson and Mitchell & Webb - and it has proved to be particularly appropriate for comedic performances.

Also prominent at the show is XL's high brightness projection equipment. This will be displaying custom electric masked projected shapes above the XL Video stand - from a distance of 35m - complete with the new generation of Barco CLM quiet running 10,000 ANSI Lumen projectors.

(Jim Evans)

Singapore - Leading line array manufacturers are being invited to go head-to-head in a shoot-out at this year's PALME Asia show, (previously known as PALA) in Singapore, 12-14 July, Singapore Expo.

The opportunity for visitors to make their own evaluation on a large scale is a development of the idea piloted at PALME India last year - on a much larger scale. As a result, PALME Asia's associate partner, UnUsUal Productions, will build the special infrastructure for the Event 360° segment of the show to support this in Hall 5 at Singapore Expo (which will now operate in parallel with the integrated exhibition in Halls 3 and 4).

"This is a major breakthrough for PALME Asia," said the show's sales manager, Hanslee Azhar. "We will be offering a maximum of 12 manufacturers the opportunity to participate - and the response has been overwhelming."

To date, DA

Dubai - Awards recognising outstanding use of lighting in the GCC territories, were presented at the Middle East Lighting Design Awards (MELDA) gala dinner, which took place during the recent PALME Middle East exhibition in Dubai.

The standard of this year's entries reflected the remarkable pace of development and scale of new commercial projects in the region.

The difficult task of adjudication fell to a panel of top lighting professionals, including Barry Hannaford of the IALD, and director, dpa Lighting Consultants; Yahya Jan AIA, vice president, design director, Norr Group Consultants; Riad Saraiji, associate professor of architectural engineering at UAE University, and Paul James, Editor, Mondo*arc magazine.

Paying tribute, James said: "There is a general feeling in the design community that lighting, particularly in Dubai, is becoming increasingly 'Las Vega

UK - ISCE's revised Training Initiative got off to a flying start. Already nearly 50 attendees have been trained and accredited with their certificates, in the Measurement & Certification of AFILS Systems, to the newly revised IEC60118-4 Standard. This is a vital course for anyone involved with Induction Loop Systems.

Regional courses have already been held in Watford, Warrington, Washington (Tyne & Wear), and Northern Ireland and, with places filling fast for course venues at Bristol and Crowborough on 9 and 16 July respectively, there is no time to lose if you don't want to miss out on this essential training and accreditation, says ISCE.

Future courses being planned include Design and Installation of AFILS; Commissioning, Balancing and Equalisation of Sound Systems; Implementation of the new EMC Standards; and courses specifically for Voice Alarm Systems. For those new to

UK - Selecon is offering visitors to next week's ABTT Theatre Show the opportunity to win one of four top of the range Leatherman Charge TTI hand tools.

Entry forms for the promotion can only be obtained at the Show; either at the Selecon Stand or keep an eye out for someone in a bright yellow 'Get a Grip!' t-shirt and collect one from them. Fill it in, pop it in the tombola at the Selecon Stand and you are in the draw - the earlier you enter the more chances you have to win, says Selecon. There will be a total of four draws with one winner per draw.

(Jim Evans)

USA - Lighthouse Technologies will once again be showing its giant video displays at InfoComm from 19 to 21 June in Anaheim, California. The company will have its three leading products on display: R4, R6-III and R10-II.

R4 is a 4mm pixel pitch display, Lighthouse's finest pixel pitch to date. Its ultra-high resolution addresses the continuing demand for high definition screens and it includes remote monitoring of LED failure, power failure and temperature. R4 adopts the fanless approach of the super-quiet R10 screen and this, along with its lightweight, makes it ideally suited to networked five-star boutique applications, says the company.

R6-III's 6mm pixel pitch display incorporates Lighthouse's proprietary Uniformity Control, developed to guarantee that the colour balance of every pixel and the brightness of every LED lamp is identical, ensuring uniformity to "an exce

UK - Mojo Barriers was the barrier supplier of choice when George Michael played his recent concert at the new Wembley Stadium, supplying the touring barrier system from their Netherlands facility, supplemented by over 600m of barrier from the Mojo Barriers UK office.

The Mojo Barriers UK office supplied 617m additional barriers for the concert, installed by a team of nine staff on the Friday evening and removed immediately after the show. They also supplied promoter Marshall Arts a further 345m surrounding the mix position and delay towers.

Kevin Thorborn, Mojo Barriers UK manager said: "It was great to be involved with the first show at the new Wembley Stadium. There were a few areas we all learned from, but it is a great venue and we're looking forward to working at many more shows in the future."

(Jim Evans)

UK - Avolites will highlight its new Pearl Expert console at the ABTT 2007 (13-14 June, London). With 200 shipped and 300 currently on order, it looks set to be the popular choice for the busy summer season ahead, says the company. Avo will also feature its Diamond 4 Elite, Pearl 2008 and Azure consoles at the show.

On the dimmer front, the Art2000 Touring dimmer - as featured on all the recent UK blockbuster movies - will be on the stand, along with the Art2000 installation dimmer.

• A D4 Elite console and an Art2000 dimming system have just been installed at the Bournemouth Opera House. Originally opened in 1895 as the Boscombe Grand Theatre, a multi-million pound refurbishment project has seen the 2000 capacity venue restored to its original Victorian splendour, complete with top notch contemporary production facilities.

(Jim Evans)

UK - Lightfactor Sales will be showing a variety of its core theatre and performance orientated products available from Italian manufacturers SGM and LDR and LightProcessor from the UK, at this week's ABTT Show (13-14 June, London).

This will include Giotto Synthes's moving lights, PALCO LED wash fixtures, Pilot 300 and Studio lighting desks and the complete Idea range of products from SGM; a wide selection of theatre lanterns and accessories from LDR and LightProcessor's cost-effective range of lighting consoles, dimming solutions and DMX accessories.

New from LightProcessor is a range of location dimmers, specifically designed for the portable dimming market, suitable for film and video shoots and all types of special events. These offer local control and are available in 1 x 63A, 3 x 25A, 6 x 16A and 6 x 10A versions - all as complete 'ready-to-go', out of the box, plug-in-

China - UK lighting designer Durham Marenghi gave a presentation about his lighting design for the 2006 Winter Olympics at the 5th China International Entertainment Technology Forum in Beijing.

The Forum attracted major interest and was attended by over 200 invited guests including lighting and sound designers, programmers, operators, technicians and consultants from all sectors of the Chinese lighting industry - from television to live entertainment - and organisers and managers from large performance teams.

"Obviously it was very exciting and a great honour to be invited to China to speak about this work," says Marenghi. "There is intense interest in the skills, knowledge and technology involved in producing monumental shows and events ahead of the Beijing Olympics in 2008."

Marenghi's interactive 35-minute presentation detailed the evolution and execut

UK - Even the inclement conditions of the Bank Holiday weekend couldn't dampen the spirits of the participants in Sue Ryder Care's Beat the Baton, a 5km run held on 28 May in London's Battersea Park.

Beat the Baton attracted over 800 participants, who ran the course around the Park to the accompaniment of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, to raise money for people suffering from multiple sclerosis, Huntington's disease, Parkinson's disease, stroke and cancer.

Logistics for the event were taken care of by London-based Absolute Events, working closely with Wandsworth Council's events manager for Battersea Park, Alison Smith.

Formed in 1998 by Jonathan Price, Absolute Events' experience stood them in good stead to handle this occasion. "Not only was this the first Beat the Baton Sue Ryder Care has held, but it was the first time the Royal Philharmonic

International - The July-August issue of Lighting&Sound International magazine will include the first instalment of Preview information for this year's PLASA Show.

The Show is close to being sold out, promising one of the busiest shows in the event's history, and paving the way for possible further expansion of this year's event. One of the most radical changes this year will be the show's new layout, which will transform PLASA07 into a two-hall, single-level exhibition thanks to expansion from Earls Court 1 into the adjacent Earls Court 2. PLASA has invested heavily in the new-look event, creating new meeting and presentation areas, a wireless internet zone, VIP hospitality suite and a separate fast-track entrance on Brompton Road. With pre-registrations growing daily, record numbers of visitors are expected at this year's

The Netherlands - Alcons Audio is scheduled to show its products at three imminent trade shows - the ABTT Show in London, MediaTech in Johannesburg and the Cinema Expo convention in Amsterdam.

Emphasising its fast growing presence in the theatre market, Alcons will be exhibiting at the coming ABTT show in London with all three theatre sound system philosophies: point-source (VR, SR), line-source (QR) and line-array (LR) systems.

At the same time, on another continent, Alcons' Pro Ribbon Partner Matrix Sound from South-Africa, will be exhibiting at the Mediatech show in Johannesburg. Also here, the three system philosophies will be present. Matrix offers visitors a sneak preview of the Phitom large-format line-array design study, as showed at the Frankfurt ProLight&Sound show in March.

Alcons' key words at the Cinema Expo convention in Amsterdam will be "the only digit

UK - BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend free festival in Moor Park, Preston, was reinforced through Turbosound Aspect loudspeakers.

Britannia Row was the main audio provider for the event, with Turbosound's head of R&D Dominic Harter managing the set-up of the Aspect system which comprised six TA-890H mid-highs, nine TA-890L lows and four TSW-218 subs per side, all ground-stacked. QLight TQ-425 subs along with Turbosound monitor wedges were deployed as monitors for the DJs. Amplification was via eight T-25 and 12 T-45 amplifiers, with control by two XTA DP448s and an XTA D2 for any added dynamic equalisation required.

"The decision to have an outdoor arena - and to use Aspect - was quickly proven right, as it was a stunning success, with a huge crowd enjoying the superstar DJ sets on each day. I have never known such an immediate and enthusiastic response to any system from everyo

UK - Matt Chisholm, winner of the Stage Electrics NSDF 'Contribution To Sound Award' in association with Sennheiser was presented his prize by David Bell of Stage Electrics last week outside the Sennheiser Theatre at Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts (LIPA.)

The National Student Drama Festival (NSDF) is held in Scarborough each year, students some of which have never touched anything technical in their lives, have the opportunity to attend seminars and training sessions, meet industry experts and showcase their often newly discovered talents.

Stage Electrics has been involved with the festival for the last seven years, supporting the NSDF since 1999. The company supplies the festival's technical requirements and helps to deliver the workshop programme.

Chris Patton from Stage Electrics explains, "We have run various courses from basic moving lights workshops to sou

UK - Scattered Media has been set up by former IIR Exhibitions executives, Darren Brechin and Iain McLean - who launched and masterminded the PALME Middle East and PALME India exhibitions, and managed IIR's entire Entertainment and Installation Technologies Group of events.

With 20 years' experience in the events industry, the UK-based company plans to serve the entertainment and installation technology markets through a series of dedicated B2B networking forums. The first of these will be evenTech Scotland, which is scheduled for 20-21 February 2008, at the Marriott Hotel, Glasgow.

Says Darren Brechin, who leaves his present post at the end of July following the PALME Asia exhibition, "We have long recognised the need for an entertainment technology forum in the North of the UK, and Glasgow is the ideal location as Scotland in particular is cu

UK - Lifting and flying specialists, Lift-Turn-Move, launches two new products at ABTT 2007 this week - the Carbon Cub winch and the Kinolift PHC 1000 S person lift - both of which are designed for theatre applications of all types.

The Carbon Cub is a compact, portable, 'plug-and-play' mini hoist system. It is suitable for a variety of lifting applications and is perfect for theatres, broadcast studios, museums, sporting productions and worship and retail venues, says the company.

It features a matt black finish with black lifting cables and weighs only 41Kg. It has a travel speed of 4.3m a minute and can lift loads up to 136Kg to a height of 7.5m.

The Kinolift PHC 1000 (made by Alplift in Germany) is billed as a cost-effective telescope type person-lift and a quick, safe and easy way of reaching and working roofs and ceiling spaces. It makes changing lamps and other equipm

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