Europe - Bosch Security Systems has announced the first emergency sound system to be fully certified by TÜV to the new EN54-16 and ISO 7240-16 safety standards.

Now, with release 3.3 of the Praesideo software, the company has extended the functionality of the system to ensure full compliance with these new standards.

An example of the extended functionality includes new zone-status indicators that show a fault status when any failure of equipment or cabling prevents a specific zone from being addressed. Other functionality extensions relate to voice alarms, outputs to fire alarm devices and managed evacuation. Furthermore the electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) of the system has been upgraded to EN50130-4 levels for alarm systems and, with that upgrade, both hardware and software fully comply with the obligatory and optional requirements of EN54 and ISO 7240.

Certification

UK - Cooper Controls has announced the launch of Version 2 of the powerful LightFactory PC based lighting control software.

Version 2 brings major changes to the underlying software engine, increasing the power of the software and providing a more sophisticated operating platform for future releases. Utilising a host of Ethernet, USB and Software accessories, LightFactory offers the power of any lighting desk from a familiar user interface.

The launch of Version 2 also brings a host of new features and a new aesthetic design providing a more intuitive and powerful set of tools for the user.

A new fixture library engine provides a hybrid of 100% dynamic fixture and generic fixture control and inherits almost 2000 fixtures from the Zero 88 library. This means that not only can LightFactory handle complex fixtures with any number of attributes but can also control fixtures of m

UK - PLASA Focus 2009 sees a variety of new Audio-Technica products making an appearance at the inaugural show. Microphones from both the Studio and Broadcast & Production ranges, new professional headphones and the ATCS-60 infrared conferencing system will be on display, providing points of interest to visitors no matter what their professional background.

The new studio microphones in the 20 and 40 Series comprise the affordable AT2035 and AT2050 large diaphragm condensers and the high-performing AT4021 cardioid and AT4022 omnidirectional condensers.

The 20 Series are both side-address models, with the cardioid AT2035 designed to isolate sound sources while the switchable pickup pattern of the AT2050 allows omni, cardioid and figure-of-eight operation. The 40 Series microphones - which carry Audio-Technica's Lifetime Warranty - are ideally suited to deliver sensitivity and n

UK - Stage Electrics will be exhibiting at this year's Plasa Focus (stand RA-C17). Their stand will be filled with new products including QMAXZ moving lights, the SPLNet sound monitoring device, Altair intercom system, DiGiCo SD8 sound console, RCF TT08-A and RCF TTS12-A speakers, and Prolyte truss.

Stage Electrics is the exclusive distributor for SPLNet, QMAXZ and Altair and one of only five UK dealers for the DiGiCo SD8 sound console.

Plasa Focus will also give Stage Electrics the opportunity to showcase its recently launched LED screens and will incorporate demonstrations on the variety of applications utilised with the screens. Arri fresnels will also feature strongly on the stand, following Stage Electrics recently securing a new dealership with the worldwide supplier of lighting solutions for feature film and TV productions.

Linda Moore, head of sales and marketing at

UK - Martin Professional is focused on innovation with its new lighting, haze and visual solution products for the PLASA Focus show at the Royal Armouries in Leeds on 28 and 29 April 2009.

Martin's rapidly expanding range of LED lighting solutions will feature prominently at PLASA Focus 2009. On display in the foyer will be the LC Plus Series of LED video panels with new generation technology using the new P3-100 Processor that is DMX controllable and an IP65 rating. On display on the stand will be Martin's first LED moving heads, the MAC 401 Dual, a powerful LED washlight with a double-sided design that gives it dual functionality; and the MAC 301 Wash, a compact, high-power LED washlight with powerfully fast zoom. Martin's highly successful 1500 watt MAC III Profile will also be shown.

Control solutions in the form of the new Maxxyz Modular series will feature as will the ne

The Netherlands - Philips has introduced a new LED lamp with a difference. Based on a joint development with DSM, the Philips MASTER LED MR16 retrofit lamp is the first high-power LED application in which the aluminium cover is replaced with a thermally conductive plastic - Stanyl - to control the heat. Stanyl also offers the additional benefits of flexibility in design, exceptional durability and weight reduction, says the company. Going forward, this sustainable solution may be applied across Philips' LED retrofit lamp range.

The Philips MASTER LED MR16 is a 4W LED replacement for the popular low-voltage halogen spot lamp. With light output equivalent to that of 20W Halogen MR16 lamps, it offers the key benefits of up to 80% energy saving and a 40-times longer lifetime. MASTER LED MR 16 employs three Philips Lumileds Luxeon Rebel LEDs and is available in both 2700K (true warm

UK - DMi D&M Installation (Europe) has introduced a complete redesign of its Boston Acoustics' range of CI in-wall and in-ceiling speakers.

The redesigned VSi and HSi series, debuted at ISE 09, introduces numerous design innovations, improved audio performance, versatility and ease of installation. An increased number of models includes more three-way designs, ultra-compact 'lighting can' style designs, and humidity resistant models for outdoor and wet environments.

The new series comprise more than 25 new in-wall and in-ceiling designs. Design innovations include a dramatic 70 per cent reduction in the visible bezel, providing for improved flush to surface mounting. Magnetically attaching grilles greatly improve ease of installation and servicing.

The new HSi in-ceiling range includes the HSi H460T2 high humidity, weather resistant model, a 2-way design ideal for outdoor us

UK - Black Cat Music will once again be displaying its comprehensive range of education and performance equipment at the ABTT Theatre Show next month.

Products displayed will include music stands and lights, posture chairs, choral risers, staging equipment and theatre products and staff will be on hand to discuss and demonstrate products. Copies of Black Cat Music's new comprehensive price list and catalogue will be available from the stand.

The Black Cat Acoustics division is a professional noise control company with an experienced and friendly team offering a complete range of acoustic products. Enquiries are welcomed for the design, supply and installation of high performance acoustic equipment as a total package, or to find economic solutions to individual problem areas within existing buildings.

(Jim Evans)

Denmark - The Martin MAC 301 Wash is an LED moving head washlight with a powerfully fast zoom and impressive zoom range. Designed for a variety of settings including rental applications, television use and night-time venues, it is capable of producing a wide range of exceptional colours from rich saturated shades to uniform pastels through the entire zoom range, says the company.

The MAC 301 Wash's zoom provides beam angle control from 13 - 36° for more accurate and flexible design possibilities, and the fixture's RGB colour mixing is maintained through the entire zoom range.

The fixture's 108 LEDs produce a bright and well-defined beam. With LEDs arrayed in a high density design, a more even blending of colours is achieved.

A principal feature of the MAC 301 Wash is its RGB colour mixing system. The full spectrum system combines with the optical system to produce a wide

UK - British Harlequin's Hi-Shine floor will be to the fore when the company exhibits at the ABTT Theatre Show 2009 to be held at London's Royal Horticultural Halls next month.

Also on show will be a wide range of examples from Harlequin's extensive catalogue of floors for the performing arts. Visitors will able to examine many different floor types with expert support on hand to provide guidance and advice.

Although widely known for their floors for dance and the performing arts, Harlequin also provides special flooring for theatre stages, television studios, exhibitions and display. Harlequin manufactures a comprehensive range from portable, roll-out floors to cushioned, heavy duty permanent floors, plus permanent and touring sprung floor systems. These are complemented by a range of accessories including tapes and cleaning products, roll straps, storage bags and an extensiv

Germany - The Sommer Cable main catalogue has been revised and added to once again. Across 400 pages the cable manufacturer is presenting an even bigger comprehensive and well-structered product range that offers everything from cable bulkware for the audio, video and network technology sectors including the appropriate hybrid cables to matching connectors and ready-made cables to complex routing systems, various active components and the corresponding accessories.

In addition to the comprehensive product information, the catalogue covers several informative subjects like including a crash course in cable production and cable characteristics plus a brief introduction to general audio technology.

As before, it is available in German, English and French., and for the first time in Spanish and Russian.

(Jim Evans)

Germany - At the beginning of March 2009, the 100,000th Dynacord PowerMate was delivered.

In the mid 1990s, Dynacord presented the first generation of the powered mixer, PowerMate. Unlike conventional all-in-one solutions, the PowerMate was designed to exhibit no compromises whatsoever. "Our mission was clear," says Josef Taffner, who as developer played an important role in shaping the design and history of the PowerMate. "We wanted to offer the discerning musician a compact system capable of being used intuitively at the highest performance level.

"Almost all the engineers and technicians in the PowerMate development team are musicians themselves. We knew from our own experience what qualities, in an ideal world, a power mixer ought to possess and were also able to meet the requirements of our customers in a logical way."

The PowerMate was intended

Australia - Enttec has announced the release of its new MIDIwing control software. MIDIwing, in conjunction with Enttec's already well-established playback, shortcut, and programming wings, gives users the ability to define midi note or ASCII triggers for any lighting or media control device that will listen to the protocol.

The software, which uses TCP network packets to send midi notes over an Ethernet based network, can trigger up to 408 unique commands through a maximum of six wings, which can each handle between 54 and 68 individual single note triggers. The software is also capable of easily importing or exporting any of the wing configurations, and running quietly in the background processes of the PC.

MIDIwing's user customisable nature allows for endless adaptation to countless controllers. The programme can be successfully integrated with many widely used lighting co

USA - Philips Lumileds has released Luxeon Rebel ES, a high-efficacy power LED specified to deliver a minimum of 100 lumens per Watt. As the global demand for efficient lighting solutions increases, Philips Lumileds is focusing on the performance characteristics that are most important to the lighting industry.

"Luxeon Rebel ES meets two complementary objectives: extending the energy-saving ability of LED technology and simplifying LED product selection to make it easier for lighting designers to take advantage of those capabilities," said Steve Barlow, executive VP of sales and marketing at Philips Lumileds. "Both of these features will help the industry meet its energy reduction and sustainability goals."

Creating energy efficient SSL applications is easier because, flux binning and forward voltage (Vf) binning selections are pre-determined to deliver 100

USA - Apollo gels and gobos are being added to two popular Wybron iPhone applications, the companies has announced. More than 1,300 Apollo gobos have joined the Moiré Gobo Library, and 150 Apollo gels will be integrated into Wybron's Gel Swatch Library.

The updated version of the gobo library, available now, also features 500 gobos from InLight Gobos. With the addition of InLight and Apollo, the gobo library now includes more than 3,300 different patterns.

"We are pleased to be working with Wybron on adding Apollo gobos and gel to their iPhone apps," said Apollo president Joel Nichols. "They have taken a leadership position in apps development, and adding Apollo should strengthen that by giving our industry more access to the tools needed to bring productions together on a daily basis."

The updated gel library with the Apollo gels should be releas

Belgium/USA - Barco has announced that new software is now available for the High End Systems Digital Lighting family, including the DL.3 Digital Light and the Axon media server.

The v1.5 software release expands feature functionality and provides a host of improvements and updates. Major features include frame blending for smooth, slow motion playback, and the expansion of Collage Generator capability, which allows users to create a setup that is 16 fixtures wide by eight fixtures high. A new Segmented Collage feature enables advanced users to pre-slice their content in order to create large collages with very high overall resolutions.

Another new feature is automatic content encoding validation. This process scans content as it is being loaded into the system, in order to ensure correct encoding, trouble-free playback, and the elimination of performance issues that might res

UK - Orbital Sound will be showcasing its broad range of products and services at the ABTT Theatre Show 2009 (10-11 June, Royal Horticultural Halls, London), and will be highlighting the latest version of the CSC Show Control Software from CTR Electronics.

Orbital will also be showing digital wireless microphone systems from Zaxcom, including the TRX900 stereo-capable transmitter and the new QRX100 4-channel receiver, plus HME's recently-launched DX121 one-to-one digital wireless intercom. This can be plugged into a standard intercom station or belt-pack headset jack, or connected to a matrix intercom system, to enable wireless intercom links of up to 300 metres to be established quickly and easily.

Completing Orbital's product line-up will be loudspeakers systems from d&b audiotechnik, including the new T-Series.

Chris Headlam, managing director of Orbital Sound, comments,

Denmark - The preview release of Martin Professional's new version Maxedia software, Maxedia 4 RC, is now available. Maxedia 4 RC is the latest software update for Martin's Maxedia high performance media server. The final release of Maxedia 4 will take place later in the spring.

The new software features a number of improvements including an entirely new video engine using the latest high-performance professional video codec. The new video engine is optimised to play multiple Full HD 1080p H.264 MPEG-4/AVC MOV&AVI Codec.

Improvements with Maxedia 4 include: support for H.264 MPEG-4/AVC MOV&AVI HD Professional Codec; pixel accurate video output; support for ultra-widescreen; multi-screen keystoning and edge blending; pixel mapping for RGB and CMY fixtures; support for Live HD-SDI capture video input; intuitive user interface; live diagnostic tool; CITP 1.1 protocol remote thumb

Germany - The newly designed booth of Communications Systems from Bosch proved to be a real magnet for both dealers and consumers at this year's ProLight&Sound. "We wanted to send a signal at this trade fair and demonstrate that we haven't been infected with the crisis-panic," says vice president sales Robert Hesse. "We succeeded. Our efficient and optimistic presentation went down a treat."

In addition to the many and varied new products from Dynacord, Electro-Voice, Midas, and Klark Teknik, workshops, presentations (ProMatrix), and live demos (including Electro-Voice PL series microphones) contributed to the bustle of activity at the booth. "Everyone who listens to our equipment is convinced by it," says Robert Pletz, head of marketing communications systems EMEA. "That's why the demonstrations were of decisive importance to us." The lar

Australia - LSC Lighting Systems has released the e24V3 Touring dimmer that offers the user a complete dimming and distribution solution. The new e24V3 comes complete with 24 channels of both dimming and HotPower distribution enabling the user to power up to 3000W per channel of lighting, video and special FX all from the one box, says the company.

Retaining all of the smarts of its predecessors, including CCT (current control technology), PTFD (pulse transformer fired dimming) and full LSCnet networking capabilities for both remote monitoring and remote recall of any of the 80 memories, the e24V3 can power a vast array of items directly and even has an in-built fully opto-isolated five-way DMX splitter, making it a real one box-one solution.

For added flexibility, e24V3 can also be fitted with the industry's two most popular wireless DMX systems, W-DMX from Wireless Solutions

USA - Mackie has launched HD Series High-Definition Powered Loudspeakers, creating a new category: High-Definition Live Sound. The HD1521 2-way and HD1531 3-way represent the pinnacle of Class-D amplifier technology, delivering up to 1800W of peak system power, says the company.

Mackie created the 'active' electronics game long ago, incorporating precision crossovers, transducer time alignment and phase correction circuitry right in the box, creating "a perfectly tuned system". HD Series loudspeakers take this further with the implementation of patented acoustic correction processing that counters the inherent physical attributes that can make typical loudspeakers sound honky or washed out.

"Our new HD Series loudspeakers are on the cutting edge of loudspeaker technology," said Greg Young, Mackie brand product manager. "They offer more watts per dolla

USA - Philips Color Kinetics aims to demonstrate new versatility for lighting specifiers by unveiling an extended portfolio of its most popular LED systems at Lightfair in New York.

In response to the design community's wide-ranging needs, the organization will demonstrate how its existing product lines have been broadened to include specific LED colour choices and other attributes. Beginning with several of its flagship solutions, expanded product offerings are now available:

iW Graze Powercore is a sleek, linear fixture designed surface grazing, wall-wash lighting, and signage illumination. Featuring IntelliWhite technology, iW Graze Powercore combines cool and warm white LEDs with digital control technology to offer colour temperatures ranging from 2700K to 6500K.

Combined with the improved operational efficiency and cost-effectiveness of Powercore technology, and a low-p

Germany - Gerriets reports that it is "highly satisfied" with Prolight&Sound 2009 in Frankfurt, especially because of the positive feedback regarding the new products in the Vario dance floors range.

Gerriets presented the new Vario Brilliance, available in seven high gloss colours, as well as Vario Grip which due to its PU coating and its stain-resistant and anti-skid surface is suitable for application in the event and show sector and is available in 10 different colours.

The new Vario Print attracted interest as a dance floor that can be custom printed with any imaginable individual design.

In the textile sector Gerriets presented the new blackout fabric Eclipse with a blackout degree of 99 % and a width of 320 cm, as well as the acoustically effective Ascona Echo and Clivia Echo, excellent for their exquisite sound absorption properties.

(Jim Evans)

USA - American connector specialist Switchcraft has launched two new impedance matching transformers that convert 110Ω digital signals to 75Ω signals and vice-versa.

Designed to allow long distance transmission of digital audio signals through 75Ω coaxial cables, the transformers are made using rugged but compact metal housings and are available with male or female three-pole XLR connectors to BNC receptacles.

(Jim Evans)

Latest Issue. . .

Save
Cookies user preferences
We use cookies to ensure you to get the best experience on our website. If you decline the use of cookies, this website may not function as expected.
Accept all
Decline all
Analytics
Tools used to analyze the data to measure the effectiveness of a website and to understand how it works.
Google Analytics
Accept
Decline
Advertisement
If you accept, the ads on the page will be adapted to your preferences.
Google Ad
Accept
Decline