UV/FX Scenic Productions created a completely invisible 28'-high x 60'-wide backdrop with a UV blacklight-activated image for the recent tour of the Dave Matthews Band. Under normal conditions, the backdrop appeared as a Mondrian-style cityscape; under the UV lighting, a highly detailed painting of the Vegas Strip circa the early 60s appeared....New York's Rainbow Room, the Art Deco restaurant and club atop Rockefeller Center that has been closed for renovations since December 1998, reopened with a new sound system designed and installed by New Jersey-based Boulevard Productions. The new system consists of speakers by EAW (two JF290Zs and two JF260Zs), two SB180s, and a BSF processor powered by three QSC PLX3002 amplifiers and one PLX2402 amp....Scotland-based Northern Light has been contracted to install a full sound and lighting system in the Birmingham Repertory Theatre in England. The lighting rig will include Strand Lighting SL luminaires, various Northern Light custom-built racks, and an upgrade of channel capacities on the venue's new Strand 530i and 520i desks. An additional 520i desk will be added to The Door, the Rep's smaller studio theatre....An ETC Unison lighting system, an Express LPC (lighting playback controller), an ETC Irideon DMX Interpreter, and a mix of Irideon AR6 moving lights and Source Four jrs now control and highlight all the "wonders of the soil and creatures of the dirt" at the Chicago Field Museum's permanent Underground Adventure exhibit, which was completed last spring. Barbizon served as a specialty lighting contractor on the project; designers and lighting consultants were Ned Phillips of MET Studios, London and Bruce Kirk of LT Projects, London....Mic manufacturer Sennheiser is sponsoring a "best band" contest, the winner of which will perform in Hanover, Germany at next summer's Expo 2000 and receive Sennheiser mics valued at $7,500. Info: www.evolutionmics.com....