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Spectators at the recent Norwich Union Indoor Trials/AAA Championships and Grand Prix athletics meetings at Birmingham’s National Indoor Arena were treated to a unique spectacle. Held three weeks apart, the infrastructure for both events was rigged with Unitek’s latest and lightest high-impact LED Megascreen, offering 17mm pixel pitch resolution, designed for indoor and outdoor use. The 6 x 5 (6.7m x 4.2m) modular screen took a feed from six BBC cameras via the mixer in the OB truck, and the magnified action shots not only brought track and field into sharp focus, but formed a vital part of the BBC’s transmission.

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Bliss is a highly-sophisticated new bar/restaurant in Bournemouth conceived by experienced leisure entrepreneur, Richard Carr’s Future 2000 plc (the team behind the phenomenally successful Slinky dance nights).

Having owned the art deco building in Bournemouth’s town centre for several years, they contracted local interiors company, Design Mode, to convert the bottom two floors of the former Maples department store into the heavily marbellised Bliss, at a cost of £1.25 million. For the sound reinforcement, Future 3000’s head of technical services, Lee Price, stuck with the Martin Audio catalogue, which dominates the company’s other venues, as well as providing the touring sound for Slinky.

One of his prime considerations was the acoustic isolation necessary from the five storeys above the ground floor and basement, which the landlord has converted for student

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Traditional brewers Fuller, Smith & Turner, have entered the burgeoning London leisure suburb of Shoreditch - the trendiest colony in the capital - with their new brand, Katabatic.

With 3,200sq.ft offering a capacity of 480, and a late license inherited from the previous incumbents (Propoganda), this is prime real estate. The late night venue will eventually have cost £1.2 million to develop - a proportion of which has gone on an inspired sound, lighting and vision scheme across the two floors.

As well as offering views of the DJ practicising his craft inside, the exterior design shows off the encased foyer decor of AVR Colourchanger beams refracted from a cluster of tiny mirrorballs, with the campest of light sculptures providing an artistic backdrop. The colour-changing spots from Abstract and Martin Pro, working with the fibre optics, bring Katabatic (a metereological word meanin

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Indochine X PixMob Fan Immersion

It's a bird! It's a plane! It's - 40 thousand LED pixels on a ceiling!!! Indochine's whirlwind tour transports fans to another level of the live experience - immersing them from floor to ceiling with PixMob's X4 wristbands, and an LED ceiling made entirely of its NOVA Minis! With the vision of Indochine's creative team, PixMob used its LED fan-technology to turn attendees and venues into an ocean of effects, and a starry sky of LED magic. Très très cool!

Read more about the Indochine tour in the latest issue of LSi

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London superclub Fabric has commissioned loudspeaker manufacturers Martin Audio to supply a new sound reinforcement system to be installed into the club’s two famous dance rooms. The upgrade takes place just a year and a half after the club opened. For the main Room One system, designed by Fabric’s technical manager Dave Parry and Martin Audio’s Richie Rowley - in collaboration with the Fabric sound team - eight Martin Audio W8C compact enclosures were specified, formatted in a quad array around the dancefloor and underpinned by eight of Martin’s WSX monster sub bass units. The sound design for Fabric’s Room Two incorporates the flagship products of Martin’s Blackline range - the H2 and H3s. The H3s are placed in a quad array format around the dancefloor, supplemented by a further four bi-amped H2 cabinets providing satellite fill down the length of th

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The management team at Presentation Services Ltd (PSL), has purchased the assets and business of Gearhouse Group PLC’s Southern UK operation, together with the company’s North American operations. These include PSL and PSL Central, Lighting Unlimited, Set & Stage, Proquip, Presentation Graphics, Gearhouse Multimedia, ConferenceCast and Quorom Travel. In the US, both the Los Angeles and Nashville companies have been purchased. The transaction was concluded on Saturday 3 March and equity funding has been secured for the new company through 3i, with Barclays providing debt funding. The new Group is to be called Presentation Services Group Ltd; all of the companies will be relaunched under the PSL name and will continue to focus on the rental, staging, exhibition and concert touring markets. The new management team comprises Gary Davis, Chris Scadding, Darren Glossop, Irene McLea

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Continuing its recruitment campaign, AC Lighting has announced a number of new appointments. The Northern Region sales office, located in Leeds, has been further expanded by the addition of Graham Bassett and Dave Hartley. Bassett, who takes up the position of Northern Region Sales Co-ordinator, is well known in the industry having spent 12 years with Lighting Technology in Manchester and Newcastle playing a lead role in developing business in the North. Hartley joins as Northern Region Sales Representative having progressed his career most recently with Lightfactor Sales and previously with Bose. The marketing department, based at the corporate offices in High Wycombe, has appointed Steve Dean to the newly-created position of marketing manager. Dean joins from an extensive background in senior positions in management, marketing and sales within the data/telecomms industry. Prior to join

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Audio rental companies SSE Hire of Birmingham, UK, and Melpomen of Nantes, France, have announced a move to merge, with the formation of the SSE Audio Group. The move comes at a significant time for both companies: SSE are celebrating 25 years in the industry, whilst Melpomen has been operating in the French market for almost 20 years, recently adding office and warehouse facilities in Paris and La Rochelle to the main Nantes-based organisation. John Penn, MD of SSE, told PLASA Media: "We have been actively looking for ways to develop the business. The trend for sound companies is to expand purely by buying more and more stock. However, we have seen a steady decline in the amount of work undertaken by UK rental companies in Europe, through a combination of the strength of sterling and the number of strong European rental companies who provide a good service. As a consequence, we hav

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After entering into an agreement to establish a joint company with local Chinese partners late last year, Martin Professional has announced that Raymond Wong will head up its new Hong Kong office. The new operation - Martin Professional Hong Kong Ltd - took over distribution from Martin’s former Chinese distributor and has been fully operational since the beginning of February 2001. Martin holds 20% of the shares in the new company, which has its registered office in Hong Kong. Branch offices will soon be established in Guangzhou, Beijing and Shanghai. Wong was previously sales director for Sanecore, and during his time there handled all imported products, including Martin Professional lighting and Jem smoke machines.

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Recently merged Blackout Triple E has appointed two well-known industry names to its management team - Eric Porter and Simon Chandler-Honor. Having worked in a freelance capacity in the industry for over 23 years, Porter joins the Blackout Triple E team as project manager, and will be the rigging aspect of the operation. Having been involved in the industry for most of his working life, Simon Chandler-Honor also joins as a project manager and will help the company develop its catalogue of national and international projects. Another new member of staff expanding the sales division, is Jonathan Langlands, who has joined as technical hire and sales manager.

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Show Presentation Services (SPS), the audio-visual equipment rental and technical staging specialist, is to install a Barco ‘DLite-7’ LED Daylight Display in the heart of London’s Oxford Street. The venture comes hot on the heels of a further major investment by SPS in 30sq.m of leading LED manufacturer Barco’s DLite-7 daylight display. The venture also heralds the first of a number of scheduled outdoor advertising pilot sites between SPS and London-based Trash Media Plc, the ambient media and outdoor advertising specialist, with whom SPS have formed a strategic alliance. The site, re-booked for a further 12 months, is located at the Cromwell Road/North End Road junction, on the main commuter route into London, and is live 24 hours a day.

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Production Resource Group (PRG) has announced today that industry veteran Don Stern has moved into the role of chairman emeritus of Fourth Phase. Stern is the former owner of Bash Theatrical Lighting, which was acquired by PRG in 1997, and has remained instrumental in the operation of the lighting group. He will remain active with Fourth Phase in his new role, and will work closely with CEO Jere Harris on various initiatives, but will be free to pursue some additional interests after a lifetime in the theatre.

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High End Systems sales representative Jeff Washburn is now overseeing the architectural market for the Austin, Texas-based automated lighting manufacturer. Washburn will continue his duties as regional sales manager for the Central USA, while adding the responsibilities as the new architectural manager for High End's architectural line of luminaires.

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Italian rock veterans of over 30 years, Pooh have spent the past two months on an arena tour of 19 Italian cities, promoting their new triple-platinum album ‘Cento di queste vite’ (A hundred of these lives). Pooh, one of the few acts which manage to stay on stage for three whole hours, are renowned for the quality of their technical and musical presentation. Staging and lighting for the current tour is looked after by service company Xenon, owned by Renato Neri, who is using a wide array of Clay Paky lighting fixtures for the show, including the new Astroscan projector, launched at PLASA 2000. Neri says: "Astroscan is a spectacular effect that can create soft and relaxing atmospheres or powerful flashes of light. It can be positioned on the stage or up on the trusses, and covers the entire intermediate area thanks to pyramid head which oscillates at the speed and angle d

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Allen & Heath has welcomed a new PR co-ordinator, Alexandra Pratt. Alexandra has spent much of her career working as a freelance journalist and author, producing material for a variety of specialist markets. Her most recent project is a travel book to be published later this year by HarperCollins, based on the canoe expedition she led to Labrador, Canada in 2000 (www.labrador2000.co.uk). When not shooting rapids or exploring the world’s wild places, Alexandra has also worked as an editor, lecturer and researcher. "I’m looking forward to using my fairly broad experience in the media to help develop and promote Allen and Heath’s profile as a leading manufacturer in the pro audio sector. It is a very innovative and energetic company, which appeals to me greatly." A beneficiary of Allen & Heath’s astonishing growth during the past year, Alexandra will be wor

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XFL, the new spring football league from the creators of the WWF (World Wrestling Federation) celebrated a successful launch on February 3rd that saw a Lighthouse Technologies LVP502 LED SuperScreen begin a unique tour of US stadiums. XFL, a combination of Football and live entertainment, is co-owned by broadcaster NBC and the WWF in a joint venture. For the benefit of watching fans, video screen specialists Screenworks were hired to supply giant LED video screens for the ten-week season, with one game a week, followed by two weekends of play-off games. The screen measures 25 feet high by 50 feet wide, using a total of 96 modules - the largest LED video screen ever to be toured in the United States. This creates an aspect ratio of 2:1, reflecting the WWF’s standard wrestling broadcast format, and the screen is colour corrected for television, with the signal source provided by NBC.

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US manufacturer Color Kinetics has launched Color Kinetics Japan. The new company is the product of a thriving distribution partnership between Color Kinetics and ALS Inc. In the past year as a Color Kinetics distribution partner, ALS has successfully introduced the Color Kinetics range of digital colour-changing lighting to the Japanese market. The new company will market the full product line throughout Japan whilst also contributing to the development of market-specific technologies. Kiyoshi Otsuki, president of ALS Inc, will become president of Color Kinetics Japan, and the office will officially open on April 1 in Tokyo.

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BAFTA, the British Academy of Film & Television Arts, specified a high level of video production for the Orange British Academy Awards, which was staged before an audience of 1700 people at the Odeon, Leicester Square recently. For the second year running, they turned to Creative Technology, who fielded the latest 3-chip DLP projection and a state-of-the-art modular LED display. Television viewers saw image magnification projected onto an 8 x 8 modular Lighthouse Technologies LVP-102D (10mm pixel pitch) screen to produce picture reinforcement on a 5.12m high and 3.84m wide canvass. Working through production company Initial, Creative Technology was also responsible for the flanking projections onto the walls, situated either side of the main screen. From its hire fleet, the company designated Christie Digital projectors - a pair of 3-chip DLP X6 Roadsters, offering digitally perfect pr

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Eastbourne Council has embarked on a general lighting upgrade effective across the town’s three main theatres, The Congress, Devonshire Park, and The Winter Gardens. Knowing from the outset that Strand was the brand of choice to suit their requirements, the theatres’ technical team approached a number of suppliers before opting for London-based White Light - one of Strand Lighting’s trading partners in the UK. The complete order comprised a total of 80 Cantata fresnels and 16 Alto fresnels, all complete with barndoors and other associated accessories, as well as 18 SL15/32 zoom coolbeam spotlights. The fittings were supplied ready to go by White light which, combined with the company’s service policy, was an important factor in securing the sale.

Douglas Morgan, of the Eastbourne Theatres’ technical team, commented: "We had made an informed decision t

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When Tony Hall of Essential Lighting took the brief for a recent annual sales convention at the Wembley Conference Centre, he was challenged with a large and complex ‘gyroscopic’ revolve that was to be a centrepiece of the show. Whilst a mains feed could be run through the various slip rings, Tony needed to incorporate a minimum of 36 ways of generic control and three ways of dimmed neon in the revolve to dramatically enhance the main reveal sequence and create a variety of looks for the show. Aware of the existence of radio DMX technology but unable to find it anywhere in the UK rental market, Tony called A.C. Lighting to help source the product. The recommendation was to utilise a state-of-the-art RadioDMX system manufactured in the USA. AC Lighting’s Glyn O’Donoghue stated: "Using a RadioDMX system provides a ‘cableless’ transmission that permi

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Lightfactor is capitalising on an excellent start to 2001 by expanding the sales force with the addition of Brian Henshall, who will be working as Northern Area Sales Representative with the dynamic team led by Bill Jones. Brian has enjoyed a varied career in the pro lighting and sound production and entertainment industries. Prior to this he has worked in the related areas of electrical wholesale and communications, all of which has contributed to his broad base of experience. Just before the move to Lightfactor, Brian worked with a well known UK entertainment and leisure sales and installation company. Brian’s move to Lightfactor will further his career as well as offering the opportunity for him to work in a flexible, creative and initiative-led sales environment Henshall comments: "It’s great to be onboard with Lightfactor, a company with an impressive track-record a

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RS Pro Audio has announce the appointment of Tony Rimkus as retail sales director. Managing director Roddy Stewart said: "Tony will add substantial experience to our expanding operations, include the organization of our forthcoming move to our new custom-built superstore which is due to open April 2001.
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