Autograph Sound Recording, the Londonbased theatre sound design and equipment rental specialists, have recently built a substantial portfolio of work with the Royal Shakespeare Company, including the forthcoming musical premier of Alice in Wonderland, which opens at the Barbican Theatre on 13 November.

Andrew Bruce, Autograph's founder and Chairman has co-designed Alice in Wonderland with Autograph's Matt McKenzie. This beautiful family production will transfer to Stratford just in time for Christmas. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, another RSC musical production, is being revived this winter at London's Sadlers Wells and is designed by Terry Jardine, Autograph's managing director.

While these two musical productions benefit from Autograph's design and equipment rental sup

The next phase of the iLight group's aim to become the biggest single source for all lighting control needs has been announced, with the creation of a single management team to lead the ongoing development of Zero88 and iLight Ltd. Heading the Zero88/iLight team is Graham Eales, who has global experience in the lighting industry. This has included the management of Zero88 and the launch in the last year of the 'Frog' range of entertainment lighting controls that have won industry-wide acclaim. He reports to the iLight group board.

Launched earlier this year, the iLight group bought together the existing teams and resources of leading players in the industry - Zero88 and iLight Ltd, as part of a move to create greater freedom for lighting designers. The creation of a single management team for both brands is the next stage of the plan, explains group chairman David Kerr: "From the

O-Town, one of the music industry's biggest success stories this year, recently filmed one of their live shows at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City for an upcoming, MTV-produced DVD. The band signed with J records last September as the grand finale to their first season as stars of ABC's 'Making the Band'. The original touring show, which was lit by Ted Downing and programmed by Joe Allegro, used 18 Martin 918s, 28 MAC 500s and 14 MAC 600s, supplied through Premier Global Productions. For the recording of the New York concert, MTV producers Jackie French & Chris Williams brought in John Broderick to flesh out the design for television with gaffer Michael Callahan looking after the additional rig brought in for the filming.

Broderick's main concern was to keep the lighting in check for the seven isolated cameras: "All the cameras were simultaneously recording, to give the d

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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

Known for decades as ‘Hollywood’s talent factory,’ the legendary Pasadena Playhouse launched the careers of dozens of notable actors, writers and directors. But in recent years, the Playhouse’s ageing audio system had fallen far short of the venue’s tradition of excellence. To design a new system on rather short notice, Tom Ware, producing director for the Playhouse, called on independent sound designer and audio engineer Rick Boot. Working closely with Lori Burke at Delicate Productions in Camarillo, Boot created a system design based around Martin Audio Wavefront loudspeakers. The main left and right systems each comprise two Martin Wavefront W8C full-range three-way cabinets augmented by a single W8CS bass cabinet. A removable centre cluster utilizes two Martin Wavefront Theatre WT3 three-way systems. Sub-bass comes from a pair of discreetly-placed Martin

Wybron has announced that its colour scrollers have been specified for Kiss Me Kate, which recently opened at Victoria Palace Theatre. Cole Porter’s famous masterpiece is a play within a play, featuring a theatrical company rehearsing and producing Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew. Transferring from Broadway, where it swept away the best part of the Tony Awards as well as several Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards, Kiss Me Kate has received glittering reviews. Lighting designer Peter Kaczorowski was also shortlisted for this year’s Tony Awards for Kiss Me Kate - but beat himself to win for his remarkable design for the Broadway hit The Producers.

Lighting rental company White Light was chosen to supply a large rig based around ETC Source Fours, fitted with 80 Wybron Coloram IIs which created the varying atmospheres in the mu

On September 15, 2001, exactly a year since the start of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, Sydney’s Olympic Cauldron was re-kindled in its new, permanent home at Homebush Bay.

The cauldron was re-lit to beating drums and resounding cheers in The Overflow Park on Olympic Boulevard. The stainless steel bowl will stand as a permanent reminder of the success of the Games. The project was conceived and designed by Barry Webb, Iain Clark and Fiona McVicar of Barry Webb & Associates, with Show Technology’s architectural products manager Jonathan Ciddor assisting with the configuration, control and integration. Installer Beyond AV was responsible for the co-ordination, installation and programming of the lighting system.

The cauldron sits upon a concrete slab at ground level and beneath it is a large chamber, 5 metres deep, housing the lighting equipment, pumping and gas controls,

A cast of hundreds, with armies, horses, camels and even an eagle: this was the ‘mega-opera’ spectacular ‘Aida’ staged for a sell-out crowd of 78,000 at the Stade de France in Paris. The huge circular football stadium, home to the last World Cup, is an unusual setting for Verdi’s monumental opera, but Dutch production company Companions Opera took full advantage of the 75m x 120m pitch, presenting a 130-piece choir, the 90-piece Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra, and more than 550 extras.

Louis Buskens was responsible for the choir (from the Sofia Opera House in Bulgaria), who would be moving around as well as singing during the performance. The job of choreography was critical because of the microphone technique: a DPA 4061 miniature mic was mounted on the shoulder of every fourth choir member, for his or her own voice and that of three other singers. S

BassBox Pro and X.Over Pro are a suite of programs designed to give the constructor a hassle-free method of constructing their own speaker cabinets.

BassBox Pro has a selection of seven cabinet styles with user-customizable parameters including dimensions, driver choice and vented or enclosed styles. A wide variety of drivers are available from including single, dual and three-way cone drivers and flat radiators. The BassBox software is aimed at the home/semi-professional constructor looking to build cabinets for the home hi-fi, small venue or car.

To this end the software has a section depicting typical home and car acoustics to help the constructor choose their design. X.Over Pro is a standalone crossover design program that is quite comprehensive and allows the user to design their own crossovers or modify examples. All parameters are calculated and response graphs updated as va

Arbiter Group has launched the ProVocal from dbx Professional. The ProVocal is a unique, dedicated and powerful vocal processor, featuring state-of-the-art microphone and preamp modelling, award winning compression and dynamic effects, a 24bit digital effects section and a selectable 44.1 or 48Khz digital output. There are 18 microphone models and 10 microphone pre-amp models. Effects include compressor and de-esser, as well as chorus, flanger, delay parametric EQ and reverb. The ProVocal features a 24-bit, 44.1 or 48kHz digital S/PDIF output and is MIDI controllable.

The Training Initiative, White Light's popular training and education scheme, has enjoyed a successful autumn, with a further 25 different training courses scheduled in the run-up to Christmas. Many of these courses will take advantage of extra room and facilities offered by the White Light Group's new building in Wimbledon; others will see the Training Initiative visiting other venues around the UK. "We feel that training is essential, but currently undervalued in the industry. At White Light we believe we should be offering a complete service, and our Training Initiative - whether providing a course on a control desk or a seminar by one of our industry's leading lighting designers - is a vital part of that service," says Jason Larcombe, White Light's training co-ordinator.

Recent courses have included the regular Strand 500-Series training courses, covering different levels

Marquee Audio hs supplied a Trantec S5000 8-way radio system - including CTX handheld transmitters, active antenna distribution units (ADUs) and splitters - as part of a communications upgrade at The International Convention Centre in Birmingham. Currently celebrating its 10th anniversary, the ICC is a long-standing customer of Marquee Audio, who in turn are main dealers for the Trantec award-winning UHF diversity systems. The order was placed by the venue's technical facilities manager, Paul Dipple, for use in the main Hall 1 of their 11-hall complex. "We use several radio systems throughout the Centre and we systematically identify products for upgrade," said Dipple. "In this instance price wasn’t an issue - we bought the Trantecs purely on the quality of the product."

Having carried out their own research the ICC arrived at their decision after witnessing t

Nearly four months after revealing its new 37,000sq.ft corporate headquarters in High Wycombe, AC Lighting announces a major opportunity for people with limited budgets to acquire a diverse range of items at substantially reduced prices. The completion of the task to relocate all of the stock from the company's previous locations and the introduction of a sophisticated computerized stock management system has revealed a substantial number of items which are now surplus to requirements. The items on offer include luminaires, Par cans, moving lights, followspots, control equipment, smoke machines, trussing, stands, rack cabinets, flightcases and general lighting equipment and associated accessories. These items are ex-demonstration, ex-showroom, ex-rental equipment as well as a wide range of new equipment.

A full list of the items on offer can be obtained by contacting Jonathan Walters (

SigNET AC Ltd, an electronics manufacturer in Tyne and Wear has been named North East regional winner in the Trade Partners UK National Languages for Export Awards 2001, in the category for small business, sponsored by NCM credit Insurance. The company won the award for noticeably changing its attitude and ways of doing business in a number of export markets.

The company which specializes in the design and manufacture of voice alarm, paging and background music systems, believed that early exporting initiatives were conducted tentatively. Richard Sice, marketing manager said: "In order to be more competitive in international markets we have taken a strategic approach to the use of our human resources and polices. We have taken steps to hire people with native language skills and also to employ UK graduates who have studied a foreign language. In addition, we are taking a fresh loo

Entertainment Design magazine's EDDY Awards will be presented on 7 December 2001 at John Jay College Theatre in New York City. This special 10th anniversary EDDY event also includes six awards (both group and individual) to outstanding designers and technicians, as well as a tribute to all past winners, and a special salute to a talented group of young designers. This year's winners are High End Systems for the Catalyst projection system, developed in conjunction with Wynne Willson Gottelier. This latest Award follows on the heels of the PLASA Show and LDI Awards it has already won this autumn.

Lighting Accessory awards go to Lee Filters for the Quick Roll, a roll of colour gels already cut to standard fixture color frame widths; to Rosco for the Image Pro system of making low cost full-colour high-resolution plastic gobos; and to Wybron for the Eclipse II, a variable speed iris douser

Adam Hall has announced the opening of their new Spanish sales office, based in Barcelona. The company has been targeting the Spanish market for the past two years in preparation for this event and says it is confident, even in the current economic climate, that this is the right way forward. The Spanish sales office contact is Gabriel Medrano Bultel, known as 'G' to his friends and colleagues. Bultel has been with Adam Hall for two years and has become and important member of the team in this time.

Adam Hall can be reached in Spain on tel: +34 93 213 3644.

PCI LiveDesign, the London-based production company which recently merged with Ultimate Events, was commissioned in October for two Microsoft events. Following a long-standing working relationship with Ultimate Events combined with the success of Blackout Triple E’s involvement with the Microsoft Tech-Ed Conference 2001 in Barcelona, PCI LiveDesign again contracted Blackout Triple E, and project manager Chris Brain, for the project in Cannes.

Brain and his six-strong team made the journey to stylish Cannes to drape a drinks reception and party as part of a weeklong Microsoft conference. The theme required the team to turn their hands to more unusual drapes - plastic fish, to compliment the famous Palm Beach. The company also provided and installed 30 fibre optic starcloths (proving that it isn’t just at the annual Film Festival where the Stars come out in force), as well as

In the wake of the recent launch of Midas's latest innovation, the Legend 3000, the Klark Teknik Group hosted a two-day event at their Kidderminster factory for over 30 customers of EVI France in order to introduce them to the new console. The company also took the opportunity to present an in-depth, hands-on demonstration of the Klark Teknik DN9848 loudspeaker processor, as well as give their guests a full factory tour.

Guest enjoyed both presentations and the factory tour with ample opportunities for Q&A sessions in just one afternoon. Delegates were shown a full DVD presentation of the new Legend console in French, and French-speaking staff were on hand throughout in order to minimize communication difficulties. According to EVI France's Cecile Dehlinger: "Events like this where we can really concentrate one-on-one with our customers and offer them the opportunity to meet the m

The StratoSphere is a 60ft tall by 50ft wide inflatable dome with two airlock systems for entrance and exits. It has been designed to be a projection sphere capable of holding 300+ VIP guests and offer excellent projections of video, lighting and laser images inside a unique 360° environment. It is also possible to use the projection surfaces as a giant video screen as the surface of the sphere is specially designed for this medium, we have projected both on the inside and on the outside of the StratoSphere with equally impressive results and couple with the quick erection time of the sphere, Laser Magic feel that this system will attract users from many areas of our industry.

Its first showing was for a large event celebrating 20 years of King Fahad's reign in Saudi Arabia, where it was mounted on a barge in the sea. Inside the StratoSphere, Laser Magic installed high power video and

Mad Manufacturing Ltd (formerly Mad Lighting) has expanded its sales operation with the appointment of UK sales manager Ralph Stockley. Ralph's principal role will be to maintain and develop the company's growing client base in the retail and architectural sectors, a market already well established due to the success of Mad's Image Marketing Projector. With his many years of sales experience, Stockley will also service Mad's established UK dealer network alongside sales director David Linger.

With 15 years' experience, principally in the professional audio industry, Aviva Ozin has finally fulfilled her life-long ambition and set up Faith Communications, a consultancy offering PR and marketing services.

After a long association with the Autograph group of companies, working for both the sales and the sound design and rental divisions, Aviva has an in-depth understanding of the industry. She has also worked in the recording sector, prior to a two-year break from the industry, as the communications manager of a humanitarian aid organisation. In her new role, Aviva continues her association with the Autograph group, which has become one of Faith Communications' first clients. The consultancy is also talking with several other pro audio-related businesses and has recently won a contract from a company operating in the leisure sector.

In addition to its PR and consultancy servi

London-based sound rental company Thames Audio has recently purchased eight QSC PL236 (PowerLight 2 series) amplifiers from UK distributor HW International. These will be used to power its Funktion One system comprising Resolution 2 and Resolution 4 touring loudspeakers and F218 self-powered subwoofers.

Thames Audio’s technical director Graham Simpson commented: "When we first heard the Resolution Series at Funktion One, we decided unanimously that this was the only speaker system for us! It’s superb musicality was complemented by the PL236's dynamic delivery, which was a noticeable improvement on our existing switchmode amplifier stock. Our choice of amplifier also conforms in general to the touring preference of existing Resolution users." Since the purchase, Thames Audio have utilized the equipment on Brian Conley’s UK tour and for Hedwig at the Edinburgh

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