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Edwin Shirley Staging deployed over a hundred tonnes of staging equipment to the six zones of this year’s Essential Festival, held for the first time at Ashton Court in the Bristol area. The staging was located inside six temporary marquees. During the build up to the May bank holiday weekend festival, the weather provided no mean challenge to the organizers and the suppliers of the event. ESS was left with a shorter installation period thanks to the challenges provided by a windswept and rain-soaked site, although work was finished for the festival to start at the appointed time despite the difficulties.

ESS was supplying the festival for the first time and is now looking forward to rejoining the event when it arrives in London, this time at Hackney Marshes in early August. The Ha

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Stage Electrics continues to be busy. For the West End production of We Will Rock You at the Dominion Theatre, the company has supplied the total lighting rig, including the new MAC2000 Performance which is making its debut in the West End. The rig also contains MAC2000s, MAC600 ENTs and High End Studio Colors, plus a large quantity of strobes including 50 Atomic and 500 Egg Strobes.The rig is controlled via a Wholehog 2 and two overdrive boxes over six universes of DMX.

The African Musical Umoja transfers to The Queens from The Shaftsbury where it was playing three months ago. This international success has also opened in Perth, Australia, and producer Joe Theron is currently in discussions with a view to taking the show across Europe. Stage Electrics has supplied all of the lighting equipment including MAC 600s Moving Wash Lights, Source Four profiles, scrollers and a Strand 5

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Arbiter PLC, JBL’s exclusive UK distributor, has supplied leading UK audio rental company SSE with 24 JBL VerTec VT4889 line array cabinets. This is SSE’s first purchase of VerTec, and will immediately be utilized during their schedule for the Capital Radio Party In The Park/Power In The Park series, and on the EMAP Feel The Noise summer outdoor road show season. These events are staged all across the UK, primarily featuring playback performances of the UK’s best-loved pop stars, and attracting sell-out audiences of between 20,000 and 70,000.

Production time is always short on these shows, so getting the rig up and running quickly is absolutely vital. SSE’s Chris Beale says: "We chose VerTec because it’s the lightest, fastest, easiest-to-rig line array system currently available. It sounds fine, is very economical on truck space - and totally fitted t

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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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Having successfully developed the children’s TV character ‘Bob the Builder’ during the last three years, HIT Entertainment recently turned to the Lighting Technology Group to supply and install luminaires and grip equipment for its five Manchester studios.

Andy Dodd, sales manager at LTG, worked closely with Joe Dembinski, one of HOT Animation’s directors, on the project. He commented: "It was great to be involved with someone as famous as Bob the Builder. Lighting plays an enormous role in a project such as this and it’s always a pleasure to be associated with such a successful production."

Joe explained his reason for using ARRI products: "I chose ARRI luminaires because of their reliability and performance. Due to their high efficiency and light weight they have proven to be a good choice when working in miniature when space is at a pre

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April 25 saw Fourth Phase London open its doors for the company’s first product demonstration evening. Over 100 people attended the spring barbeque, hosted to showcase the extensive stock held at the new warehouse in south London.

When guests weren’t tucking into burgers and beer, they enjoyed demonstrations by Fourth Phase staff of moving lights, followspots, control desks, WYSIWYG and CAD, plus PANI large format projectors. Well attended by people from across the lighting industry, from theatre to themed entertainment, as well as event organisers, Alan Thomson, managing director at Fourth Phase, declared the evening a success: "This was an ideal opportunity to show people that we have a vast range of rental equipment and allow them the opportunity to try it out for themselves."

(Ruth Rossington)

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A collaboration between ScanAudio, LMC Audio, BSS Audio and Kelsey Acoustics has resulted in an ambitious pilot scheme to allow monitoring of epileptic patients at St. Pier’s School in Lingfield, the National Centre for Young People with Epilepsy.

The system - designed to alert staff both visually and audibly to a possible emergency situation - is networked via BSS Soundweb 9088 digital devices. In standby mode, the block of six rooms is monitored using boundary microphones installed above the bed heads. The control panel features audio activity LED to indicate which room or rooms may need attending, while staff are able to use the visual monitor to identify which room to listen to more closely, using a solo room-select button. The threshold sensitivity of the microphone may be adjusted so that unwanted background noise is not relayed to the loudspeaker monitor.

Following the s

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The time is fast approaching when, once again, the UK’s burgeoning custom installation business gets to share information and demonstrate new product solutions at the CEDIA UK Expo: the UK’s only trade forum dedicated to exploring the latest know-how and hardware available to the custom installer.

The format is a mix of product exhibition and training seminars held in the same venue. Every year it offers home automation practitioners the chance to network with experts in related disciplines and to become acquainted with the very latest techniques, innovations and technologies dedicated to the delivery of the next generation of fully networked ‘automated’ homes. Exhibitors come from the fields of security, satellite, lighting, home automation and AV.

CEDIA’s seminar programme caters for practitioners of all abilities in 21 individual courses, supported

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Nautilus Entertainment Design (NED) is expanding into new larger offices on both the east and west coasts of the US during the month of May. The main office in southern California moves to 1010 Pearl Street, La Jolla, California 92037-5164. The phone number remains the same, at +1 858 456 6396. The east coast office meanwhile moves from the Bronx into Manhattan at 599 11th Avenue, 6th Floor, New York City, N.Y. 10036 and has a new phone number of +1 212 977 5988.

(Ruth Rossington)

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Biamp Systems, a provider of professional audio electronics, has signed a licensing agreement for echo and noise cancellation technologies with Gentner Communications, a division of ClearOne Communications Inc. As a result, Biamp and Gentner will jointly design a multi-channel card using the echo and noise cancellation technologies for integration into Biamp’s AUDIA line of digital audio processing and networking systems. The introduction of this technology will serve to expand the scope of potential applications for the AUDIA digital audio platform to include audio conferencing capabilities.

"This partnership furthers Gentner’s OEM strategy of leveraging our core audio technologies to extend beyond traditional audio conferencing markets," said Frances Flood, president and chief executive officer of ClearOne. "Biamp is a solid company with a great reputati

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UK-based company DiGiCo (UK) Ltd has acquired the assets, core business and intellectual property rights of Soundtracs Plc of Epsom Surrey. DiGiCo co-founder, Eric Wade of Atlanta, Georgia, USA told us: "We are pleased to announce this acquisition and look forward to taking the excellent digital console platform and products, distributed globally by Soundtracs, to the next level in the pro audio Industry. The Soundtracs digital platform is conceptually and intuitively, one of the most robust products available on the market today and our goal is to enhance current distribution and market share in order to establish it more broadly in the Industry." Both Bob Doyle and Dave Webster, formerly with the Klark Teknik Gourp, have joined DiGiCo (UK) as managing and marketing directors respectively.

Both Todd Wells, managing director and chairman of Soundtracs Plc and Liam Tebbs, Soun

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First opened in 1910, London's oldest purpose-built cinema, the Electric Cinema in Notting Hill, reopened on April 26 following a lengthy and complex refurbishment. A Grade II listed building, the venue retains many of its original features including the foyer's gilt-domed box office and mosaic floor, which leads to a Baroque panelled auditorium. Now the cinema has comfortable new seating and the most technologically advanced 35mm projector available.

Unusual Rigging was first approached to quote on a lighting grid, but once there, Robin Elias of Unusual was quizzed about ways of 'growing' the cinema's existing screen to make it suitable for widescreen presentations. However, as a listed building there were restrictions that had to be taken into account, making major structural changes impossible. After presenting the initial idea, Unusual contracted Total Fabrications to realise the c

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Vari-Lite Inc has entered into an exclusive dealer partnership with Lightpower, one of the most respected distribution companies in Germany, which will allow the company to offer its German customers direct local access to sales, service and support of Vari*Lite sales products.

"The partnership is important to us commercially, technically, and also from an image standpoint," said Lightpower managing director Ralph-Jörg Wezorke. "Vari*Lite products are much more than multi-functional lighting fixtures. There is a special feeling about using Vari-Lite, from the products themselves to the quality service and support the company provides. Because Lightpower is an experienced and well-structured sales company, we can extend that level of service into the markets we serve."

Lightpower will offer customers in Germany an outlet to purchase the full line of Vari*Lite for

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One of the UK’s most notable dance venues, the Middlesborough Empire, has continued its systematic sound upgrade with Martin Audio by turning the upper circle of the famous old theatre into a self-contained 500-capacity ’70s themed venue. Co-owner Barry Faulkner confirmed that a new Blackline system had been imported to complement the powerful Wavefront rig (eight W8C, 12 WSX subs) downstairs, which pumps music from the nation’s top DJs into the 1100-capacity main auditorium.

The club’s relationship with Martin Audio began when design engineer Rod Short joined the High Wycombe-based manufacturers back in April 1995. Rod had designed the original club system at The Empire, while working with his previous company - but quickly turned the club round to Martin. This time around he designed a system which was supplied through Dial Sound & Lighting in Yorkshire. Four

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Midland Sound & Light has become the first UK hire company to order Soundcraft’s new MH4 multi-purpose mixing console, adding it to their inventory of Soundcraft boards. Proprietor Andy Salmon placed the order with Marquee Audio, extending a relationship that began when he ordered his first Series 5 FOH desk, and later a monitor board.

The experienced Leicester-based company specializes in light entertainment, including stand-up comedy, such as The League of Gentlemen, French & Saunders and Victoria Wood - as well as bands such as Jools Holland and Fairport Convention. With the reduced number of inputs required by spoken voice, the MH4 - configured as a 32-channel with four stereo inputs - will thus give them the opportunity to use the desk in mixed monitor/FOH mode.

This new facility marks Soundcraft’s entry into the multi-purpose live performance console market, as its

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Simple Minds, one of the most definitive rock bands of the 1980s, are back on the road again having just completed the UK leg of their first major world tour since 1995. The Floating World Tour is based around their latest album, ‘Cry’ plus a healthy dose of their biggest hits. Handling the audio for the tour is Belgian rental company EML, with Patrick Demoustier at FOH with his Midas XL4 console, and a number of EV RE-1 microphones and RE-1 wireless guitar systems.

Patrick first worked with Simple Minds in 1997 at Night of the Proms, a huge musical extravaganza in Belgium. "We struck up an instant rapport there, and I've worked with them ever since," he confirmed. "Last time was an arena tour. This time the band has gone for slightly smaller venues with the result that it's sold out everywhere and they've had to announce new dates, so it's been

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Planned for August 6, The Birmingham Carnival will take four hours to travel the five miles from Hansworth to Perry Park. Fresh from their success last year, with a powerful combination of Cerwin Vega’s Intense rig supplied by Lamba, Matthews Electronics have intensified the rig for this year’s lead float. Matthews’ Mark Hutchins explained: "Last year, we had to under-power the rig, but this year we have 2.5kW per side to run the six T-250 mid tops, 3.5kW per side for the eight compact T-36 subs and 4.5kW per side to run the four SUB-218s."

He explained that they tested the rig on a three-acre rugby ground against the wind - and the sound carried beyond the end of the park. "In effect we are running 21,000W RMS on a single float, which will consume 120 amps of power," said Mark. Which will provide food for thought for the DJ and 25-30 dancers who w

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Harnessing two decades of projection engineering know-how, Christie has announced the launch of its new line of single-chip SXGA DLP rear-screen tiling projection systems - the CS70-500Xe stackable display cube and the RPMS-500Xe rear projection module.

Both projection systems are engineered and manufactured at Christie’s IS09001 registered facility and are designed for applications where high reliability, long-term performance and stability are critical. The CS70-500Xe stackable cube displays native SXGA (1280x1024) resolution across a 70in diagonal high-contrast, high-gain screen, manufactured also by Christie. The depth of the CS70-500Xe is only 34". Using a 500W CERMAX Xenon user-replaceable lamp, the CS70-500Xe projects over 700 cd/m2 (nits) ANSI brightness. The double speed, six-segment colour wheel ensures long life and high reliability.

The RPMS-500Xe is the rear

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ARX Systems, well known for its range of innovative signal processing solutions, has released the new Barmix MultiMedia zoner/mixer. Ideal for multiple input multi-zoned applications, the Barmix distributes a microphone and four stereo signals to two separate stereo zones. Comprehensive mic EQ, plus externally switchable voice override, separated zone Level Control, EQ and LED Metering, Balanced and XLR outputs, complete this simple-to-use but powerful processing package. An optional local or remote VCA Remote Master zone control PlugIn will be available in July 2002.

(Ruth Rossington)

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Professional audio systems specialists Shermann UK is ensuring that former sixties pop idol Helen Shapiro ends her touring career on the right note. Shapiro, 55, who shot to fame as a 14-year-old with the number one hit ‘Walking back to happiness’ has begun an 80-date farewell UK concert tour. PA rental company Crystal Clear Audio is using a Shermann CA9/CB218 loudspeaker system on the tour, along with a number of Shermann stage wedge monitors.

"Helen Shapiro has been using our systems for several years in association with Crystal Clear Audio and we are delighted to be playing a part in her farewell tour," said Shermann UK owner Ken Hughes. The company is no stranger to major musical events and concert tours, having provided sound systems for a host of stars over the last 19 years through its user network of professional rental companies.

(Ruth Rossington)

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XL Video is supplying chart toppers Muse with video equipment including a Catalyst playback system for the next 17 weeks. This is believed to be the first European tour for Catalyst. Muse’s video system utilises High End Systems’ revolutionary Catalyst image processing system, two Barco G10 ELM projectors and a rear cyc.

Muse’s creative designer Oli Metcalfe was so impressed with the demonstration organised by XL Video’s Des Fallon that he immediately recommended Catalyst to the Band. They then visited High End’s Ealing office, and were blown away with the system’s capabilities. XL’s Mark Hughes is rigging the system, and Metcalf is controlling the Catalyst via DMX from his Wholehog II (with extender wing) console. Metcalf is running a wide assortment of video clips and media via the Catalyst including stunning abstract patterns, water effects,

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Hull company Tega has recently completed the installation of sound and lighting at Hull University Union’s new venue, ‘Asylum’. The union building, dating from the seventies, has never had a proper venue for events, and until recently the refectory area was pressed into service. This was far from ideal as equipment had to be removed after every event, and the ceiling height was less than 10 feet.

The long-awaited new venue has been designed by Big Blue and features a large stage, sprung dancefloor, DJ booth and bar area with permanently installed sound and effects lighting. Tega have worked closely with the University on many events in the past, and, as a result of their good support service, were awarded the sound and lighting contract. The main sound system uses the Union’s eight existing EAW KF650 boxes, which are flown above the stage on custom-designed fram

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