Tomcat’s second annual Las Vegas Motor School is sweeping through the Western Region this year hot on the heels of LDI 2002. The workshop, scheduled for 21 and 22 of October, will be held at 4 Wall Entertainment and consists of a full day of motor instruction taught by Don Dimitroff of Columbus McKinnon, a half-day of fall protection led by Morgan Neff of Mine Safety Appliances, and a half-day of truss design, use and theory taught by Keith Bohn from Tomcat USA. In other Tomcat training news, the annual Tomcat Hoist and Rigging Workshop will be hosted by Tomcat USA in Midland, Texas, from 5-8 February 2003. Recognized worldwide as one of the most comprehensive training courses of its kind, the Hoist and Rigging Workshop is a unique learning opportunity for those new to the entertainm

Avesco plc has sold its broadcast television studio business, Fountain Studios, for £7 million to Medal Entertainment and Media plc, subject to the approval of both companies’ shareholders. The amount is made up by a combination of £5.5 million in cash and £1.5 million in securities.

The move fulfils Avesco’s intention to focus on providing its core services to the events market. David Nicholson, Avesco’s chief executive, told us: "Fountain has been a good solid business for us, but there are limited synergy benefits, with virtually no relationship with any other group company. The cash we have generated from this sale allows us to cut our debt still further. We have taken actions this past year to reduce our debt rapidly. Following completion of this transaction, the Group’s net debt figure will stand at less than £11 million, having been more than hal

Wharfedale Pro loudspeakers are fast becoming the de facto standard for installation in Kuala Lumpur’s busy restaurant areas. Amizan Arrifin of CK Music, has just finished a string of installs in Malaysia culminating in Zino's Cafe & Pub (at Changkat Raja Chulan).

The outlet is located in an area popular among back-packers from other countries. Here they are welcomed by the sound of two pairs of Wharfedale Pro LA-15P which are used to playback both live performance, which the venue has now introduced, as well as piped-in music. Meanwhile, Sakura Cafe & Cuisine has been a popular restaurant since the 1970s, serving a mix of local and continental food. As part of the recent renovation works, the owners opted to include nine pairs of Wharfedale Pro Force 1, distributed around the two floors of the restaurant, to provide easy listening for the diners.

Across in Bukit Bintang - in 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

Jane Monk is to leave Pulsar after 11 eleven successful years with the company. She will leave her position as marketing manager after this year’s PLASA show to take on the development of her family business, following the recent death of her father. Andy Graves commented: "Pulsar would like to take this opportunity to thank Jane for her efforts and wish her every success for the future."p>(Ruth Rossington)

Miami-based MAVCO has been awarded contracts for two key South Florida construction projects.

At Wynmoor Theater, MAVCO is providing engineering, supply and installation of the lighting, sound and cinema systems for the refurbishment of the 900-seat theatre located at Coconut Creek, Florida. Working to a design by TSG Design Solutions, MAVCO’s enormous experience in all three disciplines was a crucial element in gaining the project, offering the main contractor, Dooley & Mack, the advantage of having one supplier handling all the technical systems.

The Wynmoor Theater serves a private gated community just off the Florida Turnpike and, as well as offering both drama and music productions, is also used for lectures and courses, as well as current events. The comprehensive refurbishment, under the project management of MAVCO’s Nick Gibson, is due for completion at the end of

Hayden Laboratories, UK distributors for Rane, have announced that Grandmaster Flash - founder of modern Hip Hop - is launching the new Rane Empath mixer on their stand at PLASA 2002.

Rane and Flash have worked together to design the Empath. In addition to doing a number of sessions on the Hayden stand (Monday 9 September at 3.00pm; Tuesday 10 at midday and 5pm) Flash will also demo Empath at the Ministry of Sound on Tuesday 10 September, playing a set in the Bar, between 11.30pm and 1.30am.

The Empath joins an impressive line up of Rane mixers already in use at the Ministry. The Empath is the first 3-channel, 10" format mixer to offer big-board features and studio quality sound. The mixer is feature packed, while also being easy and intuitive to use. Rane consulted the Grandmaster from the early stages of the mixer’s development, and Flash is responsible for many of the m

i-vision's Geoff Jones has been seen in action yet again at Late Night Bars in the Warrington and Manchester areas - designing architectural lighting schemes for this new brand concept. The Warrington venue - the brainchild of nightlife entrepreneur John Rennie - is located in a highly competitive area of town, with many operations competing directly for business from Warrington's night-owls. The Late Night Bar is one of the few venues offering outside seating and i-vision’s brief from the client was to design an attractive lighting scheme to draw people to the venue.

Apart from its aesthetic appeal, the company also wanted to introduce an element of 'entertainment' into the garden area, so Geoff Jones, the veteran of numerous architectural lighting schemes, from the illumination of Merseyside Police Station to the Tyne Bridge, set to work. As always, there was a budget, but Jone

Thursday 4th July saw the first customer delivery, anywhere in the world, of the new Klark Teknik DN9340 ‘Helix’ digital equalizer. EFX Audio of Edinburgh took delivery of the first six units sporting serial numbers 001 to 006 from LMC Audio in Birmingham.

EFX had placed its order months before, solely on the basis of a description of Helix. According to EFX managing director John Ramsay: "From previous experience we knew that KT would produce a benchmark product which would be a much sought-after unit and a step forward for us, so we had no hesitation in being the very first customer."

Klark Teknik international sales manager David Wiggins was on hand to thank EFX personally for their early adoption of the new device. "EFX have beaten everyone out of the blocks this time in demonstrating their ongoing commitment to KT, which is a great affirmation for us

Right on cue for the forthcoming trade shows, MA Lighting is launching new software for its grandMA range. The new version - 4.0 - is characterized by its extensive network functions. Key features are the multi-user environment and the master-master operating mode. The ‘Worlds’ new Pool-System enables it to classify moving lights and fixtures to single users. Moreover users can also select special user rights for these moving lights and fixtures.Communication between operators is ensured via a network (Chat) facility.

Another new feature is the Live-Patch which runs through the command line, as well as a fixture schedule and DMX patch designed to meet customer demands. Users can assign any individual fixture and channel ID to the dimmers and moving lights in order to control the dimmers by faders and show these on the channel sheet. The ‘Matrix’ function allows

Hayden Laboratories, UK distributor for Rane, has supplied HHB with three Rane NM84 CobraNET Mics for an installation at Trinity College of Music’s new facility in Greenwich, London.

The CobraNET system, developed by Peak Audio, runs full bandwidth audio through computer cables, removing the need for lots of heavy cabling. Rane has developed this system further by creating a device so the mics can be input at one end, the cables fed through, and then picked up again at the other end. Before the move to the new site, Trinity College’s recording technician Kit Venables knew that the facility would need a multi-track audio system, but was concerned about the restrictions of the listed building - the old Greenwich military hospital. Ian Downs of Hayden Labs and Martin O'Donnell of HHB (who had previously supplied the college with equipment) were approached by Venables, and coll

Color Kinetics Inc, the intelligent LED illumination specialist, has launched two new products designed to help end-users maximise the potential of the company’s LED illumination fixtures: The PDS-150e and PDS-500e simplify installations of Color Kinetics fixtures by combining both power and data capabilities in one economical source. PDS-150 offers a robust 150W power source and intelligent data drive circuitry for all Color Kinetics UL Class 2 listed fixtures (all bColor Series products and all iColor Series products with the exception of iColor Accent). PDS-500e offers a robust 500W power source and intelligent data drive circuitry for all Color Kinetics UL Class 1 listed fixtures (iColor Accent).

PDS-150e and PDS-500e have been designed with a number of features which make specifying and installing Color Kinetics intelligent illumination fixtures a breeze. Both products incor

"It's my fifth Falcon Club convention," notes lighting designer Tim Ball. "In the past, the shows have been in Bali, Jamaica and on a cruise liner bobbing about on the Med. This year it was Bermuda!" No stranger to dealing with challenges, for this show Tim had to overcome a tight budget, limited freight capacity on the charter aircraft used to ship equipment to the show, the 120V operating voltage at the venue, and the need for the rig to be adaptable enough to light both a business meeting and a gala dinner with cabaret in the same room. To help face these challenges, he turned to Colourhouse.

For the maximum punch from a small package, Ball opted to use the Martin MAC 300 washlight and MAC 250 spotlight, rounding the rig out with ETC Source Four profiles, which were fitted with Morpheus ColorFader colour changers and used to provide a precisely-focussed, colour-c

Star Hire (Event Services) Ltd provided the staging for ‘Feel the Noise 2002’, a series of five Emap radio roadshows. Star Hire supplied a mixture of their mobile SS 15-12V StarStages and VT 15 stages for the event, flanked by screens on either side of the stage and triangular PA towers, provided by SSE. The tour included a variety of venues including Newcastle, Blackburn, Liverpool and Hull, for their respective radio stations.

The events, production managed by ClearChannel, featured Blue, Darius and the talented Sugar Babes amongst the artists, with Gareth Gates closing the show, much to the delight of the 25,000 strong crowd. The central stage was 15m wide, 12m deep and 10m high with a stage height of 1.8m. Each stage was constructed in its ‘Vista’ layout with screamers or 'ego-platforms' extending in front of the screens which were set back to improve audien

Coldplay’s lighting designer Bryan Leitch has invested in his first purchase of SGM Giotto 400 Spots, 14 of which he’s using for Coldplay’s 2002 world tour, which has just kicked off in Europe. The SGM fixtures were supplied to Leitch’s company, Siyan, by SGM’s UK distributor Lightfactor Sales.

Siyan specializes in designing for up-coming bands, and developing LDs and design concepts with the band as they gain profile. Leitch - who has vast experience of all the major moving light fixtures on the market - chose the SGMs after careful consideration, and following a demo by Lightfactor. He was looking for a small, bright fixture for the start of the Coldplay tour - which plays in a vast assortment of venues. "Giottos are great value for money," says Leitch. "I looked at everything available - and chose the fixture most suitable for my design b

At PLASA this year, Mackie Designs Inc is introducing its new SWA1801 high-output 18-inch active subwoofer. The 900W SWA1801 is designed specifically for portable live sound applications, as well as fixed-installation in venues such as nightclubs, churches and corporate facilities.

"The SWA1801 fills a much needed niche in our growing family of sound reinforcement speakers - the subwoofer position between the SR1501 and Fussion subwoofers," explained Ivan Schwartz, corporate director, Global Sound Reinforcement Product and Market Development. "We pulled out all the stops with this one. From the RCF Precision transducer to a new port design, we are very proud of the new 1801."

The newly designed RCF Precision transducer features a unique 4-inch inside/outside wound voice coil with composite polyamide former construction that provides improved power handling capabi

Internationally-recognized American artist Chris Burden has produced a scale model of the Tyne Bridge made from Meccano. However, the scale was such that it was not possible to install it in the gallery by conventional means. At 282cm high and 153cm wide the problem was the length of 945cm and the destination of the top gallery space. The exhibit was constructed of specially-fabricated Meccano parts in stainless steel and consequently was of some considerable weight.

Tim Roffey of Unusual was given the task of finding a way of getting the bridge up to the 4th floor gallery. Although it couldn’t fit into the goods lift on the level, there was a possibility that it might fit in if loaded into diametrically opposed corners. A ground support was built inside the lift using mini-beam truss. Using manual lever hoists attached to the temporary grid, the exhibit was gently coaxed into po

Consolidating its focus on the conference sound contracting markets, beyerdynamic will debut a range of new conference and microphone products including the MCW-D wireless conference system (including simultaneous translation and voting facilities which work over a secure digital wireless link), together with new gooseneck and sound contracting microphones.

The company will also feature several new products from its distribution partners. From ASL, will be the new Digital intercom system for integration into ASL or any other 2 or 4 wire intercom systems. Biamp will show its Audia digital signal processor, previewing its new Echo Cancelling and the addition of the Audace Intelliplate as a control option. From Cue, there will be a sophisticated range of Media Management products, including a new 15" touch screen. DB Technologies will be showing Lyric, a new range of active speakers

Chameleon Audio has appointed its first distributor in Australia, Victoria-based ATT Audio Controls. Commenting on the appointment of ATT, Chameleon managing director Paul Houlden told us: "Although we have a comprehensive distribution network in Europe, inroads have yet to be made into areas such as North America, the Far East and the Pacific. I am confident, therefore, that Frank and his team will raise the profile of the Chameleon brand throughout Australia."

ATT’s Frank Hinton added: "I spoke to Paul at last year’s PLASA show, and was impressed with his enthusiasm, knowledge and attitude. The amps’ spec and build are superb, and the digital audio control system he is currently developing sounds very promising. I am looking forward to putting Chameleon on the map Down Under."

(Lee Baldock)

Hayden Laboratories, the exclusive UK distributor for Denon, has introduced the latest in AVR receiver and speaker technology for home theatres. The Denon AVR-1603 AV receiver with Dolby Pro Logic II and powerful output of 80W per channel is designed for home theatre entertainment of the future. In addition to Dolby Digital and DTS, the AVR-1603 enables the enjoyment of existing Dolby Surround programs and of conventional stereo sources, e.g. CD, in convincing 5.1 channel likeness. If there are only two speakers, one for each stereo channel, the AVR-1603's Virtual Surround mode gives the listener the sensation of being surrounded by a full ‘real’ theatre sound system.

The AVR-1603 provides a digital optical output terminal for connecting a CD recorder or other digital recording device to make high-quality digital recordings directly from the source. Two sets of speaker term

The hard rock four-piece Creed, featuring vocalist Scott Stapp, guitarist Mark Tremonti, and drummer Scott Phillips, is back on the road using an arsenal of Audio-Technica wired and wireless microphones in support of their latest release, Weathered.

Kirk Kelsey, Creed's front-of-house engineer and co-producer of Weathered, chose a wide array of Audio-Technica microphones to help capture the band's signature sound. "I've been using Audio-Technica mics for years, both live and in the studio. When we were recording Weathered, we used AT4047s on clean guitars, AT4050s for the dirty guitar, ATM25s for the toms, AT4060s for overheads, and an AT3035 on kick. When it came time to hit the road, rather than mix and match a bunch of microphones, I wanted one company with the products and support that would cut it, and A-T is the one."

Currently, for Scott Phillips' drum kit, Kelsey is

The Legoland theme park in Carlsbad, California, has installed Wharfedale Systems loudspeakers for the first time. The San Diego-based consulting, sales and installation company Quiet Voice Audio, which provides equipment for all the park's live sound stages and special events, has chosen Wharfedale's PB-208 powered sub-bass for the new Quest for Galidor interactive experience which opened this month.

Based around the new Fox Kids Saturday morning television show, Galidor: Defenders of the Outer Dimension, this indoor presentation revolves around four video monitors and a large wall-mounted plasma screen, with a dedicated in-house soundtrack production which interweaves the spoken word with techno music. Program material is fed to the monitors along with the soundtrack. A broadcast quality video camera and switcher generate real-time video of the visiting children in front of a

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