Details
UK - Steve Ramos has joined Rosco's European operation as development manager for the UK. Ramos, well known to many in the industry, was most recently sales manager for Le Maitre, overseeing sales for Europe and territories excluding North America and Canada. In moving to Rosco, Ramos commented: "The opportunity to broaden my horizons with a new and exciting product range was too tempting to resist; with Rosco's acquisition of DHA, it means a lot of work but one that I am thoroughly looking forward to."

Kees Frijters, Rosco vice-president of European Operations, said: "Rosco is currently forging ahead with significant growth across a number of markets in Europe. Steve's sales experience and current relationships in the industry will be of great benefit to this growt

Details
USA - Industry writer and commentator Mike Falconer has launched a podcast service of audio recordings - Mike Falconer's Entertainment Technology World and Other Stories.

"The plan is to make a couple of articles available each month in an audio format," says Falconer. "Like the text archive I maintain on mikefalconer.net, the articles that will be part of the podcast will have been previously published; however, there may also be the occasional unpublished article." The individual MP3 files are also available for download from mikefalconer.net for users who do not wish to use the podcast.

Falconer has had articles published in industry trade magazines Lighting Dimensions, Lighting & Sound America, Lighting & Sound International and Projection Lights and Staging News.

Full details of Falconer's podcast and links to sever

Details
Europe - Digidesign has named Ineke Van der Voort as its new technical sales specialist. She joins shortly after leaving manufacturing and distribution company, Apex N.V. in Belgium where she was professional audio sales engineer, responsible for a leading portfolio of pro audio brands.

Van der Voort has worked as a freelance live sound engineer throughout Europe since 1994, representing many of the major rental companies. In 1998 she was senior sound engineer for the start-up of the joint venture between MTS (a French rental company) and Philing Live (a Belgian rental company), located in Marseilles. While there she was responsible for the design of multiple sound systems involved in the FIFA World Cup.

Her duties will include Venue system demonstration and training throughout Northern Europe, and providing full distributor support. "This is a fantastic opportunity, as I

featured content

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

Details
UK - James Thomas Engineering has announced that Chris Ewington (Cube Associates) has decided to stand down from any future development of PixelRange products.

After five years of being an integral member of the team, Chris is to move on to new ventures. Andy Walters, Head of PixelRange, said: "JTE would like to thank Chris for all his efforts over the years and wish him every success in the future."

Chris Ewington states: "I would like to thank the whole team at JTE for their hard work in helping to realise the PixelRange and I wish it continued success."

(Jim Evans)

Details
UK - For the National Waterfront Museum in Swansea which opens this month, Signwave UK has designed, developed and delivered advanced lighting control systems that run on Windows XP platforms.

Amongst the technology behind the exhibits are three Martin MAC250+ moving heads that can be positioned and controlled by a computer using the industry standard DMX protocol. "Multimedia developers ISO wanted a visitor-controlled trackball to move a spotlight in realtime over a projected map of Wales," says Adrian Ward, manager of Signwave UK. "We love a challenge and after a heavy period of research and testing, we showed that we could precisely position the spotlight on the map using custom software, and give the developers of the multimedia software a way to control the light in their code."

Signwave developed its DMXBridge software to bridge the gap between a visi

Details
Germany - Telex/EVI Audio reports that it enjoyed a very successful International Broadcast Convention (IBC) in Amsterdam. Manuel Brico, Product Manager Telex (EAME), comments: "We managed to continue the positive trend of the last few years and even doubled the number of visitors we had in 2004. There was also a marked increase in the number of serious enquiries - especially from potential customers from Africa, the Middle East and eastern Europe."

The Telex/EVI team led by Ralph Strader, Klaus Seitz, Nico Lewis and Manuel Brico presented a number of new products including the expanded RVON product range with its voice over IP capabilities. Commented Manuel Brico: "We've really caught the mood of the market there. The future belongs to voice over IP - something we foresaw long ago, which is why we've been working on this technology for years. For many visitors to

Details
UK - Audio-Technica's Artist Elite AE2500 dual element mic has won a best in class reputation for the kick drum and bass cab applications for which it was specifically designed. However, front of house engineer for Metallica (and many others) 'Big' Mick Hughes has extended its duties as his mic of choice for guitar cabs.

"The mic lends itself to giving you a great in-phase guitar sound that encompasses all of the bandwidth of the guitar," says Hughes. "It cuts out all of the alignment problems of using two mics on a cab, and them being, even slightly, out of phase much of the time."

As a result of the phase coherence of the AE2500's two capsules - one dynamic, one condenser - there are no frequency cancellation effects. "It just gives you this huge picture," continues Mick. "The combined sound of the condenser and the dynamic capsules is crus

Details
Far East - Drapes and fabrics specialists J&C Joel has supplied Riverdance's Far Eastern troupe - the Corrib - with over 30 drapes for their new tour. It's the first time the Halifax-based company has worked with the world-renowned Celtic dancing production, and the project was managed for Joel's by their International business development manager, Fiona Blackett. Blackett worked closely with Riverdance's line producer Ciaràn Walsh and their Germany-based technical manger Tobias Botzenhardt.

The supply features a full set of black velvet and filled cloth masking drapes including legs, truss and screen borders. Some of the drapes were made from a special velvet material compliant to the German DIN flame retardant requirements. This is standard practise for touring shows to ensure that all the material is covered for whichever standards a specific country might have

Details
Switzerland - The Festilac festival, which takes place near Geneva at the end of August, is serviced by a French sound rental company, Digiteac Industrie. This year, for the acapella and acoustic music event, they provided a sound system which featured Soundcraft mixing desks and JBL Pro loudspeakers supplied by SCV Audio.

Digiteac put a Soundcraft MH3 console out at front-of-house, electing to use a Soundcraft SM20 for monitor mixing. The main PA system was a JBL Vertec line-array, comprising 16 VT4888 mid speakers and eight VT4880 subwoofers, combined with six VRX932LA speakers providing frontfill.

Powering the system were 16x Crown I-Tech rack-mounted amplifiers, suspended and linked up by an appropriate patch system. Signal processing was done by two BSS Omnidrive FDS366Ts, and also in the rack were Lexicon multi-effects and DBX graphic equalizers. The JBL SRX Series provi

Details
UK - More than 15 years after its introduction, White Light's VSFX Optical Effect system remains hugely popular with lighting designers for creating moving clouds, water, rain, snow and other effects on stage.

The most recent shows to turn to VSFX are the new Broadway production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Woman in White, and the epic new stage production of The Lord of the Rings being produced in Toronto. Both productions are being lit by lighting designer Paul Pyant who also made extensive use of VSFX moving clouds on the London production of The Woman in White - despite the presence of a number of video projectors on the show.

White Light has supplied six VSFX units to The Lord of the Rings, and 14 to The Woman in White via the show's lighting supplier, Hudson Sound & Light.

First released in 1990, and updated to include built-in DMX co

Details
Brazil - Soundcraft has appointed the Sao Paolo-based Royal Music as its distributor in Brazil. Royal Instrumentos Musicais (AKA Royal Music) was founded in 1994 around the time when the Brazilian market had just opened up to international imports.

Soundcraft's Intercontinental sales manager Richard Ayres comments: "This is a distributor covering all the market segments in which we work, totally committed to supporting the customer base."

(Jim Evans)

Details
UK / Canada - Richmond Sound Design (RSD) of Vancouver, Canada, and London, England, has introduced the new Model AB64, the latest model in the line of award-winning AudioBox sound and show controllers. The AB64 series offers up to 64 channels of sound recording, playback, shaping and manipulation, plus enhanced show control capabilities, all in a 2U rack-mountable modular mainframe. This comprehensive re-design, headed by HFI lead engineer Tim Bartoo, quadruples the capacity of the previous model without requiring any additional rack space, say the company.

As a sound controller, the new AB64 can mix simultaneously up to 64 live analogue input signals, 64 live digital input signals and 64 pre-recorded audio signals from the unit's internal hard drives. The unit is capable of both synchronous and non-synchronous audio file playback. Each input channel can be gain leveled, panned

Details
Sweden - Ampetronic has appointed Sennheiser AB as distributor of its product line to the Swedish market. Commenting on the arrangement, Christian Wollin, Sennheiser's deputy managing director, said: "We are very happy to have Ampetronic on board. We believe there is a good match between our companies and our products."

He continued, "Sennheiser has a reputation for working in the high-end segment of the market and our operation in the audio sector has garnered good relationships with installers all over Sweden. Sennheiser AB has also been working in the audiology sector for more than 20 years as a distributor of Siemens' hearing instruments. This means we can start work with Ampetronic immediately from our current customer network and distribution channels."

Both Wollin and Ampetronic's founder Leon Pieters believe there is a growing market for loop system

Details
UK - One of the big successes of the Home Counties is the Vanilla Bar in Windsor, where owner Mark Sansom, formerly of Bagley's Nightclub in Kings Cross, has created a stylish and accessible lounge bar and dance venue, complete with restaurant facilities. Paul Knight of Ascot Audio has designed a sound system for the 400-capacity venue which is critical to its clubby ambience. Since he's been installing Electro-Voice sound reinforcement gear for over 20 years, there was always a good chance he'd choose products from the EV catalogue for this project, especially given the system requirements of the venue. But the all-white EViD full-range loudspeaker models that he's specified are an uncommonly good match for the light interior of the Vanilla Bar, he says.

"These little speakers have a great design, they're trendy and they look good, but they also sound fantastic; they're am

Details
Belgium - In response to "an ever increasing market demand to utilise LED display technology in a creative way", Barco has launched three products - MiSphere, Creative MiPix and Creative Olite.

"Adding a creative dimension to LED technology attests Barco's technology leadership in the international events and architectural lighting industry. Most of the products have been developed in close partnership with leading show designers and can now be offered as a true solution to the market. Let's break the mold and unleash the creativity!" comments Stephan Paridaen, president of Barco Media & Entertainment.

A MiSphere consists of 4 full colour high performance LEDs that reside inside an opaque, light-defusing capsule. With 360-degree viewing angles, and the ability to play both full video & data, the MiSphere bridges the gap between existing video and lighting p

Details
UK - One of London's flagship cultural venues Riverside Studios has undergone a major technical refurbishment program facilitated by a UK Arts Council grant. Featuring as a key element, a new Logic Systems sound rig has been supplied and commissioned by theatre sound specialist Orbital Sound.

Orbital's head of sales collaborated with Riverside's technical manager, Barbara Egervary, to supply a system that met her specifications to augment the theatres capacity to host a variety of advanced productions, including an expanding repertoire of international work. The system supplied by Orbital comprises four Logic System LS15 Tops and two Logic System B1Subs, which is run through a 24-channel Allen & Heath FOH mixing console with BSS EQ and speaker management.

The Logic LS range is designed and built from the ground up for installation use and delivers a large sound from a small bo

Details
UK - Showsec looked after 2,000 soul fans at the Jazz FM Northern Soul Night held in Blackburn's King George's Hall last month, as part of the company's long term relationship with the venue. This was the first of six such events to run this winter and all genres of soul music were included on the playlist across the venue's three rooms.

Blackburn Borough Council, which owns and manages King George's Hall, brought in Showsec five years ago, to manage the safety and security for all events held in the venue. For the Northern Soul night, Showsec brought in eight SIA licensed stewards and five additional stewards to cover the entrance, ticket stalls and monitor throughout the inside of the venue.

Area Manager Alan Wallace oversaw the operations, with Showsec's specialist staff working alongside the venue's in-house team. He commented: "Working in local venues is a vit

Details
UK - Baldwin Boxall Communications is well-known for being at the forefront of the emergency voice communication market. As such the company acted quickly upon learning about the new Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) by providing disabled refuge systems from September 2001 - some three years prior to the DDA coming into effect in October 2004.Listening to input from leading outside sources and from their own research, Baldwin Boxall developed Vigil CommuniCare and then, more recently, Vigil CommuniCare Advance.

Vigil CommuniCare Advance is a disabled refuge system which is easy to install and use, says the manufacturer. The special features of the CommuniCare Advance include raised luminescent script, Braille and a built-in induction loop - making it suitable for the majority of applications. Upon occupation of the specified area, a single button press on the unit is all that

Details
Worldwide - Oasis current world tour, in support of their latest release Don't Believe the Truth, began in the UK this summer and is currently wrapping up a US leg. It now moves on to Japan and Australia. Lighting designer is Andi Watson who uses 87 MAC 2000 Wash, 40 MAC 2000 Performance and Atomic strobes with Atomic Colors on the stadium show, with supply by PRG. An arena show uses a smaller rig.

The MAC 2000 Performance is the main profile spot on the show and Watson uses its graphical features extensively. "I love the Performance fixture mainly due to the animation wheel," Watson stated. "It enables you to give such a fantastic direction to the energy and light you're using. We use that quite a lot, probably more than we use gobos. It tends not to be spectacularly dark when we start the stadium shows - a lot of the time you don't see the beams right at

Details
Germany / USA - Look Solutions will show its new Unique2 water-based hazer at the 2005 ETS-LDI Show in Orlando (11-13 November 2005). The German manufacturer of high performance fog and haze equipment revolutionized the hazer industry in 1999, when they introduced the Unique with independent pump/fan incremental output - a technology that's now standard in water-base hazers. The Unique² takes this technology to a new level with improvements in performance and reliability, say the company.

The Unique2's heater does not need to be cleaned or serviced and will not clog provided that nothing but pure Unique Fluid is used. Other features of the Unique2 include: DMX, analogue, and standalone controls, digital timer, practically silent operation, minimal fluid consumption, 60 second warm-up time, and high output. The Unique2 also comes with a Money Back Guarantee.

Look Solutions can

Details
Singapore - Logic System Asia Pacific is a newly-formed joint venture established between the UK loudspeaker manufacturer and James Yeung and Lawrence Tay, owners and directors of Singapore distribution company Electro Systems. The new, independent company has warehousing, stock, infrastructure and logistics based in Singapore, where the company is registered.

The announcement comes after months of speculation, in which Logic System's loudspeakers have become increasingly visible in Indonesia, Singapore and China thanks to the combined efforts of Yeung and Tay.

The new company will handle all distribution business for Logic System products in the Asia Pacific region including China, forming a dealer network and managing that to maximise Logic System's presence in the area. Logic's MD Chris Scott comments "This is a strategic move based on months of planning with Lawrence

Page 1827 of 3465

Latest Issue. . .