Details
UK - NXT plc, best known for its flat panel loudspeaker technology, recently announced the launch of its Balanced Mode Radiator (BMR) technology. BMR, the company says, builds on NXT's expertise in bending wave physics by using a unique balancing technique, which allows flat panels to be used in wide bandwidth drive units. The panels, which can be either circular or rectangular, are mounted in a chassis much like a conventional drive unit. This similarity aids the manufacturing process, allowing BMR drive units to be built using conventional loudspeaker techniques.

While BMR's low frequency performance is equivalent to conventional drive units of the same size, the high frequency range is extended with the wide directivity characteristic of all NXT technologies. Increasing the ban

Details
UK - Lighting designer Nick Jevons used 85 Chroma-Q Color Blocks in his set design for Radio 1's The Chart Show Live concert at London's Shepherd's Bush Empire on 27 November. The special event for Radio 1 ticket winners was hosted by various DJs from the station and featured mini set performances by McFly, Charlotte Church, The Pussycat Dolls, Hard-Fi and Sean Paul. The concert was also broadcast live straight after Radio 1's Sunday UK Chart Show rundown.

LD Nick Jevons of production company Electric Fly Productions provided the set lighting design and visuals, with all fixtures supplied by Bandit Lites UK. To reflect the pace of the music event, Nick wanted his lighting design to have the sensory experience of a Waltzer fairground ride. To achieve this visual effect as a lighting rig, Nick used five upright truss pieces to support eight 20ft scaffold tubes hung off the in-hous

Details
UK - The IOA (Institute of Acoustics) and the ISCE (Institute of Sound and Communications Engineers) have been working more closely together, the organisations report. The closer relationship was demonstrated when the new president of the ISCE, David Hopkins OBE, was present at the recent IOA Conference in Oxford in November 2005. Hopkins, who is an Associate Member of the IOA, took stand space as Audio Design Services Ltd.

At the Conference, Hopkins shared some of his ideas on training issues for the ISCE with Tony Jones, president of the IOA and Bob Walker, the chairman of the IOA Electroacoustics group. It was generally agreed that members from each Institute should be encouraged to attend each other's conferences, participating in lectures and taking stand space where appropriate.

At a time when regulations and standards are an issue over so many disciplines, institutes wo

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
Italy - One of four Digidesign Venues purchased by rental firm Agorà of L'Aquila recently played a key role on Rockpolitik, a mini-series of nationwide prime-time TV shows hosted by one of Italy's longest live pop phenomena, Adriano Celentano, and screened on Italian state television's flagship channel, RAI 1.

Venue's D-Show mixing console, manned by sound engineer Enrico Belli, was installed in the broadcast audio control room and used to mix the sound for the show's guest stage. Belli, who mixed broadcast sound for Santana, The Eurythmics and Italian headliners Subsonica and Negrita, received 96 input channels from an active splitter in the studio and, in addition to the on-air sound feed, sent four stereo pre-mixes to the studio's FOH desk, manned by Massimo Mannunzo.

The unique show, on which Celentano and some of his guests were backed by a hard-hitting 22-piece

Details
UK - Rycote, the industry standard in windshield and shockmount manufacturing, has released five new accessories available immediately. Through UK distributor Sennheiser UK, all these accessories have been designed and developed from suggestions received from Rycote users.

Rycote director, Vivienne Dyer explains: "We listen to our distributors and customers and so we are confident that there is a ready market for these products. Each accessory is the result of feedback from end-users and our commitment has always been to provide the industry with the most effective systems possible." The new accessories are outlined below.

Hot Shoe Extension: This simple extension will allow camcorder users to fit multiple hot shoe attachments onto their equipment. Hot Shoe 3/8" Adaptor: To attach any fitting with a 3/8" thread to a camera hot shoe. Multimount v2: Availab

Details
UK - DiFuzion, the lighting division of Fuzion plc., will evoke memories of the golden era of discotheque lighting with the introduction of the versatile Centrepiece from Futurelight. Distributed exclusively in the UK by DiFuzion, the fixture provides a lot more versatility than its forebears of 20 years ago.

According to DiFuzion's Graham Barron, the Futurelight principle involves a number of scans generated from a bright central 1200W HMI lamp rather than the more restricting circle of mirrors operating on a single axis, which represented the first wave.

This multi-scanner is designed around six arms with moving mirrors. The gobo wheel contains six rotating, dichroic gobos (one glass effect and one open); a strobe effect with adjustable shutter speed (1-10 flashes/sec); DMX-controlled or stand-alone operation with master / slave-function; sound control via built-in microp

Details
Australia - One of the great Australian Christmas traditions is the Myer Christmas Windows and this year they are even more stunning than ever with Myer in Melbourne celebrating its 50th presentation within the Bourke Street window frontage for the 2005 season.

Stage One Promotions has been responsible for the design, fabrication and maintenance of these windows since 1994. Over the past 12 years, a customised system of control for lighting, sound and animatronics has been developed, specifically fulfilling the needs of an event, which operates daily for 18 hours for a gruelling eight-week season.

LSC dimmers drive the lights: 12 LSC Tour Series dimmer racks, racked in lots of four (i.e. 48 circuits), with supporting equipment held within each rack including data splitters, three-phase distribution, DMX addressed relay switching units and 24 low voltage dimmer circuits for dri

Details
UK - The FX Group has sold a ProTools rig to Yusuf Islam, the singer formerly known as Cat Stevens who converted to the Muslim faith in the '70s. The system is now being used to record his first commercial album in almost three decades, which will be released in 2006 on the Mountain of Light label.

The ProTools HD 2 Accel system - supplied with 192 I/O,192 AD and DA expansion cards, Sync I/O, DigiSnake cables plus a G5 Apple Mac - has been installed into west London-based Studio Y, which Islam co-owns with producer Martin Terefe (KT Tunstall, A-Ha) and who is assisting him on the new album.

Engineer and studio manager Kelly Pribble has a long-established relationship with FX which meant that they were his first choice when it came to purchasing the Pro Tools rig. "I've built up a strong relationship with them over the years, and I know they're very experienced when it com

Details
UK - The Mojo Barriers team installed a new barrier design for Oasis, the headliners of December's Noise & Confusion concert at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium. Promotors SJM presented a seven-band line-up topped by Oasis, but including The Foo Fighters and Razorlight, for what was the fastest selling concert ever held at the Millennium Stadium.

Between the audience and the production personnel, security and the artists were 240m of Mojo Aluminium Barrier incorporating 120m of back stands. Mojo Barriers director Jim Gaffney has supplied crowd barriers to Oasis for many years and while Oasis fans have always been exuberant audiences, there have never been any problems. So no-one expected the surge that swept through the crowd in Manchester Stadium in July 2nd during the band's summer tour, causing the front of stage barrier to move as the show was about to start.

There were no inj

Details
UK - Out Board recently supplied Elstree Light & Power (ELP) with a selection of their CM-Series chain-hoist motor control products and a pair of Ibex PHC+ Programmable Hoist Controllers, as part of a fully automated rigging control system for the Queen Elizabeth Hall on London's South Bank.

The upgrade was essentially a second phase of initial refurbishment carried out by ELP in the summer of 2004, providing two further CM12 motor controllers, eight more Socapex/C-Form splitter boxes, remote control handsets and multi-point linked Emergency Stop system, in addition to automating the whole system.

ELP project manager Toby Dare's brief was to provide a series of rigging presets for the venue's various show modes, so an Ibex automation system was specified to drive the Out Board motor control distros. To ensure absolute repeatability, all 32 CM Lodestar hoists were fitted with O

Details
USA - As America's first indoor role-playing theme park, Wannado City is equally educational as it is entertaining. It offers children aged between four and 11 role-playing options in strikingly-realistic environments, including: children-sized police and fire stations; television and radio studios; a fully functioning theatre; a newspaper office; and even a dance club.

With nearly 250 professions available in over 60 venues, designing an authentic and fully integrated AV system was critical to 'keeping it real'. Wannado contracted Richard Wagner, principal with Integrated Electronics, to design and install the complete audio / video system.Wagner explained: "This was a gargantuan undertaking from both a strategic and technical perspective. Each venue has a combination of its own music and sound effects. It's highly interactive, and timing is critical between the venues.&

Details
UK - This year's BBC's Sports Personality of the Year 2005 awards had a new engaging environmental set created for them by design and communication company Imagination. The large-scale set and graphics were created for the programme, which took place at BBC's Television Center on the evening of 11 December 2005.

Working closely with the BBC executive producer Paul Davies, Imagination created the awards environment, which was not only used for the live television programme but also played host to a pre and post transmission party for over 650 VIP guests.

This year's environmental set included a varied colour palette including vivid greens, blues and an eye-catching purple. The set was developed around several live filming requirements including multiple interview staging areas, graphic treatments for the stage and floor as well as lighting and projection design. The inte

Details
UK - 'Space' - an mbitious function and corporate entertainment venue - is the latest development addition to Newcastle College, and has steadily transformed from a nebulous gas into a fantastic £2m entertainment venue, designed for the College's higher education students and college staff.

Contracted to ensure that sound reinforcement throughout was truly 'out of this world' were Newcastle-based pro audio specialists, Q Music (Northern) Ltd, with Q's Ray 'Scotty' Scott beaming up to take overall control of the Space install as project manager.

The relaxed and trendy cafe-style Reception (ground) Floor is suited to semi-formal meetings, with a mix of sofas and bistro seating. To provide an even level of sound, Scott placed 10 IL42TW transformer-equipped 100V line HK Audio Installation Line cabinets at strategic points around the area.

In the 'Pod' chill-out area, four

Details
Germany - Loudspeaker manufacturer Kling & Freitag (K&F) reports another successful business year, with a clear sales increase in both national and international markets contribuitng to the highest annual sales level in the company's history.

At the same time, the company has announced that the current managing director of the company, Michael Kinzel, will at his own request now continue in the position of the sales manager from 1 January 2006.

Kinzel, who has been at Kling & Freitag for six years, now wants to dedicate himself to his own professional passion, sales work, the company says. The 34-year-old has built up personal contact to numerous clients and is looking forward to expanding the international sales in co-operation with established and new partners.

Jürgen Freitag will now run the company as managing director, supported by the deputy managing director Wolfgang

Details
The Netherlands - Over 5,500 fans in the sold-out Heineken Music Hall in Amsterdam experienced a convincing performance by the American hip-hop queen Missy Elliot in November. Famous for her larger than life stage presence, the star completed a highly successful European tour last Autumn.

One of the key problems for the sound engineers was how to reproduce live the dry, yet extremely powerful bass lines for which Missy Elliot's CDs are known. The production firm, Pieee Rental, led by Hans van der Wiel solved the problem - assisted by a team from Electric Audio BV - with a diverse Electro-Voice sound system, a Midas Heritage console and Klark-Teknik processors (four DN9848s and eight DN360/370s). The ability to combine EV's XLC and X-Array components allowed Pieee Rental to implement a sound design that fitted the Heineken Music Hall "like a glove".

Axel J.E. Nagtegaa

Details
UK - UB40 has been carrying a NEXO GEO T tangent-array system on its current European tour. Provided by the SSE Audio Group, the compact array has proved equally versatile in arenas and smaller venues, and the UB40 team of engineers, led by FOH Tom Wiggans, has also been pioneering the use of an Ethersound network for time alignment of system components.

Britain's best-selling homegrown reggae band, UB40 is running a high-technology show for this tour. FOH engineer Tom Wiggans is mixing on a DiGiCo D5, and all musicians using in-ear monitoring. And the PA is a Nexo GEO T system, typically configured in a L/C/R design, with 20+3 box arrays left and right, and a 5-cabinet centre cluster.

System tech Adam Scott completes the description. "The smaller venues might only require 14 of the T4805 cabinets, plus three downfill boxes, but for the arenas, we are using everything in

Details
UK - Denon DJ has confirmed that Gatecrasher has made the first high-profile acquisition of its new flagship DN-S3500 tabletop CD/MP3 players: three of the new devices have gone straight into the DJ booth at the new 1,400-capacity Discothéque in Leeds, opened by Gatecrasher following a £3m conversion this Autumn.

The Denon DNS3500 direct drive players support both the Denon and Pioneer cueing methods - and it was this, coupled with the advanced featureset, that appealed to the dance brand. David Atkinson, marketing and communications manager of D&M Professional Europe (Denon's parent company) commented: "We are delighted to be associated with such a progressive dance organisation as Gatecrasher. It is gratifying that the unique features of the DN-S3500 are being recognised - as is evidenced by the initial response we have received from the market in general.&qu

Details
UK - Luminar Leisure have chosen Edinburgh as the location for their second Jamhouse food and live music emporium. Conceived in Birmingham back in 1999 as a joint venture between Jools Holland and designer Neil Tibbatts, the jazz-oriented concept has now evolved into the 24,000 sq ft former BBC Broadcasting House in Edinburgh City's Queen Street. Ivor Green & Associates' solution for both the stage PA and dancefloor surround sound has been found within the Nexo catalogue.

Luminar Leisure had owned the 1000-capacity Grade 1-listed theatre, with its 11-metre proscenium arch, for three years before deciding to develop it into a Jamhouse at a cost of £1.5m. But the conversion provided a major challenge for Ivor Green's sound installation team, led by Martin Tasker. "This is a large space, with a void above the proscenium, an 84-cover restaurant on the balcony and a larg

Details
UK - ML Executives is providing the sound equipment for Joss Stone's UK tour throughout December. At the heart of the package is a Midas Heritage 3000 mixing desk, at the request of long-time fan of the brand, Davie Kirkwood.

Kirkwood has been the soul sensation's FOH engineer since she shot to fame two years ago. A sound engineer for over three decades, Kirkwood has worked with many top artists including Deep Purple, the Rolling Stones, Stevie Wonder and Motley Crue. Midas has been his console of choice since he first encountered them in the mid-seventies.

"Midas is always at the top of my list of specifications," he says. "The preamps in the Midas are so superior to anything else. Her band is a traditional r&b outfit of bass, guitars and drums with some keyboards and backing vocals, and with the Heritage I can get great separation between the different element

Details
UK - Although the Dolmetsch Historical Dance Society turned back the clock to the 15th Century for their summer school in Hertfordshire, the Harlequin Liberty floor they used embodied advanced dance floor technology of the 21st Century.

In what was described as a return to the 15th Century courts of Italy and Burgundy, the DHDS 38th Annual Summer School at the All Saints Pastoral Centre, London Colney, provided classes and workshops led by tutors who had reconstructed the dances from the original manuscripts. The importance of a floor to provide the right degree of spring was recognized by organiser, Chris Saunders: Liberty is a floating floor system composed of sprung floor panels and available for either permanent dance studio installation or as stage panels for touring and events such as summer schools, say Harlequin. Designed for safety and suitable for a range of dance disc

Details
UK - The Noise & Confusion 2005 concert, held at the Cardiff Millennium Stadium on Saturday 10 December was the biggest end of year music event in the UK, with performances from the Foo Fighters, Razorlight, The Coral, The Subways, Nick Armstrong and The Thieves, Yeti and headlining act Oasis. LM Productions LLP were contracted by LDP in Canada to supply three 40W ND Yag laser systems for the Foo Fighters' special performance at the Millennium Stadium. These high-powered laser systems produce a bright emerald green beam and are ideal for large stadium and outdoor events.

The lasers were used for four songs during the 75-minute set. The lasers were positioned stage left and right next to the large video screens and one at the back of centre stage projecting over the band towards the audience. The laser show consisted of a range of high impact beams and atmospheric effects and fla

Page 1861 of 3465

Latest Issue. . .