Details
UK - Entec Lighting rose to the challenge of supplying lighting kit and crew to five separate, high profile offsite shows at London Fashion Week. The shows were for Paul Smith, Giles Deacon, Julien Macdonald, the Fashion Fringe competition for emerging talent and Russian fashion house Kisa.

The venues varied greatly - from a glass walled debating chamber in City Hall (the Mayor's office) to Rochelle School in Whitechapel. Some were not normally used to stage shows, and all presented their own unique sets of logistical and practical idiosyncrasies.

Overall LFW lighting co-ordination and project management was by Adam Stevenson, and the two site teams were led by Andy Keightley (Smith, Deacon, Macdonald) and Simon Honnor and Tony Austin. Entec worked for Inca Productions on the Ma

Details
UK - With National Music Week fast approaching, national awarding body NCFE has launched a new range of qualifications aimed at aspiring music technicians, DJs and MCs. The qualifications in Music Technology provide learners with the opportunity to explore the uses of music technology and provide opportunities for people to deepen and broaden their musical interests and skills.

Candidates also study a diverse range of subjects including mixing, sound, live sound, DJing, MCing, sound effects, audio editing and employment opportunities. Learners also produce final recordings using music technology skills through practical work to develop creative skills.

Alasdair Downes, director of business development at NCFE, commented: "NCFE has developed these qualifications to help provide learners access to a range of opportunities within the music industry. NCFE has consulted indust

Details
Austria - The Raiffeisen Bank of Austria wanted an eye-catching corporate branded frontage for their newly refurbished building near Vienna in Austria. Vivid Effect were asked to provide the right combination of architectural, signage and LED experience to achieve their objectives. Working with a local architect and installer, they designed a 20m x 8m screen to be fixed to the first floor exterior of the bank's building.

The LED fixtures used are DingDotz - individually addressable, low profile, self contained, colour changing RGB LEDs that are IP66 waterproof containing super-bright Nichia 3-in-1 sealed LED units. With a viewing angle of 120 degrees, the 15mm fixtures radiate light with high quality colour rendition of 16.7 million hues, which is suitable for directly viewed outdoor architectural signage applications. A standard rackmount Windows PC acts as the master controlle

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
USA / Europe - To educate and assist users in selecting colour, Apollo Design Technology Inc has introduced a "better" gel swatch-book, the company says. The front of the data sheet that supplements each gel swatch now includes a full colour spectrum transmission curve for enhanced colour recognition, while the back contains a detailed colour description, suggested uses, and how the colour interacts with other elements such as scene paint and costumes.

Apollo's new user-friendly gel books are available in two formats. The standard book is free upon request. The Designer Edition, with 6.25" x 6.25" removable filter sheets for projection testing, carries a list price of $150. The cover of the Designer Edition can also be customized with personal, firm, or school names, titles and logos.

Apollo Gel Books also include seven new colours - Cherry Lewis, King Cong

Details
UK - In a project that began way back in 2004, Warsaw-based Tommex was asked by the architects from the project company Arconel for cooperation with a range of room acoustic solutions and audio system designs for 'Globus', a multipurpose hall with an ice rink and an audience capacity of 5000 people.

The planned facility would have the ability to host hockey, volleyball and basketball - and music events. By the time Tommex joined the project team the main building was almost complete. Tommex started by preparing a mathematical model of the hall using Ease 3.0 software and the virtual acoustic reality of the hall was far from good. In every instance,measurements were made using Gold Line DSP 30 B to check the RT60 parametersand the poor measurements confirmed those gained from Ease. The RT60 at somefrequencies was almost 11 seconds. This presented Tommex with an enormouschallenge

Details
UK - PLASA 2006 was a resounding success for Lincolnshire-based loudspeaker specialist Logic System Pro Audio Ltd. Confirmed orders for a further 60 VA boxes on the stand over the four-day period has resulted in total sales for VAs passing 1000 - a notable achievement.

The new Ethos Compact box caused a tremendous amount of interest. Ethos Compact is a fixed angle array box offering directivity of 20° (V) and 90° (H), and using a neodymium 8" cone driver combined with two waveguide mounted 1" neo-compression drivers. The box is passive and has 16ohm impedance, which will allow four boxes to be run from a single amplifier channel. It has numerous applications which include AV theatre and live sound.

A phone call on the first morning of the show from the company's Singapore office confirmed that the new compact box would be included on another large Ethos insta

Details
UK - The launch of the Roscolux range in Europe was welcomed by both US and European lighting designers, Rosco reports. The wider availability of the range offers access to these colours for shows on both sides of the Atlantic, as well as the opportunity to use colours that have been standard for American designers for 30 years.

"I have always felt comfortable using the Roscolux family of colours," says US lighting designer Kirk Bookman. "It offers the full range of saturated colours, middle ranges and tints. The continuing addition of colours keeps my personal colour palette fresh. I have always been able to count on the colour durability and consistency through the years."

Rick Fisher concurs: "It is great that Roscolux is available in Europe, particularly as it now gives designers access to some of the subtler shades that have been so useful in the

Details
USA - Theatrical Lighting Systems (TLS) recently held lighting seminars in the Huntsville and Nashville areas. The sessions were divided into 'lighting for churches' and 'lighting for theatre/entertainment', in order to give each group individualised attention.

The seminars included product demonstration from various manufacturer representatives including Rosco, Vari-Lite, High End, Thomas Engineering, ETC, Strong, and DeSisti.TLS offers these seminars on a regular basis as a free service to customers in order to create better relations and keep them informed about the newest innovations.

(Chris Henry)

Details
Italy - Billy Joel and Bryan Adams were dual headliners at this year's Telecomcerto, the large annual free concert organised by Telecom Progetto Italia in cooperation with the City of Rome. The two-for-one superstar event took place on the July 31 2006, on a stage where many of the world's greatest artists have performed over the last three years, in front of the Coliseum and in the magical setting of the Fori Imperiali (Imperial Forums).

It was a night of great music and high emotion for the estimated 500,000 fans in attendance. The audio and lighting equipment for both concerts was supplied by Italian company MMS srl. of Solaro (Milan); Maddalena Tronchetti Provera and Vittorio Quattrone of the Four One Music company organised the event.

The event was also a great success for Texim, official Italian distributors of the Electro-Voice, Midas and Klark Teknik equipment that com

Details
UK - Opera North, England's national opera company in the North, based in Leeds, has purchased a CyberHoist motion control system through Vertigo Rigging to greatly expand its flying capabilities.

Opera North's system - comprising four CH500 500kg CyberHoist motors and an Apple laptop-based InMotion 3D programming and control system - was immediately despatched as part of the company's 2006 touring production of the satirical Kurt Weill operetta Arms and the Cow.

The operetta is set on a sleepy Caribbean island that is drawn, through the machinations of an arms dealer, mendacious politicians and US connivance, into an arms race with a neighbouring island. Raunchy humour and Caribbean-feel numbers infuse the work, completed and revised with input from Opera North's own head of music, James Holmes.

The CyberHoist system's capabilities were thoroughly tested by the produ

Details
France - Digigram, a leader in PC audio interfaces and innovative networked audio devices, announced today that its HR series of professional sound cards have been submitted to Microsoft WHQL tests with success. The sound card used during the tests, a VX222HR, is now acknowledged as "Designed for Microsoft Windows XP", a Microsoft label only given to qualified products. HR Series drivers are also digitally signed for Microsoft Windows XP, Microsoft Windows 2000 and Windows Server 2003 (32-Bit edition), meaning that they also comply to WHQL standards.

Until now, no other professional-grade sound card for broadcast solutions has been 100% tested and made available with drivers digitally signed by Microsoft WHQL.

This is a significant demonstration of Digigram's willingness to keep current with professional hardware quality standards: system stability is not compromised

Details
Eastern Europe - The very first ISE Roadshow in Eastern Europe is about to be launched. Starting in Poland and the Czech Republic on 30 October and 1 November respectively, the Roadshow moves to Hungary and Turkey the following week. Two new silver sponsors, Stardraw and Extron have just signed up to add their support to the event. The show organisers have reported a high level of interest from emerging companies in the AV and Electronic Systems Integration market and have issued an advice to anyone still interested in attending to visit the website as soon as possible to guarantee a place at this new event: www.iseurope.org.

The workshops will be of interest to custom and professional installers, buyers and resellers of AV Systems, designers, meeting planners, agencies and IT consultants.

The Roadshow will visit four key cities over an eight-day period and will include four i

Details
UK - London-based PA and promotions company, Up All Night Music, employedAllen & Heath GL2400 and GL2800 multi-purpose live sound mixers to manage audio during its busy festival schedule, which included 'Til The Cows Come Home, Bloodstock, Lovebox, and Secret Garden.

The season started with 'Til The Cows Come Home festival, which took place in Bedfordshire at the beginning of July. The independent festival - with an elite 500 capacity - featured an eclectic mix of bands on one stage. Acts included the 9-piece band, P-Hex; The Retro Spankees; Whisky Cats; Delphian Complex, who have supported New Order and Primal Scream; mod-ska British band, Bowfinger; and the Lazarus Plot, who have supported the likes of Supergrass and Shed 7.

"A small portable board was needed for a quick and easy set up, so I selected a 24-channel GL2400," explains Up All Night sound engineer, Ed S

Details
UK - Stage One have beaten off the competition and been crowned 'Supplier of the Year' at the prestigious 2006 Event Awards, which were announced on Friday 29 September at the Grosvenor House Hotel, London. "It means a lot to us to win this prominent industry accolade as it's recognition for all the energy, skill and dedication we bring to bear on every project we're involved with," says the company.

The projects we submitted for consideration were; the Melbourne Commonwealth Games, MTV Europe Music Awards and Aspire opening ceremony in Doha, and information about all of these, along with other recent projects can be found on the Stage One website: www.stageone.co.uk.

(Chris Henry)

Details
UK - Blitz, the UK's leading technical staging specialist, will join Phantom of the Opera in celebrating its landmark 20 year anniversary this October. Blitz has worked on the award-winning show, since it opened at Her Majesty's Theatre on 9 October 1986.

Blitz provides a complete sound solution for the stage show. Phantom of the Opera is notable for its pioneering use of Sennheiser radio mics, now a West End standard, as well as sound designer Martin Levan's first use of open Tannoy loudspeaker drivers. Today, as 130 cast, crew and orchestra members are involved with each performance, the show demands a large volume of high technology to work in concert.

Having worked with Phantom of the Opera since its inception, Blitz has adapted with the musical over time, supplying new equipment for two major refurbishments in 1994 and 2004 to keep up with the changin

Details
Uk - The classical Sondheim musical Follies has returned to the London stage with Robert McWhir's critically acclaimed production at the Landor Theatre in North Clapham. The show was designed for a large Broadway theatre but the Landor is a small fringe venue on the first floor of a South London pub. With a small acting area, a seating capacity of 50 and no financial backing or budget. McWhir's vision was to seat the audience on chairs and tables to be part of the party. The cast of 21 are joined on stage by projected images of their younger days - the synchronisation of all this is done by grandMA.

Andrew Tottle, the production manager explained: "We started looking for solutions ten months ago. The total power capacity for the lighting system is 63A single-phase so we needed very precise solutions designed to work! There would be no spare budget to buy our way out

Details
UK - For the third year, the Stage Electrics Welsh Trade Show is being held at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama in Cardiff on Wednesday 11 October 2006. Doors open at 11am and the show closes at 5pm.

Leading industry suppliers Apollo, Audio Technica, ETC, Lee, Le Maitre, Mackie, MA Lighting, Martin, Prolyte, Pulsar, RCF, Rosco, Selecon, Sennheiser, Strand, Teclumen and Zero88 will be exhibiting their latest products, offering demos and providing expert advice.

Elaine Peake from Le Maitre will be demonstrating a selection of pyrotechnics at 12 noon and 2pm (weather permitting).

The Stage Electrics Welsh Trade Show is a free event, open to everyone and no tickets are required. The company is recommending you come early to take advantage of the free sandwiches available at lunchtime. Visitors can also take the opportunity to pre-register via the Stage Electrics website

Details
Europe - Hard rocking punk metallers Atreyu completed a short European and UK tour with LD Ian Bintliff producing a lightshow to match. The California based 4-piece stormed the UK replete with the screeching guitars, howling vocals and the visceral causticity that initially made them such an underground sensation on the West Coast. When it came to the UK section of the tour, Bintliff asked Blackburn-based HSL to supply crew and kit.

It was a short tour playing a selection of completely different venues - from Brixton Academy to Nottingham Rock City, so Bintliff's design had to be versatile.

He is one of those LD's who has the "ability and talent to make even the smallest rigs look really substantial" says HSL's MD Simon Stuart. Bintliff's style is from the more traditional school of stage lighting design that very much believes in starting with basic PAR washes and b

Details
USA - Color Kinetics Incorporated and Osram Sylvania today announced an agreement whereby Osram Sylvania will license Color Kinetics' patents for a product to be marketed by Gotham Architectural Downlighting, an Acuity Brands company.

Under the license, Osram Sylvania will create an intelligent, multi-color light-emitting diode (LED) system for Gotham. The global license will apply to sales of this product in all markets covered by Color Kinetics' patent portfolio.

"This is a significant agreement for Color Kinetics," said Bill Sims, President and CEO, Color Kinetics. "Earning the Osram Sylvania stamp of validation sends a strong message to the industry, and reaffirms the value of the innovations protected by our broad patent portfolio."

"The lighting industry is undergoing dramatic change as LED sources influence the design of completely new produc

Details
UK- Community's new VERIS (VERsatile Installation Systems) comprise a range of small-to-medium-sized loudspeakers that are precisely engineered for versatile array construction, while aesthetically styled to meet modern architectural requirements.

A powerful resource for the professional contractor, each VERIS model exhibits linear phase throughout the critical crossover regions and features Community's unique, uniform full-range voicing system to minimise variations in sound quality among the range of models.

Ken DeLoria, Community's product manager says: "VERIS' smooth and intelligible sonic output is the result of patent-pending carbon ring cone technology, coupled with Ferrofluid-cooled and damped MF and HF drivers. This proprietary union of technologies brings low distortion, high-impact sonic capability to a wide range of applications. And because we manufacture the

Details
New Zealand - One of the leading sound rental companies in New Zealand has snapped up its first Soundcraft Vi6 digital audio console. Concluding his three-year search for the right digital console format, Chris Tate at College Hill Productions considers the Vi6 to be "light years ahead of its competitors at this level in the market".

Based in Auckland, NZ, College Hill has enjoyed a steep trajectory of success since it was founded by Chris Tate in 1996. With a strong presence on the national and international touring scene, working recently with The Rolling Stones and Cher, College Hill also provides high-end systems for corporate events and theatre productions, as well as working with radio and TV broadcasters in NZ.

One of his country's most respected sound engineers, Chris Tate has been evaluating digital consoles for several years, with no single product satisfyi

Page 1977 of 3465

Latest Issue. . .