Details
UK - A large quantity of DPA microphones supplied by R G Jones were used for Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of the War of the Worlds, which has just completed a sell-out UK tour.

Front of house engineer Simon Honywill specified a total of 37 DPA mics across the orchestra. These were a mixture of 4061 miniature mics, featuring low sensitivity and large dynamic range, on violins and violas, and 4099 instrument mics on cellos and double basses. Honywill was so impressed by the new 4099 instrument mics that he purchased four for his own use from UK distributor Sound Network.

The show's vocalists - Justin Hayward, Chris Thompson, Alexis James, Shannon Noll and Jennifer Ellison - were all on 4088 miniature cardioids headsets with omni back-ups.

"The show is very much about

Details
UK - The second edition of the Knight of Illumination Awards, the only international awards designed and held to provide public recognition for the work of lighting designers in live and televised shows, is at the starting blocks.

The award ceremony is organised by Italian manufacturer Clay Paky in association with STLD and ALD, and is sponsored this year by Osram. Timed to coincide with the PLASA Show, it will be held on 13 September 2009 at the Ibis Hotel, Earls Court, London.

The previous edition saw Dave Davey, Ben Smithard, Nigel Catmur, Al Gurdon (TV category), Jonny Gaskell, Richard Larkum (rock category), Lucy Carter, Paul Pyant, Paule Constable and Neil Austin (theatre category) triumph. They were presented with a customized real traditional medieval sword and given the title of "Knight of Illumination", a slightly romantic and generous figure always

Details
UK - Heathrow Express has been awarded the overall winner in Category B (Outdoor Workplace), in the Lighting Federation's new Energy Management and Innovation in Lighting Award Scheme (EMILAS).

Steve Chambers, service proposition director at Heathrow Express, said: "The prime objective of EMILAS is to give recognition to lighting schemes showing proven energy savings with a minimum 20% improvement over previously installed schemes. Our new lighting system, at the train maintenance depot, Old Oak Common, has a smart metering system which allows continuous monitoring of lighting levels, including daylight monitoring and a non-occupancy over-ride. Heathrow Express has saved over 25% of its electrical lighting consumption since the start of this year and 102 tonnes of carbon since February 2008."

Heathrow Express's approach to the environment began even before the servic

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 - Set up by Martha Lane Fox, founder of lastminute.com, karaoke bar chain Lucky Voice has opened its fifth unit, in Brighton, with a technological infrastructure evolved from the original design by integration company Green-I (now part of the SSE Audio Group). The audio control draws heavily on BSS Soundweb London BLU-16 DSPs to handle the mic mixing.

In Brighton, Green-I has assigned four independent BLU-16's to drive the seven karaoke rooms. "Soundweb London looks after the user interface, the volume controls for the wireless mics and reverb effects," says Green-I's Ian Woodall. "Mic mixing (of both wireless and wired) inputs are carried out via Soundweb's automatic levelling to avoid any feedback, while all the 'intelligence' in each pod is created using the system's Logic programming. The challenge was to get all the mic frequencies operable within an intim

Details
UK - Recording artist sessions for Global Radio - the group that includes Capital FM, Heart, Xfm, Gold, Classic FM, Choice FM and Galaxy - award-winning producer Chris Denman has worked with artists ranging from complete unknowns to high profile stars like Chris Martin, Placebo, The Mastodons, Lionel Richie, Kelly Clarkson and Bloc Party. But whoever the artist is, Denman's schedule is relentless in its demands.

He records two full band sessions every working day with his Yamaha DM2000 mixing console. "When I first went to work for Global, I was presented with a Yamaha 02R, which was later replaced with the DM2000," he says. "They were originally chosen because they delivered the best performance for the available budget and I can honestly say that over 10 years they have fulfilled every requirement I have had of them."

He continues: "Another advantage

Details
Denmark - With the P3-100 System Controller for LED screens, Martin Professional enables video to finally join with lighting and motion control technologies for true visual integration.

The P3-100 lets you treat LED screens like lighting instruments - brightness, image position, image rotation can be adjusted and changed instantly, says the company. And this happens independent from the source of the video. The P3-100 is not a media server but an intelligent interface between the source and the screen.

The P3-100 makes setting up an LED screen very straightforward and intuitive. It also contains a built-in graphical user interface with real time visualisation of the video mapping - true 'what you see is what you get' emulation of what the screen is showing. The P3-100 also includes a number of other advanced features including built-in scaling and de-interlacing. The integrate

Details
UK - ETC has supplied a range of lighting and control equipment to English National Ballet, including an Eos and an Ion control desk through new console dealer London Light Production Services.

"English National Ballet had already decided they liked ETC, so they just needed a demonstration of the desk, to confirm it did all they needed it to do," says London Light's managing director, David Buffham. "Their previous system was 25 years old and well overdue for an upgrade, given the number of moving lights they had added to their stock. We provided hands on experience with the system, as well as both pre and post sales support and training."

David Richardson, chief electrician at the English National Ballet, says, "We had been looking around for a new desk for some time, and this was the first we've seen which fitted our needs. We wanted the accessibilit

Details
UK - The iTunes Festival relocated to The Roundhouse in North London this year, with over 60 artists playing live at this free event, which runs throughout the month of July.

With bands ranging from Oasis, Kasabian, Franz Ferdinand and Snow Patrol at the commercial end to acoustic performers like Newton Faulkner, quirky performance artists with wide dynamic ranges (like Bat for Lashes' Natasha Khan), leavened with some good old fashioned hard house and R&B, it added up to something of a Molotov cocktail for iTunes production manager Stuart Turvill, system tech Dave Roden - and the Martin Audio W8LM Mini line array system.

Stuart Turvill has chaperoned the event's steady growth from the ICA through nearby Koko (last year) and now to the Roundhouse, where he designed the audio infrastructure for the televised event, in collaboration with Martin Audio's Jim Cousins

Details
Cuban News - The UK's Royal Ballet has arrived in Havana for its first visit to Cuba. It is putting on five days of shows, featuring the company's Cuban star Carlos Acosta and a tribute to Cuban ballet legend Alicia Alonso. All the tickets were sold out within hours, as Cubans looked forward to seeing the first major ballet company since the Bolshoi almost 30 years ago. To cater for the huge demand, the performances will be shown on giant screens outside the theatre. The director of the Royal Ballet, Dame Monica Mason, said the national passion for ballet was one of the attractions of taking the company to Cuba. "Dance is central to the culture in Cuba. It's at the very heart of the Cuban people," she said. The company will perform at the Gran Teatro in central Havana the first three days, where the screens will be based. The Karl Marx Teatro will host the final two.

<

Details
UAE - The Cavalli Club in Dubai, bearing the name of the famous Italian fashion designer, staged its grand opening on 7 May. Roberto Cavalli has been involved in every detail of this $30m investment; crystal curtains by Swarkovski being just one example of the opulence this venue affords.

For Triangle Entertainment Services, who won the contract to design and install the audio system, the demands were of the highest order, "Hard work in recent years means we have established a good reputation in Dubai," said Triangle's managing director Zahid R Elian. General manager of the Cavalli, Mr Khoury added, "We did not hesitate one second to go ahead with Triangle on this project; both their expertise and reliability are unrivalled. Personally I know that Zahid is a man of his word and can deliver."

The owners and operators of the Cavalli, Pragma Group, had specifi

Details
USA - Extending its sound reinforcement capabilities, Florida-based systems integration firm Multi Image Group has purchased 110 Crown I-Tech HD amplifiers. MIG, which specialises in corporate AV projects for clients such as CitiGroup, Deutsche Bank and Proctor & Gamble, upgraded its entire amplifier inventory from the original I-Tech amplifiers.

"MIG was not using Crown amplifiers when I joined the company. I didn't agree with this because I had been using Crown since I started in the professional sound industry back in 1981 and they are bulletproof," said Andy Kakas, audio department manager for technical services at Multi Image Group.

MIG purchased its first Crown amplifiers in 2002 with Macro-Tech and soon purchased I-Tech series amps as well. "We started by building a few JBL VerTec line array systems with the Macro-Tech amps and about six months later we g

Details
UK - Software providers Stardraw.com have announced their support of the Mirage Media Control System 2.0 from Autonomic Controls. The Stardraw Control software allows creation of customised graphical user interfaces to control any hardware device over any protocol, while Mirage MCS software allows two-way control, over a TCP/IP or serial connection, of music and video content hosted in a Windows environment. Together, the companies' respective applications deliver comprehensive, integrated control of any system, the hardware it comprises and its media content. This is all achieved without having to write a single line of code.

The Mirage MCS service hooks into media content stored on a PC and interfaces with Windows Media Centre, Windows Media Player, iTunes, Pandora Internet Radio and XM Radio. Its client UI can be accessed from any browser that supports Flash and there is also

Details
Germany - The city of Meissen, known for being the porcelain centre of Europe, recently hosted the premiere of the new Aero 12A line array systems in Germany. Around 2,500 people gathered at an outdoor esplanade on the outskirts of the city to celebrate the 45th anniversary of the group Stern Combo Meissen. Songs like Der Kampf um den Südpol, Der weite Weg or their classic adaptations were popular musical trends of the 70s in Germany. Joining them on their anniversary were guests Musix, Dirk Zöllner and KlosterBrüder.

Licht & Ton Union, D.A.S. distributor in Germany, was responsible for mounting the audio on a stage built especially for the occasion. They flew 12 Aero 12A two-way powered systems, six on either side of the stage, along with six ground stacked LX-218A subwoofers. The Aero 12A, part of the new Aero Series2 debuted at Frankfurt's Prolight & Sound. D

Details
Italy - Caparezza's winter tour promoting his fourth album, Le dimensioni del mio caos (The size of my chaos) covered more than 100 sold-out dates, including a spectacular performance at Milan's Alcatraz Now.

His 2009 summer tour included a show beside Idroscalo lake in Milan on 27 June. Thousands of fans flocked to see Caparezza perform a selection of his more popular numbers.

The team from GM Music, the rental company from Salice Salentino, again chose Proel's Axiom and Edge professional systems. The configuration comprised 24 Axiom AX3210P modules and 20 21" EDGE121SP subs, positioned in the sound wings, and eight Edge compact C12P96 as front-fill.

The system is driven by six K10 and two K20 Powersoft amplifiers, one DSO26 digital processor and two Lake Contours. Audio and power distribution cabling is also Proel.

The sound reinforcement for the concert at t

Details
Portugal - JR Clancy, the US-based manufacturer of theatre rigging systems, has supplied 33 PowerLift automated hoists to the Teatro Municipal de Portimão (Tempo) in the Algarve region of southern Portugal. They were proposed to the client and installed by ADT Fire & Security (a Tyco International Company).

JR Clancy's international sales manager Charles Shatzkin comments: "ADT told us that the client was looking to motorise their rigging system and wanted a fast, safe, reliable and quiet powered hoist. The Clancy Automated Rigging System has a variable speed capability up to 0.6 m/sec and produces sounds no louder than those heard in a whisper-quiet library.

"The theatre also specified a SceneControl 500 - a powerful control console which provides a 3D visualisation of the performance space. The SceneControl is virtually unmatched in features and price: its functio

Details
China - PR Lighting has launched the XL BEAM 300 automated lighting fixture, aimed at the live professional market. The latest in the Chinese company's family of moving heads, the XL BEAM 300 is based around the 300W Philips MSR Gold 300/2 Fast Fit lamp, with 22,000 lumens output and 750 hours lamp life.

Colours are composed from a linear CYM colour mixing system (8- or 16-bit) with macro function, and a wheel with seven dichroic colours (plus white), offering a variable speed bi-directional rainbow effect.

The XL BEAM 300 also contains a rotating gobo wheel with seven interchangeable gobos (plus white) - indexable and rotatable bi-directionally at variable speeds. There is also a gobo shake function.

The Iris and Dimmer are 0-100% linearly adjustable (8- or 16-bit), and offer beam angles of 7° (Standard), 10° (With Light Frost) and 19° (With Heavy Frost). Contro

Details
UK - iLight control products by Cooper Controls, has announced the expansion of its line of RCBO (Residual Current Breaker with Overcurrent Protection) source controllers with the release of new versions of its 12-channel lighting controllers. These new versions utilise more economical and compact versions of RCBO's that are currently being adopted in the general electrical contracting market, and for use in meeting the 17th Edition BS 7671 (IEE Wiring Regulations) for protecting lighting circuits running in walls, says the company.

The new enclosures are designed to accommodate the compact RCBO devices, which are just slightly wider than standard MCB's, whilst taking up as little space as possible. RCBO source controllers provide residual current protection of lighting circuits channel by channel, and are suitable for protection of wet location circuits such as bathrooms and ex

Details
UK - SNP Productions - headed by digital media programmer/operator Simon Pugsley - is now a UK dealer of Catalyst digital media products - and has launched a new proactive promotion campaign.

SNP Productions was founded in 1999 when Pugsley was completing his final year as a student at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London. The company has evolved steadily over the last 10 years, starting as a vehicle for his freelance work and growing into a major UK supplier for lighting & video control solutions. It is now focussed on sales, hire, training and full tech support for Catalyst.

"Catalyst was among the first and most original digital media servers, and it has a strong and positive brand identity," states Pugsley. "It's hugely flexible and constantly being developed with new and innovative features added all the time. It has a history and track record of

Details
UK - A.C. Entertainment Technologies has confirmed its continued status as an Official Car Sponsor of the Telmex Arden International racing team for the 2009 GP2 motor racing series. The deal, which includes both the GP2 Main Series and Asia Series, was concluded during the British race weekend at Silverstone.

The GP2 Championship is designed to equip every member of each team with the experience, knowledge and determination to succeed in Formula One and features cars running at speeds only a few seconds shy of F1 pace. For this season, Telmex Arden International opted for exciting rookie drivers Sergio Perez, Edoardo Mortara and Luiz Razia.

The deal includes logo branding on both team cars, which is in the colours of A.C.'s dedicated lighting sales division. In addition, the sponsorship provides a dynamic environment for A.C. to network with other companies at a local and int

Details
UK - The field support team from RSS by Roland, led by director Peter Heath, had a lot to keep tabs on at this year's Glastonbury festival: in addition to the debut of the new M-48 Personal Live Mixers, there were 4x M-400 digital V-Mixing Systems in use, and Digital Snakes in several performance venues.

One of the innovations at the 2009 festival was the silent rehearsal room set up behind the John Peel Stage, jointly the brainchild of RSS and the Liz Hobbs Group. Julian Spear, who is head of production for the Liz Hobbs Group, also works as area co-ordinator for the Glastonbury Festival, and is responsible for putting in all the production for the John Peel Stage.

"The Liz Hobbs Group has had a productive relationship with RSS since we first used the Digital Snakes at Glastonbury 2007," says Spear. "Together, we came up with the idea of a backstage rehearsal f

Details
UK - MCS will be at PLASA09 (13-16 September, Earls Court, London) for the first time to demonstrate how its MCS-rm hire solution product can support the business needs of the audio-visual (AV) hire market. This will be the first time company has showcased MCS-rm, its premier Windows-based hire solution, at the PLASA Show.

Nick Thomson, sales manager at MCS explains: "We have been working hard on the detail of our hire solution to ensure it meets the specialist requirements of the AV market and believe we offer all the specific functionality the AV market demands. This is on top of its core functionality generating quotations, contracts and invoices as well as aggregating all delivery and collection notes together with all the associated documents. We feel it is time to take a stand at PLASA."

MCS-rm has all the functi

Page 2361 of 3465

Latest Issue. . .