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New York City-based City Theatrical Inc recently received a $47,700 state grant for employee training and professional development. The grant, awarded by the New York State Workforce Investment Board, is specifically for training workers in manufacturing industries. City Theatrical will use it to pay for training that will increase its manufacturing efficiency and improve its sales and marketing. The company is using the grant funds for training in every department - engineering, manufacturing, sales and financial - so it will affect all aspects of the company. The grant covers the cost of the training, books and other materials, and salaries for staff who take classes during business hours. All training will be completed in the next year. City Theatrical's application was one of 145 the New York State Department of Labor received from manufacturing companies.

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The transtechnik group has been commissioned by SZM Studios GmbH (Munich broadcasting centre) to install a whole new lighting system as well as Voyager automatic positioning systems in their Munich-based SZM Studio 6. This overhaul of the 350sq.m studio (a project worth EUR 1.43 million) is scheduled to be completed by August 2001.

The project involves fitting 114 monopole hoists including 2kW Fresnel lens spotlights (Arri Studio) to the studio's 19m x 14m grid ceiling. A Voyager system will control the vertical positioning of the monopoles, which will be supplied via 2.5kW channels. Due to the large number of monopoles, there will be no need for any horizontal positioning. However, since the studio ceiling is currently too low for a standard monopole installation, a special structure has had to be designed to hold the monopoles. This allows for a height gain of 1m. For lighting the st

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Edwin Shirley Staging provided two identical stages for this year’s V2001, the national summer music festival that takes place in two separate locations in Essex and Staffordshire. This year’s festival featured a host of acts, including the world-famous bands Texas and Red Hot Chilli Peppers.

The two V stages, constructed using ESS's Lite tower system, boasted an impressive 52m wide façade and were assembled in just four days. The 14m high, 10-towered structure with an ESS inflatable roof was specially designed to provide support for the massive sound system and the two 32sq.m Screenco video screens which flanked each stage. Texas and the Red Hot Chilli Peppers also required their own rigging, and ESS had therefore to ensure that the roof grid was configured for the demanding set changes, including the addition of an extra video screen.

The festival hosted 48 artists ov

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When the BT Cellnet Conference was held in July, organisers Colebrand Design commissioned Indigo Design & Build to handle part of the venue preparation, including the staging. Because the BT Cellnet conference consists of a number of smaller events, the staging needed to be versatile enough to be constructed in different shapes depending on the size of the event. The natural choice for this element of the project was staging expert Maltbury and so Indigo purchased13 modules of Maltbury Metrodeck to complete the job, each varying in shape and size, ranging from 0.5 x 1m to 1 x 2m blocks. Metrodeck is Maltbury's own mid-weight staging system and has proven especially popular in venues where manpower and storage space is limited.

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Vertigo Rigging continues its association with the fast-moving world of automobiles. The two-show Vauxhall Vivaro event, staged to mark the launch of a new Transit-sized van, took place at the National Agricultural Centre in Stoneleigh, Warwickshire. The biggest challenge for Vertigo, according to project manager Paddy Burnside, was the rigging of the massive amount of weight involved within the venue’s point loading constraints of 75kg per-point-loading. All trussing had to be raised on Superlifts, transferred and deaded off with steel wire rope. Thirty-six steel wire rope bridle lengths were needed to secure the lighting trusses in the correct places above each display van, and these were calculated in advance using CAD facilities, and made up in Vertigo’s yard.

Vertigo were on site seven days from get in to de-rig, supplying and rigging all the trussing needed for over-s

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New developments are all set to keep The Showman’s Show as one of Europe’s leading outdoor events exhibitions. The show organisers have announced several changes to the Show’s format for the 2001 event, which takes place on 17 and 18 October at Newbury Showground. The changes have been implemented to ensure the show reflects the changes within the events industry and meets the requirements of modern day exhibitors and visitors.

The most striking change is the new format for the Arena in the centre of the exhibition. For the first time in the history of the event, the ring will take on one theme that will appeal to a wide range of event organisers. In the past the Arena has hosted a range of entertainment aimed predominantly at the traditional show and gala market, but organiser Stephen Lance believes that even that marketplace, like the Showman’s Show, is evolvi

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Straight out of Edinburgh, into the West End and on tour around the UK, August and September are proving busy months for Stage Electrics. Nine 45ft trailers were on the road heading for the Edinburgh Fringe in early August, providing lighting and power distribution to over 33 of the venues, including the Assembly Theatre, Komedia @ Southside and venues for Guilded Balloon. In fact, the company is the largest technical supplier to this annual three-week event. The company has also provided Martin Professional MACs, generic lanterns and control to the Fame transfer from Victoria Palace to the Cambridge Theatre in the West End, as well as generic lanterns and a Wholehog II to the Shaftesbury Theatre for Peggy Sue Got Married. SE’s special projects department installed and commissioned a four-axis automated flying system for Peggy Sue Got Married which opened on 20

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PSL Concert Touring and PSL Lighting were both contracted to supply site video and lighting for Ministry of Sound at Knebworth 01. Over 15 large screen projectors, 300 lights and several miles of cable went into producing one of the largest dance events of the year, comprising not only the main stage featuring headline act Jamiroquai, but also 12 dance arenas and a cinema tent. The two teams, headed by Scott Russell and Stephanie Jefcoate at PSL Concert Touring and Mick Scullion at PSL Lighting, worked together to bring stunning visual effects using some of the latest equipment recently purchased by both companies. One of the largest portable production units ever used in a festival setting and supplied by PSL controlled the video and five cameras for the main stage and allowed the two 4 x 4 LED screens to each display different effects at the same time, while the recently purchased Barc

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Tannoy Professional has named sister company, TGI/Tannoy North America Inc, as Distributor of the Year for 2001. Based on technical ability, customer service and support levels, as well as growth in turnover, the award was presented to TGI following outstanding performances in all three areas. Tannoy's sales and marketing director, Derek West, told PLASA Media: "Tannoy Professional saw excellent growth in worldwide sales during the last financial year, increasing turnover almost 50%. We have an unwritten rule that sister companies cannot win the Distributor of the Year Award but when we judged the results, one market clearly stood out as the major contributor to that growth. Combine this with their dealer and product support, which has always been second to none, and we had to tear up the rulebook and present TGI with the Distributor of the Year 2001 award."

Tannoy has also p

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Located on a wooded hillside overlooking the beautiful cathedral city of Winchester, King Alfred’s College was founded in 1840 and today is home to over 5,000 full and part-time students. The fastest growing area of work is in Performing Arts, and the college has made substantial investments in its core infrastructure in recent years. Seven years ago, land was bought to develop the West Downs Student village. To satisfy the need for extra teaching space for performing arts, the College restored the old West Downs Preparatory School, a Grade 2 listed building. This enabled the College to create three new performance areas and eleven seminar rooms, as well as a 300-seat theatre and arts centre. The project also involved the provision and installation of new lighting and audio systems that could be adapted to meet the diverse needs of the performing arts courses, student societies and

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Screenco Holland installed an exploded screen at the recent Festival Beachrock in Belgium, at the request of one of their clients. TCC (The Concert Company) had asked for nine 25mm LED modules to be scattered randomly around a 3 x 3 high resolution 15mm LED screen as part of the production for the band, K’s Choiche. TCC’s Willem Loos and Rene Zelders masterminded the overall production while Screenco Holland were responsible for all technical production - including the live camera feeds - and the PC from which the graphics were produced. The effects were generated through a MIDI keyboard and VJ software, provided by Screenco. Screenco’s Jeroen Jongenelen said: "This was the first time a band has used LED modules in such a creative way during a festival in Holland. This is a completely new way of using screens and one which we can expect to be adopted increasingly i

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Spirit Design, founded earlier this year by lighting designers Danny Evans and Justin Adams, has teamed up with Dave Bryant and Mike Townsend, following their recent departure from Midnight Design. They join an already expanding team with Maxie Knowles having come on board as general manager in May, and Damian Dowling, who joined in July, in place as business development director. Bryant and Townsend have joined at a critical stage in the development of the company, which hopes to be able to announce in the coming weeks a team of associate designers, who will play an important role in the future growth of the company, and further increase the already formidable design team.

Since it doesn’t own any equipment, Spirit Design can source the most relevant kit for a project and as it has a wealth of international experience within the company, can back this up with high levels of tec

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Ten years after receiving its first Emmy Award for the Vari*Lite Series 200 automated lighting system, and seven years after being presented with its second Emmy, for the VL5 wash luminaire, Vari-Lite has won another gold statue from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. "Winning three Emmy's over these last 10 years has been a truly wonderful experience, and we're honored to receive this prestigious award," said Rusty Brutsché, chairman and chief executive officer of Vari-Lite. "It's a compliment to the extremely gifted, hard-working and dedicated people who have made Vari-Lite such a success during the past 20 years."

The Academy will present the Dallas-based company with an Emmy for Outstanding Achievement in Engineering Development during the engineering awards presentation tonight. This marks the first time the company, which celebrates its 20th anniversa

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Sennheiser presented a total of five Sennheiser Student Achievement Awards and £2500 in prize money at this year’s LIPA Graduation ceremony. Sennheiser UK managing director Paul Whiting presented the awards during the ceremony in the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, conducted by lead patron Sir Paul McCartney, principal and chief executive, Mark Featherstone-Witty, and members of the Council and Trust. The winning students, all studying for or graduating with Sound Technology BA Degrees and Theatre Performance Technology DIPHEs, were nominated by peers and tutors for outstanding work in the course of their studies. Winning projects ranged from radio drama production, to songwriting, recording and production and theatre stage management, and included work from first and second year, as well as graduating students. Included for the first time were specific Sennheiser Awards for the TPT

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Logic System Pro Audio returned from Singapore in July having exhibited at the PALA show for the first time ever. A joint venture with Del Salado Entertainment Pte Ltd, the show proved a huge success and has already spawned several new orders and a great deal of interest in the brand which is new to the region. During his stay, sales manager Dean Davoile was taken to see ‘Bali Rock’ the first Logic System installation in Singapore. The venue features a dance area with a quieter ‘chill out’ zone on the upper floor. The sound system comprises IS8’s running full range supplemented by IS24 sub bass units. Lawrence Chee, owner of Bali Rock enthused "I have been impressed with the system since day one and it still amazes me the level and quality of sound I can get from such compact and discreet cabinets."

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Production Resource Group L.L.C.(PRG), a leading provider of entertainment technology products and services, has announced a plan for one of its divisions to aggressively promote and develop its core entertainment production services business. Over the past 23 years, the PRG family of companies has grown into the leading entertainment technology resource from a collection of small organizations - each a pioneer in its own right - that thrived through their passion for theatre and live performance. The branch offering custom scenic fabrication and related services is embracing its roots with the restoration of its original name and management.

For approximately two years, Harris Production Services and Scenic Technologies, the original, founding companies of PRG, had been bundled and branded with more recent acquisitions as Entolo, with the intention of more effectively promoting PRG's

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The Illuminated Video Workshop, the Screenco-led consortium that presented two days of innovative show magic at Three Mills Island studios last winter, is set to stage the successful workshop again at the PLASA Show. Situated in the ‘AV Gallery’ of Earl’s Court’s Top Deck, Screenco’s Mike Walker has pulled together the same top-flight technical support teams from the premier event. WAlker explained: "Judging from the number of calls from people who had been unable to attend the January event, the reputation of that two-day spectacular had really spread further than we could ever have imagined. We have been inundated with calls from people, who realising that they had missed out on something special, asking whether we would ever be running it again."

Walker’s first calls were to Edwin Shirley Staging, who agreed to provide their lozenge-shap

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On the 28th August, PSL will be moving all of its London rental divisions (except for PSL Central) into new customised 70,000sq.ft premises in Potters Bar. The new facility has six loading docks, specialist-handling facilities, a customer demonstration area and purpose-built offices. The companies amalgamating under this one roof will be Presentation Services Limited, including Exhibitions and Concert Touring, PSL Multimedia, PSL Lighting, PSL Set & Stage, PSL On-Screen Creations, PSL Proquip and PSL LED Screen.

It is PSL’s intention to create a true rental and staging company offering customers a wide range of presentation staging services from one building. All of the individual divisions will continue to trade in their own right and be staffed with people trained in their own disciplines. The front-end project management team will have full access to all of the services suppli

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The Cast Group, developers of advanced computer software for pre-planning and visualization of entertainment and architectural lighting, have been awarded the coveted Emmy for Outstanding Achievement in Engineering Development. The presentation was made last night at the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences 2001 Primetime Emmy Awards ceremony that took place in Hollywood, California. This is the first time a Canadian company has been awarded an Emmy in this category. Accepting the award for the Cast WYSIWYG software product were president Gilray Densham and vice president Rick Szijarto.

WYSIWYG is the one tool that allows all production people to see their ideas come alive virtually, in a computer-generated format. It enables users to develop lighting, design sets and perform blocking functions prior to actual production. The software does it all virtually, enabling producers and ot

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Broadcast live on TSN from the TD Waterhouse Stadium at the University of Western Ontario in London Ontario, the Canada Summer Games Opening Ceremonies featured a wide array of lighting equipment controlled by a grandMA provided by Christie Lites Toronto. Lighting designer Adrian Goldberg's design consisted of a circular truss on legs at center field as well as a choir stage. Day time temperatures were upwards of 95°F, so setups were done overnight and run by head electrician Jeff Farrow and his IATSE crew. The grandMA console from MA Lighting was chosen to run the majority of the lighting for the opening ceremony. The main moving light sections of the show were the final dance portion, as well as a post-air band. Programmer Chris Newkirk (pictured) ran the grandMA for Goldberg: "It was a great show, and I had a lot of fun programming it on the MA" he said, continuing: "T

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Baroque, a Scottish & Newcastle-owned bar situated in the centre of Derby, has recently undergone a complete refurbishment of the ground floor area. As part of the refurbishment the venue has had a new background music system installed by Derby-based Pro Technical Services. Richard Anderson, Pro Tech's service manager explains: "We were approached by Phil Meah, who manages Baroque. He told us that he was working on a concept for Scottish & Newcastle at Baroque and that he wanted a background music system for the bar."

Now, Baroque has a definite 'continental' feel about it and what Phil certainly wanted to avoid was an over-active sound system that would in his words "Blow his customers away". What Richard proposed was an RCF Monitor system comprising six Monitor 5s and two MSW 8 bass units. This gave just the right amount of sound during the day time and was capabl

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Stage Electrics has provided 50 tonnes of equipment to Sidmouth International Festival 2001. Stage Electrics production department supplied technical services to the 47th International Festival in Sidmouth during July. This continues a 27-year relationship with the festival, supplying power generation, distribution, site and production lighting and main arena sound. Nine heavy goods vehicles carrying 50 tonnes of equipment including 2.1km of festoon (3,400 lamps), 6km of cable, 350kW of lighting, 30kW of production PA and 920kVA of generated power was installed by 24 crew over a one week production build. The show ran for seven days with seven operators for both lighting and sound.

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The JHS Event has become something of an industry fixture. Held at the company’s Garforth premises, on the outskirts of Leeds, it has quickly become part of the music business calendar, attended by significant numbers of representatives of both the retail trade and music press.

The company’s huge, purpose-built office and warehousing complex spreads over a four-acre site and ensures that the company, now the largest family-owned independent musical merchandise distributor in the UK, has an effective base for demonstrating the product lines from its extensive catalogue. And I do mean extensive - for the catalogue carries some of the music industry’s biggest names, including the innovative roundback guitar range from Ovation, for whom JHS are sole UK and Eire distributors and the famous Danelectro guitars and amps, back in the music world with a vengeance.

An early de

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Lightmoves Pty Ltd of Melbourne, a long-established state distributor for Littlite in Victoria, has secured the Australian distributorship of Littlite products. Manufactured in Michigan, USA, Littlite is best known for providing illumination to most major brands of audio mixers, lighting control consoles and lecterns. Littlite is also used in automotive, laboratory and marine applications. Littlite product manager Joe Casamento said: "Initially we will continue servicing existing clients, whilst also pursuing new markets that will benefit from Littlite’s high quality range of products."

Lightmoves has committed to stocking a full range of lights, spare parts and accessories, and plans to set up a distributor network to support the product Australia-wide.

  1. I-Vision Lights Up Herne Bay
  2. LeMark and Scapa form Strategic Alliance
  3. Summit Steel Among the Champions
  4. Futurelights in action with Universal Events
  5. Enliten Lights George Washington with DHA
  6. Vertigo Rig the New Mini at Mezzo
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