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MAVCO has been awarded the contract to design, supply and install a range of audio, video, lighting and effect systems in over 20 venues on board a third Crystal Cruises ship. Commissioned by ALSTOM Marine Chantiers de l'Atlantique shipyard in St Nazaire, France, MAVCO will be involved with the complete turnkey contract for local entertainment systems.Scheduled for delivery in late June 2003, the as-yet-unnamed 68,000-ton vessel will see an increased number of Crystal Cruises' most successful features, including more entertainment lounges, expanding on the best of Crystal Harmony and Crystal Symphony. The scope of the project ahead for MAVCO incorporates detailed system design, supply, installation and commissioning, shared between the company's offices in Miami and the UK.

The Galaxy Show Lounge is the main entertainment venue for the line's distinctive award-winning production shows,

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In order to enhance the coordination of marketing worldwide, ETC announces that, with immediate effect, leadership for marketing in Europe will be provided by Tera Johnson, vice-president of marketing, ETC Inc. The position of marketing director within ETC Europe will no longer exist, but direct marketing support for Europe's dealer and distributor network will continue to be located in Europe. In addition, ETC will continue to be represented by Harmer PR in Europe. The result of the restructuring means that marketing director Peter Ed will be leaving ETC. For the past four years, Peter has been directing the marketing and business development efforts of ETC Europe, while his leadership in the Themed Entertainment Association helped develop a new market for entertainment lighting equipment worldwide. "We are grateful to Peter for his contribution to growing ETC's business in Europe

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Playhouse Disney Live! is on the road after many months of planning. Organized by Kathleen Gearhart, Disney’s special events director, and Jonathan Stott, production manager, Europe, Middle East and Africa, the tour runs for six weeks - with three free shows a day - from mid September to early November 2001. The tour, which features Avesco Group companies, Creative Technology and Dimension Audio in a joint collaboration, is designed to promote the Playhouse Disney Channel and is being staged in shopping malls across the UK.

The set was designed by Eye Design and built with the Barco iLite 6 indoor LED screen in mind. Owing to venue space restrictions, the Playhouse Disney Tour stage was a smaller, lightweight version of the TV set. Designed for durability on the road, the stage was made of a lightweight aluminium frame with cloth painted panels that Velcro onto the walls. The &ls

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Vari-Lite veterans Sarah Clausen and Jim Waits will be leading technical training sessions on the Virtuoso DX console as well as on systems and design at the LDI trade show in Orlando, in the days prior to the opening of the LDI 2001 exhibition. The sessions, part of LDInstitute and the ESTA Training Programs, give entertainment design professionals the opportunity to get in-depth technical training.

Clausen, a 10-year industry veteran who has been with Vari-Lite for more than four years, will lead the session titled ‘Meet the Virtuoso DX’ on 29-31 October from 9am to 5pm each day. In this hands-on session, attendees can learn the basics of automated light programming using the state-of-the-art Vari*Lite Virtuoso DX console. The sessions introduce attendees to the programming style of the Virtuoso DX console and automated lighting design concepts.Attendees also learn the ba

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A National Lottery grant has helped the Merlin Theatre in Frome, Somerset, to purchase a new sound system from Marquee Audio, as part of a major overhaul. The 241-seat venue, which first made contact with the Shepperton-based suppliers at this year’s ABTT Show in London, has replaced its tired former system with a Martin Audio Blackline F12/S15 combination, which technical manager Rick Worringham says has improved the set-up 100%. He explained: "We received £55,000 from the National Lottery plus matched funding from local councils, including Somerset County Council. This enabled us to refurbish practically the entire theatre - including a new stage floor, auditorium seating, dressing rooms and a restructure of the backstage area."The building itself is council-owned - and used as an educational space during the day - although the Merlin Theatre Trust Ltd owns all the acc

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Presentation Services Ltd, the presentation equipment and event staging company, officially opened their latest on-site office at the NEC, Birmingham on October 1st this year. The new 4,500 sq.ft site is catering for the already growing number of PSL clients exhibiting at the NEC and also opens the market for PSL to serve companies in the Midlands and North of Britain.

Martin Hunt, who has 15 years’ Industry experience is heading up the operation in Birmingham alongside dedicated and fully-trained staff. They will work closely with the London offices to bring clients the full range of technical services on offer at PSL.

The site is to benefit from a significant investment in new equipment providing a major Midland support base from where PSL can serve their clients’ presentation requirements. PSL already have a number of successful on-site offices at some of the UK’

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Universal Events was called in by Mark Borkowski PR to provide full technical infrastructure for the world launch of the revolutionary smart car (right hand drive versions) from Daimler Chrysler UK. The event took place in the car park at Wembley Stadium, and revealed the vehicle for the first time to UK smart dealers and users, plus the national and motoring press.

Universal supplied everything - from the lighting, sound, video and staging - to the dome-shaped marquee and seating rostra. The company’s brief was to provide a clean, slick, streamlined environment in which to launch one of the most ecologically sound vehicles available. Universal’s Steve Butcher designed the show’s production elements. A flat, empty centre stage at the start of the show was soon filled with the demo smart car, revealed by elevator, clouds of smoke and flashing lights, early on in the p

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In association with German dealer Lightpower and its customers and clients, ETC has seen its products installed in three German venues this summer - Friedrichstadt Palast, Theatre Annaberg and Forum Norderstedt. Germany's principal revue theatre, Friedrichstadt Palast in Berlin has the widest stage in Europe and seats an audience of 2000. The venue's stage lighting, comprising over 600 dimmers and 100 colour changers, is being controlled by an Obsession II DPS system with two consoles and various ETCNet2 nodes. The Theatre Annaberg in eastern Germany was completely refurbished this year. Its exisiting analogue dimming system in separate racks around the building was replaced by central Sensor dimmer racks controlled by an Expression 3 console, monitoring feedback as given by the Sensor Advanced Features dimmer modules. Finally, Forum Norderstedt, a modern convention centre in northern Ge

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The annual Heritage Gateway Festival took place in North Bay, Ontario, recently, attracting an audience in the region of 30,000 on the first day alone. 3L Productions Inc has been supplying full staging, sound and lighting for several years. This year, production manager Tom Keay recommended a total of 30 stacks of Flashlight/Floodlight for the main PA system with the technical design also incorporating two 10 x 14 video screens, 96k of conventional lights, 24 intelligent lights and a 50ft x 30ft mobile stage.

For the PA configuration itself, Keay opted for a four-wide hang. "The outside two columns comprised three Flashlight boxes, then a column of three Floodlight, with the inside column of two Floodlights incorporating the final Floodlight cabinet dropped down as an infill," he explained.

Under each side were nine Flashlight TSW-721 21" bass enclosures, stacked thr

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Stage Electrics' Virtual Lighting Studio in London supplied Will Charles, lighting director for the BBC's Weakest Link programme, with a WYSIWYG 2000 lighting design and visualization software package including two Cast WYG’IT DMX Interface units. Charles also produced A0 colour plots and used the studio’s printing facility with the HP750C colour printer. He then recommended Stage Electrics to the show's set designer, Patrick Doherty, for converting the hand-drawn set construction drawings into a CAD format, and approached David Stewart, the studio manager, about the project. "Patrick needed a global CAD solution and decided AutoCAD was the best software solution." comments David Stewart.

Stage Electrics' Giles Philips from the Bristol CAD department modelled the set using AutoCAD’s solid modelling tools and also produced A1 size prints detailing plan, side

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Nominations are currently being accepted from PLASA’s Full Members for the forthcoming Executive Committee Elections. The deadline for nominations is 15 November, and voting forms will be issued to PLASA members the following day. There are three three-year seats on the Committee up for re-election, due to Diane Grant (DHA Lighting), Paul Hinkly (LMC Audio) and David Hopkins OBE (Audio Design Services) all coming to the end of their elected terms. In addition, there is a one-year term available, as Paul Adams of PAI Group has chosen to stand down from the Committee at the end of the year.

All Full Members of PLASA are reminded that nominations for election must be submitted by 15 November at the latest. The election results will be announced on 3 December.

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Earls Court has introduced an innovative new grid ceiling feature and dividing wall which enables the venue to create two smaller exhibition spaces within the existing Earls Court One hall. International staging and structure specialist, Edwin Shirley Staging (ESS), were appointed to develop the overall solution and installation of the grid as part of an ongoing programme aimed at providing service excellence for clients in the exhibition and live events industry. Tim Norman, managing director of ESS, said: "ESS was approached to provide a solution that would help improve the overall service Earls Court is able to provide its clients in the exhibition and events industry. Our bespoke system increases the adaptability of Earls Court One, allowing clients the opportunity to adapt the hall space to a preferred scale. This project helps establish ESS as a strategic solution provider to

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Following a front-page story in the NME and prior to an appearance on Top of the Pops tonight, Mercury Records chose London venue ‘the garage’ to showcase breaking US artiste Andrew W. K on 23 October. Andrew and his record company brought in US lighting designer Warren Flynn to devise, programme and operate the lighting for the showcase performance. Flynn specified an MA Lighting grandMA console for the show. The console was supplied by Neg Earth Lights along with a rig comprising High End Systems Studio Spot 250s and 4-lamp Molefay units which were used to supplement the venue’s extensive array of Par cans. During rehearsals, Flynn explained his choice of console by stating: "I just love the way that with this board, everything is totally user definable." He continued: "The three high-contrast colour touch-screens, coupled with the console's powerful op

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Los Angles-based scenic design and painting company UV/FX recently completed a 28ft x 50ft backdrop for Clint Black's tour. The art was painted in UV/FX signature Day to Night style which allows for an ambient lit scene to go to sunrise or sunset by adding colored light and then with the introduction of UV lighting to make a dramatic change to the night look.Working with Nashville/Los Angeles-based lighting designer Drew Boca, UV/FX designed and painted the drop to go with Clint's vision of the country road on which he travels. UV/FX president Richard Green said: "We worked very directly with Clint on this one and with him being such a gentleman and so interested in what we do it couldn't help being a huge success for the tour and a big personal design success for both UV/FX and Mr Black. We're looking forward to working with their team again very soon."

UV/FX also supplied e

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For the ninth consecutive year, the organizers of the Pepsi Festival (Sziget Kulturalis Szervezoiroda) in Budapest, asked Production 2000 Ltd to provide sound and lighting for the main stage - and the other areas. The company fielded a high specification of equipment from their hire fleet, including a major Turbosound Flashlight and Floodlight rig. 36 Flashlight TFS 780H mid/high packs were flown in 6 x 3 configurations on either side of the stage, with 48 Floodlight TFL-780L bass enclosures configured four wide and six high on each side. 12 Turbosound Floodlight TFL-760H mid/highs were used for near-fill and infill and a further eight TFL-118 low-frequency Floodlights provided centre coverage.

The sections of the sound system were driven from three amp racks housing configurations of MC2 MC750 and MC2 1250 amplifiers. In addition, Production 2000 supplied all Turbosound stage monitori

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Show Presentation Services, the leading equipment rental and staging specialists, won the prestigious award for Rental Company of the Year in the 2001 AV Industry Awards. The winners of the awards, designed to celebrate the best audio-visual companies, projects, users and applications and held by AV Magazine in association with Sharp and a raft of sponsors, were announced at a ceremony at the Grand Hotel, Brighton, on 18 October. SPS beat off competition from Saville's and XL Video to win the award, which was given to the rental company which had shown the most marketing, technological or applicational innovation and which had demonstrated business development and both turnover and profit performance.

Robin Coles, managing director of SPS, commented: "We are delighted that the judges recognized our genuine commitment to innovation and excellence, demonstrated by a 70% increase in

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Expotus-managed distributor Stagecraft, based in the Philippines, were rewarded for their efforts this year, as they received the Turbosound International Distributor of the Year in the Far East Award based on growth in sales throughout financial year 2000/2001. With sales having increased by 156% last year, director of Stagecraft Frankie Zabala (pictured left) commented: "Receiving this commendation was a great surprise and indeed an honour. We hope to do even better for Turbosound next year!" he says. Martin Capp, managing director of Expotus, (pictured right) continues: "Expotus business in the Far East goes back a long way, and we’re proud that Stagecraft has been recognised in this way by Turbosound this year. We’re particularly pleased as the Expotus-managed Chinese distributor Jia Hui won it last year!"

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Milos Structural Systems recently expanded its European operations with the opening of a new UK design and distribution centre in Luton, Bedfordshire. Milos specializes in modular aluminium trussing systems for entertainment, theatrical, exhibition and display applications.

The new UK centre comes 18 months after the launch of Milos America in Ashland, Virginia, and is timed to coincide with the increase in its semi-automated production facilities to almost 90,000sq.ft. The latest range of QuickTruss systems feature quick-connect pins and solid connectors, creating one the fastest assembling truss systems available today whilst maintaining structural integrity. A comprehensive range of system formats and configurations are available to suit specific project and loading criteria. Also available from Milos are MT1 Rigging Towers, MR1 and MR2 Roofs for special events, and the latest rang

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The Adelaide Convention Centre in Australia has recently invested in Turbosound Powered QLight enclosures as part of a venue extension programme that will more than double the size of the facility. The development will offer more than 10,000sq.m of pillarless floor space, (divisible into six sound-proofed halls) for exhibitions, banquets and other events, in addition to existing convention facilities. The combined banqueting capacity will facilitate 6,500 guests, allowing for much larger events and enabling multiple function hosting.

After an extensive evaluation of most major brands in the market place, the ACC chose Turbosound’s new QLight Powered System and 16 TQ-440SP powered three-way enclosures and eight TQ-425SP subwoofers were duly supplied by Australia’s Turbosound distributor Audio Telex.

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Arbiter Pro Audio has supplied Edinburgh-based SI Sound & Light with a large quantity of JBL loudspeaker systems for an exciting new sound installation at Genesis nightclub in Dunfermline. The independently-owned 800-capacity club is split into two sections - a large bar/walk-in space, and the main dancefloor area. A good budget had been allocated to allow for a sound system to cater for a diverse selection of musical genres from mainstream pop to hardcore dance. It was also essential not to alienate those wanting to drink rather than dance. SI Sound & Light’s Pete Simpson undertook the sound design - his latest of several using JBL.

Genesis' dancefloor speakers are four SP222s from JBL's Sound Power Series - 1500W each with 12" drivers. For bass, Simpson chose two JBL VS125HS speakers, combined with two SP128 subs. For maximum impact, he has sub-divided the low frequencies:

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Truss manufacturer Slick UK Ltd has announced the sale of 114 lengths of 2.4 meter Minibeam truss and 38 lengths of 1.2 meter Minibeam truss to the Excel exhibition centre in London's Docklands. The contract was to supply truss to allow more points to be hung in the roof of the centre and to give greater flexibility to exhibitions held there. Slick's Ian Hall told PLASA Media: "The order was worth in excess of 50k and was clinched by the new regime of good customer service and on-time delivery of product operating at Slick."

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NXT's SurfaceSound flat panel loudspeakers have found their latest application in the new Predators exhibition at London's Natural History Museum. Open to visitors until May 2002, this new family-oriented showcase features a range of audio-visual effects enhanced by the use of bespoke acoustic panels made by NXT licensee, Amina Technologies Ltd.

The exhibition uses a series of interactive robotic models, including a 5 metre-long great white shark, a 3 metre chameleon and a 2.5 metre funnel web spider. Using the SurfaceSound technology, clear tri-wall polycarbonate flat panel speakers sited above the models provide the realistic surround-sound effects for each of the animal exhibits.

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PLASA will be sponsoring a UK exhibitor group to the SIB 2002 exhibition, which will run from 24-27 March in Rimini, Italy.

The DTI’s SESA (Support for Exhibitions and Seminars Abroad) funding programme will cover 60% of proven stand and construction costs, up to a ceiling of £2,300. In addition, PLASA will provide shared telephone and fax facilities and full on-site support for members of the Exhibitor Group. PLASA Members benefit from a reduced management fee for this service.

For more information, e-mail trade@plasa.org, or visit the PLASA Website at www.plasa.org/events

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SSE Hire's work schedule for Christmas and the New Year period is looking busy, with a number of tours and special events in the pipeline for the audio hire company. Tours being serviced by the company include the forthcoming tours of the UK and Europe during November and December by Travis and UB40. Front-of-house engineer for Travis is Giles Woodhead, who will be using the SSE-supplied Midas XL4 desk and the Nexo Alpha system, while Chris Leckie has a Midas XL3 looking after monitors. Front-of-house for UB40 will be Jerry Parchment and Steve 'Gonzo' Smith with an XL4, and SSE's Betamax speaker system. Monitor engineer Graham Blake will be using an XL3. For Faithless' UK and Ireland tour, FOH engineer Mark Kennedy will be using a Midas Heritage 3000 (also with a Nexo Alpha system), while monitor engineer Tim Pattison will be taking advantage of the facilities offered by the Innova Son G
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