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The PLASA Media News Team is now signing off for Christmas. As the PLASA office closes today, this is the last time the headlines will be updated for 2001. We'll be back at our desks in the New Year to bring you all the latest developments from across the industry. In the meantime, thanks for all your support over the past year and enjoy Christmas and New Year.

All the best from the PLASA Media Team

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Martin Professional A/S has entered into an agreement with Chako and Hiroshi Yoshida, long-time distributors of automated lighting in Japan, to establish a joint company, Martin Professional Japan Ltd. The new company, located in Tokyo and consisting of eight employees, will handle distribution and service of Martin, Jem and Mach products throughout the country.

The establishment of a single professional distributor in Japan, which had previously been covered through three separate companies, is an important step in Martin’s goal of increasing focus on the Asian market. Martin Professional president and CEO Kristian Kolding has assumed the position of chairman of the new company. Other board members include Mr. And Mrs. Yoshida and Martin’s area sales manager Jonas Eisenhardt. The official opening of the new company is expected sometime in February.

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Hard on the heels of the announcement of LDI's award for Best Audio Product at the show for the newly launched Legend 3000 tri-purpose mixing console, Midas seems to be on a winning streak as the company closes out 2001. To add to the collection on the corporate mantelpiece, Midas can now add a Pro Audio Review PAR Excellence 2001 Award for the Legend 3000, an EDDY Award from Entertainment Design for the Midas Heritage Theatre software, and a TEC Award nomination for the Midas Heritage 1000.

The Heritage Theatre software was one of just five outstanding new products to be singled out for an EDDY for major technical advancement in the field of professional audio (see yesterday's news). Representing Midas to receive the award at the 10th annual EDDY Awards ceremony in New York City was MD Bob Doyle. "We've had an absolutely amazing year," commented Doyle. "The Heritage Se

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As Christmas approaches, White Light has been busy lighting landmarks around London for the festive season. At Somerset House in the West End, the dancing fountains in the building's main square have been replaced with a public ice rink for the Christmas period - a transformation which first took place last Christmas and which now seems set to become an annual tradition. To add to the atmosphere, White Light was asked to light the buildings around the rink in festive blue: the transformation was achieved by Tim Bray and Ian Scott with a collection of exterior floodlights and a large collection of mains distribution! The ice rink lighting continues White Light's involvement with Somerset House, where White Light Group member The Service Company commissioned the architectural lighting control system.

South of the Thames, White Light revisited another old friend: the 1940s House at the Im

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PALA 2002 will run from the 10-12 July in Hong Kong. The Show features a diverse range of exhibitors covering every area of the entertainment industry, including pro audio, lighting, club, broadcast and music. The show has always attracted the support of industry associations - amongst them PLASA, APIAS and SECARTYS - and for the first time will also be supported by ESTA, the US-based trade association.

Regular exhibitors at the event include AKG, Allen & Heath, AMEK, Apogee, Audio-Technica, Avolites, Behringer, Celestion, Cerwin Vega, Clay Paky, COEF, Coemar, Community Pro, DAS Audio, Denon, EAW, Ecler, EVI, FAL, FBT, Futurelight, Griven, Harman Group, High End Systems, JBL, Jem, Lexicon, Lite-Puter, Lobo, MACH, Martin Audio, Martin Professional, Meyer Sound, MIPRO, Nexo S.A, Optimus, Outline, Peavey, Penn Fabrication, Pioneer, Proel, Pulsar, QSC, Rane, Sennheiser, SGM, Shure, Sony,

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Stagetec (UK) Ltd has just completed the design, supply and installation of a sound, communications and lighting system for the new performing arts centre at the University of Plymouth's Exmouth campus. This major new GBP2.5 million teaching complex incorporates a performing arts area housing a large lecture theatre, a performance area and seminar rooms. Stagetec’s design was based on an outline specification from University staff. The lighting system features an internally-wired grid over the auditorium and stage areas, connected to eight LSC iPRO 12-channel digital installation dimmer packs. A Compulite Spark 4D console was chosen for its quick and easy programming facilities, its power and expedient size.

Stagetec supplied a selection of luminaires from the Selecon range, including 1.2kW fresnels, 600W Pacific profiles, Aurora cyclorama floods and a Performer followspot. Stage

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Leading pro audio distributor, Fuzion plc, has extended its operations into Thailand with the setting up of a brand new distribution company, Fuzion Far East Ltd, based in Bangkok. Fuzion Far East will be carrying a number of the same brands as Fuzion plc in the UK plus others and will also be distributing lighting, AV and comms products. Fuzion plc's Tony Oates is holding down the job of managing director with Sutat 'Pok' Kohkiat as technical director, Varuit Rattapong at the front as assisted by Pongsak Pattanaphan as sales/product manager plus a number of hand-picked professionals from within the industry in Thailand.

Fuzion Far East came about due to a need for quality distribution in that territory with no secondary activities that compete with the customers. After a number of discussions with operations in Thailand and research into the market, Oates saw an opportunity to create

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Stage Electrics has launched a number of projects for the New Year, the first being the decision to offer its full range of hire stock from its London branch. The new branch was one of the success stories of last year and will be the subject of further expansion in the coming year. 2002 will also see the consolidation of the Stage Electrics group of companies into one brand to create a nationwide network of branches. As a result, Theatre Direct in Cambridge and Theatre Vision in Cardiff and Brecon will become branches of Stage Electrics from 1 February 2002 and will benefit from the extra support, access to a wider range of equipment and resources that come with being more closely aligned to Stage Electrics.

(Ruth Rossington)

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As a result of continued problems with the supply of key components for the Sirius range, Zero 88 has announced that it is discontinuing production of its Sirius 250 and Sirius 500 desks. "This has been a difficult decision," explains Tim Burt, Zero 88's brand manager. "The Sirius has been a pioneering range for Zero 88, introducing a number revolutionary new features to the industry such as the Cueline graphical interface. But it is becoming increasingly difficult to source components for these desks, making manufacture and delivery unreliable. We do now have the complete Frog range in place and will be adding some new functionality to the Frog software in the New Year to make these desks even more powerful." Zero 88 will continue to support the product range with technical support and updated fixture data.

(Ruth Rossington)

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Warner Village Cinemas have extended their relationship with Martin Audio cinema systems with the opening of the 12-screen West 12 Centre multiplex at Shepherds Bush. Forming part of the £20million redevelopment of the Concord Shopping Centre, the building of the latest Warner Village Cinemas site is part of a general renovation of the area, with design by architects the Colman Partnership.

The sound systems consist of Martin Audio Screen Series cabinets, which also featured recently in a number of screening rooms at the high-profile Warner Village Cinema complex at Star City, Birmingham, and in the Warner Bros. preview theatres in London. Warner Bros International Theatres' director of projection and technical equipment, Phil Crawley, confirmed that Martin Screen 4s and 5s are currently being adopted in new Warner Village Cinema multiplexes around the UK. Screen 5s and Screen Sub 1As

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At the PLASA show in September, an agreement was reached between Stage Accompany and Aquarius Sound, which will see the latter distributing SA products in the Irish market. Aquarius' Phil Connolly and son Niall run a well-respected company, which has been active in the pro-audio market for many years. After hearing an SA Ribbon-loaded system in the 3000-capacity Powerzone discotheque in Amsterdam, and a number of clubs in Cyprus, Phil and Niall decided it would fulfil a demand from clients for something more 'upscale'.

Tom Back of Stage Accompany told us: "With some truly benchmark-setting products in the pipe-line, we have great expectations for SA. We're very happy to have an experienced and knowledgeable team like Aquarius representing our products in Ireland."

(Lee Baldock)

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The Event Lighting & Design Company added yet another high profile job to their portfolio recently by designing the lighting for one of the most talked about events of the year - the Lord of the Rings premiere party at Tobacco Dock. This spectacular party, organised by Lady Carolyn Townshend & Associates, aimed to recreate scenes from the film and bring Middle Earth to the Docklands. EL&D worked closely with the film's production designers (who have already won an American Movie Review Award for their work) to recreate the lighting effects seen on screen. Each area in the party had a distinct atmosphere reflecting particular scenes in the film.

Lothlorien, home of the elves, reflected the beautiful wooded landscape. The party also recreated the Prancing Pony, a warm, welcoming Pub with custom-made hanging silk flames. The Village Green was lit to show outdoor twilight where hanging la

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Hard Rock Café International has developed a new bar concept, which has been piloted in Birmingham's burgeoning Broad Street. The prime 7,500 sq.ft Hard Rock bar, licensed for 450, will continue to dispense its cocktail of classic rock and merchandise in an environment of encased rock memorabilia. It was a challenge which architects and interior designers, Lewis & Hickey took on, along with atmosphere and technology designers PA Installations (sound and vision) and LDPi (lighting fixtures).

PAI, who also specified the lighting control, had a difficult, reverberant environment with hard finishes, and needing to deaden reflections from the café bar surround and live stage loudspeakers in an inherently 'live' room, they chose the BSS 9088 Soundweb DSP networker as the solution provider. According to project manager Martin Draisey, while the choice of loudspeakers for Birmingham were lai

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Through their official sponsorship of the UEFA Champions League, Ford has been able to reach a critical mass - not only inside the host sports stadia and on television, but also outside the grounds. With the aid of promotional company Prism and audio-visual specialists Creative Technology the company has been able to throw large-scale images onto the sides of buildings (and the stadia themselves) in the true spirit of guerilla projection.

At some grounds a Christie X10 Roadie 10,000 ANSI lumens DLP projector has been set up on the top of an adjacent building, whilst on other occasions it has been fired from the back of a Ford Galaxy in the car park, run from a generator. "This is a high profile site where we can run a Betacam tape, interspersed with Ford's 'Destination Football' ads and highlights of the last few matches as eye candy for spectators arriving at the match," sai

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Harman International Industries has announced a restructuring programme for Digital Audio Research (DAR), involving a relocation of the business to the new AMEK Manchester location. The DAR products will benefit from AMEK's state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities, ensuring product consistency and reliability.

John Carpanini of Harman told us: "DAR and AMEK have many common distributors worldwide and all sales and marketing activity will be consolidated under head of sales, Craig Lovell. Craig has been closely involved with both brands over a number of years, and combining the sales activities under his control also makes excellent commercial sense."

"The decision to relocate DAR reinforces our commitment to the recently-launched Trigger Audio Replay System, for which we have high hopes in the market. At InterBee in November, where it was officially launched, Trigger

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PCM supplied leading rigging rental company Outback Rigging Ltd with special FX Star high-speed Lodestar motors to lift the central rear LED screen at the recent Smash Hits Poll Winners extravaganza at the London Arena. The screen - over 5 tonnes of Screenco 15 mm pixel pitch modules measuring 11.4 metres wide by 7.2 metres high - was a vital part of the stunning set designed by Bill Lazlett.

It showed video playback and live camera action, but also allowed for quick between-band changes by raising and lowering very rapidly. The hire to Outback is the first of PCM's new Motion Control division, which has been set up to serve all the rigging rental companies, and carries a stock of non-standard equipment, available for specialist requirements.

PCM's John Jones explains that the decision to launch the division was to "Explore other areas of the market, and also to help our clients

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Show Presentation Services (SPS), one of the largest AV rental companies in the UK, was chosen by Black Pig Productions to provide a Barco Dlite7 Screen for the recent Robbie Williams TV Spectacular, which was recorded live for BBC 1 at the Royal Albert Hall on 10th October 2001 and released on DVD in early December. Robin Coles, managing director of SPS, explained that his brief was to "supply 39sq.m Barco Dlite7 LED display to provide the 7168 mm x 5376 mm centre stage backdrop for Black Pig Productions to feed images on to. The show itself was spectacular, and we were very pleased with the effect when it was broadcast on BBC 1 on 17th November," said Coles.

Black Pig’s managing director, Chris Saunders, described the production as "unusual, as it was being filmed in high definition, causing any imperfections in the LED to stand out. This is especially important

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Brian Laurence from renowned Melbourne-based audio soundscape producers Brian Laurence Sound P/L has recently completed a major Soundscape project at Beechworth, in the heart of Australia's 'Bushranger Country' using a variety of ARX products. In the new Beechworth Historic Precinct, Laurence Sound created several 12-channel surround soundscapes, one for the Bourke Museum's 'Street Of Shops', and the Old Beechworth Courthouse, each of them 'bringing to life' the static displays by re-creating the sounds of the wild 1870s Gold Rush period.

Sound replay is from Fostex 16-channel D-160 hard disk players which only have unbalanced -10dB outputs. To level-match to the required +4dB to drive the power amplifiers, Laurence Sound used two of the new ARX Level 8s line balancers per Fostex D-160 machine.

The large-screen video show features 8-channel surround sound based on a Fostex D-160 time

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One of London's most famous dance venues has been fitted out with a Martin Audio system, courtesy of Bedford-based Creative Technologies. The former Legends - in Mayfair’s Old Burlington Street - has been acquired by Mark Fuller’s Embassy Restaurants Ltd, following the sale of his previous venues, Sugar Reef and Red Cube to Chorion plc. Fuller - with partner Garry Hollihead and operations director, Gina Campbell-Clough - has renamed the venue The Embassy - in deference to the famous venue that flourished in nearby Old Bond Street in the early 1980s, where he also worked.

Creative Technologies' relationship with Fuller extends back to his days when he ran Little Havana. The company also installed Sugar Reef, but according to managing director, Rob Ferguson, this is their most sophisticated fit-out yet, as the combination of Martin Audio components and Soundweb networking wil

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If you missed it don't worry, it will return. The World Wrestling Association presented by AAA is the latest wave to catch onto the growing craze for choreographed violence for the under 10s. The recent tour of rippling muscles with cartoon personas has swept through the UK, visiting major venues like Sheffield Arena and Wembley. "When you're presenting shows in venues of this size, and to audiences of 10,000 plus, the same rules apply as for the biggest rock shows," explained production manager Nick Levitt. "That's why we have three artics parked outside - there's a lot more to this than two men grappling in a ring."

One truck was almost totally filled with the ring itself and associated props, such as chipboard ringside tables for the commentators, which shatter harmlessly as these Cinderella Titans hurl each other from the ring in mock fury. In the air, 160ft of

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The famous stage at the Heineken Music Hall in Amsterdam took on a number of different scenic guises when Dutch radio station Radio 538 presented its ninth anniversary party, Live38, recently. Thanks to the reconfigurable pair of 18sq.m 25mm LED Megascreens from Screenco/JVR, which could be split and moved across the stage with the help of a motion tracking device, acts such as The Corrs, Wyclef Jean, Volumia, Blof, Di-rect and Crazy Pianos could be seen in bespoke scenic settings. The rigging and trolley system were provided by Frontline/Sightline.

Radio 538 undertook all the production themselves, and credit for the inventive screen concept goes to the station's Pieter Lubberts. "This flexibility enabled us to reinforce the stage images either as one giant screen behind the musicians, split into two 18sq.m side screens - or present them as six individual columns, each displaying

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London PA company FX Music has recently expanded its hire stock, taking delivery of 56 Martin W8C Wavefront cabinets. The rig was immediately pressed into service by Capital Sound for the Ministry of Sound's giant New Year event at the Millennium Dome. FX Music, who also run EAW systems, claim that increased diversity in tour specs and one-off show requirements mean a wide ranging inventory has become a necessity for hire operations.

(Lee Baldock)

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Federal Warning Systems has won a seven figure contract to design, supply, and install new emergency warning personnel alert systems for the US Air Force in Europe (USAFE). The company has been contracted to equip several US Air Force bases in the UK and Germany with its hard-wired version of its electronic outdoor warning system, which includes high powered speakers and amplifiers running on an ISDN communication backbone.

Security being a key concern for the new warning system, FWS will install a highly secure land line system, utilizing ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) technology and communications system protocol. Alert messages will be activated from multiple locations throughout the bases, such as barracks and personnel blocks. With a 95% efficiency rate and increased run time, the Modulator’s omnidirectional electronic speaker array system will allow for precise

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ARX Systems, the Australian based manufacturer of professional audio products has appointed Tonart-Audiotechnik as its new exclusive distributor for Switzerland. ARX MD Colin Park told us: "ARX is delighted to have Rudolf Schenker and his team at Tonart-Audiotechnik on board as our new exclusive distributor. Tonart are well placed to introduce the new products ARX is bringing to market in 2002, as well as continuing the high level of support our Swiss client base has come to expect over the years.

(Ruth Rossington)

  1. Stagecraft Makes Technology Accessible
  2. Phoenix Sound Debuts at Wembley
  3. Paradigm Supply Exhibit at Tate Gallery
  4. Stars and Stripes for Blackout Triple E
  5. CT NEC Support Land Rover at Bluewater
  6. Philips CSI Moves to New UK HQ at Heathrow
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