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Stagecraft has recently been involved in a major development at the New Theatre Royal in Portsmouth. The company supplied lighting and sound equipment to the venue and is also planning a programme of disabled workshops at the theatre.

In 1972 a fire destroyed a large part of the backstage of the Victorian theatre and the refurbishment provided an opportunity to re-design the theatre to provide greater accessibility for all theatregoers. One of the key areas to be developed was the lighting and sound systems and thus Stagecraft supplied a range of technical equipment, including Martin intelligent lighting, Selecon Pacific luminaires, Compulite Luna moving yolks, Zero88 lighting control and dimming, and a range of audio equipment, including Tannoy speakers, Shure microphones, QSC amplification and Allen & Heath control.

Grant Bales-Smith of Stagecraft worked closely with the New Theat

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The Wembley studio building that used to house CTS Studios is back in business as a recording facility after industry veteran Pete Fielder secured a lease on the premises, which he has re-opened under the name of Phoenix Sound. The substantial studio building is located close to Wembley Stadium and was due to be redeveloped as part of the overall scheme to rebuild the stadium. However, when the plans fell through, Fielder approached Wembley plc with a view to acquiring the lease and securing the site's future as a recording studio.

Fielder, a respected engineer and APRS board member who has extensive knowledge and experience of the studio industry, told us: "This is a large site that is already very popular with musicians and has plenty of potential as a studio complex. Although we are re-equipping from scratch, the actual studios and control rooms are already in place and will si

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Paradigm was recently commissioned by audio visual specialists Integrated Circles, to supply three Ultra Contrast Screens for use at artist Liam Gillick's exhibit, 'Annlee You Proposes', at Tate Britain.

The 52" screens - together with specially adapted LCD projectors - have been hired by the gallery for the duration of the exhibit, which continues until 31 March this year. Footage on each screen comprises three minutes of looped video art - which together with sound clips - portrays 'Annlee', using Japanese-style cartoon images. The screens are positioned as window displays which face onto a newly landscaped garden and patio area within the Tate Britain grounds.

Paul Nolan of Integrated Circles told us: "Providing large, vivid video images in a sunlit, south facing outdoor environment, presented us with an unusual challenge that meant we needed exceptional contrast to achi

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All eyes were on Frankfurt this December where the 'For The Troops MTV-USO Show' was held, giving German-based American military personnel the opportunity to let their hair down in an evening of music and entertainment. Held in an aircraft hanger, the high profile event included acts such as J-Lo and Kid Rock.

Blackout Triple E was commissioned by Field Services to supply a three-dimensional American flag, two drapes painted with the MTV-USO logo and a white filled cloth Kabuki drop for this event, with project manager Tom Lambert working in conjunction with designer Mark Fisher to create the striking 3D flag. As the centrepiece for the event, the three-dimensional version of the Stars and Stripes was hung from a grid measuring 9.3m x 3.4m. An 8.4m white gauze drape created the background to the flag and was fronted by seven individual red cloth stripes, each of which was rigged on cur

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CT NEC has provided full AV support for Land Rover, on a three-year permanent installation basis, at the Bluewater Shopping Centre in Kent. Situated in two high profile areas, eight Panasonic TH-42PWD4 42" plasma displays and two Panasonic DVD-RV31 players have been supplied and fitted as visual reinforcement for Land Rover's impressive vehicle displays.

Split into two adjacent areas, the first site - a Land Rover Clothing Store, located in the Southeast Welcome Hall - contains two screens, with the capacity for future upgrade to enable data capture. The second installation is located within the main shopping mall thoroughfare, and boasts six screens, with four at ground level and two on the first floor. The screens display product and corporate video footage and currently present the same video sequence, fed from two separate source players. Provision has also been made for poten

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Philips CSI has moved to an impressive new corporate facility at Heathrow, located on the Bath Road adjacent to Heathrow airport. The facilities at the new site will allow the company to expand its operations especially with enhanced sales, training and demonstration facilities for customers and installers.

According to Reg Nicholls, the newly-appointed UK general manager for Philips CSI: "Our move into this building allows us to continue to strengthen and develop our UK operations. We have opportunities to further promote the Philips brand name by providing all the services required to make us more customer-focused and responsive." he added. The new Philips CSI centre at Heathrow will also offer a much faster response and turnaround on both warranty and non-warranty repairs, plus a new 'swap-out' service on key products that effectively gives customers a free replacement pr

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The AXYS range of products is now being distributed and supported within the UK by Duran Audio UK. In addition to supplying the successful AXYS Intellivox range, Duran Audio will also be actively promoting the Arena System, Scope System, Stadium System, Source System and Flex range. The company’s new Target System, which has been through extensive Beta testing, will also be available for sale in 2002. Sales of AXYS in the Republic of Ireland will now be handled by Sound Productions of Dublin.

(Lee Baldock)

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Northampton-based event and display specialists Mushroom Events provided a white Christmas for shoppers at the famous Harvey Nichols department store in London's Knightsbridge, by creating half-hourly artificial snowfalls in the street outside the store. The display began on November 14 and ended on Christmas Eve, running from 10.40 in the morning through to 7.20 in the evening.

Mushroom, which has created window display lighting for the store's branches in London and Leeds for the past three years, and the new Birmingham branch which opened in October, came up with the idea as a follow-up to last year's seasonal decoration when strings of fairy lights adorned the store's façade. The snowfalls are created by three snow machines, mounted on the store's roof, which produce a totally safe, detergent and water-based, white foam. Forced through a fine mesh and released into the air, it tak

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A vibrant new South African production has recently arrived on the West End stage. Umoja - The Spirit of Togetherness opened at the Shaftesbury Theatre to rave reviews thanks to a cast of 33 singers and dancers, four African drummers and a five-piece band.

Conceived by Todd Twala and Thembi Nyandeni, and brought to the stage by director Ian von Memerty, the task of 'sound designing' the story of African music fell to Trevor Peters. With FOH engineer, Tanja Somers, Trevor recommended that the show turn to both BSS and Trantec as the most effective and economic way of setting the delays and correcting the sound imaging, and supplying the requisite number of radio mic channels.

"I did the original sound design using more conventional equipment which I was familiar with, but then someone suggested I look at BSS’s Soundweb," said Peters. "Although I first saw S

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Sonia Friedman, currently the producer at the Ambassador Theatre Group (ATG), has created with ATG a new production company, Sonia Friedman Productions (SFP). ATG is the second largest theatre owning and managing group, with a portfolio of 19 theatres in the West End and the regions.

Friedman will retain her current role at ATG - producing and programming all the work at the New Ambassadors Theatre, as well as initiating a wide range of work for other theatres across the West End, UK and internationally. SFP will additionally take on responsibility for larger scale work including musicals and multiple media projects.

Friedman joined ATG in 1998, and relaunched the New Ambassadors Theatre in May 1999. Of the 22 shows that she has produced, co-produced or programmed, successes include Stones in His Pockets, Spoonface Steinberg, Krapp’s Last Tape with John Hurt, The Vag

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West London-based pro audio distributor Ampekko has recently supplied the Institute of Contemporary Arts, situated on The Mall in London, with an integrated SLS Loudspeaker system. As the official sponsor of Climax 01, SLS teamed up with the ICA and The Musicians Union to stage a ground-breaking season of music and talks which looked at the highlights of indie, acoustic and dance music over 2001. Its resounding success inspired the ICA to permanently install a SLS integrated sound reinforcement system into their main Theatre.

Andrew Missingham, director of performing arts, explained: "We were so impressed by the SLS system that Ampekko supplied for the week-long Climax 01 season, that it made total sense to replace our old system and upgrade to SLS. It will allow us to fulfil our objectives in 2002 to revive live music performance in this venue. It has already worked to enhance ou

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The ATI Group, parent company of Audio Toys Inc, API Audio and Uptown Automation, will consolidate manufacturing and corporate offices for all three brands in a larger facility as of January 14. The changes come in response to ATI's steady and considerable growth over the last decade. In addition to providing the company with a much needed doubling of space, the consolidation will improve manufacturing efficiency. ATI, API and Uptown Automation products will all be manufactured at the new Jessup, Maryland, location under the direction of general manager Gordon Smart.

Audio Toys Inc manufactures the Paragon II monitor console and the newly introduced Paragon II production console, along with the successful 8MX2 mic pre/mixer. The Paragon II has recently been seen on tour with Britney Spears, U2, Tim McGraw and many other top acts. API remains an industry leader in analogue recording equ

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Fujitsu Ten Limited Japan has announced the formation of its joint venture company, Eclipse TD (UK) Ltd. The company has been founded to distribute and market the Eclipse TD range of monitor speaker systems in the United Kingdom.

The Eclipse TD 508 and TD 512 monitor systems, based on Time Domain principles, were launched in Japan in April 2001 (where they received a Japan Industrial Design Promotion Organisation award) and shown publicly in Europe for the first time at the Hi-Fi Show in London in September. Following the immediate success of the speakers in Japan, public reaction at the Hi-Fi Show, and recording industry response at a number of private studio demonstrations, the board of Fujitsu Ten Ltd, Japan took the decision to establish a UK operation. Based in west London, Eclipse TD (UK) Ltd is headed by managing director Hiroshi Kato.

Commenting on the new venture at a recep

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In the latest move to benefit its members, PLASA has appointed a full-time health and safety standards officer to provide advice and guidance to members on this increasingly important issue. Ron Bonner comes to the Association from his previous role as health and safety manager for a local hospital trust, where he had responsibility for health and safety management for 3,000 employees across two sites.

Ron’s career has been very much rooted in fire safety, beginning in 1972 when he began serving as an aircraft firefighter with the Royal Navy’s Fleet Air Arm. In 1977, Ron joined the London Fire Brigade, where he spent 17 years, serving at Mill Hill, Tottenham and Stoke Newington fire stations. During this time, he attended a number of notable incidents, including the Kings Cross underground fire in 1987 and the Marchioness disaster on the Thames in 1989. After receiving a se

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Modelbox, the pioneering specialist in the use of computer aided design for the entertainment industry, was recently called in to help the Brighton Dome generate new groundplans for visiting companies.

Currently in the middle of a £22million Lottery-funded rebuild, with the Pavilion Theatre and the Corn Exchange already open and the Dome due to re-open next month, the theatres' staff had come to realise that, as is so often the case, the architectural plans generated for the refurbishment would actually be of little use to visiting companies since they would contain too much detail and superfluous information.

Modelbox are now adapting the architectural plans to produce a set of theatrical-style groundplans for each of the three venues, presenting theatrical users with the information they need in the form they expect to find it in. The plans will be available to visiting companies

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ARX has recently completed shipping one of its largest individual orders received in 2001 for the new multi-million dollar Crowne Plaza Hotel project in Beirut, Lebanon. ARX's Lebanese distributor Doummar Freres Sarl has the contract to design, supply and install the fully-integrated audio-video system for the new hotel's banqueting and conference facilities which also includes stage lighting, conferencing and simultaneous translation systems, lighting and dimmers, and mobile band equipment. The projects Audio systems include over 40 PowerMax Series loudspeakers and various quantities of UltraSubs, Micro Max 1s, Ambience 5s and AmbiSubs powered by 15 ZR 850 and 350 Power Amplifiers and SX 1500s, ZA 600s PowerDrives and AmbiDrive Power Amplifiers.

Signal Processing comprises 12 EQ 60 equalisers, 11 AFW 1 anti feedback workstations and quantities of Maxisplit line splitters, Mixxmaster

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Trantec’s award-winning UHF radio mics have been supplied to a new studio facility in Kennington - set up to produce the latest Richard & Judy series. Six channels of Trantec S5000 beltpacks, with a pair of auxiliary S4000s, were recommended by Nigel Gates, along with Trantec S5000IEM personal in-ear monitors to Cactus TV, the production company for Richard & Judy, which is now being produced at the studio in South London for Channel 4 transmission. Four receiver racks were supplied with the order.

Sound supervisor Oliver France installed the equipment at the Cactus TV studio in conjunction with facility providers, Roll To Record, following a fast-track contract to develop the brownfield site (a former polystyrene depot). Oliver confirmed that Nigel Gates had long been an advocate of Trantec radio mics. "And on occasions when I have used them I have found them to give a good

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UK exhibitors at the 11th TiLE (Trends in Leisure and Entertainment) exhibition and conference will receive financial support from the Department of Trade and Industry'’ Trade Partners UK, through its SESA scheme. SESA (Support for Exhibitions and Seminars Abroad) provides funds to help British companies exhibit their products and services at trade shows that have a proven record of attracting the right buyers.

TiLE‘s broad base covers visitor attractions, theme parks and themed environments, retail and shopping malls and exhibitions and product launches, attracting exhibitors from the A/V, multimedia, architectural, lighting, sound and special effects fields. The show takes place at the Estrel Congress Center, Berlin, from Tuesday 11th to Thursday 13th June 2002.

(Ruth Rossington)

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JBL’s new VerTec system was used on New Year’s Eve at the highly successful SchoolDisco.com event at London Docklands Arena. The sold-out event was attended by 11,000 revellers in school uniforms. JBL audio was specified by SchoolDisco.com founder and guru Bobby Sanchez, who has used the brand for years. He loves the ‘classic’ JBL sound which is perfect for SchoolDisco.com’s musical style and ambience.

Sanchez insists on using JBL at all SchoolDisco.com events. He says it brings out the best of their musical policy which is based on the pop and rock anthems of the 70s, 80s and 90s. The fast forwarding SchoolDisco.com phenomena currently includes a weekly Friday detention slot at the Hanover Grand in central London and regular extra curricular events at Hammersmith Palais (Po Na Na) - utilising their own 4-stack JBL sound system - plus weekly club nights at

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MC2 Audio’s distributor in Latvia, GaCo Skanu Un Gaismu Serviss, has now completed the installation of a conference system for the Latvian Council of Ministers, the contract for which they won last summer. In their bid for the contract, GaCo included only top-end equipment by well known manufacturers. The company had previously purchased MC1250 amplifiers for their rental department, and so felt confident about the performance of MC2 Audio amps for this project.

The sound system in the Council of Ministers installation is driven by the MC450 amplifier and consists of four TCS-20 Turbosound speakers, with the main signal coming from 10 beyerdynamic MCS series digital conference system microphones, mixed by the MIX 10 beyerdynamic mixer.

(Lee Baldock)

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With two distinct divisions, Liverpool-based Adlib Audio are equally at home in the installation arena as they are on tour with some of the world’s leading bands. Their own-branded equipment keeps company with some of the top commercial names in pro audio, and running kit in their rental fleet enables them to evaluate its suitability for fixed install.

Which is how the company became familiar with the BSS FDS-334 and FDS-336 Minidrives. Adlib have long been devotees of BSS’ famous Omnidrive family and so when they won the contract to fit out a series of Living Room bar/restaurants for fast-expanding Living Ventures Ltd, the proprietary digital loudspeaker management system went straight into the specification.

As the latest Living Room opened on Birmingham’s burgeoning Broad Street leisure strip this month, Adlib managing director, Andy Dockerty, told us that their

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Sennheiser UK is to take on sole distribution of Lab.Gruppen’s market leading range of power amplifiers and loudspeaker processors, with effect from 16 January. The Swedish manufacturer enjoys an enviable reputation for the quality and performance of its range of power amplifiers; and particularly for its revolutionary high efficiency switch mode technology models, first introduced in 1987. These provide exemplary sound quality and long term reliability, as well as exceptional power-to-weight ratios, offering significant cost savings and operational advantage in both touring and fixed installation applications.

Commenting, Sennheiser director of sales Alan Johnson stated. "Sennheiser has grown its sound installation and live sound reinforcement business significantly over the last four or five years, particularly expanding the market for the range of DAS speaker products. Th

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Music Control and Technical Services, the sales, installation and technical support divisions of the FX Group, has recently completed the creation of a recording studio and edit suite at the BRIT School for Performing Arts & Technology, the only free performing arts school in the UK.

The Brit School were keen to ensure that the entire studio project was taken on by one organisation as opposed to a variety of contractors, which led Declan Cunningham, Music Technology Teacher at the Brit School, to contact Music Control, part of the FX group of companies. The Studio project involved a specialist team made up of members of the two relevant divisions of the FX group of companies, namely Music Control and Technical Services. The studio equipment was supplied and fitted by Music Control with additional re-wiring and cabling of patch bays and outboard undertaken by Technical Services.

Equi

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During an intensely busy year Britannia Row has managed the complete upgrade of its stock of Turbosound Flashlight PA, road tested, proved and embraced the latest X-Line system from EV and joined the V-dosc Network.

"We were the biggest UK user of V-dosc in 2001," commented Brit Row director Mike Lowe."Dave Bracey got stunning results for the Robbie Williams tour, ranging from the Swing While You’re Winning concert at the Royal Albert Hall to the summer stadium shows Oasis and Offspring also toured with large systems. Becoming a Network member was a natural progression. The fact that Brit Row now offers what we consider the two best Line Array systems available should not be seen as a conflict of interest. Their own manufacturers will be the first to say that the two systems are distinctly different, something we saw very early on. Several sound engineers with who

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  3. Interest-free credit websites for audio companies
  4. Bandit Lites & Manilow Embark on LIVE2002 Tour
  5. Clapham Grand chooses Nexo - again
  6. Inter-M Relocates in Seoul
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