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Marking 10 years of in-depth industry training courses, another successful Hoist and Rigging Workshop was recently hosted by Tomcat USA in Midland, Texas. Leading instructors were joined by nearly 50 industry professional participants from all over the United States and Mexico.

Instructor, Don Dimitroff from Columbus McKinnon, as well as Tomcat’s own Dave Beard, worked participants through the Lodestar electric chain hoist. Rocky Paulson of Stage Rigging and Morgan Neff of Mine Safety Appliances stressed safety in rigging techniques and fall protection equipment while Keith Bohn, Tomcat design manager, wrapped up with truss theory and design. Participants were treated to not only four days of informative classes, but also four nights of fun and the traditional factory night at Tomcat USA with extensive tours, demonstrations, contests and a graduation ceremony.

(Ruth Rossington)

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The official laying of the foundation stone for Martin Professional’s new ultra modern manufacturing facility took place at noon on Friday 15 February 15 in Frederikshavn, Denmark, with a host of top Martin personnel and local dignitaries taking part.

Both Frederikshavn mayor Erik Sørensen and Martin President and CEO Kristian Kolding addressed the large crowd, which numbered nearly 300. Kolding told us: "This ceremony marks an important milestone in our expansion programme and confirms that our new facility will be up and running on schedule later this summer." Geared towards the production of Martin’s most advanced lighting products, the $20 million 12,500sq.m factory is slated for completion in August. Upon completion, Martin will effectively double its production capacity for the manufacture of automated lighting; its current production facility, also located

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Just a few days remain before the Institute of Sound & Communication Engineers (ISCE) ISCEx 2002 - an event designed to address those who work in the installed sound sector. The event, which takes place at the Alexander Stadium, Perry Barr, Birmingham this Wednesday (27th February), will combine a one-day seminar programme and a small exhibition. It will also feature the first ever Warren-Barnett Memorial Lecture given by Peter Mapp.

In addition to the Memorial Lecture, the main seminar programme will feature presentations on Audio for Video Conferencing by Jon Raper; Getting the Measure of Intelligibility by Peter Mapp and Helen Goddard; The Future of the VA Standards by Phil Pratt and Teaching an Old Bear Tricks by Helen Goddard and Robert Thornton.

Exhibitors at the event include AMS-Mapp Acoustics, Baldwin Boxall Communications Ltd, CIE Group Ltd, Communication Technology Ltd, D

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Hels Australia Pty Ltd will now be handling the transtechnik Lichtsysteme range of professional lighting systems for television studios and theatres in Australia. The appointment is recognition of the increasing importance of the markets in the Pacific region. Hels, which is based in Templestowe (a town in Victoria, not far from Melbourne, the state capital), will handle both the Australian market and the entire south-east Asia region. In addition to sales, the company will also work with companies in the planning stages.

Hels is run by Zoltan Seles and Tomas Bardos. The two businessmen have been working together since 1998, supplying technical equipment and services to the television and theatre markets.

(Ruth Rossington)

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Central Theatre Supplies in Birmingham were the hosts of a Lighting & Sound Workshop held at Solihull Arts Complex in Solihull on 2 February. Almost 250 people from amateur theatres, drama groups and schools attended the day and were given a full insight into stage lighting and sound. Exhibitors including Zero 88, Selecon, Audio Technica, Strand Lighting, Celestion, HW International, Doughty Engineering, Stonewood Audio and Prolyte were in attendance to demonstrate their latest products and services.

The first session of the day - entitled ‘Lighting from Scratch’ - was led by Jason Larcombe of the White Light Group. This was later followed by a demonstration of effects by Ian Knight, hire manager for Central Theatre Supplies. This offered those in attendance an opportunity to familiarize themselves with the recommended practices when working with pyro. Ian also demonstrated

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XL Video UK, the touring and live event video specialist, has just completed a purchase that makes it the owner of the biggest and brightest fleet of Barco DLP projectors in the UK. The order gives XL 16 of the new ultra-bright Barco ELM R18 17,500 lumen projectors and four of the new, smaller, SLM R8 projectors (7,500 lumens) which will be added to their rental fleet.

It’s the first order for ELM R18s in the UK and adds to XL’s already extensive stock of Barco projectors which currently includes Barco ELM G10s ELM G12s and SLM G5s, plus assorted smaller projectors. XL Video’s Lee Spencer comments: "Having access to such a diverse fleet of projectors allows us to offer our clients the latest in projection equipment. It also means that we can be highly competitive and still give our clients the best service whether the event is large or small, conventional or lef

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Vertigo Rigging - specialist in the art of events and entertainment rigging – has now completed on its new, larger, high-tech premises in Deptford, London. Sited between Surrey Quays and Greenwich, Deptford is ideal for accessing central London and the West End. The premises consist of 14,500sq.ft of purpose-built warehousing. Vertigo has specially designed offices for project management and administration, and staff amenities have been given a priority, to account for the ever-increasing requirement for the provision of out-of-hours rigging services.

Vertigo Rigging director Rebecca Loughran is delighted with the new premises, and comments: "We now have the capacity to expand our equipment inventory and hold the largest stock of quality truss, motors and associated rigging in the UK. This will allow us to offer clients more choice and flexibility in the world of increasingl

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Screenco provided high-brightness LED displays, including a vast centre stage screen backdrop, enabling a star-studded cast at the Royal Albert Hall to be seen by a packed audience at the 2002 Grand Prix Party. The VIP evening - A Gala Evening of Stars, Cars & Guitars - kicked off the new Formula One season and saw Ferrari, McLaren, Jordan and the other F1 teams shelving their on-track rivalry for one night only, in aid of Professor Sid Watkins’ Brain & Spine Foundation.

Promoted by Chas Cole for CMP Entetainment, guests were treated to the guitar playing of Damon Hill and Eddie Jordan’s V10 Band from the motor racing world, as well as performances from Marc Almond, Atomic Kitten, Sam Brown, Ruby Turner, Edwin Starr, Mick Hucknall and Ronnie Wood - all to the backdrop of Jules Holland’s Rhythm & Blues Orchestra. Presenters were Carol Vorderman MBE and Tony Jar

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Stagetec is supplying a custom-built show relay and paging system for the prestigious new state-of-the-art Laban contemporary dance centre on Deptford Creek. The £22 million project is due for completion in autumn this year, and will be the largest purpose-built contemporary dance centre in the world. The huge 7,800sq.m building, designed by architects Herzog & de Meuron, includes 12 dance studios and a 300-seat theatre. There’s also a community studio/meeting room for local schools and community groups - a media information resource centre, 100-seat lecture theatre, café and public gardens.

The project specification was put together by theatre consultants Carr & Angier, with whom Stagetec have worked on numerous other projects around the country. For Stagetec, the Laban project involves the supply and installation of the equipment, plus the design of the system and project man

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John ‘Brad’ Bradshaw, formerly of Triflite Cases (Trifibre Containers), has started a new Flightcase business called Dragon Cases based in Cwmbran, South Wales. Brad - a well-known face in the industry - started his career in flightcases at Autopia some 15 years ago. After being made redundant after five years from Trifibre in December of last year, he returned to Autopia (then renamed as Encaseit) for a couple of weeks until again being made redundant after the receivers were called in on 16 January.

Brad will be working in partnership with Nomad Cases, a manufacturer of custom-built flightcases, polypropylene cases and padded bags, based in Market Harborough, Leicestershire.

(Lee Baldock)

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XL Video supplied a full digital SDI video package for the just-completed S Club 7 UK arena tour. Video director Blue Leach mixed the show using a Grass Valley GVG4000 desk, complete with a Magic DaVE digital video effects unit, amalgamating live camera feeds from five Sony D35 sources plus pre-recorded material. Slick live video editing was the dominant feature of the high energy show, and Leach worked collaboratively with LD Pete Barnes to ensure the band’s enthusiastic fans had a memorable night.

A massive 70sq.m LED screen dominated centre stage, made up of Generale Location 25 mm modules. This spit in two, with each half moving sideways to form a dramatic upstage entrance. The stage was flanked each side by two 20 x 15 metre ‘soft’ screens, with projected sources from Barco ELMs. Each of the 18 songs in the set featured video. Some involved abstract footage, much

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The city tram station in Grenoble, France, has been outfitted with two Martin Exterior 600 colour changing washlights in a unique example of the creative possibilities inherent in intelligent lighting. Mounted in the tram station’s ceiling, strobe and colour change effects are used to signal the arrival and departure of trams.

When a tram is not present at the station, the Exterior 600s project white light. But as a tram nears, a sensor sends a signal to a Martin ProScenium DMX512 lighting controller, signalling the Exteriors to strobe. As the tram enters the station, the light then turns blue. Upon arrival, the strobing stops and the light remains blue. When the tram is ready to depart and pulls out from the station, the light turns progressively whiter. The lighting designer for the installation was Pierre Negre.

(Lee Baldock)

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UK PA company Big Sound was recently involved in the production of The Trench, a BBC documentary series following the 10th Battalion of the East Yorkshire regiment and the role they played in the First World War.

Filming began in October 2001 and involved 24 volunteers from Hull and East Yorkshire, all of whom were of similar ages to the original soldiers. The volunteers spent two weeks in an authentically constructed trench system in Northern France. Big Sound, based in Wales, was asked to provide speaker and 5.1 surround systems that would deliver the sound effects in the most realistic form. Another requirement Big Sound had to consider was the need for the systems to deliver high-end sound effects while remaining as far away from the actual set as possible so that they didn't interfere with camera sight. Big Sound opted for a mixture of powered speakers and mini stacks of powered c

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Edwards is a newly opened bar in Cardiff - part of a major roll out from Six Continents. The audio installation was carried out by Orritt Electronics and owes much to the award-winning sound system installed at Loaf in Manchester.

Dave Orritt explains: "The spark of Edwards originally came from Loaf in Manchester. We were able to take the best of the Loaf design features and incorporate them into this venue. The difficult issue at Edwards was the venue’s acoustics. A hotel is situated above the venue so we had to pass NR 45 in order to get planning consent. What we have in Edwards is basically a box within a box within a box. To get the sound pressure levels with the quality of dispersion needed, we used multiple clusters of Mackie Monitors 5s and MSW8 subs, which were flown from the ceiling."

Edwards has a harsh industrial quality to it - with cable trays exposed aro

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When Channel 5 asked its lighting director, Martin Foster, to design the lighting for Channel 5's new-look 5 News, ETC's Source Four profiles were high on his list for key lights. Originally designed for theatre lighting, the Source Four has become a regular feature of lighting rigs worldwide and is currently in use in most of London's West End Shows. Perhaps less well-known is that the Source Four is now becoming a common feature in many television studios in the UK.

Having worked for 5 News since the start, Foster has had Source Fours in his lighting rig all along, but this is the first time he has used them as key lights. Previously, they have been back lighting the set and used to project the Channel 5 logo. For the revamped rig, Foster specified a total of eight Source Fours - four of which are used as key lights on the news presenter and for the guest positions. The rest are back

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A new sound installation at the famous Globe Arena in Stockholm, scene of the 2000 European Song Contest, will feature clusters of Martin Audio Wavefront 8 Compacts. The audio rental and contractor company DM Audio AB - Martin Audio’s Swedish distributor - has finalized the design to update and expand the installation which they undertook 12 years ago - when the arena was originally built.

"The reason for the expansion," explained DM Audio’s Lars Wern,"is that when the arena has hosted touring artists their sound engineers have often received complaints from the audience seated in the highest seats. Most tours do not bring enough equipment, or simply could not tilt the speakers upwards enough (the catwalk is situated 36 metres above the floor). To help the visiting sound engineers, it was decided to install a delay speaker system that could be added to the ma

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ANC Sports Enterprises of Purchase, New York, has completed the installation of Lighthouse video banners at four major US sports stadiums, along with the latest version of its proprietary FasciaSoft 2001 control software. It takes the total of Lighthouse video banner installations by ANC Sports to over 4,300 linear feet.

The installations are also the first of their kind to employ 24-channel input video switchers, allowing wipe and fade transitions between displays, rather than simple cuts. Lighthouse LVP25 (25mm pixel pitch) LED video panels make up the video banners at each of the stadiums.

ANC installed 924 linear feet of Lighthouse LED signage in Philips Arena in Atlanta, which is home to the NBA’s Hawks and the NHL’s Thrashers. The system became operational at the start of the 2001-2002 NHL season. 340 linear feet (two locations of 170-feet) of Lighthouse LED signage

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Fourth Phase is accustomed to working in strange and interesting locations, but using an open-top double-decker bus as a drive-by projection platform is a first! Contracted by Simon Garrett, managing director of event organisation specialist Pandemonium, Fourth Phase London was asked to project the Audi logo onto the exterior walls of the Audi showrooms on Piccadilly to mark a press launch. The projection, seen by thousands, took place between 6-9pm on the evening of Friday, 22 February.

The search for the ideal projection platform was initially narrowed down to a particular room at The Ritz, which stands opposite the Audi showroom, but unfortunately it was unavailable. In a moment of inspiration, the Fourth Phase team noticed an almost suitably positioned Big Bus Company bus stop! Fourth Phase hired a bus for the evening, which was parked at the bus stop quite legally for the duration

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Stars from the British and American film industries braved the atrocious London weather, crossing the rain-soaked red carpet into the Odeon, Leicester Square for this year’s Orange British Academy Film Awards (BAFTAs).

With the event now acting as a curtain raiser for the Oscars, and transferring to BBC television for the first time, the event’s profile was higher than ever this year. Helping to keep it sky high were Creative Technology, who flew 84 modules of the new Barco i10 high brightness LED display - its most prestigious outing to date. The screen was configured as a 12 x 7 display (in 16:9 aspect ratio), and attached to four CM Lodestar motors. "Having done the Orange British Academy Film Awards for the last two years we were again asked to provide image magnification based on our successful track record," said CT’s director of sales, Guy Mapley. &

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The Institute of Sound and Communications Engineers’ first combined seminar/exhibition event exceeded all expectations when it took place on Wednesday 27 February at Birmingham's recently upgraded Alexandra Stadium.

The full day's seminar programme covered a wide variety of subjects including Video Conferencing, Audio Measurements, VA Standards and a 'behind the scenes' look at the acoustic problems of Paddington station. There was also a sneak preview and demonstration of the World's first disposal loudspeaker! But the undoubted highlight of the day was the inaugural Warren-Barnett Memorial Lecture in memory of two respected figures in the industry which was delivered by Peter Mapp.

Twelve specialist PA/VA manufacturers supported the event with stylish 'table top' displays, and all reported a high level of interest from the nearly 100 ISCE members and others who braved a squal

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Stardraw.com has appointed Prevost SA as the exclusive premier partner for Belgium and Luxembourg. With over 50 years experience in the professional sound industry and exclusive distribution of 14 of the top lines in the pro audio and AV market, Prevost is well placed to make the maximum impact with Stardraw. According to Stardraw sales director David Morrison: "Prevost numbers among the top pro audio distributors in northern Europe, and is definitely the right choice for us as a premier partner. Indeed, Stardraw complements Prevost's existing portfolio very nicely as we already have relationships with most of the other manufacturers they represent, so I am looking forward to a mutually beneficial relationship."

(Ruth Rossington)

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Built in 1805 as stables for the Prince of Wales, the Brighton Dome has since established itself, in conjunction with the Corn Exchange and the Pavilion Theatre, as one of the country’s leading music venues. But for the last three years it has been in the dark, during which time it has been entirely gutted, undergone a £22m refurbishment programme. The refurbishment has equipped the venue with an adjustable stage area, increased storage space, improved front of house facilities, additional seating and a state-of-the-art acoustic system, together with four different sets of lighting and sound.

Technical Planning International, the consultants responsible for the stage engineering during the refurbishment, commissioned Centre Stage Engineering and Delstar Engineering to handle the overstage and understage developments respectively. Motion control specialist AVW Controls was sub-co

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LCA - Lights, Camera, Action Ltd are supplying Strand Lighting, MovieMaster ballasts, Mole Richardson lighting, Avenger grip equipment and Rosco filters to Salon Films in Thailand for the latest Jackie Chan movie, HighBinders. Currently filming in Thailand, the film will also be shot in Hong Kong and Prague and stars Jackie Chan, Lee Evans, Jonathon Rhys Davies, Christy Chung and Anthony Wong.

Nick Shapley, managing director of LCA commented: "It was a huge challenge to supply Salon Films with the vast amount of lights and lighting grip in such a short space of time. However, I am happy to say we fulfilled the client’s request despite the challenges of pulling in so many products from so many suppliers." The DOP for the film is Arthur Wong, chairperson of HKSC - the Hong Kong Society of Cinematographers.

(Ruth Rossington)

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As part of a continued effort to increase the wide-scale availability of its automated lighting systems, Vari-Lite Inc has announced the establishment of a Dealer Network, which will carry a full line of Vari*Lite products for sale or rental. The names of the eight companies that comprise the initial Northeast Sales Network were made public yesterday.

"Each member of this dealership network has a solid reputation among lighting professionals and has established itself as a leader within the industry," said Bob Schacherl, Vari-Lite's vice-president of sales and marketing. "Vari-Lite will continue to explore opportunities to add to its Dealer Network where and when it makes sense financially and strategically."

The Northeast Dealer Network includes Barbizon - New York (sales), High Output - Boston, (sales and rental), Parlights - Frederick, MD (sales and rental), PR

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  5. NME Carling Awards with Shure
  6. Autograph Takes Opera to the Masses
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