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Hand Held Audio, specialists in wireless and in-ear technology, have recently sold a substantial radio system to the popular Irish boy band Westlife. Westlife are currently on their latest sell-out tour in the UK and Europe to promote their latest album, World of Our Own.

The system comprises six Shure SM58 UHF Premier Series microphones, six Sony Freedom headset systems for the numbers that include a dance routine, and six Shure PSM 700 in-ear monitor systems. The SM58s, apart from being favourites of the engineers, Chris ‘Privet’ Hedge at front-of-house and John ‘Grubby’ Callis on monitors, (who claims he wouldn't leave home without them), were also chosen because the capsules work very well for the band. They decided to go with the Sony headsets because they are both light, compact and comfortable, and the Shure PSM700 in-ear systems have a proven track recor

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Gomez’s recent sold-out UK tour was the first British Theatre Tour for JBL Vertec line array, supplied by Liverpool-based Adlib Audio. The system was specified by Gomez’s front-of-house sound engineer, Chris Leckie. He had listened to the system on several occasions prior to the tour and conducted comparisons to other systems at Liverpool Royal Court Theatre before making his decision.

"I’m really pleased with it" he says, "It’s a very easy-to-adjust, flexible system, I would never return to using loads of boxes when I can now use just one. I’ll definitely be specifying it for other bands I engineer for in the future.” He also comments that many venues they’ve been able to leave the system EQ flat or use it very minimally.

The Gomez system consisted of 16 VerTec High packs - eight per side - and 12 Adlib Audio subs. The optimum

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White Light Hire continues to serve its usual diverse range of productions as it enters the summer season. Perhaps the biggest opening was the new stage adaptation of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang at the London Palladium, where this year’s Olivier Award-winning lighting designer Mark Henderson is using an enormous range of equipment from White Light and The Moving Light Company to bring the magic of the film to life. Working with Henderson were production electrician Fraser Hall and moving light programmer Stuart Porter, with a rig that included Source Fours, CXI colour changers, High End Studio Beams, Martin MAC 500s, 600s and PAL1200s and Vari*Lite VL2202s. After rave reviews, the show looks set to run and run.

Henderson moved straight from Chitty to another star-studded project, the play Up for Grabs at the Wyndhams Theatre, which features Madonna in the leading

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A new batch of television programmes is calling on the versatility of Audio-Technica’s Engineered Sound microphones, thanks to experienced broadcast engineer, Oliver France. France first discovered the suitability of the ES range for television work during the audio set-up for the phenomenally successful second series of Big Brother, and so impressed was he that he has since gone on to specify them for a number of other high profile shows.

The Mark Thomas Project now features ES933s suspended above the audience, Remotely Funny, a new show scheduled for the summer, employs ES933’s as hidden mics, Channel 4’s Richard & Judy show calls on ES915s in the main host and celebrity chat area, and the third series of Big Brother will see A-T microphones once again occupying every single wired position throughout the house.

France took time out during the build period for Big

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In preparing for the soccer World Cup, which kicks off today in South Korea, the major Korean broadcasting companies have invested in more than 200 channels of Sennheiser wireless microphones and more than 400 shotgun microphones.

The three main broadcasters, KBS (Korean Broadcasting System), MBC (Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation) and SBS (Seoul Broadcasting System) will be using Sennheiser wired/wireless microphones to report on the soccer matches live from 11 stadiums all over Korea. These three broadcasters will share resources by stationing three to four OB vans equipped with Sennheiser systems at each stadium. MBC, the official World Cup broadcaster, will be using Sennheiser 3000 Series systems for the opening show. "We are very pleased that these renowned broadcasters opted for Sennheiser RF wireless. As during the Summer and Winter Olympics, our equipment will ensure thrilli

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Fans of FA Barclaycard Premiership club Bolton Wanderers FC will be able to enjoy next season’s soccer action in crisp close-up, following the installation this summer of a 16:9 format Lighthouse LED video screen at the Reebok Stadium, replacing an earlier LED screen installation.

The screen, whose sale was negotiated by VRS (Vision Reality Systems Ltd), is a fully weatherproof Lighthouse LVP2056 (20mm pixel pitch, 5600 Nits of brightness). Gareth Moores, Bolton Wanderers’ commercial director, comments: "We bought the screen for two reasons. We’re constantly looking to enhance the matchday experience for all our supporters, including live relays of away matches, and the video screen and the content on it is an integral part of that. Secondly, it’s an important revenue generator for the club as a high-impact advertising medium for our partners, sponsors and

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Firefly Imaging’s patented, award-winning scrolling projector was chosen by Sony Pictures Entertainment and its marketing partner, Buzztone, for the Hollywood premiere of Spiderman on 4 May. As celebrities and guest arrived to enter the premiere tent outside the Wadsworth Theatre, images of Spiderman’s web and logo were projected on the tent, which was larger than the size of a football field. "We were thrilled to be a part of the Spiderman premier and contribute in a material way to the look and feel of the evening. Our specialty is creating unique imagery and projecting it in large formats on any type of surface. The Spiderman premier allowed us to do what we do best," said Rachel Wagner, vice-president of events for Firefly.

Voted Product of the Year by Entertainment Design magazine, the Firefly Projector has the ability to project sharp, full colour images of

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A.C. Lighting Ltd is offering comprehensive training on grandMa and Jands lighting consoles, free of charge. Catering for three levels of lighting specialists, A.C. will be offering the choice of operator, programmer and advanced programmer training, tailored to meet the previous experience of those in attendance. Courses will be held over a maximum of three days, either at A.C. Lighting’s headquarters in High Wycombe or at its northern sales office in Leeds.

All delegates will be given the chance to sample the powerful operating system provided by grandMa lighting consoles from the MA lighting range. As a result of the intensive nature of the training, places on each course are limited and dates will be allocated on a ‘first-come’ basis.

For those involved with entertainment lighting that require a more basic level of training, A.C. Lighting is also organizing a se

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Lighting designer Steve Sommerville has been using an Avolites Sapphire 2000 console for the latest Gomez In Our Gun tour which has just finished its UK leg. It’s the first time he’s toured with an Avo desk, although he’s used Pearls on numerous other occasions.

Sommerville chose a Sapphire over a Pearl for this Gomez tour because of its additional power and capacity: "Everything you need is right here to hand on the Sapphire," he says. "The page selection is great, and there’s plenty of faders so you don’t have to change pages to select individual lamps - it’s all at your fingertips. It’s also a great desk for improvisational moments!"

Steve’s worked for Gomez since day one - initially when they were supporting Embrace who he also designs for - and has grown with the band. This tour around, he went for a tota

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Leading giant video screen manufacturer, Unitek, has added XL Video to its list of event industry customers. The award winning concert video specialists will take delivery of 50sq.m of Unitek MS17 LED video screen in the first week of June. However, XL Video will have little time to admire the latest addition to their hire fleet, as the MS17 system will be in action for the first time less than a week after delivery. The MS17 will be based in the UK and will allow XL Video to further develop their successful UK touring and one-off event business.

With bases in London, Los Angeles and Belgium, XL Video specialise in supplying complete video support services to the concert touring, music and entertainment industries. Despite being one of the most recent entrants, XL’s rise to prominence in the concert touring industry has been nothing short of meteoric and they are now considered b

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Autograph Sound Recording, the theatrical sound design and rental specialists, joined in the cheers and tears on 11 May 2002, when Cats closed its doors exactly 21 years to the day after it first opened. The production found its way into the record books, by becoming the longest running show in the West End.

Unlike any theatre show since, in 1981 Autograph found themselves purchasing - from new - the entire sound and communications system. The main components included a Midas TR series theatre console, seven Micron radio mics, which were moved from performer to performer throughout the show, an RTS communications system, Amcron amps, four Martin bass bins and ten Meyer Sound UPA-1s, the first in Europe. During the course of the show, the sound system went through several overhauls: in 1990 the Micron VHF unlicensed radio mics were replaced with 18 UHF licensed Sennheiser receiv

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Two key music industry trade associations, the Music Managers Forum (MMF) and the Music Producers Guild (MPG), are set to forge closer links thanks to a new web initiative which allows both organizations access to the MMF’s comprehensive database.

The joint initiative allows MPG producers who are looking for management to exclusively list their details on the MMF website so that they can be viewed by MMF members. The database also allows MMF members who manage producers to list information about their clients. This will assist other MMF members who are seeking a producer for a particular project to track the producer’s recent credits and current availability via the MMF database.

"More and more of our members are now actively managing producers as well as artists," says MMF general manager, James Sellar. "The sharing of news feeds and the provision of servi

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Marquee Audio has recently installed the entire sound system in the basement nightclub area of the new Home Bar and Restaurant in Shoreditch. Covering five zones in total, four F12 Martin Audio Full Range 12" + 1" multi-angled enclosures have been installed in the DJ area, along with an Allen &Heath DJ Mixer and control equipment, which includes a BSS Electronic Crossover. Two F8 Martin Audio Blackline 8" speakers have been mounted in the bar, two in the VIP area and a further two in the lower entrance. Neil Gregory, who runs the venue with partner Des Byrne, said: "Marquee were recommended to me by the people at Canteloupe and we are very happy with what they have done. They put the whole spec together, recommending the Martin Audio speakers, and we are delighted with the overall sound system."

(Ruth Rossington)

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A company specialising in professional audio systems is branching out to provide a training service. Shermann UK is collaborating with Audio Resources Ltd to launch a fully equipped training suite on the Mochdre Enterprise Park, Newtown, Wales, to pass on its expertise.

Established in 1983 by husband and wife team Ken and Pauline Hughes, Shermann designs and manufactures professional loudspeaker systems. Shermann also sells complete PA systems and offers a repair and refurbishment facility for older or well-used models from its range. The company has a wide range of customers throughout the UK, Europe and South East Asia which include PA rental companies, installers, theatres, audio-visual specialists, churches, schools and village halls.

The new training suite will provide instruction and support at all levels, from the complete novice who knows nothing about audio systems to the pr

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Westlife are currently in the middle of a sell-out European arena tour and it’s Star Rigging who have played an integral part in the spectacular show that has the band members flying high over their fans every night. A first for Westlife, the in-the-round production is visiting Europe’s largest arenas. The opening number of the show begins with five 3m-diameter globes rising from the stage and moving out over the audience; each of these then opens to reveal a member of the band inside. The globes track to the five points of a star before the group members fly back to the stage, securely fixed in harnesses provided by Star Rigging.

For the last number of the show, all five members of the band took to the air in flying harnesses. Star Rigging had put the members of Westlife through basic training before the tour began to ensure they were safe and confident in being hoisted 30

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Between 7 June and 27 July, Tim McGraw will visit some of the ‘B’ markets he missed over the past few tours in North America with a rig full of High End Systems products. This rig is ringed with 46 Studio Beam, 42 Studio Spot 575s, six Studio Color 250s, six Studio Spot CMY 575 automated luminaires and a Wholehog II console. Equipment this time is provided by Nashville-based lighting contractor Premier Global Productions. Steven ‘Creech’ Anderson recently decided to get off the road, so he's now at Premier overseeing this touring account and others as VP sales/account manager.

Lighting designer Leroy Bennett designed the last tour, and for this short run, "it's the same basic design," says lighting director Jerome Thompson. "This is somewhat of an extension of that but with a few modifications. I replaced out the Icons with Studio Spot 575s and St

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Dallas-based sound reinforcement company Gemini Sound Inc (GSI) has purchased an entirely new sound system to accommodate Usher’s current Evolution tour. As part of the setup, GSI owner Tim Cain chose to acquire a hefty total of 99 Crown Macro-Tech amplifiers, mostly made up of Crown’s highest-powered MA-5002VZ models.

The MA-5002VZs are primarily called upon to drive the tour’s house system, which is comprised of 60 EAW KF760 Series line array loudspeakers and 44 BH760 subs. MA-5002VZs also power a total of 13 KF761 systems used as side- and front-fills, as well as 16 sub enclosures on stage. Additionally, six MA-36x12s are being used to power EAW SM84 stage wedges for the band, while 16 Crown MA-2402s and four MA-1202s are on hand for various other amplification needs. Notably, the MA-36x12s are all equipped with Crown’s IQ-PIP-USP2 modules, which provi

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As the crews of this year’s Volvo Yacht Race embark from Gothenburg on the final leg of the 2002 challenge, Audio-Technica microphones continue to ensure that the on-line and TV broadcast coverage is kept up to date and crystal clear. Covering a massive 32,700 nautical miles, this year’s competition began in Southampton on 23 September 2001, with eight participating crews all aboard hi-tech Volvo 60 yachts. By the time they cross the finishing line in Kiel, Germany on June 9 the crews will have navigated their way across the worlds most treacherous ocean conditions, calling in at Cape Town, Sydney, Hobart, Auckland, Rio de Janeiro, Miami, Baltimore, La Rochelle and Gothenburg on an incredible 10 month journey.

As part of the entry agreements each vessel carries identical media equipment and event sponsors Volvo called in broadcast specialists BHP to design and specify the

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XTA digital signal processing is featured throughout the audio installation for the Queen-inspired musical We Will Rock You at London’s Dominion Theatre. The system, created by leading theatre sound designer Bobby Aitken, has to capture the power and verve of Queen’s music, with the pristine sound quality that contemporary theatre musical-goers expect. A broad-based audience, from die-hard Queen fans to children and older people, watches the show. Says Aitken: "A balance had to be struck as with all such shows - on the one hand, keeping the Queen fans happy with a big, dynamic sounding show, but with responsibility for the younger and older members of the audience."

Heading the list of sound sources is a nine-piece band including four keyboards, two guitarists, bass, drums and percussion, 30 Sennheiser radio and hand-held microphones and DPA boom mics. A wi

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Edwin Shirley Staging (ESS) has once again returned to the horse racing circuit, this time at Epsom in Surrey, with the broadcast infrastructure specialist ACS to cover the 2002 Derby season at the famous course.

ESS is providing a similar tower configuration to the one used successfully at this year’s Aintree Grand National to allow the host broadcaster to be able to follow the races by flying a television camera across a suspended line held under tension by ESS’ ballasted towers. John Wilson, ESS’ senior project manager tasked with delivering the trackside solution, has been travelling between Epsom and Finsbury Square in the centre of London during the set-up period, whilst also overseeing an ESS building installation in the City for Bloomberg, the blue chip financial information business. Both installations were completed as ESS were putting the finishing touches

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In collaboration with Light & Building 2002 - the world’s biggest lighting and building automation fair - Luminale orchestrated a ‘path of light’ along the streets of Frankfurt, accentuating and enhancing a wide variety of urban settings. Over 50 sites, including buildings, parks, squares, churches and museums, public and private buildings as well as historical and artistic monuments, were illuminated using a variety of lighting technologies, underlining the importance of lighting design as part of the modern fabric of our cities.

Clay Paky, as one of Light & Building’s exhibitors, provided projection equipment to a number of sites. The botanical garden in Frankfurt’s Palmen Garden became ‘Tropicolors’ - the large glasshouse, with its dome, balconies overlooking the garden, numerous paths for visitors and fountain - lit for the occasion by CP C

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The world famous Glyndebourne Opera House in East Sussex, England, recently installed 16 of Selecon’s 12-28 Pacific Zoomspots (supplied by Selecon dealers Stage Electrics of Bristol) in preparation for their 2002 Festival that started on 18 May.

The opera house lighting team, led by lighting manager Keith Benson, has installed them in the advance bridge position in the main opera house. "We chose Selecon after researching a number of similar spots on the market. The Pacific’s build quality and the light it produces were particularly impressive," said Benson. "The light is crisp, white and relatively distortion free." Despite being a luminaire only 24" long, the Pacific delivers a cool beam of light with a range of 12-28 degrees. "It’s handy having those extra degrees - it can make all the difference," Benson concluded. The 2002 Fest

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The new series of Big Brother on Channel 4 is having its sound mix performed on the first Soundcraft MH4 to be deployed out in the field. Supplied by Showcom Audio to Event Technical Support, the desk forms part of a rental package to Roll To Record. The 48 + 4 frame, fitted with eight stereo channels, has gone into Elstree Studios and will remain there for three months, during which time it will be used by a number of sound engineers under the direction of Oliver France. It is backed up by a newly-purchased 48-channel Soundcraft K2, which is acting as a secondary desk.

Co-owned by Malcolm Whittall and John Hooker, Event Technical Support had been seeking a multi-function, highly-specified console, and the arrival of the MH4 meant that they could meet the performance criteria - inside their budget. Already Soundcraft owners, the company previously supplied PA equipment for live audienc

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ETC (Electronic Theatre Controls Inc) has purchased the German lighting company transtechnik Lichtsysteme from its parent company transtechnik GmbH, Holzkirchen.

With headquarters in Middleton, Wisconsin, and offices worldwide, ETC is fast becoming a global leader in the lighting industry. Over 15,000 venues, including Broadway shows and high-profile clients like Royal Caribbean cruise lines, London’s Royal Opera House, Hanover’s Staatstheater Opernhaus, SAT1 in Berlin and Legoland in Germany, employ ETC lighting products. According to ETC CEO Fred Foster: "We have long had great respect for transtechnik’s reputation and technology in our industry. The two companies share the same dedication to serving customers. The combination of transtechnik Lichtsysteme with ETC will allow us to increase our range of products and services to the German, as well as global, mar

  1. Dates announced for Pro Production 2003
  2. Golden Jubilee provides showcase for entertainment technology
  3. Get Behind the Scenes of the RAH and Tussauds Studios
  4. Places left on ISCE’s Basic Acoustics course
  5. Drawmer provides casino audio
  6. DM Audio's Euro debut for line array on Song Festival
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