Business

Details
As the PLASA Show celebrates its 25th annual event, a party to mark the milestone in style will be held on the evening of Sunday 8 September at The Bridge, SE1 - a stunning and atmospheric brick-arch party venue situated beneath London Bridge Station. The informal party will have an international theme to reflect the PLASA Show’s strong international audience, and the ticket price (£50 + VAT per head) will include champagne reception, beer, wine, soft drinks, buffet and dancing ‘til late - not to mention a great chance to catch up with friends and colleagues from across the industry.

Don’t miss out! For tickets and further information, contact Mikaela Fenton-Jones on +44 (0)20 7370 8207.

Details
Kino Proekt Engineering is set to become ETC's first Authorised Service Centre (ASC) in Russia. Already a customer of ETC, Kino Proekt is installing three racks of 96-channel Sensor dimmers, an Obsession II control console and ETCNet2 DMX Nodes in Moscow's Variete Theatre, ready for the touring Broadway musical Chicago, which opens there in September.

Kino Proekt's Alexander Rubin timed his first ASC Technician training visit to ETC in London so that he could also see the London production of Chicago and meet with the show's lighting designer Ken Billington to discuss the lighting rig for the Moscow production. Ken (pictured with Alexander, left, on the set of Chicago at the Adelphi Theatre) has lit every production of Chicago since it opened on Broadway in 1996, and his compelling design won him both a Tony and a Drama Desk award in 1997.

When Chicago lea

Details
Corporate event AV specialist Creative Technology assisted staging company Imagination to create a vivid platform for T. Mobile to make a key presentation to its staff at the Blackpool Hilton recently. The centrepiece of a full technical package was a pair of twin rear-projection screens, mounted stage right behind the lectern, while to the left were blow-up images taken from T Mobile’s advertising campaign.

The screen displays took separate Powerpoint, video graphics and camera-derived feeds projected from Christie S6 and X6 6000 ANSI lumens Roadster projectors. Incorporated in the complement of equipment were graphics machines running Windows XP with new 3D animations effects. CT also fielded a conventional three-camera PPU.

Sited at the end of a purpose-constructed entrance ‘tunnel’ - which ran behind the set and brought guests in at the stage - was a videowall p

Details
Leading technical design consultancy LDPS has opened an office in New Zealand, to service clients in Australasia, the Pacific Rim and the Far East. The move follows four years of LDPS operation in Ireland and the UK, which will continue to be directed from the Cork office. LDPS’s Grant Collie told us: "I’ve had incredibly positive feedback on the New Zealand office and on the business we will be doing in these territories. I’m already working on several projects."

LDPS NZ will concentrate on the company’s core business as a performance venue technical consultancy. The team specialises in all aspects of design including sound, lighting, multi and mixed media facilities, audio-visual and stage technology. Working in the Southern Hemisphere will also give LDPS the opportunity to expand it's service to sports facilities, in particular the design of public

Details
Germany’s capital city of Berlin has been enriched by another cultural attraction: ‘Tepee - The Tent’ is a permanent four-mast tent created especially for cultural events. Jazz, cabaret, theatre, classical music - Tepee (in German ‘Tipi’) offers a broad range of high-quality cultural events.

The company responsible for the sound and light installation, as well as for technical operation during the shows, is Berlin-based RentEvent, who turned to HK Audio for sound reinforcement. Company owner Stefan Schultze says: "We have been working very closely with HK Audio for years now, and we are very happy users of their equipment ourselves. The requirements for the Tepee tent were that the equipment had to be compact and unobtrusive, but capable of delivering very punchy, powerful sound at the same time. Furthermore, the system we put in had to be extremely v

Details
A Welsh professional audio systems specialist is playing a key role in a live historical spectacular, which is being performed in the dramatic setting of Chepstow Castle. A new loudspeaker designed and manufactured at Shermann Pro-Audio's base in Newtown is being pressed into action at the son et lumière, the highlight of every Chepstow Festival. This year's completely new son et lumière creation, ‘1648, The Tides of War’, tells the story of Cromwell's siege of the castle and the national and local events that led up to it, revealing the dramatic consequences for the people of Chepstow. Unique in the UK, this huge community production combines spectacular lighting, specially-composed music, over 100 actors, state of the art projections and pyrotechnics into a stunning show, which ends a three-week run this weekend.

20 Shermann Pro-Audio loudspeakers are being used by Car

Details
The long-standing issue regarding the use of 3-pin, 110V, 16 Amp yellow CEE-form control connectors fitted to CM Lodestar chain hoists has finally been resolved. From 1 September 2002, both PCM and Tomcat UK will be supplying all Columbus McKinnon Lodestar hoists with 4-pin, 110V, 16 Amp yellow CEE-form connectors instead of the current 3-pin version. Both companies will be contacting all of their Lodestar customers shortly to discuss this change and its repercussions.

The issue dates back two-and-a-half years, when it became apparent that the continued use of the 3-pin connector for Lodestar hoists would not be possible. Although the connector was extremely well suited to the application in many areas, for safety reasons, it was felt that the use of the earth pin as a conductor should preclude its future use. This resulted in extensive discussions involving the manufacturer of the Lod

Details
The theme of DHA’s stand at the PLASA Show this year will be very different to previous years and will be designed to show off the company’s products to best effect. New for PLASA will be a CD-ROM version of the moving effects catalogue, bringing to life what has, up until now, only been offered in paper format. The new CD will be very visual, highly animated and interactive, showing the endless number of effects that can be achieved with different gobo combinations.

Stand F14

Details
PLASA exhibitor Kling & Freitag Sound Systems has appointed a new distributor in the UK - Cheshire-based VME Voice Music & Effects. Owned by brothers Dion and Andre Davie, VME is well known in the North West for its work on various sporting events and, more recently, festivals and dance parties. It has an impressive client list which includes the BBC, ITV and Sky Sports, Old Trafford Cricket Club and The Ministry of Sound.

The company hopes to establish Kling & Freitag in the UK market, as Dion Davie outlines: "The UK is one of the most competitive markets in the world for loudspeakers, with many UK and US brands being established standards. However, after our visit to the factory in Hannover, we were totally won over by the sound, build quality and value of the K&F range. We are convinced that K&F have a major part to play in UK touring, corporate events and fixed installations.&

Details
Music Marketing Services have completed their sixth - and most ambitious Tiger Tiger for Chorion plc, with the recent extension of the successful roll-out into Croydon. The company has largely standardized on Martin Audio sound reinforcement - and has been using the EM series extensively in Tiger Tiger since converting from another proprietary brand early on in the development.

MMS account manager Paul Woodward explained: "We have been on board with Chorion since the Tiger Tiger brand was inaugurated in London’s Haymarket. Croydon is immaculate and shows just how far the brand has evolved since the London site - every aspect of the installation has changed."

Chorion switched to Martin Audio after opening their other multi-bar unit, On Anon - just 400m away from Tiger Tiger in London’s Piccadilly - two years ago. "They were seeking a higher quality, crisper

Details
Light Relief, the industry charity that supports lighting designers with personal difficulties, has announced two major initiatives to raise awareness during the PLASA 2002 show this September - one aimed at exhibitors and the other for visitors.

The first - ‘Gobos for Light Relief’ - is encouraging as many PLASA exhibitors as possible to use Light Relief coloured glass gobos as part of their on-stand demonstrations. "Visitors will be confronted by a large projection of the logo at the front of the hall as they arrive", explained Tony Gottelier, co-founder of Light Relief. "The idea is that by encouraging exhibitors to participate, visitors will see the same image repeated all over the exhibition - we need to raise awareness of Light Relief and this is set to make a huge impact."

The idea is sponsored by Apollo Design Technology, the Indiana-based manu

Details
Avolites' products once again proved their great versatility and popularity in festival situations at Glastonbury 2002. With 13 Avo consoles specified for 11 different arenas at the world famous event, Avolites did its bit to ensure that 130,000 people and many leading performers from around the world had a fantastic festival. Avolites’ Steve Warren, Koy Neminathan, Nick Forro and Ben Miles were happy to spend five unwashed days providing technical support and having a good time! On the Pyramid (main) Stage, Neg Earth lights was the main lighting contractor, and the overall lighting was designed and overseen by Phil Freeman. He used two Avolites Diamond 3's to control the substantial production lighting rig, used to illuminate the likes of Coldplay, Faithless, the Stereophonics, The Charlatans, Rod Stewart and Roger Waters. Fixtures included Martin MAC 2000s, High End Studio Spots,

Details
XL Video’s recently-acquired Unitek MS17 LED video screen provided the backdrop for 15 days of exciting competition and entertainment at the NikePark Scorpion KO event, held at The Dome in Greenwich, London. Live video specialists XL Video supplied and operated the Unitek screen, which was used as a central feature of the main stage.

Themed on Nike Football’s hugely successful TV ad campaign, the Dome was transformed into a post industrial-styled football arena in which 16 different ‘Scorpion Tribes’ played off against each other for a place in the Scorpion Final held on the 15th June 2002. Over the course of the event, thousands of young footballers from all over the UK took part in the hotly-contested tournaments. The Dome event was just one of 13 NikePark competitions held simultaneously across the world, giving youngsters everywhere the chance to put their

Details
With a CV including The Pixies, Terrorvision, Echo and the Bunnymen, Del Amitri, The Foo Fighters and James, producer Gil Norton has been at the forefront of cutting-edge rock music for almost 20 years, and - with engineer Adrian Busby - he's been using a number of Audio-Technica mics to record Feeder's as-yet-untitled follow-up to the top five album Echo Park. Norton explains that as he was so impressed with the performance of the AT4040 and the Artist Elite AE3300, he is now eager to try out the rest of the Audio-Technica range. He said: "Grant [Nicholas, Feeder's lead singer] wanted to try out some different mics to record vocals, so we compared a few models side by side. We especially liked the AE3300 for backing vocals because of the big sound we got out of it, and the AT4040s worked really well for guitars."

"Following the results we got on this album, Adrian and I

Details
Turbosound Ltd, the British-based manufacturer of live performance and installed-sound loudspeaker systems, has announced the launch of several new products for PLASA 2002. The new developments include the compact, self-powered TQ-308SP, the latest addition to Turbosound's high performance Qlight series, plus a brand new range of passive loudspeaker systems, together with the LMS-D4, a new digital loudspeaker controller.

Expanding the range of options offered by Turbosound's QLight series still further, the TQ-308SP is an ultra-compact self-powered loudspeaker system, designed for sound reinforcement applications ranging from industrial and corporate events, to small and medium-sized fixed installs. Similar in concept to the established TQ-310 and TQ-315 systems, it features Turbosound's Converging Elliptical Waveguide, a rotatable high-frequency horn that provides smooth and even disp

Details
Stage Technologies, the pioneering scenic automation experts, are currently transferring two of the UK's most recent hit theatre productions to the southern hemisphere. Both Oliver! and Witches of Eastwick will be touring Australia by the end of this year, using sets transferred from the UK shows and automation equipment rented from the North London- based automation specialist.

Both Australian production companies have chosen similar automation systems, each of which include numerous award-winning Big Tow Winches and the Acrobat control console both ideal for touring applications. Oliver!, which opened in May in Sydney to critical acclaim, will shortly be joined by Witches of Eastwick, which starts previewing in Melbourne in August. The latter uses Stage Technologies' Pathway - a specially developed software application which allows objects (in this case the three witches) to move

Details
Tomcat USA and Fourth Phase Orlando supplied two concerts performed by the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington D.C. The Memorial Day concert, hosted by Ossie Davis, and the Independence Day concert, hosted by Barry Bostwick of Spin City fame, were held on the west lawn of the US Capitol and broadcast live on PBS.

Tomcat manufactured a 26ft custom curved white truss ladder for the tent structure that flew directly above the orchestra and supported six white Vari-Lite fixtures. For more lighting options, two 60ft light duty spans were manufactured with 10 custom vertical tubes in varying lengths to offer additional support. These spans were blasted and clear coated to provide a flat grey finish and were positioned either side of the stage.

A star-studded tribute on Memorial Day honoured the victims and heroes of September 11 and America's war against terrorism. The concert weave

Details
Showtime Lighting has announced the move to its new 20,000sq.ft facility in Vancouver, Canada. "It’s such a great building and with this new space, it will allow us to grow and keep pace with our increasing client base," says president Brian Konechny. "With the recent addition of partners Phil Bernard and Marc Raymond and the new opportunities in the market, we are moving ahead with great momentum, so stay tuned for more announcements."

(Lee Baldock)

Details
RMS will introduce no less then five new versions of its well-known Rental Management Systems software. All new versions share the RMS planning engine and the easy-to-use interface, which assures fully reliable data at extremely high speeds.

The first version is RMS Touring, a software package designed especially for handling rentals of touring-companies. This version is excellent for companies that have large quantities of equipment out for longer periods. Together with the crew- and transport-planner, it gives full control over all touring-rentals.

Next is RMS Conference, designed for renting AV-equipment to conferences, hotels, etc. This version focuses on aspects like keeping track of serial-numbers, short-term rentals (even on an hourly base is possible) and maintenance schedules. RMS Exhibition is a version, which deals with the specific problems of exhibition rentals. Easier p

Details
You are welcome to join us to support your favoured team in the fiercely competitive Hayden Laboratories Annual Industry Cricket Cup Challenge, taking place on Thursday 1 August and now in its 4th year.

Two highly-trained, athletic teams will be competing for the much-coveted championship cup, as PLASA & Clarion Events take on the might of the Sound & Lighting Industry. Come along and watch them battle it out as Clarion & PLASA fight to regain the cup after their defeat against the Hayden Labs Audio team last year.

The match will take place in the idyllic setting of Littlewick Green Cricket Club, Berkshire. The full 50-over match is scheduled to begin at 1.30pm, with tea at 4.15pm followed by the second innings before the BBQ and prize-giving kicks off at 7.30pm.

Tickets for the post-match barbecue are a bargain at £5.00 each. If you would like to attend the BBQ and for dir

Details
New Zealand based lighting manufacturer, Selecon, has become a victim of its own success. Increased demand for their products has forced the company to move from its original site in Auckland to bigger premises. With 78% company growth in the 16 years since it was founded and an increase in staff numbers from 35 to 82 in the last three years, it’s little wonder that a move was on the cards.

"With only 8,000 square feet of space, and our facility spread over two physically separate buildings, we were falling over each other and desperately needed new, larger premises, all under one roof," said Selecon’s managing director, Jeremy Collins. "We looked long and hard around the Auckland area and were fortunate to find an existing building of some 30,000 square feet on the North Shore. The single storey building fits our present needs and will accommodate our future

Details
VDC Trading has provided a cabling infrastructure for the new studio set-up at Sony Computer Entertainment Europe’s Soho facility. Working with studio installers, Studio Acoustics, the company has also provided sufficient cable looms for the second phase of the studio’s development later in the year when they take delivery of new furniture.

Comprising a main control room, two edit rooms and a live room, the Sony facility has been equipped with an under-floor digital network by VDC, linking the edit and control rooms. This allows the music, sound effects and football commentary signals for Sony PlayStation games to be networked, with all the rooms able to communicate via the patchbay.

VDC specified their flagship Van Damme OFC pre-jacketed Blue Series multicore and splits in 2-pair, 4-pair, 8-pair, 16-pair, 24-pair, 32-pair and 40-pair cores, with multi-pin connectors. The

Details
Laser Magic Ltd has become part of LM Productions LLP. In recent years, Laser Magic has undertaken a much wider range of services such as event production utilizing lasers, lights, video, sound, fireworks and special effects and to this end has invested large sums of money in both infrastructure and equipment. In the light of this the company name has been changed to LM Productions LLP.

LM Productions LLP has also launched a new website dedicated to its StratoSphere product, which allows viewing of lasers, lighting and video from both inside and outside a giant translucent globe. The web site can be found at the web address below, and includes details on the company’s various StratoSphere venues, the different types of applications available and the equipment which can be used in and around the sphere to create a spectacular show.

There is also a ‘video download’ s

Details
The Spanish manufacturer D.A.S. supplied a large number of systems for the 2002 Groove Parade held in the Monegros desert on July 20th. The striking backdrop of this arid wasteland provided a contrast to the oasis of music and light which offered 15 hours of non-stop music. A total of 40 international DJ´s and live bands performed simultaneously on five stages drawing over 18,000 fans of the modern music genre to this spectacular event.

D.A.S. was the exclusive supplier of the fives stages. The companies Güell Sound, La Rulot and Green & Music got together to supply over 200,000 watts of D.A.S. sound reinforcement systems for the stages of the Groove Parade. Technical coordination for both sound and light was handled by Güell Sound of Lerida, Spain. Güell Sound installed the main ‘Open Air’ stage with 32 D.A.S. R-215s mid-high units, 24 D.A.S. ST-218 bass units, four R-

  1. Soundsense expansion
  2. A.C. North tradeshow draws praise
  3. Earls Court Ltd fined over Health & Safety breach
  4. Ford gala in St Petersburg with EV
  5. Top of the world for TOA’s 3,000
  6. Good sounds from Somerset to Silverstone
Page 547 of 1813

Latest Issue. . .