ESTA has announced that two draft standards are up for public review: BSR E1.5, Entertainment Technology - Theatrical Fog Made With Aqueous Solutions Of Di- And Trihydric Alcohols, is available for a second public review. These theatrical fogs and mists are often used as visual effects or to enhance lighting effects in live performances such as dramatic productions, musicals, and popular music concerts, and are commonly called "glycol fogs." This draft American National Standard describes the composition of glycol and glycerin fogs that are not likely to be harmful to otherwise healthy performers, technicians, or audience members of normal working age.

Copies of the draft BSR E1.5 standard may be obtained from the ESTA website or by requesting a copy from ESTA's Technical Standards Manager via mail, fax, or e-mail (see below). Comments on the document should be receive

The first installation of Autopilot II in Scandinavia has been made for the Kikki Bettan Lotta cabaret, which opened at the Rondo in the Liseberg funfair outside Gothenburg on September 12. The show features three of Scandinavia’s most famous singers Kikki Danielsson, Elisabeth Adreassen and Lotta Engberg.

Primadonnas and divas do not appreciate being kept out of the limelight and nobody knows that better than a lighting designer. Palle Palmé, one of the best known lighting designers in Scandinavia, was facing just that particular dilemma when creating the lighting look for Kikki Bettan Lotta, as the theatre didn’t offer the facilities for three followspot operators. With three equally strong characters on stage, Palmé knew he could not compromise on the spotlight for any of the stars and he went searching for an alternative option.

The solution was simple: Autopilot II

Two specially designed Lighthouse LED video screens with Electrosonic VECTOR image processing were chosen as the high definition medium for a major new football and soccer stadium which opened in August 2002 in Seattle, USA.

The company behind the new stadium is First & Goal Inc, headed by Paul G. Allen, owner of the Seattle Seahawks and co-founder of Microsoft. The facility was built a few blocks south of downtown Seattle in the historic Pioneer Square district, on the site of the Seattle Kingdome, a 23.9 acres concrete and steel arena which opened in 1976, and saw over 73 million visitors pass through its doors during its life. Last year, 24 years to the day after it opened, the Kingdome was demolished to make way for the new stadium.

The stadium is the new home of the Seattle Seahawks football team and is designed with a 67,000 seat capacity, with 5,000 additional seats available

HMV has become an official sponsor for Sound Advice, the music industry education roadshow that tours the UK for five days in October. Sound Advice represents a unique collaboration by all of the UK's leading music industry organisations under an educational banner. Its aim is to provide music students around the country with invaluable advice from leading figures about key issues affecting the industry and how these might impact on their future careers. The importance of Live music, the issues surrounding Copyright and the need for education within the industry will be high on the agenda.

HMV Europe's managing director David Pryde, comments: "I am delighted that HMV is in a position to support this inaugural 'Sound Advice' tour, not least because it gives a chance to those people around the country where we have our stores to find out more about all aspects of our industry. Hopef

This year's International Leisure Industry Week (LIW) show takes place at the NEC in Birmingham on the 8-10 October. LIW brings together the many elements of the UK leisure industry, from health and fitness to food, drink and entertainment.

The Leisure Environments and Leisure Solutions shows within Leisure Industry Week have been designed to educate, inspire and support industry suppliers, operators and designers. Everything from lighting, sound and furnishing to ticketing, lockers and membership technology will be showcased, and the BEDA Village (the British Entertainment and Discotheque Association) will ensure the show continues to provide an unequalled networking opportunity as well as highlighting the latest ideas and innovations for clubs everywhere. Participating companies include Pulsar Light, HZ International and HK Audio, as well as the likes of Holsten UK who will be showca

Successfully concluding their first year of operation as Simply By Others LLC (Simply By Others) principal designers David LaVigna and Ellen Lampros of the Connecticut-based themed architectural and fibre optic system design firm announced a number of new initiatives this month, signifying the further growth of the company - new offices, new corporate identity, new web site and several new projects.

In August, the company relocated to new headquarters at 415 Main Street, Suite B, Ridgefield, CT 06879. New phone and fax numbers are +1 203 894 8605 and +1 203 894 8655 respectively. Concurrent with the move, the company launched its revamped web site at www.simplybyothers.com and new corporate identity.

On the project front, design work has begun on Strike Long Island, the third facility that the company has designed for Strike Holdings. T

The BBC Proms season finished in typical style with the finale of the Last Night of the Proms at the Royal Albert Hall, which was relayed via a giant screen link to open-air audiences in London, Gateshead and Dublin as part of the biggest-ever final weekend of the Proms. Hyde Park in London also hosted two extra events on the day after the ‘Last Night’. Pop Idols Will Young and Gareth Gates joined the BBC Philharmonic for a sell-out CBBC Prom in the Park on Sunday afternoon, and Sir David Attenborough hosted a magical ‘Blue Planet’ Prom in the Park later that evening. Outdoor event specialists System Sound were contracted to provide the audio requirements for events in Hyde Park across the weekend, and they turned to Hand Held Audio for all their radio and licensing needs.

HHA supplied System Sound with some 40 channels of radio over the whole weekend, the major

At the recent PLASA Show, New York-based Audio Reality USA Inc signed a major distribution deal with Opus Audio for the US East Coast territory. An initial order was placed for a 60-box demo system, including XS series system controllers and HD series high definition power amplifiers.

Richard Dyne, of Audio Reality USA Inc. commented: "This deal has been in the planning for over two years now, ever since I first experienced the effect of the Opus system at a major London event, Gatecrasher and Creamfields. Their modest British approach, drive for innovation and the company’s pursuit of excellence in sound reinforcement completely won me over and has convinced me that the US market is now ready for this unique product. Audio Reality USA Inc operates from a 15,000sq.ft warehouse and office facility just 20 minutes from NYC in Kenilworth, NJ, complete with a purpose-built demon

Electrosonic Systems Inc only started its operation in Orlando, Florida, in1999 but has already outgrown its current facility. In an area surrounded by theme parks and large military contractors, the company has found a unique position in the market, and in 2002 has been awarded some major new contracts.

These projects include several Universal Studios installations, Del Monte’s corporate boardrooms, the Network Operations Center for the FBI, and many command and control centres on board US Navy ships. The expanded workload for Electrosonic Orlando required an increase in manpower, and a move to new premises. The 9,000sq.ft facility is about double the size of the original space and will allow for more local fabrication and engineering of projects. In addition, nine new staff members have been added to the office, including experienced project managers, project engineers and a fa

XL Video supplied five large LED screens to the Rockingham 500 Fed Ex Champ Cart racing event, held at the Rockingham Motor Speedway in Corby Northants. It’s the second time this American CART racing phenomenon has been run in the UK, and is part of the new CART European tour. XL supplied a 25sq.m truck-based screen and a 40sq.m ground-stacked Saco LED screen, located to cover all the grandstands on Turn 1. At Turn 4, the grandstands were covered by a 49sq.m Unitek MS17 screen. The picture was completed with two 20sq.m ground-stacked 15 mm Saco screens covering the main grandstand, sited on top of the garages over the pit lane.

The XL Video team also undertook some high-speed work themselves - all screens were installed quickly and efficiently the Thursday before the qualifying rounds took place on the Friday, ready for the event proper on the Saturday.

(Ruth Rossington)

CP Sound continues its incredibly busy year with its latest club sound and lighting installation at Harry's Bar in Weymouth. The busy nightspot in the South Coast resort has undergone a complete refurbishment and its new look is a colourful, contemporary psychedelic interior with a powerful and impressive sound system.

The independent Harry's Bar is owned by local entrepreneur Nino Ronzitti, who comes from Sicily. He initially contacted Steve Howe from Howie Design to come up with an eye-catching interior design for the club. CP Sound and Howie Design have collaborated on many memorable projects in the last few years, and Howie put CP's name forward for the audio and lighting designs, supply and installation.

Harry's Bar has two floors - a feeder bar downstairs and the main club up above, with a total capacity of 350. It's a well-proportioned environment which demanded fully flexibl

Russia's biggest new stadium has opened with an Apogee sound system. The new 30,000-seat Locomotiv Stadium in Moscow, the home of Russia's major league Locomotiv soccer team and Russia's national team, is the first stadium of its size in Russia designed and built to include a state-of-the-art sound system. The new stadium features 16 Apogee ALA-9 Line Array loudspeakers and is the first open arena system in Russia in which audio signals are routed and distributed entirely within a CobraNet network.

"Locomotiv Stadium combines distinct and unusual architectural ideas with high-tech safety, communication, and other systems - including the finest sound in Russia," said Andrei Kremenchugsky of MediaMatrix Center, the installation department of Dom Zvuka Ltd of Moscow. "It will be Moscow's leading venue for large live concerts in the future."

MediaMatrix Center, one o

Star Hire (Event Services) Ltd worked closely with the BBC’s live events production team to create the new format for the 2002 series of One Big Sunday shows, seen by live audiences over 300,000 strong and broadcast live on Radio 1.

Radio 1 has been at the fore of the live broadcast events since their pioneering days with the Radio 1 Roadshow. However, ‘Smiley Miley’ and co wouldn’t have recognized the gargantuan stage and state-of-the-art production seen at this year’s series of One Big Sundays. This year Radio 1 promoted four live events, developing a new format, larger-scale production, to ensure the enormous crowds the events attract could enjoy their top pop stars.

Star Hire supplied two systems to match the different production requirements of the events. "There were two distinct production requirements across the four shows due to the artist

When Festival time comes around in Edinburgh, everyone wants a bit more of everything and Glasgow-based Scottish Opera not only puts on its own production at the Festival, but also rents out equipment to other companies.

Over the past few years, the company has hired out staging to the Festival to anti-rake the King's Theatre and this year was to be no exception. But then it was asked to supply a visiting company, Canadian Opera, with stock staging units for the production of Oedipus Rex at the Playhouse Theatre. And Scottish Opera itself needed staging for its own large-scale production of Siegfried . "Next year," explained production manager Steve Green, "Scottish Opera will need around 70 units for our own performances at the festival and I anticipate that we'll continue to supply the festival with staging for the Kings' Theatre. With this in mind I deci

The stage director and visual designer Robert Wilson, and poet and musician Tom Waits teamed up with the Betty Nansen Teatret in Copenhagen to create a performance which has drawn praise during its current European tour.

The production - the classic Woyzeck, by Georg Büchner - is based on the story of a young soldier and his reaction to a warped society, culminating in the murder of his girlfriend. In the hands of Wilson and Waits, the play is given a strikingly modern look. Lighting designer A J Weissbard draws inspiration from traditional methods of creating environment and atmosphere, using specialised lighting effects to give the set a feeling of simplicity, whilst at the same time empowering the unfolding tragedy.

This first all-Danish performance of the 164-year-old tragedy was given at the Betty Nansen Teatret on November 19, 2000, and the production has now embarked o

Super Vision International Inc, a world leader in the manufacture of fibre optic and LED lighting, announced today that it was awarded a jury verdict in the amount of $41,200,000 against the following individuals and companies: Samson Mong Wu, Jack Caruso, David Winkler, Susan Sumida Wu, Debbie Wu, Thomas Wu, Ruby Lee, James Lee, Optic-Tech International Corporation, Shanghai Qiaolong Optic-Tech International Company, Ltd (PRC), Shanghai Qiaolong Optic-Tech Industrial Co Ltd. (PRC), Marsam Trading Corporation, Marsam Trading Corporation (HK) Ltd, Cosmic Corporation Ltd (HK) and Travis Pochintesta.

The jury found the defendants liable on all counts including fraud, civil theft, violations of Florida's RICO act, civil conspiracy, misappropriations of Super Vision's technology and destruction of evidence. Among the witnesses testifying in the case was a Special Agent with the FBI who test

Amália The Musical has been taking the Portuguese theatre scene by storm over recent months, becoming the most successful Portuguese production ever - with audiences exceeding 1.5 million to date. Directed by Filipe La Féria, the musical charts the life and career of the Portuguese fado singer, Amália Rodrigues. Tragically, she died just before the première of the show about her colourful past opened in Funchal, Madeira, in December 1999, moving to the Politeama Theatre in Lisbon in July 2000. The show went out on tour in early 2002, complete with a new Cadac F-Type Live Production Console, and is currently set to move to other European cities in 2003 and ultimately Brazil as well.

The sound system was designed by Carlos Esteves, technical director of CHS Sound and Light Hire. Amália The Musical is a complex and challenging show to mix, with 54 actors on stage and 38

Lightfactor Sales has supplied technical design and installation company Chris Gunton & Associates Limited (CGA) with lighting equipment for the just-opened new Portsmouth University Students Centre.

This £6.5 million project is the first University new-build of the 21st century, the result of a plan initiated in 1997. It holds up to 2,500 people, and comes complete with several spaces including a 1,200 capacity nightclub - Lux, a Chill-out Bar - CO2, a multi-national venue, a Sports Bar - Water Hole, Coffee shop and other social areas. CGA won a competitive tender, offered by interior designers GMP, for the lighting, sound and AV installation for three areas of the building and the reception. They worked closely with Jason Dunlop, chief executive of UPSU and his team to realise the project.

Once the contract was secured, Chris Gunton turned to Lightfactor to supply the lighting kit

The Stanton Group has announced the purchase of the assets and brand name of Cerwin-Vega Inc. Confirming the company’s successful bid, Stanton president and CEO Gerard Cohen stated: "We are very excited about this opportunity to grow and expand our business portfolio. We feel that the strength and heritage of the Cerwin-Vega brand name will be a strong complement to our existing businesses and create synergies in the future. We also clearly recognize the value of the existing customer base and are committed to maintaining strong business partners going forward. Stanton will stand strong behind the Cerwin-Vega product and brand name."

Recognizing the difficulties Cerwin-Vega had faced this past year - requiring them to solicit protection from creditors - the Stanton Group had become instinctively attracted to owning one of the greatest names in the speaker industry over

Just under 500sq.m of Barco’s daylight display systems are currently at work at the annual Paris Motor Show in France. After a successful presence at the Geneva International Motor Show in March, where Barco had over 300sq.m of its LED displays used, it now has the largest overall surface of daylight displays by any one supplier at this year’s Paris Motor Show. No less than 21 stands, of some of the world’s leading car manufacturers, will feature Barco daylight display products.

The Barco daylight displays and spectacular multi screen presentations using Barco SLM G8/R8 and ELM R18 found on the Citroen, Lexus and VW booths, will be represented at the show through some of Barco’s European rental partners including ETF (Belgium), CT (UK), Gahrens & Battermann (Germany), VPS (France), Sono (Spain) and ICT (Germany). The vast majority of the 486sq.m to be seen at th

In mid-August, Zurich hosted the 10th Streetparade, Europe’s largest techno music event, which was attended by 600,000 people from across the world. The event’s central features were the Lovemobiles, huge trucks equipped with high-power sound systems, and animations, to ‘bombard’ the crowd with techno sounds.

This year’s event featured a total of 29, of which three (24m long and 3.5m high) were 'armed' with systems by Italian manufacturer Outline: 4 Modulo Road High, 4 Modulo Road Bass, 8 Doppia, 4 Bomber, 8 Stackbass, 8 Victor Live, 4 Victor Disco, 4 Topsub, 8 Minisub, 16 Digita, 8 Omnia, 2 Tripla, 6 Flyone and 2 Stage 15 - all powered by digital T series power amps and processed by Genius 6 DSP. A Pro 408 and a Pro 405 console were used by the DJs.

Adrian Fuchs, owner of Skylight Veranstaltungstechnik, the Swiss rental firm working on the project in co

Automated lighting manufacturer High End Systems is offering Level 1 (beginner) training on the new Wholehog III control system in the coming months, with the company’s Vickie Claiborne as the guest instructor. Hog III classes at High End's Austin, Texas, headquarters are set for 5-6 November and repeated on 7-8 November. For registration, contact Vickie Claiborne at vickie_claiborne@highend.com.

High End's New York office is the scene for further Hog III training sessions running on November 19 and 20. For registration, contact Laurie Bachorek at laurie_bachorek@highend.com.

High End's Los Angeles office opens for Hog III classes on 3-4 December. For registration, contact Mike Hanson at the e-mail address below.

For costs and other details, please contact the listed names or visit the website.

(Ruth Rossington)

The Youth Wind Orchestra of Grimma, Germany, was hit hard by the recent catastrophic floods - but Telex/EVI Audio was able to help. Along with countless households and firms, the Youth Wind Orchestra of Grimma was severely affected, but what was particularly cruel in their case was that after spending years saving up for a first class sound system, they had barely had time to unpack it when the waters of the Elbe burst in and destroyed not only their new acquisition (a new Dynacord Cobra system) but virtually all their orchestral instruments as well.

Luckily, help was at hand: the Rudolf Wild Werke of Heidelberg, the Großkelterei Rötha GmbH, the Musikhaus Dassler of Choren and Telex EVI Audio stepped in quickly and put together a rescue package consisting of money and material aid sufficient to reequip the young musicians not only with new instruments but with a new Cobra system as w

Brähler ICS has completed the planning, supply and installation of conference technology systems for the main boardroom and press briefing room in new premises now occupied by E-ON, a major energy corporation in Dusseldorf. Video and projection were included as part of the overall project. Joinery was provided by Koenig & Co. Being on the 9th floor, the boardroom has a magnificent view over the city, while the building’s architecture imposes a curvature on both the room and the table, which create a visual dynamic as well as having implications for the acoustics.

The CDS-200 microphone management, which is integrated with a 16-channel interpretation system, allows board members to listen to the proceedings, vote, and use their authenticating chip-cards. The standard TM55 microphone was modified to a length of 500mm to allow for even better audio quality. Information conveyed by

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