Business

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City Theatrical, the New York-based manufacturer of lighting accessories and theatrical products, has donated $500 to Light Relief - the fund set up to by and for the lighting industry, to offer lighting designers and those working within the field, assistance and support with life’s catastrophes. $250 was donated by City Theatrical employees, an amount which the company then matched. Our picture shows Gary Fails of City Theatrical presenting the cheque to Tony Gottelier of Light Relief at the recent LDI show in Las Vegas.

(Ruth Rossington)

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Stage automation specialist AVW Controls has spent the past months jetting all over Europe to supply control systems for a range of prestigious projects. In between, it has supplied two theatres in Cyprus with systems without even getting on a plane. Proving that AVW’s systems are user-friendly, both systems were designed and manufactured in the UK before being shipped to Cyprus where local crews assembled them.

Originally built as a cinema in 1930, the Rialto in Limassol has been dogged by bad luck. But four years ago, it underwent a total re-fit to create the Rialto Theatre, since when it has gone from strength to strength and is now recognised as a significant cultural institution. At the time of the re-fit a temporary fore stage was installed and this year, to complete the metamorphosis, MultiStage International contracted AVW to design and manufacture controls for an orchest

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Star Rigging installed their new spot platforms, designed and launched in 2002, into this month's Disney Channel Kids Awards, held in the Docklands Arena in London. Star Rigging provided all the rigging for the televised awards show, which featured stars of the moment including Holly Valance, Gareth Gates, Blue and Liberty X.

The new spot platforms were purpose-built in 2002, as prefabricated structures to provide a safe working area for the technicians on the platforms. The custom-built handrails and lifting points make it a quick and easy system to install. The modular systems are highly adaptable and can be increased as required from 8ft in multiples of 4ft sections. On this occasion there were two single spot platforms, one holding four lights and operators and one adapted to carry the amp rack for Wigwam’s PA. Star Rigging also rigged Wigwam’s flown speaker equipment,

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The first Music China in Shanghai was an unequivocal success, attracting 18,072 trade buyers and public visitors through its doors over four days, according to organizers Messe Frankfurt. Far exceeding expectations, the show attracted hundreds of visitors from far beyond Shanghai’s provincial borders, with visitors traveling from as far away as Guangzhou in the south and Harbin in the north, plus an estimated 1,500 visitors from overseas (approx. 8% of total) including a 20-strong buying mission from the UK and a large delegation of Japanese importers and distributors.

A total of 274 exhibitors took part in this ground-breaking event, covering a gross exhibition space of 15,000sq.m. Feedback from both exhibitors and buyers was excellent overall, and many commented on how the dynamism of the market and the Chinese peoples’ appetite for music could be clearly felt within the

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The Event Show, formerly Event Expo, has a new name, a new look and a new venue. Running on 28-30 January 2003, the show sets out to cater for the needs of event professionals from a broad variety of backgrounds including production companies, event management companies, corporates, charities, local authorities and sales promotion agencies.

The event has been completely redesigned and rejuvenated, by organizer, Inside Communications, whose business manager, Clair Whitecross, explains: "We are very excited about the new developments, which so far have been received very well . . . We can promise January 2003 will see a spectacular event."

For 2003 The Event Show has moved to the professional, easily accessible National Hall, Olympia, in the heart of London, where over 250 companies including AV and lighting contractors, marquee and temporary structure suppliers and productio

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Aztec, the innovative new live console from Audient, has just completed a 14-date preview tour of Ireland with American Hot!, London’s newest musical show. Rental company Thames Audio supplied the desk for the tour via UK distributor Expotus. Tour sound designer and FOH engineer was Jem Kitchen with Thames Audio’s Graham Simpson acting as co-designer and systems engineer.

The tour began at the Bakewell Arts Festival on Sunday 11 August. It then visited The Palace Theatre, London; the An Grianan Theatre in Letterkenny, County Donegal; Waterfront Hall, Belfast; Leisureland, Galway; The Everymen Palace Theatre, Cork; The University Concert Hall, Limerick, before finally stopping on 28 September for two performances at the RDS (Royal Dublin Society) Concert Hall, Ballbridge, Dublin.

Graham Simpson of Thames Audio, says of the desk: "The Aztec was sonically very tr

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Le Maitre are set to stage a spectacular firework and pyrotechnic display from the roof of Harrods to mark the switching on of the Christmas Lights on 3 November. The display will go ahead despite the proposed fire strikes. As the strike is due to start on 2 November for 48 hours, Le Maitre’s events director Karen Haddon has employed private fire crews to cover the event. This will be in addition to the British Army’s Green Goddesses, already covering the strike nationally, and Harrods’ own fire officers stationed on the roof itself. Although it is extremely expensive to bring in private fire engines and crew, ensuring safety at the event is paramount, and the decision to go ahead with the show has been welcomed.

The display is very complex, and will be fired with a pyro digital system. It runs just under 15 minutes and is set to the James Bond theme tune. It will beg

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Show Presentation Services (SPS) has recently provided full audio-visual and staging facilities, including live camera work, at the high level BSkyB 'Leadership Forum' for 320 of its senior management executives from all over the country. The annual event for BSkyB's senior managers, held in the London Suite at the Marriot Hotel, Heathrow on 13 September, 2002, was hosted by Sky News's political editor, Adam Boulton.

SPS has been developing the event format with BSkyB over the past eight months, working together on the stage and set design, as well as planning the seating layout, lights, sound and cameras. Neil Smith, the manager of the project at SPS said: "We have had a good working relationship with BSkyB for the past six years now, so we were delighted to be working on the forum again this year. An event of this size and content takes extensive planning in the months leading u

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JBL Professional's EVO speakers have been installed into a multipurpose room inside Vienna's new Leopold Museum. The 117-seat room is used for a variety of functions including concerts, podium discussions, movies, and presentations. One of the new museums in Vienna's art district, the five-story Leopold Museum houses the art exhibition of Rudolf Leopold, with over 5,000 paintings including works by artists such as Egon Schiele, Gustav Klimt, and Oskar Kokoschka.

The installation was completed by audio specialists, Georg Vanek and Frank Bocksteiner / Ton&Technik, who chose EVO because of its functionality and ease of use. Aside from audio quality, another factor in the decision to choose EVO was its compact and elegant design and ability to be mounted horizontally, allowing for speaker placement below the ceiling line. Vanek, pleased with the installation, stated: "It sounds very g

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Audio Logistics and Richmond Studios founder Toby Alington has been commissioned by leading Welsh film and TV production company Presentable for the audio production of the latest series of the successful BBC Wales light entertainment show Mike Doyle, being filmed in Studio C1 at BBC Broadcasting House in Cardiff.

Filmed in front of a live audience with a live band, the format includes music, comedy, chat and celebrity guests, and is captured with a seven-camera shoot and some 70 channels of audio to cater for the large band and 24 channels of radio microphones. The sessions are recorded direct to digital multi-track with a full PA system and monitor setup from Welsh company AB Acoustics, provided through Audio Logistics. The audience mix is engineered by Clinton Cast with the monitor mix by AB Acoustics owner Huw ‘Buzz’ Evans.

Post production is handled by Toby Alington

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MixArt Ltd from Russia has been named Allen & Heath Distributor of the Year for 2002. The award is given each year to the distribution company which has done most to the support the brand and its customers in their territory. A special plaque was presented to the president of MixArt, Dmitriy Modin, during a dinner held for Allen & Heath's distribution team at Langans Coq d'Or restaurant in London during the recent PLASA show (Earls Court Exhibition Centre, 8-11 Sept 2002).

MixArt are based in Moscow, with a satellite facility in St. Petersburg and plans for another in Siberia. Allen & Heath's sales and marketing director, Bob Goleniowski, explains why MixArt was chosen to receive the award: "Rather than just looking at overall sales figures, we consider criteria such as the way that the distributor looks after our customers, how well they communicate with us and how fully they get

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Five weeks after lighting the ninth annual Kerrang! Music Awards at the London Hilton, Fourth Phase London was again contracted to work for Kerrang!, this time at Pontins Camber Sands Holiday Centre! Kerrang!'s first live music 'Weekender' was a three-day festival of music and extreme sports. Kerrang! hand-picked the hottest new talent to perform day and night for the three days and alongside the 40 plus music acts were many other activities including skate displays, go-karting and a night club open till late to entertain the 3,000 rock fan guests.

Claire Sampson of So Just Add Water contracted Fourth Phase to supply lighting for two stages, plus production crew. Amongst the lighting rig were Martin Mac 500s and 600s, Clay Paky Stage Scans, Molefays, L&E MiniStrips and Source Four PARs, all of which was controlled by two Flying Pig Whole Hog II desks, one for each stage. Paul Cook was

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Martin Professional is putting the finishing touches to its new Asian manufacturing facility in Zhuhai, China. As a result, production is on schedule to begin at the start of the next year. Henrik Larsen will be Martin’s general manager based at the facility. He told us: "After nearly five months of work and a tremendous commitment from our staff, it is great to see the factory materialize. The first production line will be ready for operator training before the end of October and the offices will be ready by mid-November."

Production management for the factory is already in place, and the challenges of opening up a manufacturing facility in China have been smoothed by the hiring of a Customs Clearance Administrator. Larsen and his team will be hiring a further 30-40 employees in the coming months. "We are aware that local development and sourcing is necessary in o

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The highly anticipated season of Cameron Mackintosh’s Miss Saigon enjoyed a stunning opening at the Edinburgh Playhouse on Thursday 17 October. The lavish musical first graced London’s West End at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane over ten years ago, and has been played in theatres around the world making it one of the most successful musicals in the history of musical theatre.

Creating the touring version of such a large scale musical has required the innovative and dedicated work of many disciplines. Stage Technologies, having worked on numerous Cameron Mackintosh productions in the past, such as The Witches of Eastwick, Oliver! and the Netherlands production of Miss Saigon, were pleased to have been asked to rise to the challenge once more and provide the stage automation for the tour.

The show itself is highly automated and Stage Technologies ha

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A new dance venue - called ‘The Locomotion’ - has opened its doors in the Dutch town of Zoetermeer. The new 2,000-capacity discotheque is equally suitable as a venue for live performance, and its sound system takes both applications into account. The owners and Electric Audio BV, the Dutch Electro-Voice distributor, decided in favour of an extensive Electro-Voice system. After a three-day installation period, the test run was a great success: "Our customers were enormously impressed with the combination of very high sound pressure levels and a complete absence of distortion," remembers Axel Nagtegaal. Then it was the turn of the disco people to test the power reserves of the system. "They, too, were highly enthusiastic - above all about the unbelievable bass kick. One sound engineer even commented that you could blow dry your hair with it!"

The equipment

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Norway’s broadcaster NRK has ordered six RMS2020 radio mics for a bizarre new reality TV programme. Loosely speaking a cross between Big Brother and Fame Academy, the new show features 12 elderly contestants who will be ‘locked away’ in a ‘culturehouse’ in a remote part of Norway and challenged to write, produce and stage a cabaret show in 10 weeks. The film crew will, of course, be on hand to capture all the trials and tribulations and ego clashes which ensue. Audio Ltd mics were chosen because they are discreet and reliable for virtually any situation.

(Lee Baldock)

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For the filming of ‘Chicago,’ Miramax's reconceived film version of Bob Fosse's hit Broadway musical, director Rob Marshall called on two of the renowned theatrical lighting designers - Peggy Eisenhauer and Jules Fisher - to light the musical numbers. To light the film's detail-specific musical fantasy sequences and transitions, they chose Vari*Lite Series 2000 automated luminaries.

"The central core concept is that the musical numbers take place in different theatrical environments," Eisenhauer explained. "There is a contrast between the real-time scenes and the 'fantasy' musical numbers. All of the lighting in the film was achieved in a wonderful collaboration with the Cinematographer, Dion Beebe. In addition to lighting the musical numbers Jules and I collaborated with Beebe on many of the transitions between reality and fantasy."

Eisenhauer and Fis

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Eastbourne Youth Radio is planning its second broadcast next month, following the success of last year’s 24-hour broadcast, which involved over 1,000 young people and around 50 community and business organizations in the Eastbourne area. Similar projects have since been launched in other parts of the country.

The EYR website received thousands of hits and significant media coverage was gained for Eastbourne and the many participants including links with BBC Southern Counties, Sovereign and SouthernFM radio stations. Bolstered by this huge success, Eastbourne Education Business Partnership is working on arrangements to run EYR again for 36 hours on 28-29 November 2002. Programmes will contain a mix of live and recorded interviews, local performance work and music. In particular, EYR will help to raise awareness of SRB6 ‘Pooling our Resources’ and other community proje

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Liverpool based sound specialist Adlib Audio Ltd report that they’ve had a very busy few months. The company has recently purchased a Nexo Alpha system which, combined with their JBL Vertec line array system, ensures that their stock caters for a wide range of requirements. Tours out with Adlib this year include Atomic Kitten, Gomez and The Coral, plus have Groove Armada shows coming up, not to mention US big boys the Fun Lovin’ Criminals. With Dave Kay (FOH) and Paul Roberts (systems tech) out on the road with Mercury Award Nominees The Coral and soon heading to the US, Adlib look set for an equally busy winter.

(Lee Baldock)

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A place to unwind and have fun, as if you were at home: that’s the idea behind Salò’s new Absolut - the most renowned and exclusive nightclub on Lake Garda, Italy. The lake has always been an ideal setting for nightclubs, but quality took a turn in summer 2001, when Massimo and Giampiero Gallina took over the club, creating its distinctive character, for which much of the merit goes to art director Ezio Arnaboldi.

The interior is furnished with comfortable sofas and couches, alternated with loungers and dark wood tables, which set off the numerous white cushions, large lampshades and huge ashtrays. Clay Paky’s Mini Scan HPE and Tiger CC lighting fixtures embellish the dance floor with colour, graphic patterns and varied effects. Colour also takes the centre stage outside: the outdoor Clay Paky CP Color 150-E colour changers create a cosy atmosphere in the relaxation

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From 10-13 October, Moscow was home to Russia’s largest music trade fair. ‘Music Moscow 2002’ attracted visitors and exhibitors from all over the world. One of the highlights was provided by Ruton S - the Russian distributor for Electro-Voice, with its dynamic yet business-like presentation.

As well as introducing visitors to a whole series of products drawn from the current Electro-Voice range, such as the Eliminator Double, the Eliminator kW, the EVID speaker and the new Co-11 and Re510 condenser microphones, the team, led by Gregory Ronin, had laid on a rock band, ‘The Vinyl Steam Locomotive’, whose powerful sound quickly established them as one of the biggest draws at the show. The band - all dedicated EV users - were showcasing the EV Eliminator Double and Eliminator kW enclosures, as well as the new Fri-2082 monitors. This allowed music dealers as we

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Beijing Bei Ao Grand Cultural & Sports Events Company of China cooperated with Martin Professional recently in providing a large number of intelligent lights for the ‘928’ Beijing Concert. The ‘928’ concert featured the foremost singers of the year from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Aside from the lighting system, Bei Ao was also responsible for the entire production for the concert, including sound and staging. The event was very successful and received a rapturous response from both the audience and the media.

With a 50,000-strong audience at the Beijing Worker's Stadium, Bei Ao used more than a hundred of Martin’s MAC series moving head fixtures, including MAC 2000, MAC 500 and MAC 600s, hung on the curved trussing system above stage and projecting innumerable changes of lighting and patterns onto the stage and set.

(Lee Baldock)

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MC2 Audio’s distributor in India, Performance Audio India Pvt Ltd, has installed sound systems powered by MC2 Audio amplifiers in two of Mumbai's newest clubs - Mikanos and Velocity. Velocity is situated in the Tardeo district of Mumbai and comprises the main Velocity club area, a 'retro' lounge called RPM, the Bollywood restaurant and a private members lounge. The club caters for all preferences from a quiet dinner to a night of non-stop dancing on the 1,000sq.ft dance floor.

The brief for Rustom Pavri, director of Performance Audio India, was to equip the venue to handle the wide mix of music, from rock and pop to techno and country. This he achieved using Turbosound Floodlight speakers powered by MC1250, MC750 and MC450 amplifiers with T1000 amplifiers being used for the Turbosound TCS-35. Pavri says: "Since we installed the system, everyone has been very impressed with t

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Coe-tech/Robe UK, exclusive UK distributors for the fast growing Czech moving light brand Robe, has supplied Dublin-based distribution company Aquarius with a large quantity of Robe intelligent lighting fixtures for Lacey’s, a 1500 capacity club at the Carrickdale Hotel, Dundalk, Republic of Ireland.

This is the first Robe installation in Ireland since Northampton-based Coe-tech took on the UK and Irish distribution in July this year. The lighting rig for the newly revamped club was designed by Wayne Winstanley and installed by the Carrickdale’s own technical team led by Brian O’Keeffe. The space consists of a large, single multi-purpose room that’s also utilized as a Sunday carvery and occasional restaurant. It is also used as a venue for a miscellany of events including business conferences and weddings - and the lighting scheme was required to be as versatile

  1. Martin Pro awards Intelligent Lighting Technology grant
  2. Vegas Motor School a success
  3. Lighting companies warned over diversion of internet sales
  4. Adlib sees MH4 as way forward
  5. Flightcase Warehouse opens in Ireland
  6. Sound Advice receives countrywide support
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