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Several years ago Théâter Zingaro, the French equestrian theatre troupe travelled to the United States and mesmerized sell-out crowds in Brooklyn with their ballet/equestrian art form. The troupe returned for exclusive West Coast performances of Triptyk: Dance of the Centaurs - top bill for the recent Eclectic Orange Festival, Orange County, California.

Bartabas, lighting designer and founder for Théâter Zingaro, and Loïc Merrien, lighting manager have made full use of 70 Selecon Acclaim Zoomspots and 24 Acclaim PCs in creating a surreal, living, theatrical picture, which aims to portray the horses as almost magical creatures. The precise beam control of the zoomspots and crisp edge and clarity of the PCs help provide the dramatic results demanded in this, the seventh Zingaro production created by Bartabas portraying the mystical relationship of man and horse.

The month-l

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Music Live 2002, held recently at the NEC, consolidated its reputation as one of the UK’s leading public music shows, with a strong programme of acts and demos underlining the event’s increasing popularity. With a billing which included an acoustic set by Simon Fowler and Oscar Harrison of top UK rock band Ocean Colour Scene, HK Audio’s comprehensive range of pro audio systems was once again the preferred choice of show organizers, Mammoth Events. HK Audio systems were placed in a wide variety of show applications, right from the 7.2kW 12 x box R-Series main stage rig to a number of PA applications across the show.

As a result of HK Audio’s performance at Music Live 2002, HK has been confirmed once again as the sound reinforcement marque of choice for Music Live 2003. Additionally, another music show has been introduced to the annual show rota, this time it&rsqu

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In a prime location in Kuala Lumpur, an old Panasonic warehouse has been expertly converted into the new premises for the immense Petaling Jaya Evangelical Free Church. The main church seats 1,800 in the auditorium, with a balcony, which has been acoustically treated throughout, and has installed a PA system supplied by Wembley Loudspeaker Co Ltd.

The job was set up after a meeting at the PALA show in Hong Kong, with Paul MacCallum, MD of Wembley, subsequently visiting Kuala Lumpur. The company has recently launched a new series of cabinets to suit a variety of applications (from 150W to 1200W), with high quality sound throughout the range. Having surveyed the ‘venue’, MacCallum specified a system that is more likely to be found in a club than a church. The reason for the spec was that the church has services twice a week, incorporating music from a full 11-piece rock/gospe

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Thursday 12th December will see audio experts John Woodgate and Peter Mapp deliver keynote lectures on two important current issues - Electromagnetic Compatibility and speech intelligibility. John Woodgate's ‘New Creatures in the EMC and Safety Jungle’ introduces some strange new animals to an already crowded zoo, whilst Peter Mapp uses ‘Everything You Wanted to Ask About RaSTI but were Afraid to Know! or How Accurate Really are RaSTI and STI Measurements?’ to illustrate his many years of research into all aspects of speech intelligibility.

The event, which is being organized by the ISCE, will take at Brooklands College in Weybridge. There is a special entrance rate for PLASA Members of £25. Further details are available from Cathy Mackenzie on +44 151 639 5211.

(Ruth Rossington)

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Audio-Visual company 6th Sense Solutions (UK) Ltd has recently moved to new premises in Cheltenham, following six years of growth that have seen the business grow to need four times as much space as at its old premises.

The company specializes in audio visual production and hire and sale of AV equipment. Its clients range from those requiring a simple audio-visual presentation at a small event to large-scale productions for conferences, outdoor concerts and festivals. Clients include household names such as the BBC, Leeds City Council, Dyson Appliances, The Salvation Army, Pfizer and Dairy Crest. Matt McCarty, managing director at 6th Sense Solutions, told us: "The move will enable us to be more efficient and give us greater opportunities to display our technology. We need to continually invest in the latest equipment in order to satisfy our clients’ expectations."

Th

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Theatrical sound design and rental specialist Autograph Sound Recording has recently been involved in a concert tour of Les Misérables across Scandinavia - the first time that the concert production of the world-famous musical has toured multiple cities. The concert, which captured the atmosphere of the stage production by using giant cinema screens, live video and stills from the production, commenced in late October and ran throughout November, taking in Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland along the way.

Autograph has been involved with Les Misérables since chairman Andrew Bruce designed the original London production in 1985. To address the scale of the tour, the company supplied an extensive Meyer Sound M3D Line Array Loudspeaker System in a sound design realised by Autograph's Nick Lidster, who also mixed the shows. Lidster was a member of the original sound team on the London p

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John MacPhail’s Edinburgh-based Studio 4 recently won the contract to upgrade the sound system in The Cavendish - a landmark venue in the Scottish capital - for operators, Luminar Leisure.

The two-level nightclub at Tollcross - affectionately known as The Cav - has now taken possession of a series of Wharfedale Programme 50s and 52s as part of a complete refit. The recently-launched two-way ported trapezoidal enclosures - designed to meet the requirements of high-output, nearfield reproduction - have been used creatively to deliver peripheral sound throughout the club’s off-dancefloor areas. Eight of the Programme 50s and four of the Programme 52s feature in the installation. The Programme 50 features a 5.5" woofer and 3/4" titanium driver, while the Programme 52 features a pair of woofers and 3/4" titanium driver.

(Ruth Rossington)

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Bandit Lites UK is supplying the king of horror-rock theatre Alice Cooper with a dramatic, and somewhat gruesome lighting rig for the European section of his current Dragontown World tour. The lighting designer for this spectacular heavy metal mayhem is Mick Thornton, who has designed a colourful contrasting show that captures a myriad of moods.

These include all the normal Cooperesque antics like the nightly baby massacre, a melange of cod violence and destruction, lunatics being straight-jacketed and hauled off to the asylum (bit like a day in the L&SI office). The onstage entertainment culminates with the guillotining of Pop Princess Britney Spears - the ultimate axis of evil in Alice’s dark world - as played by his daughter Calico.

Thornton needed a versatile lighting rig to match the intricate stage set and the manic pace of action onstage. At the aorta of the set is the

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Front-of-house engineer Simon Honywill is using a new Yamaha DM2000 digital console to mix Chris Rea, currently on the front leg of his European tour. Playing a wide variety of venues seating anywhere between 1500 and 5000 people, the tour is carrying a compact production rig including the RG Jones/Ampco ProRent Synco PA system.

Simon Honywill has been involved with the DM2000 since its launch in the UK, and RG Jones has been considering purchasing one of the digital consoles for inventory. But the main reason for ordering the new desk from Marquee Audio was the Rea tour. "It's a one-truck tour," explains Honywill, "which meant that we were looking for equipment that was as compact and bijou as possible. The DM2000 makes a lot of sense, primarily because of its small size, and the opportunity it allows for us to cut down on a load of outboard."

He describes the ne

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Selwo Adventure Parks have expanded their leisure offering with the newly inaugurated Selwo Marina park in Benalmádena , Malaga, Spain. The new concept of marine park brings together the sea life and exotic fowl of South America and complements the theme of the already well known Selwo Adventure wildlife park in Estepona, Spain. Visitors to Selwo Marina participate in expeditions in which they discover the amazing ecosystems of the South American continent.

The sound system design and installation for the park was carried out by the Madrid-based Himesa Professional SL, using a variety of D.A.S. products. The system designed by the company provides ambient sound and paging utilizing 60 Factor-5Ts keenly camouflaged within the decorative elements of the park.

The park is accessed through the Plaza of the Americas where shops and food services are available. Through the plaza, visitor

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The first customer was already leaving Professional Music Technology (PMT) with his newly-purchased Wharfedale loudspeakers even before the inaugural celebrations began. To commemorate the opening of their new 22,000sq.ft superstore in Birmingham - the largest in Europe - the directors hosted an industry party which was attended by many of the captains of MI. Posing alongside Wharfedale’s LiX range of MI enclosures (in front of PMT’s sound stage) are company directors Simon Gilson, Terry Hope and Gary Chapman. The LiX range is one of several Wharfedale MI-based systems on show in the superstore.

(Ruth Rossington)

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James Thomas’s new Pixelrange LED fixtures are making a high profile debut in the world of retail installations - as part of the current James Bond 007 window display at Harrods.

Spread across two full windows, the 007 montage includes the special agent’s fantastic silver Aston Martin V12 Vanquish and General Zao’s electric green Jaguar XKR from the latest movie Die Another Day. The latter vehicle is complete with reclining blonde spread-eagled on the bonnet! Other window props include 007 dummies, plus several plasma screens showing action from the various Bond movies.

The display is highlighting a special Bond video promotion offered by Harrods, celebrating 40 years of the UK’s favourite special secret agent. Paul de Ville, MD of Lightfactor Sales, was called in to design the lighting scheme for the windows. He was approached by AV installer Andy Evans from

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Advanced Audio, the Melbourne-based ARX dealer, has completed the installation of an updated audio system into the recently refurbished Melbourne Royal Exhibition Buildings.

Rated as one of Australia's most prominent and historic public buildings, the REH was originally erected for the Melbourne International Exhibition of 1880 -1 at the end of Melbourne's early Gold Rush heyday. The building was also the venue for the Australian Federation ceremonies in 1901 that marked the birth of Australia as a nation and were used as the country's Houses of Parliament until 1922, prior to the competition of Canberra as the nation's purpose-built capital city.

Advanced Audio installed ARX ZR 850 C 100V constant voltage Installation Series power amplifiers to power a sizeable array of Bose 402 loudspeakers spread out over 3km of loudspeaker cabling.

(Ruth Rossington)

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Drapes and fabrics specialist Blackout was recently appointed by London-based Production House Pci:Live to assist in the realisation of a Moulin Rouge-themed After Party for Cisco Systems’ annual Networkers Conference in Copenhagen.

Staged in The Forum - one of Copenhagen’s largest live music venues - over 1100 guests attended two party evenings, which re-created the spirit of the legendary Parisian music hall. The show, which featured many different European artists, was a spectacular combination of contortionists, sword swallowers, fire-eaters and aerial performers, culminating in a sensational Can Can finale. Kid Creole and his Coconuts maintained the pace with a fantastic performance, before the evening wound up with a DJ and podium dancers.

From the outset, Blackout’s project managers Chris Brain and Kevin Monks collaborated with Pci:Live’s technical dire

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When Audi launched the A8 at the British Motor Show this year, it wanted to steal the limelight from its competitors. Prima ballerina Darcey Bussell was called in and the rest is history. While most of us only saw Bussell on the front page of our newspapers, the guys at Fourth Phase London got to see her in the flesh.

Having already worked together twice on Audi projects, event organizers Pandemonium chose Fourth Phase London to supply lighting, including a selection of Source Four Pars and Zooms, a Jands Event Desk and ETC SmartPack portable dimming, for the occasion at Audi's London showrooms in Piccadilly.

As photographers surrounded Bussell, her luxurious 11 metre silk cloak fell away in a stunning reveal of both the car and Bussell's striking Scott Henshall dress, made of the same leather as the A8’s upholstery. Bussell, who is a fan of Audi's cars and has driven one since

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TeleStage Associates Plc has secured the contract to provide stage engineering equipment for the prestigious Wales Millennium Centre. The contract calls for the design and supply of a wide range of stage equipment, covering multiple orchestra elevators, seating wagons, fire and acoustic doors, counterweight flying, powered hoists, movable auditorium towers, house curtain and adjustable proscenium.

The Wales Millennium Centre will be the focal point of the redevelopment of Cardiff Bay and will provide a world-class venue for the full range of performing arts. As part of the contract, TeleStage will work closely with Sir Robert McAlpine - the design and build contractor. Carr and Angier are the Theatre Consultants and this project also marks the next step in the long and productive relationship that has existed between the two companies.

(Ruth Rossington)

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Lightfactor Sales has collaborated with design and installation specialist Entserv to supply a series of high contrast lighting for temporary interactive maze attractions at Thorpe Park (The Freezer and Freakshow) and Chessington World of Adventures (Pirate Jack) theme parks.

Entserv’s Steve Richley was approached by The Tussauds Group Studios to design the show and electrical systems for the three mazes and to carry out the lighting and electrical installations. Both Lightfactor and Entserv are regular technical contractors to Tussauds, and engage in some of their most demanding and exciting projects.

Entserv also supplied the audio, pneumatics and technical infrastructure to bring The Freezer to ‘life’, with Lightfactor supplying the lighting. The overall concept design for the three mazes was by Sudden Impact Inc from the USA, who were in the UK for the first tim

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The Entertainment Services and Technology Association’s Board of Directors has voted unanimously to open up ESTA’s Code of Conduct to allow complaints to be filed by the general public, with effect from 1 January 2003. In 1999, ESTA led the industry in promoting ethical business practices and professionalism by creating and adopting a Code of Conduct for members. Received with enthusiasm by members, the Code was also used as a model by several other industry associations, including PLASA and CITT, in creating their own codes.

ESTA’s Code of Conduct plays a very important role in maintaining public confidence in the industry by assuring the public of uniformly high standards in their dealings with members of the Association. As one member of the public said: "ESTA membership does matter to many of us and we use it as a ‘recommendation’ when looking for

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XL Video UK is supplying leading UK pop band Blue with a full touring video hardware package and crew. Blue are currently riding the crest of a massive popularity wave and also establishing themselves at the credible end of the pop scale, with a nationwide arena tour finishing two days before Christmas, which you can read all about in the January issue of Lighting&Sound International.

Video is the central visual concept to Blue’s energetic, up-tempo show. The artistic director is Kim Gavin, whilst the set is designed by Paul Staples, and the show’s video baseline developed by lighting designer Peter Barnes. Central to video being the defining visual counterpoint is an enormous 60ft by 24ft low resolution Westerhagen LED screen from Germany. This was originally designed and built by XL Video for German touring and recording artist Paul Westerhagen. Barnes had heard about the

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Guests on board Crystal Cruises' Crystal Serenity, which goes into service June 2003, will be able to watch first-run movies in a luxury 200+ seat projection theatre with state-of-the-art audio visual systems, including audio enhancement for the hearing-impaired. Responsible for the entertainment design and installation for the Hollywood Theatre is MAVCO, whose Director of Engineering, Rob Shuard, asked Triple E to design and supply a custom projection screen, with variable pre-set masking using the company's Chaintrack system. Shuard said: "We needed a system that allowed for multiple masking presets including anamorphic 2.35:1, widescreen 16:9 and standard 4:3. Given the restricted space on board the vessel, Triple E's Chaintrack system was chosen for its ultra-low profile and its ability to turn tight corners."

The 4.7m wide x 2m high screen required black masking panels t

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Those involved in Fire Safety may be interested in a seminar being held at the Headquarters of the Institute of Electrical Engineers at Savoy Place. Taking place on 12 December, the focus is on the recently revised Building Regulations Part B - Fire Safety. Whilst the bulk is on prevention and accordant construction, time will be devoted to detection and warning systems.

For more information, contact the IEE or Alison Payton at the Institute of Mechanical Engineers on the e-mail address shown.

(James Eade)

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Marquee Audio has supplied a Yamaha DM2000 digital console to its regular customer, the Clywd Theatr Cymru of Mold in North Wales. The new desk has been installed in the smaller of the theatre's two auditoriums, part of a rolling replacement programme of audio equipment.

The 250-seat Emlyn Williams Theatre is equipped with a Meyer PA rig, Akai samplers and hard-disk recorders, and a Sennheiser radio mic system, all of which have been supplied by Marquee Audio. Kev Hays, the Head of Sound at Clywd Theatr Cymru, explains that the DM2000 replaces the Yamaha 02Rs which were the first to be installed in the UK. "And the DM2000 now contains all the features I would have loved the 02Rs to have had when we bought those in the mid 90s," adds Hays, who first saw the DM2000 when he attended Marquee Audio's summer demos at the Lyric Theatre in London.

"The desk as standard has 96

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Already owners of the UK's largest X-Array system, Ayrshire-based Fenwick Mobile Exhibitions (FMX), has continued to affirm its faith in the Electro-Voice brand by becoming one of the first customers to invest in some of EV's newest technology, the XLC compact line array system.

According to FMX's Ron MacGillivray, XLC suits the style of event for which FMX has become known. "We do a lot of radio station work such as roadshows and other one-off events, many of which take place outdoors. Get-in and get-out times are usually minimal, and that is where a system like XLC really comes into its own."

Son and business partner Ross MacGillivray agrees: "XLC cabinets are smaller and lighter than anything else we have, and because of their 120° dispersion characteristics, you need fewer of them to cover the same area. That basically means we're taking up much less room in the t

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ABC Entertainments has recently completed a sound installation in Vintners Hall in the City of London. The building is listed, and a PA system with a hearing-aid loop was needed for speeches. The spec was for two hand-held radio mics, one lapel radio mic and a discrete lectern radio mic for a portable, solid silver table-mounted lectern. The speakers needed to be discrete, or preferably completely hidden, as well as being very sharp and clear.

ABC installed used two Sennheiser EW145 hand-helds, a Sennheiser EW112 lapel system and a Sennheiser EVO pack and receiver for the lectern mic with a Sennheiser COM1425 attached to the transmitter. This was placed with an additional on/off switch on a perspex mount out of sight beneath the lectern. The hearing aid loop was Ampetronic and the speakers were eight Bose 161s. The amplification was supplied by two Citronic PSX350s, all mixed with a Sp

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