Business

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UK - The Institute of Export for Northern Ireland has chosen Belfast-based data compression specialist, APT (Audio Processing Technology), as the recipient of its prestigious Exporter of the Year Award for 2002.

APT's managing director, Noel McKenna, received the award from Jim Stewart, chairman of the Institute of Export in Northern Ireland at its annual awards dinner, which took place on December 4th at the Dunadry Hotel, Belfast. Commenting on the award, McKenna told us: "We are delighted to receive this award from the Institute. We have been supplying high quality audio products to countries as far apart as Korea, Japan, Taiwan, USA, Canada, Middle East, South Africa and Europe for the last 10 years and we are constantly trying to open up new countries and market sectors to our technology. APT has contributed in excess of £20 million in electronic products exports

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UK - It has been a hectic start to 2003 for leading lighting rental company White Light - with five new shows arriving in the West End and some old favourites going back out on the road in the first three weeks of the year.

The West End arrivals cover a wide range of styles: at the Arts Theatre is a new comedy from America, Triple Espresso, whilst at the Whitehall Theatre, the musical fun of Sing-along-a-ABBA has replaced the long-running Art, which used White Light equipment throughout its run. At the Old Vic, White Light is supplying the rig for Hartley TA Kemp's design for The Tempest - as with its initial run in Sheffield, the show is using automated lighting from The Moving Light Company.

Also combining conventional equipment from White Light and automated equipment from The Moving Light Company are Midnight's Children, the new RSC adaptation of the novel by Salman Rushdi

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UK - A regular and long-standing supplier to the UK's leading electronic retailer QVC, Triple E was back there towards the end of 2002 installing its lightweight, but strong Unicyc track in Studio One of the channel's London headquarters.

Prior to this installation, Studio One had a make-shift rig on which a cyclorama and lights were hung, but as it was outdated and inflexible, Mike O'Brien, QVC's backstage manager, approached Triple E to come up with a solution. Unicyc was created especially for TV studio applications and allows for a vast degree of versatility as it can be curved and assembled on site. Replacing Studio One's original track, the new U-shaped Unicyc system also incorporates ladder-frame lighting crossbeams, a points system and storage areas. "The system provides the opportunity to hang two cyclorama curtains from it, whilst the crossbeams allow better light

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UK - Aztec, the live console from Audient, has recently completed a three-date tour with Heather Small, the voice of M People, and the Snake Davis Band. The tour kicked off on December 5th at the Tunbridge Wells Assembly Theatre and went on to visit the Newcastle Opera House on the 7th, and finally the Queen Elizabeth Hall, South Bank, London on the 15th December. Sound for the tour came courtesy of the SRD (Sound Reinforcement and Distribution) Group, who were introduced to Aztec by GPA's Chris Hinds, who had previously used it with Groove Armada. Aztec has also been used by the SRD Group on projects for the James Taylor Quartet and Courtney Pine.

SRD's Dave Gledhill, FOH Engineer for the tour says of the Aztec: "It sounds great. Dave Dearden and Gareth Davies are known for designing and making great consoles and this one lives up to that reputation. The EQ is very musical

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UK - The APRS starts its 2003 programme with a seminar co-hosted by the DTI for all manufacturers and service providers who are interested in exporting goods or attracting overseas clients to UK facilities.

The event, postponed last year because of the Tube strikes, has been re-scheduled and re-designed to provide a broader exploration of exporting in general with a special focus on the fast-expanding Indian and Chinese markets. India has the largest film industry in the world and a significant proportion of domestic producers are now looking to enhance their production values in the hope that more Indian-made films are viewed by western cinema audiences. In the past, India has proved to be a challenging market beset with tariff and other bureaucratic barriers, however the World Trade Organisation rules mean that tariffs will be removed by 2005 and so now is the time to establis

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UAE - The first installation of ETC's Obsession II lighting control console in the United Arab Emirates was completed in Emirates Media's Abu Dhabi TV when the studio upgraded its lighting equipment to prepare for the new game show Win Your Weight In Gold. An alternative take on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, the programme's top prize is determined by the individual contestant's weight!

The television station's technical team, supervised by Mohammad Refaie, head of Abu Dhabi TV's Lighting Unit, specified the technical requirements for the upgrade. "We needed a new console, capable of handling both conventional and moving lights," said Refaie. Oasis Enterprises, officially appointed ETC's regional distributor in October 2002, came up with the perfect solution to meet the brief, supplying and installing the 3000 channel Obsession II, together with ten Source Fours.

The

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UK - Turbosound reports that its diminutive Impact 50 loudspeakers have been installed on Cardiff's Millennium Riverwalk, to provide audio replay facilities as part of an innovative arts project for the city's Chapter Arts Centre. Surviving gale force winds and driving rain, the 32 Impact 50 loudspeakers, which utilize injection-moulded enclosures, are mounted on the Riverwalk's suspension cables, and relay the sound of 5000 Calls - a large-scale sound performance by David Chesworth and Sonia Leber - to passers by.

The Impact 50 loudspeakers were installed by Cardiff-based Cynhyrchu Illicit Production, with the company's Giles Parbery providing overall project management, and were supplied through Dimension Audio of west London. The project represents the European première of 5000 Calls, with the work being replayed along the length of the Millennium Riverwalk, alongside Cardif

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UK - Following the success of Pop Idol and the Johnny Vaughan show, engineer Fred Jackson, of Jackson Post Ltd, was contracted by LWT to work on its latest musical success story, Pop Stars - the Rivals. Working in conjunction with TV sound suppliers Plus 4 Audio, Jackson invested in the latest technology from Klark Teknik, this time in the form of two Helix DN9340 digital equalizers.

Jackson explained that he needed more outboard equalization in addition to the qraphic equalizers on board the Yamaha DM2000, which is where the Helix devices came in. "I used two units on the primary mixes for the show," he said, "and was very pleased with them. Although Helix is a digital unit, the sound is consistent with all of the analogue units that KT has developed over the years.

"In the Pop Stars application I found the notch filters to be especially useful. Because Ri

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UK - Funtime Installations has been sold in a management buy-out headed up by Mark Parker, former installations manager of the company. After six years at the helm of the company, Jonathan Reece--Farren has taken the difficult decision to step down. "It has been a very exciting time," says Reece-Farren, "with our company experiencing amazing growth and development over the last six years, as well as industry recognition with the usual BEDA Awards nominations, and accolades for our various club and bar installations.

"Recent months have been busy - we were commissioned to supply all the sound and lighting for the PLASA 25th anniversary celebrations, which was a real honour, as well as full production for the 2002/2003 Theme Awards." Other recent credits include sound and lighting for the BEDA Awards party, and the BEDA Chairman's lunch, supplied on behalf

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UK - Following the membership vote at the end of 2002, PLASA has welcomed three new members to its executive committee - Andrew Bishop of Carlsbro Electronics, Steve Cole of Navica and Matthew Tonks of Stage Technologies. The subsequent internal election for the officer posts saw David Hopkins OBE, managing director of Audio Design Services, elected as PLASA chairman, while Sammy DeHavilland of Dare Pro Audio takes on the role of vice-chairman, and Tim Brown of Apple Sound replaces DeHavilland as PLASA treasurer.

The new places were made available by the departures of Paul de Ville of Lightfactor Sales, Nikki Scott of Stage Technologies and Tracey Patterson of Artistic Licence, all of whom decided not to stand for re-election. Mick Hannaford, who stepped down as PLASA chairman at the close of 2002 after three years in the chair, acknowledged the valuable contributions that all h

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UK - The Sound Division Group has recently supplied and installed a comprehensive sound and lighting system to the American Community School in Egham in Surrey based on a Crown-driven Nexo audio system complete with Martin projectors and a Selecon lighting rig.

The school, which educates over 550 students between the ages of 3-18 who come from all over the world took the decision to move drama production into the main sports hall and invest in a proper theatre-style sound and lighting system. Once the decision was made and the specification agreed, the whole installation was turned around in just two weeks.

Sound Division supplied and installed a total of four Nexo PS-15 loudspeakers which were flown from the lighting truss, and two PS-10 stage monitors plus the requisite TD controllers. The system was driven by a Crown MA3600VZ and a Crown MT2400 power amplifier. In addition

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Austria - L-Acoustics has appointed Audiosales as the new L-Acoustics distributor for Austria, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Audiosales was established in 1984, and has its headquarter in Austria, while Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovak Republic are individually serviced by national Audiosales subsidiaries. Over the years, Audiosales has acquired a significant amount of experience within the pro audio market, and has become the sole distributor for many top brands.

Due to the wide variety of products that they distribute, Audiosales have become specialist in managing permanent installation projects and supplying rental companies alongside their more regular sales activities. Reinhard Brummer, Audiosales sales director, adds: "We can efficiently support all the technical demands from and to our customers, owing to a professional team of support engineers and

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UK - Turbosound is making a major impact on Belfast's new nightspot, Skye, with 49 Turbosound loudspeakers installed as part of a highly specified sound system. The Turbosound line-up at Skye includes 16 Impact 80 enclosures, as well as various QLight models. Designed and installed by RG Design Light & Sound (Omagh, County Tyrone), Skye's sound system joins the growing ranks of clubs around the world that have taken advantage of the Qlight's attributes.

Colum O'Neill, RG Design's technical director, outlined the project: "Skye's entertainment manager, Eamon Beagon, came to see us with a requirement for a top-quality system, to tie in with the club's high-end image. He was interested in using a Turbosound-based system, as he had heard a number of our Turbosound installations in other clubs and had been impressed with the results. Due to space constraints, the design called f

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UK - Audient plc and LA Audio have announced the formation of a strategic alliance that will see the operations of the two companies merge in a new joint venture under the Audient plc umbrella. Audient has relocated to new headquarters at Herriard Park in North Hampshire, UK, to provide room for the newly enlarged enterprise and for planned future growth.

A new joint sales and marketing resource has been established, headed up by Luke Baldry as director of sales and marketing. Baldry was sales manager with Expotus plc, which had previously handled distribution management for both the Audient and LA Audio brands. Anne Liversidge and Neil Saunders, also formerly with Expotus, complete the core of the team with responsibilities for marketing and operations respectively.

Luke Baldry told us: "This is an exciting development for Audient and LA Audio. It will help us work more

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UK - The award-winning music and sound company Audio Network has started the New Year with 'The European Seal of Excellence 2003' award - an annual award from the European Multimedia Forum distinguishing European multimedia companies with applications, services or technologies which are genuinely outstanding. Richard Field, of the East of England Multimedia Alliance, says: "Audio Network has made a major contribution to providing high quality original music and sound content for the multimedia industry."

Audio Network has been making significant waves in the television and film community with its revolutionary approach to music licensing. Bypassing the traditionally complex process of licensing music for the broadcast industry, Audio Network has written and recorded a catalogue of over 60 hours of cleared-for-use music. Producers pay a small one-off fee and all the mus

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Italy - Coemar has extended its 10-year relationship with Gardaland - Europe's second largest theme park - in northern Italy. Having supplied intelligent lighting to this year's new feature, Fantasy Kingdom, Coemar has fabricated a customized outdoor Christmas lighting spectacular for their Prezzemolo festival. Both the great tree of Prezzemolo, based on a famous children's comic strip, and the new Fantasy on Ice - a musical fable entirely performed on ice - will be lit exclusively by Coemar fixtures.

The Christmas decorations for the Prezzemolo tree were specially developed by Coemar's Mauro Favalli, and the display consists of 400m of small Christmas lights, brought to life with four Antari snow machines (also distributed in Italy by Coemar). In the Ice Stadium, the ice rink is now lit with 16 Coemar iSpot 575s and several Panorama Cyc Power units - fitted with twin 575

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UK - Misys Network Services Life and Pensions, the UK's largest Financial Intermediary Network, recently held a convention for over 400 of its members and product providers about future market changes. As the Convention was entitled 'Tomorrow's World', it chose to use the presentation technology itself to reinforce the messages.

Production company, 3D Communications together with their technical staging specialists, The Show Company and computer graphics design house, Cadco, teamed up with Blitz Birmingham to give the presentation a futuristic look. It was delivered on a hemispherical centre screen and the challenge for Blitz was to select projection equipment that would ensure the sharpest images and allow maximum flexibility in manipulating both videotape and graphics images on this centre screen as well as two side screen areas.

Blitz selected six digital projector 5100s an

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UK - Here's a rather unusual application for lighting more usually seen on a film set or in a TV studio. Land Rover and Jaguar, the two UK-based manufacturers, have opted for ARRI lighting for their respective vehicle safety component test facilities.

Both are part of Ford Motor Company's Premier Automotive Group, which allows them to work together on some purchasing activities. Land Rover, which tests components externally at its Gaydon site in the Midlands has just taken its first shipment of ARRI 2.5K Compacts, which it plans to follow up with ARRI 1.2Ks. One of the benefits of these lights in this respect is their lack of heat and the fact that they are flicker free.

(Ruth Rossington)

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UK - The setting was a muddy field in Worcester in the cold and wet English December weather - not exactly the ideal location for a designer clothing brand. However, a photographic shoot featuring a range of projected images was the order of the day and Fourth Phase London was called in to supply a BP6 projector, complete with generator.

Regarded as a label for conceptualists, fashion label Comme des Garçons fuses fashion with art, science and perfect tailoring. Established in 1973, the label specializes in 'anti-fashion', austere, sometimes deconstructed garments, often lacking a sleeve or other component. The image of Comme des Garçons' trademark blacks and greys, often worn with combat boots, fitted perfectly with the English winter weather scene, although the conditions were so grim that the original day for which the shoot was scheduled had to be called off, the mud makin

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UK - In a move that will be welcomed throughout the industry, Chris Cronin of Total Fabrications Ltd (TFL) and Mark Surtees of Outback Holdings, have announced the merging of Slick Systems into TFL. "With rigging at our core, we had taken on Slick and really knocked it into shape over the past few years," said Mark Surtees, "but now's the time to take it to the next stage. As the biggest stockist of Slick trussing in the UK, we can't think of a better, safer pair of hands than Total Fabrications for the company to be in."

Chris Cronin was equally animated: "We will be maintaining all Slick's excellent product line. There will be consolidation - for us as manufacturers, and for the wider client base who will see real benefits from the sharing of technologies and expertise. It's a real matrix of talent, skills and trussing."

The change is effective

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UK - North-west-based audio-visual services company A to V has successfully completed 30 events in its first three months of trading and has now moved into new premises on Manchester's Science Park. The events have included a range of corporate and private sector meetings, conferences, awards dinners, product launches, road shows, exhibitions and special events, with the client list including Cancer Research, Co-operative Group Travelcare, The Environment Council, CIS, Excellence in Cities and Manchester's first 'Fashion Week' sponsored by Midas.

A to V's specialized area is visual communications, in particular the field of projection, control and switching/routing. Larger clients, however, prefer the company's management style to oversee an entire project, including set design and construction, lighting design, audio specifications, equipment hire and crew.

Directors Phil Wes

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Canada - A.C. Lighting has announced the formation of A.C. Lighting (Canada) Ltd. The new company will be operational in the early spring, and will share Spectrum Manufacturing Inc's facilities in Toronto, Canada, after their relocation to a new 18,051sq.ft headquarters.

John Evans, formerly general manager of the Canadian sales subsidiary of Telex/Electro-Voice, a worldwide leader of professional audio products, has been appointed to develop the Canadian market. Evans commented: "A.C. Lighting has a dominant presence within the international entertainment lighting market. I am excited by the new appointment, and look forward to growing the business in Canada."

(Lee Baldock)

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UK - Applications are now being accepted for the first Lighting Masterclass held in London by Selecon on 21, 22 and 23 March 2003. Selecon is very proud to have Rick Fisher and Chris Parry to lead this unique event. Places on this first Masterclass are limited, and the aim of the event is to expand delegates' lighting craft with the assistance of two giants of the lighting industry, both working in different parts of the globe, bringing a wealth of experience to the debate. The Masterclass will be a hands-on lighting workshop held in a theatre environment.

The event is aimed at people working within the entertainment lighting industry who have experience in lighting or re-lighting shows; theatre electricians, technical assistants or similar grades within the industry.

The three-day Masterclass will use the 'Light Lab', a system used by Chris Parry at The University of Californ

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UK - A regional meeting of the Association of Lighting Designers (ALD) is to be held at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama on Wednesday the 22 January between 5.30 and 8.00pm. The Conference Room in the Alexander Gibson Opera School has been booked and the meeting is being hosted by David Ripley, the Academy production manager and ALD member. Opera 1, a Ravel Double Bill, is on stage in the New Athenaeum (the main house) and there are also concert halls and a studio that members can have a look around, depending on production schedules.

No agenda has been set, but one of the main intentions of these regional meetings is to give members the chance to meet up and discuss issues about lighting and the lighting industry. It could also be an opportunity to talk about future regional meetings and how the ALD can help support them. A meeting in Bristol came up with several s

  1. Hand Held Audio at Top of the Pops
  2. Digigram Group agrees to management buyout
  3. Gearhouse stages African Bollywood spectacular
  4. KV2 Audio launches at NAMM
  5. Sound Division puts Turbosound in Lonsdale House
  6. Olivier Award Nominations 2002
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