USA - Grammy Award-winning recording engineer Geoff Emerick and audio equipment manufacturer Shure Inc have been named recipients of the 2003 Technical Grammy Award, in an announcement by the Recording Academy. The Technical Grammy Award is presented to individuals and/or companies who have made contributions of outstanding technical significance to the recording field. Formal acknowledgment of the Technical Grammys will be made on 22 February at an event prior to the 45th Annual Grammy Awards ceremony.

"The creative fearlessness of Geoff Emerick and the immeasurable contribution that Shure Incorporated has made to the world of audio are the achievements of true visionaries," said Producer & Engineers Wing director Leslie Lewis. "Emerick's groundbreaking and skillful techniques continue to inspire generations and Shure's audio equipment consistently sets the stand

UK - The Blue Room is a brand new web discussion forum, set up by two keen, dedicated industry professionals, where advice may be sought and offered by anybody working in, entering or just plain interested in any aspect of life behind the scenes in the Entertainments Industry. All are welcome to visit and browse, and register as members should they wish to take part in discussions and debates about industry issues.

Forums have been created for all major industry disciplines, as well as for students, health & safety and useful outside sources of information, all alongside a place to just chat with other like-minded people. There is also a private messaging facility, where members may communicate with each other personally. Up-to-date security measures, together with sensitive, responsive moderation of the forums, help to maintain a relaxed and friendly atmosphere in which people

UK - Badly Drawn Boy gained recognition with 'The Hour of the Bewilderbeast' and for creating the entire film soundtrack for About a Boy." Recently, the group has been touring to support their newest CD, 'Have You Fed the Fish?' For the 2002/early 2003 run in small theatres and clubs, the band recreated their album graphics onto a backdrop. Several circular screens provide space for High End Systems' Catalyst system projection.

Badly Drawn Boy's LD David Farmer wanted to use two Catalyst systems, but decided on just one for a variety of reasons. Because the group is relatively new, and because shows were in a small 2,000-3,000 venue capacity, Farmer needed to keep costs down. To save where he could, he specified and programmed the Catalyst system himself, and persuaded a few of his colleagues into generating special video and still footage.

Says Farmer: "To ma

UK - Orange, in association with Esquire and Harpers and Queen, launched the Orange Business Awards 2002 in celebration of the best of Britain's entrepreneurial talent. This year, staging automation specialist Stage Technologies has announced that they have not only been nominated but also short-listed for the 'Excellence in Exporting' category with their managing director, Mark Ager, also in the frame for the Businessman of the Year award.

The formal judging day took place in early January when an expert panel of leading figures from industry and business met to decide the winners of each category. However, the results are to be kept under tight wraps until the award ceremony due to take place early next week at Le Meridian Hotel in Russell Square, London.

(Lee Baldock)

UK - PLASA presented a cheque for £150.00 to Harry Crowder for successfully completing the BTEC General Theatre Technician Award, which is delivered through the AETTI and Loughborough College. Crowther, stage manager at Bedworth Civic Hall, was attracted to the course because it gave him the opportunity to gain a recognized qualification, whilst continuing in employment.

The General Theatre Technician course is run over three days and costs £350.00. Harry has gone on to attend the BTEC Stage, Lighting, Rigging and Operation Award which the AETTI have recently launched. Peter Coleman from Stage Electrics and Jason Larcombe from White Light are tutoring on the new course. For more information about course dates and times contact Chris Garner on 01509 618377 or e-mail chris.garner@lou.ac.ukThe money comes from the sum raised by the Product Excellence Awards at the PLASA

Denmark - Martin Architectural recently held a two-day seminar in northern Denmark for representatives from some of its most active architectural markets - a mix of subsidiaries, affiliates and distributors from the Middle East, Germany, France, Italy, Scandinavia, the US, and other areas.

Scandinavian lighting company Louis Poulsen also sent a representative after the announcement last week of a cooperative agreement in which the company will sell Martin's architectural line of products in the Scandinavian market. All told, the Martin Architectural team, headed by International sales director Gorm Teichert, hosted some 30 guests. Held on 23-24 January in the distinctive natural environment of northern Denmark, the informal seminar had as its backdrop the unique quality of light in Skagen that has been the inspiration of artists for centuries.

The main purpose of the seminar w

USA - The City of Meridian has renamed a portion of Mississippi Highway 493 in honour of Hartley Peavey, founder and CEO of Peavey Electronics, in a ceremony at Peavey International Headquarters on 31 January. Officials from the City of Meridian and Lauderdale County joined the Peavey family and employees in celebrating the accomplishments of Hartley and his company during their first 38 years of business. The new Hartley Peavey Drive runs in front of Peavey International Headquarters, stretching from nearby North Hills St. to Meridian's northern city limits.

Hartley Peavey commented: "This is truly an honour, but while it is my name on the sign, all of this certainly was not just my doing - I am merely the catalyst. Together, we're expanding our horizons and changing our products and methods. We're doing the only thing we know: innovating."

Mayor John Robert Smith p

UK - A Cerwin-Vega Intense! rig has been installed into landmark Birmingham nightclub, The Dome. First Leisure's former award-winning 3,000-capacity club is now under the private ownership of Dome Leisure Ltd, and when contracts and design manager Tim Matthews approached local retailer/installers, Matthews Electronics, they recommended the Cerwin rig - distributed in the UK by Lamba plc - as part of a complete sound and lighting solution.

The company re-used the serviceable equipment (redeploying some of the existing speakers as fills) and specified a powerful amplifier rack to drive the 21k Intense T250/T36 rig, which drives the main dancefloor system. The system is based around a QSC PL9.0 - to drive the four ground-stacked Cerwin Vega T36s and four S218 subs - and Powersoft DIGAM 7000 and DIGAM 5000 amps to run the T250 mid/highs (these are flown, using Matthews' own bespoke

UK - Automation specialists Andy Cave of Entertainment Innovations and Dave Weatherhead of Gravity Control have joined forces to establish Kinesys, a new company providing motion control and automation systems.

Kinesys is dedicated to providing fully featured, high quality products to cater for all motion control requirements. The standard, modular product range includes control equipment for motors, hydraulics, pneumatics and steppers, as well as a full range of power distribution equipment, emergency stop modules and high speed networking products. All this is controlled by a similarly in-depth range of controllers from the top-of-the-range PC-based Vector control system to the single-axis Pulse controller. All equipment is designed to integrate simply and seamlessly to provide a quick to assemble, quick to program, flexible and reliable control solution.

Kinesys products ar

Sweden - Tomcat UK recently hosted a Hoist School at Woodlite Sweden A.B. in Karlstad, Sweden. The one-day event consisted of motor instruction led by Jim Marshall of Tomcat UK which included the stripping and reassembly of a one ton CM Lodestar chain hoist to demonstrate trouble-shooting techniques. The hoist school was requested by Woodlite to improve their employees' ability to work with Columbus McKinnon motors. A number of Hoist and Rigging workshops are planned for other countries in Europe, and Tomcat UK will conduct workshops on request.

(Ruth Rossington)

UK - Lighting director Darryl Noad uses over 200 Martin luminaires on the UK reality TV show Fame Academy, in which 12 students entered a training academy for 10 weeks to learn how to sing and dance. Noad comments: "The brief the producers gave me was for the show to look more like an 'event' that we were filming and less like a TV show," Darryl stated. Working with producer Lisa Chapman and director Tony Gregory, both of whom he has worked with before on several projects, Noad chose a variety of Martin gear to produce the desired look, including MAC 2000 Performances, MAC 2000 Profiles, MAC 600 NTEs, Exterior 200s and RoboColor Pro 400s. AFM Lighting of London supplied all lighting fixtures.

"The studio set was designed by Peter Bingemann, who is a joy to work with," says Noad. "He built walkways and staircases backstage and raised the whole stage 2.5 m

Canada - Further to the announcement late last year, the acquisition of Toronto-based Spectrum Manufacturing Inc by A.C. Lighting has now been successfully completed. David George, president, and Jean-François Canuel, vice-president R&D, will continue to oversee the operation at Spectrum.

The purchase prompted immediate expansion into new prestigious 18,000 square feet facilities, where Spectrum will be better positioned to develop and introduce new and innovative entertainment technology products to market.

Over the past few years, Spectrum has diversified its OEM product range which currently comprises: a wide range of colour changers, gobo rotators, moving mirror devices, power supplies and distribution equipment, DMX splitters and switches, cable assemblies and gel-strings. Many new products for the professional lighting industry are in the final stages of development, an

UK - Bernie Davis, one of Britain's premier television lighting directors, will present this year's Trotter Patterson Lecture in London on 18 February. Davis' prolific output has included the lighting of The Royal Variety Show, The Last Night of the Proms, the 2002 Jubilee Concert at Buckingham Palace and religious broadcasts including Songs of Praise, the Royal Wedding at Windsor and the traditional Festival of Carols at Kings' College Cambridge. His outside broadcast expertise has stemmed from his early background in vision mixing and the contrast balance of his lighting is apparent in every production. He has a keen interest in theatre and the enhancement techniques needed when television enters a live performance designed hitherto for a live audience.

This prestigious lecture promises to be a highlight of the lighting calender and not to be missed by anyone with an interest

Belgium - Christian Léonard and Jean-François D'Haussy, respectively general manager and financial administration manager of ADB-TTV France, strongly backed by a group of private and institutional investors, have reached an agreement with Siemens for the acquisition of all the assets of ADB-TTV technologies SA, Belgium, including the two subsidiaries in France and Germany. Leonard and D'Haussy become CEO and CFO respectively of the new group.

As part of the deal, the parties have agreed on transferring the production of all dimmers to the ultra-modern Siemens facility in Huizingen, near Brussels. The transfer has already started and should be completed during February. Manufacture of control systems and TV studio suspensions will be relocated to the ADB-TTV factory in St Quentin, France, where all theatre and TV luminaires are produced. This facility is currently being e

South Africa - The recent Miss South Africa contest, held at the Sun City Superbowl on 8 December, provided a unique opportunity for Gearhouse South Africa to utilize a first-ever five split cube wall set-up. In total, a massive 80 cubes were used, split into five 4 x 4 cube walls. "This offered the show's director the unique ability to either display five separate images or one large landscape image," explains John McDermott. "Images to the cube walls were cut out of the outside broadcast van, by director Gavin Wratten who did an excellent job of utilizing the five split cube walls to their maximum."

Gearhouse SA was contracted by Sun International in association with M-Net and Blue Moon Productions, with Deana Hislop of Blue Moon Productions taking the role of production manager and providing the key liaison point for Gearhouse SA. The cube walls formed an

UK - PLASA Media has learned that Simon Brophy, the former head of lighting at the Millennium Dome, has been charged with conspiracy to defraud the New Millennium Experience Company (NMEC), the body that ran the Dome. Two other persons, David Gordon, 41, a company director, and Brophy's wife Margaret Bragg, 29, have also been charged with conspiracy to defraud the NMEC. The three, who have been released on bail, will appear before Bow Street Magistrates Court on 7 February.

Brophy, Gordon and Bragg were arrested by the Fraud Squad in October 2000, following scrutiny into the awarding of contracts at the Millennium Dome. A woman in her 60s was also arrested at this time, at a residential address in West Yorkshire, followed by two further arrests in February 2001, of a man and a woman, both in their 30s. These three remain on police bail pending further enquiries.

(Lee Baldock)

Yugoslavia - MC2 Audio has announced the first sales of its amplifiers to Yugoslavia. Music Exports chose T1000 amplifiers for a studio monitor system installed for Pink Television, Yugoslavia's "most watched" TV station and Music Exports' dealers have contracts for further studio monitor installations with T Series amps in two other locations in Yugoslavia.

Meanwhile, Scottish company Northern Light, continues to win contracts with both the MC range and T Series amplifiers from MC2 Audio. Recent installations in the UK and overseas include New College, Swindon; Empire Theatre, London; Portomaso Conference Centre, Malta; and the International School, Manila.

(Lee Baldock)

USA - Mackie Designs Inc has announced that it has agreed to an equity investment by an affiliate of Sun Capital Partners, a Boca Raton-based private investment firm. Under the proposed transaction, Sun Capital would acquire approximately 9.8 million shares of Mackie common stock, or approximately 65% of Mackie's total common stock outstanding, through the purchase of approximately 7.4 million outstanding shares from certain selling shareholders and approximately 2.4 million newly issued shares for a total of approximately $10 million in cash.

"We are excited about this transaction, which we expect to close by the first week of February," said Mackie CEO Jamie Engen. "Upon closing, Mackie will receive approximately $6.3 million in fresh capital. Just as important, we also expect to benefit from the active support and hands-on participation of Sun Capital in assist

South Korea - The 8,000-capacity Ju-An Presbyterian Church in Seoul has recently been opened with an astonishing armoury of XTA processing handling the audio. The 11 DP-Series, plus two DS800 mic/line distribution systems and 12 GQ600 Graphic EQs, are at the heart of a multi-screen video set-up for live coverage throughout the auditorium and other parts of the building.

Steve Kim of XTA's distributor in Korea, AVIX, comments: "This is a very important project, where our systems people were asked to offer the very best audio system available. This business needs the very best support, so we have established a division within our company to handle only this area. Our team consists of 12 people, from audio engineers to system integration specialists and CAD wizards."

"For the Ju-An facility, we combined Meyer UPM-1P and UPM-2P, plus a distributed audio system, for

World - In support of his newest CD, "A New Day at Midnight," David Gray continues to tour with High End Systems equipment adding Colors - Studio Colors, that is - to his tunes. Lighting contractors are Upstaging for the North American dates and Neg Earth for UK/Europe. LD Cormac Jackson has specified 26 Studio Color 575s - along with other automated lighting - and a Wholehog II console, saying that those two products are his favorites among gear.

Says LD Cormac Jackson: "Studio Colors are the only wash light I'll use. Studio Beams excluded! They work for David Gray and - more importantly - they work all the time. The fact that I can get Studio Colors in nearly all parts of the world is a real bonus. Lighting companies have them in stock and I don't have to re-specify shows. The light out of Studio Color is what I really want. It's not too harsh but it's bright, w

UK - James Thomas's new Pixel range of LED fixtures were specified and used by Granada TV lighting director Neil Yates on three special celebrity editions of the ITV's popular LE series Stars In their Eyes.

Yates utilized 16 Pixelline battens and eight PixelPAR 660 Par 64 equivalent fixtures, plus a large moving light rig for the shows. The Pixellines were used vertically all around the spectacular set - designed by Richard Plumb - to add a punchy architectural strip effect on camera. The PixelPAR 660s were also utilized visibly on the set, where they functioned as dancer footlights. Yates, who's lit this show for its various series over the last 5 years, decided to try the fixtures following a demo by James Thomas's Chris Ewington. Now "We wouldn't be without them" he enthuses.

Working with his team of Vari*Lite operator Mike 'Oz' Owen and console operator Ke

UK - Orange announced the winners of their Business Awards earlier this week in a ceremony that paid tribute to the entrepreneurial passion and dedication that goes into making a business truly successful. The 'Excellence in Exporting' category was specifically dedicated to those companies that have "excelled in the international market place and that have understood the importance of overseas growth as a way of expanding their business."

The short listed companies for this category included Stage Technologies, Reynolds Geo-Sciences Ltd, Blue Chip Feed Ltd and Nucoda. Despite this stiff competition, the judges - including Trade Partners UK and Emma Crosby from CNBC - voted Stage Technologies the clear winner, with their international approach and implementation of trading practices being hailed as 'outstanding'.

Stage Technologies was founded in 1994 by Mark Ager and

UK - DHA Lighting's David Hersey has been nominated for Best Lighting Award in the 2003 Laurence Olivier Awards for his design for Tom Stoppard's The Coast of Utopia. "It is an honour to be nominated for this award," said Hersey, whose design for the National Theatre production was unique. William Dudley's set, also nominated for Best Set Design, demanded moving lights to enhance the cinematic effect created by video images, without interfering with the video projection.

The Stoppard trilogy also featured large-format projection, using slides custom-predistorted by Wyatt Enever and Steve Larkins of DHA. After such close collaboration on the plays, DHA is delighted that the production has been nominated for a clutch of awards - also Best New Play and Best Costume Design. The company's products and services also feature in other nominated shows. Trevor Nunn's prod

USA - The Fog & Smoke Working Group, part of ESTA's Technical Standards Program, is starting work on a new standards project, BSR E1.23, Entertainment Technology -- Design and Execution of Theatrical Fog Effects. The standard is intended to offer guidance on the creation of atmospheric effects using glycol, glycerin, or white mineral oil fogs or mists in theatres, arenas, and other places of entertainment or public assembly. The standard will address the planning and execution of theatrical fog effects to avoid problems from excessive exposure to the fog materials or from the obscuration of hazards or safe paths of egress. In addition, the standard is intended to help avoid nuisance triggering of fire detection systems.

People and organizations that might be affected by the development of the standard are invited to become involved in the project by joining the Fog & Smoke Worki

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