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USA - USITT - the United States Institute for Theatre Technology, Inc. has accepted a permanent seat on ESTA’s new Certification Council. The Certification Council is the governing body which will manage the development and implementation of a new industry-wide certification programme for entertainment technology technicians.

USITT president Bruce Brockman has appointed Dennis Dorn, USITT vice-president for commissions and professor of theatre technology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison as USITT’s representative to the Council. He has also appointed Joe Aldridge, USITT vice-president for special operations, professor and technical director at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, and a trustee for IATSE Local 720-Nevada Resort Association’s Training Trust as their alternate member of the Council.

President Brockman commented: "USITT strongly endorse

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UK - Electric Fly Productions, run by Nick Jevons and Philip Winward, was denied the opportunity to completely rerig a two-day live event when the rain washed away the opening day of BBC Radio 1’s One Big Weekend at Heaton Park, Manchester, recently. The pair had been looking forward to combining festival experience with the tools Jevons was first exposed to by Screenco at their Illuminated Video Workshop in autumn 2000.

Radio 1 had stepped up its One Big Sunday events from last summer to include two entirely different production platforms. In the 10,000-capacity Kayam theatre tent, Jevons’ crew was ready to break down the projected Saturday night ‘in-the-round’ 3D dance production format overnight and replace it with a conventional stage (and three-plane video backdrop) for a rock concert on Sunday - until rain forced the cancellation of the Saturday sho

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Denmark - Martin Professional has announced an additional URL address for its international website (address below). The more common ‘dot com’ address will make it easier for Internet users to locate the Martin international website. For users not familiar with Martin as a Danish-based company, it was not always obvious to use the Danish .dk ending in the company’s international www.martin.dk website address, say the company. The www.martin.dk address that users have come to know over the years will remain functional however. Martin’s subsidiary and regional website

(Sarah Rushton-Read)

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Italy - Outline H.A.R.D. 212 monitors were used on the Italian version of The Ten Commandments, the French musical which tells the story of Moses and the Israelites' escape from Egypt to the Promised Land. In Italy, it followed up on the famous Notre Dame de Paris, debuted at Milan’s Mazda Palace on 9 March 2003 and closed in Parma on 14 June. The huge 300sq.m set hosted a total of 54 artists, including 38 dancers and 16 singers.

Flown for the first time, thanks to their dedicated hardware (unique for this type of enclosure, normally used on the floor), the Outline H.A.R.D. 212 monitors were greatly appreciated for their distinctive features: ultra-low (33cm) lines, uniform off-axis dispersion over the entire audio band and linear on-axis frequency response even when the distance varies by several metres. This last characteristic ensures artists greater freed

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UK - Blink TV, pioneers of large-screen entertainment programming, have expanded their editing and production facilities in Chichester. The facility includes the addition of Dominic Dandridge to the Blink team. He joins Marcus Viner, Blink TV’s head of production and computer animation specialist Lydia Baker in the production hot seats.

Dandridge comes from an industrial design background, and joins the company having completed a degree in Product Design at Bournemouth University. Tom Colbourne is the fourth member of the team and was instrumental in creating Blink’s award-winning visuals for Kylie’s ‘Fever’ tour last year.

Blink Production occupies the top two floors of a converted mill. The new edit suite includes both Avid Express and Cinewave edit systems, complete with Sapphire effects plug-ins for the Avid. The Cinewave runs Final Cut Pro,

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UK - Out Board’s CM-Series Motor Control distros for CM chain hoists have been purchased for a variety of applications in the current 2003 season’s touring and events. Star Rigging has acquired three units of the compact CM12 (12-channel) controllers to manage 28 axes of CM Lodestar hoists deployed on a massive 200ft x 40ft “flying stunt support truss.” Designed by Phil Broad and Gavin Weatherall for veteran boyband Westlife’s current arena tour, ‘Unbreakable’, the structure comes complete with I-beams along its length and breadth, used to float a substage out over the audience during the performance. A further CM12 is used on the main stage to animate five flying video screens, automated by an Ibex programmable hoist controller system. Star also purchased two CM6 six-channel controllers for rigging duties at the Albert Hall book launch of

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Italy - Sir Paul McCartney broke from his Back in the World European tour to give a memorable free concert to around 500,000 people gathered outside the Colosseum in Rome during May.

ESS built the main stage, a major undertaking since the sightlines needed to be kept clear to the Colloseum, yet it had to be capable of carrying the 60 tons of flown equipment. Big screen specialists Screenco meanwhile, joined forces with Nocturne Productions - the tour’s contracted video production company - to provide an inventory of 25mm LED displays, which were staggered down the Via dei Fori Imperiale in front of the famous landmark.

The former Beatle played for almost three hours, and for the majority in the audience, their main contact with the legendary performer was via the five 18sq.m screens, the stage action being relayed to the Screenco displays via Nocturne’s production

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Dubai - PALME, the Middle East’s professional sound, light, audio-visual and systems integration exhibition, is offering PLASA members a 25% discount off its space-only rate until 1 September 2003 (inclusive), or a 15% discount off the space-only rate thereafter.

There are strong reasons to justify attending: the Middle East continues to present the professional lighting and sound industries with significant market potential and is the world’s fastest growing tourist destination, predicted to attract 68.5 million tourists by 2020 - an annual growth rate of 7.1%, well above the world average of 4.1%.The region, and the UAE in particular, continue to invest huge sums in new, architecturally-driven initiatives which require state-of-the-art facilities to be competitive. Projects in development include the Kempinski Hotel on The Palm island (US$50 million); The Gardens s

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UK - Salisbury-based Stagecraft recently completed an interactive lighting and sound environment for a hydrotherapy pool - specially designed to help children with a variety of complex learning difficulties. Tony Gazzard is head teacher at Shepherd’s Down School in Winchester, where a recent reorganization of the town’s special needs facilities has resulted in a major programme of building and refurbishment - including the addition of the new pool.

Gazzard explains: "Hydrotherapy is simply very warm water where the children can come and relax. With hot water like this, they can start to stretch out their legs and arms and increase their range of movement after they’ve been sitting still for so long.

"Putting the lights in and the sound brings a whole new dimension to the use of the pool, and we can actually start to educate them in here as well. The

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UK - Formed in December 1994 by directors Tony Oates, Paul Ward and Gary Ashton, Fuzion is one of the UK’s most successful independent pro audio distributors. Sales director Paul Ward has strong views about what has kept the company successful, and a clear message to the industry about staying ahead in challenging economic environment.

"Of course we can attribute a certain amount of our success to having a core of strong brands," says Ward, "many of whom have been with us since the beginning, and on the whole, excellent relationships with our suppliers. However, it’s far from the whole story. As businesses we are all under pressure at the moment, and it’s at times like these where it’s even more important to remain professional. I believe we need to look at business models outside our own industry and apply them here . . . so often in our i

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UK - The Leicester Haymarket theatre is to close from August until the middle of next year, to give it space and time to address its financial difficulties. The decision to close the theatre, which reportedly has debts approaching half a million pounds, was taken at an emergency board meeting on May 19. The next day a notice was posted on the venue’s website outlining the details of the temporary closure, and the theatre’s intention to see the current programme through until the end of July.

Several factors have worked against the theatre. Its funding was cut by Leicester City Council earlier this year and it also lost money when shows were cancelled whilst it negotiated new pay rates with its staff - members of BECTU.

With the closure will come significant job losses, leaving a reduced core of staff to work on the development of new projects, and to plan for the o

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Germany - Bon Jovi kicked off the European stadium leg of their Bounce World Tour in Eurfurt Germany on 25 May with a new stage design. The satellite dishes from the first US leg have been retired, and the stage now features a moving high-resolution video screen, along with three bands of fixed low-resolution video across the complete width of the stage. The new stadium stage design was created by Doug 'Spike' Brant. The video screen was provided by Nocturne Video, and the specialized video screen support system was designed and manufactured by Brilliant Stages and Tomcat UK.

Brilliant Stages designed the vertical tracking system to support the six sections of moving high-resolution video screen. Four towers and a header truss pick up the screen sections, which are arranged three wide by two high. The towers transfer a portion of the weight of the video screen down to the stage

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Belgium - When Belgium’s Minister of Culture announced that 2003 was to be the year of Jacques Brel (one of the country’s great modern singer/songwriters in the French language), plans immediately got underway to ensure that events staged to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Belgian singer’s death would attract the attention of the world.

One of the key features is an exhibition charting Brel’s life. Stan Colders of Nexus Creative People was commissioned to design the exhibition, his ideas relying heavily on theatrical techniques - lighting, video and set dressing - mixed with artefacts from Brel’s childhood. The ‘set’ incorporates the house where Brel grew up, taking the visitor on a journey from Brussels to Paris, to a recreation of his Parisian room where he wrote many of his songs. Visitors can also re-live Brel’s last co

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UK - BBC training and development announced on 17 June 2003 that the 87,000 freelancers working in the audio-visual industries can now access free training via its website. This landmark development is the first step in the BBC’s plans to create a learning portal for the industry. The e-learning launch is part of BBC training and development’s ongoing commitment to help raise standards within the industry, and is a direct response to the AVITG Report 2001. The Report noted that the audio-visual industry is highly freelance dependent, (latest census figures from Skillset suggest they account for almost 44% of the industry’s workforce) yet few freelancers can afford the time or money to train.

The unpredictable nature of their work lies at the root of this problem. It means that most freelancers are unable to make long-term training commitments and pay for formal

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UK - Arbiter Pro Audio, UK distributor for JBL, has supplied sound installer Audiotek with a JBL system specified by sound designer Santi Arribas, for Rouge - a mix of clubbing, live music and parties. Arribas’ sound design needed to be dynamic yet comfortable for Rouge’s comparatively small areas, so he chose JBL elements for all five music rooms.

In addition to each room having its own character, Arribas wanted to produce a high-clarity, uniform venue-wide sound, so there was no overall dramatic divergence in volume or texturing as people moved around the building. The system also needed to deal equally well with different styles, DJs and mixing philosophies. The basement, ground floor and first floor rooms all feature identical systems speaker-wise, comprising four JBL SP212-9 (with 90° dispersion) and an SP 128 sub - all from JBL’s Sound Power series.

Th

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UK - Old Trafford’s ‘Theatre of Dreams’ saw as much action off the pitch as on during last month’s UEFA Champions League Final between Juventus and AC Milan. Outside the stands, the stadium was turned into a giant hospitality village as the major sponsor partners; Sony Computer Entertainment, MasterCard and Amstel laid on lavish entertainment inside, while fourth sponsor, Ford, turned their nearby showroom into a huge party zone.

CT Screenco was contracted by production company Denham Technical Services to provide a complete relay distribution, not only in the giant tented area but also within some of the permanent function rooms. Their inventory - mostly supplied by CT-NEC - enabled corporate hospitality guests to have a permanent visual reference to the live action, looped highlights and statistical information.

Sony Computer Entertainment placed the

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UK - Aura Sound Design recently belied its name to create the video as well as the audio content for the Royal Shakespeare Company's (RSC's) new stage version of Midnight's Children. Chosen as the ‘Booker of Bookers’ - the best novel to win the Booker Prize in its first 25 years, Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children follows India as it gains independence from Britain through the eyes of a child born at the same moment as the new state. The novel is epic in its scope; for the stage version director Tim Supple and designer Melly Still opted to use video both to provide background footage of the period the novel is set in, and as a means of presenting some of the show's more abstract moments.

The challenges presented to the Aura team, led by LDI Sound Designer of the Year 2002 John A Leonard, were both artistic and technical. They had to gather the archive materi

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UK - Fulcrum, the Bristol-based lighting and theming specialists have won a prestigious contract for Xscape, the new entertainment destination at Castleford, Leeds. This comes after Fulcrum was commissioned to oversee a number of themed installations at the Xscape Milton Keynes. The new contract includes the control, sound, audio visual and themed scenic elements. Xscape’s chief executive, P Y Gerbeau said: "We are delighted to work with Fulcrum again, and see their contribution to this massive project as an important part of the Xscape experience."

Xscape Castleford is due to open in early October of this year and is over 450,000sq.ft of an innovative mix of entertainment, leisure and retail. The total project cost just short of 70 million pounds. Within one state-of-the-art building, high adrenaline sports and leisure are successfully combined with retail outle

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UK - Over the past three years, PLASA has been conducting ongoing research into the key trends within the industry, the most recent results of which are currently being compiled. The research has been a valuable indicator for PLASA members, who have used the trends outlined in the research to redefine their businesses. It has also allowed PLASA to forge stronger links with official bodies such as the DTI and Trade Partners UK.

PLASA is looking at the possibility of running a half-day seminar on the research findings: led by Trevor Wilkinson of Business Diagnostics, the session will demonstrate to members how they can gain commercial benefit from the research. PLASA envisages that the event will be a half-day session, starting at 11.00am and concluding at 2.00pm, followed by lunch, and is currently looking at venues in London. The event would be open to all PLASA members.

If yo

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Germany - Deutsche Post's new Post Tower in Bonn is the latest creation of widely respected architect Helmut Jahn (of Chicago-based Murphy/Jahn Inc). Ranked the seventh tallest building in Germany (and the highest outside Frankfurt), the 163m high, 48-story skyscraper is elliptical in shape and consists of twin towers connected on every floor by a glass bridge across an interior open space. Scheduled to be used as office space, the Post Tower was constructed for Deutsche Post, Germany's privatized national mail service, the lead tenant for the building. Avi-Sys Kommunikationstechnik GmbH won the audio contract for the project.

Avi-Sys selected QSC's highly-regarded CX Series amplifiers for their reliability and sonic output quality, along with the company's CM16a amplifier network monitors and QSControl, QSC's Ethernet-based network audio system - to power and control the Kling

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UK - Legendary dance event, Southport Weekender, used Allen & Heath mixers on all the arenas at the 32nd event, which took place from 9-11 May at Pontins Holiday Centre, Southport, Merseyside. Divided into four genres, The Powerhouse (house and garage), The Funkbase (R 'n B and hip hop), The Connosieurs' Corner (soul) and The Bacardi Bar (jazz and drum & bass), the event included headline performances from 'Little Louie' Vega, Ronnie Herel, Richard Searling and Gilles Peterson.

Allen & Heath’s Xone:62 mixers were installed in three arenas but a Xone:V6 was the preferred choice for the flagship stage, The Powerhouse. EAW provided speaker systems for the event and European technical sales manager, Sean Martin, commented: “Southport Weekender runs twice a year and attract over 5,000 people from across Europe. DJs apart, the top performance for me had to be Allen & Heath

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UK - Particularly focused on theatre lighting designers and those working in the field, Light Relief gives help in the form of financial or practical support. Examples of people Light Relief has been able to help include an LD who lost the use of both his legs, another LD who, following recovery from cancer, needed help to catch up with the latest technology and the young son of a lighting technician, whose death left the family without financial support.

Back in September 2001, Light Relief selected a board of trustees, which include some of the profession’s best-known names. Headed by Honorary President Richard Pilbrow, LDs David Hersey, Andrew Bridge, Rick Fisher and Patrick Woodroffe, along with Matthew Griffiths - managing director of PLASA, John Simpson - chairman and CEO of White Light, Lesley Harmer - public relations consultant, and Tony Gottelier - senior partner

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UK - CT Screenco has supplied Lighthouse Technologies’ latest LPV1650 16mm LED display to Endemol UK, for the 10-week run of Big Brother at Elstree Film Studios. Designed in a 3 x 3 concave configuration, the display measures 3.06m wide x 2.28m high, and marks a breakthrough in that it is the first time a big LED screen has been incorporated into the show. It has been installed for the duration of the show in George Lucas Stage 1, specifically at the request of director, Tony Gregory, who started working with the show last year and is now directing the fourth series of the reality TV programme.

Gregory explained that he wanted to move the style of presentation forward: “In the past we had used old-fashioned video cube technology but I felt there needed to be a more imposing presence in the sound stage area, particularly for the eviction day on Friday. The LED display

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UK - Canegreen has just reached a landmark 21 years in business this May. They recently unveiled new corporate identities across the group of companies. Canegreen was the first audio rental company in Europe to invest in the new Meyer Milo cabinets, included as part of the line array system installed on the Isle of Wight Festival.

The festival is steeped in history, and returned for its second year with a two-day line up, there are now plans to expand the festival over the next five years. The line-up was headed by Bryan Adams and Paul Weller, joined by American chart toppers Counting Crows, The Darkness (due to support Robbie Williams on his tour this summer), Starsailor, The Ravonettes and Hell is for Heroes.

The line array system design for this site required careful consideration, with residents close-by, noise pollution was an important consideration, Canegreen used Meyer

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  5. Sennheiser Aviation sponsors solo round-the-world flight
  6. IAAM joins ESTA Certification Council
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