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UK - Sennheiser UK has announced it is sponsoring a double bill of free festival entertainment this year at Ashton Gate Park, Bristol. The first Sennheiser Sounds of Summer Festival will be on Friday 8 August and the live finals of the third annual Sennheiser Unsigned Artist Contest the following evening.

The events take place as part of the Bristol International Balloon Fiesta 2003, sponsored by Vodaphone Live! The Friday night free festival features legendary Scottish songsmiths Hue and Cry, supported by the Cosmic Rough Riders, plus performances from Tippi, The Hazey Janes, Jo Stevens, Tony Moore and DJ Miss Behavin'.

The Saturday Unsigned Artist Contest final kicks off at 2 pm, with live appearances by all the finalists - Hooper, Nowhere Near the Garden, The Adventures of B Violet, The Climb, Demon Summer and Range#Eleven. Saturday's show also features the tabla and guitar

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Canada - Olympic skating champions Jamie Sale and David Pelletier christened Princess Cruises' newest passenger super liner Island Princess earlier this week, in a ceremony which also marked the operator's third decade of sailing from the Canadian Port. Island Princess and her sister ship Coral Princess, which joined the fleet in January, will be sailing seven-day Gulf of Alaska cruises from Vancouver and Seward.

The entertainment facilities onboard are second to none, featuring three show lounges including the state-of-the-art Universe lounge. Split over two decks, the Universe lounge was designed to facilitate a diverse range of entertainment options from Princess production shows to movie screenings.

Stage Technologies, perhaps most widely recognized for their work on land-based theatres such as the Royal Opera House and the stage production of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

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USA - ANSI's Board of Standards Review has approved ANSI E1.5-2003, Entertainment Technology - Theatrical Fog made with Aqueous Solutions of Di- and Trihydric Alcohols. This standard is now referenced in ESTA's 'A Test Is Worth a Thousand Words' fog testing program and is available for free download from the ESTA website.

The new standard specifies the components of glycol and glycerin fog and the ceiling and the time-weighted-average exposure limits for the fogs. The ceiling limits are rationally based on scientific data and are consistent with the ceiling limits that have been specified in many performer union contracts, but the standard goes beyond those contractual limits by also controlling the time-weighted-average levels. It specifies the glycols which can be used in a conforming fog to proscribe irritating, common industrial glycols and ensure that only those gly

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UK - North London's hottest new nightclub was designed as a 'reactive antidote' to the current trend toward 'superclubs' in London and other major cities. The 800-capacity Egg has been more than six years in the planning. Carved out of a former Victorian warehouse, the venue is described by owner Laurence Malice as "an entertainment leisure space rather than a club."

The venue is something of a work in progress, with the revamping and augmenting of the existing structure being carried out in a series of phases. The industrial minimalist design has been extended into all three storeys of the expanded building, with a plan in place to landscape and enclose the courtyard entryway to extend the club's capacity to around 1,500.

The sound system in the club goes well beyond simply powerful, though power is certainly not lacking. London company Blue Box, led by Mark Metcal

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UK - The annual Hayden Laboratories Cricket Cup Challenge is taking place on Thursday 7 August at Littlewick Green Cricket Club, near Maidenhead in Berkshire. Now in its fourth year, the cricket challenge match sees a scratch team representing the sound and lighting industry line-up against a team drawn from the combined ranks of PLASA Show organizers Clarion Events and PLASA team.

The event starts at 4pm and is followed by a BBQ at 7.30pm, which will be charged at £6.50 per head. All are welcome to attend and lend their support to this popular event. If you are interested in attending please contact Nicky Rowland at Clarion on +44(0)20 7370 8231 (nicky.rowland@plasashow.com) or Simon Curtis at Hayden Laboratories + (0)1753 888447 (simon.curtis@denon.co.uk) for further details and directions.

(Ruth Rossington)

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UK - For the third year running, the television phenomenon that is Channel 4's Big Brother has Audio-Technica microphones positioned throughout the House. Occupying every single fixed mic point, the 31 Audio-Technica products were specified for the show by sound supervisor Oliver France, who, working in conjunction with Middlesex based OB company, Roll to Record, designed and constructed the complicated audio system for BB4 on behalf of TV production company Endemol.

Wherever the contestants go in the house, an Audio-Technica microphone picks up any sound, so that even when they take their personal radio mics off, the viewers hear every single word. Big Brother addresses the house through an AT4050 and when the housemates are in the house's wet rooms, they are picked up by AT871WR waterproof boundary mics.

During the weekly nominations in the Diary Room, the nominators speak i

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Germany - Three sound companies based in Düsseldorf, Germany, recently decided to create an audio pool and standardize their audio material: after establishing their amplifier rental stock, Merz Concept, Medientechnik Stüttgen and Max Stabel, decided to invest in mixing consoles that could be used for a variety of events and consequently made the decision to purchase three ML3000-32 mixers.

With these three consoles, a majority of their rental business is covered and on bigger events the consoles can be connected via Allen & Heath's Sys-Link 2 system. Merz Concept's Jens Meinke said: "The ML3000 is a hard working, excellent sounding console - a really great tool for the sound engineer - and there is no other VCA console on the market that is so competitively priced. Standardizing our audio material gave us more flexibility and minimizes system failures."

(Lee Baldo

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UK - Star Hire (Event Services) Ltd completed its third year as principal stage contractor for this year's tenth anniversary of T in the Park, held in Kinross, Scotland. Star Hire supplied staging and site structures as T in the Park celebrated its tenth birthday, selling out 55,000 tickets and receiving rave reviews from festival goers and press alike for it's relaxed atmosphere and excellent line-up of bands.

A VT 20-20 FPVL featured as the centrepiece to the event, the main stage. With the recognisable T in the Park scrims, the stage acted as the settings for bands including The Coral, The Darkness, Supergrass, the Cardigans and headliners, Coldplay and REM. The stage measured 47.5m wide and 17.5m high to the apex with a 2.5m stage height.

The NME stage was a newly enlarged Vertech design by Star Hire; the VT 15-15 FL was introduced at T in the Park this year, in place of

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Europe - EAW's new KF730 SLAM (Small Line Array Module) has made its touring debut, joining the Legends of rock, Deep Purple, on their summer tour of Europe. 16 KF730 boxes were supplied by ML Executives, sound contractor for the tour, alongside a 28 KF760 arena system and 24 SB1000 subwoofer cabinets.

Gary Marks of ML Executives says of the inaugural outing: "The new EAW KF730 line array system is the ideal compliment to the EAW KF760 line array, we have until now been using KF850 cabinets for the short-throw side hang applications in arenas but now we have the KF730 - it's the ideal solution. The KF730 is also a great compact stand-alone line array system, which sounds fantastic and ground stacks excellently."

The tour kicked off in Austria in June before playing a further 16 dates in five countries, up to and including the Nandrin festival in Belgium on 10 August.

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UK - Wigwam Sales has completed the installation of an L-Acoustics ARCS system at the Abundant Life Church in Bradford. The system comprises of 2 x 6 flown arrays of ARCS, with each hang delivering 135° coverage in the horizontal plane with 40° down and 20° up in the vertical domain. Each single ARCS cabinet is 22.5° horizontal by 60° vertical due to the asymmetrical Wavefront Sculpture Technology (WST) waveguide. The inverted arrays are complemented by two SB218 subwoofers per side, and the system is powered by a combination of both LA24a and LA48a amplifiers.

Mike Spratt, managing director of Wigwam Acoustics, comments: "The 1,500-capacity church is very wide and also has a long balcony at the back and down both sides, so it was important to be able to cover the entire auditorium from a L/R system without having to use standard delays and fills. The ARCS is the perfe

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UK - Audace Ltd, manufacturer of the Intelliplate programmable control system for audio-visual installations, has appointed Prase Engineering S.r.l. of Treviso - an established distributor of professional audio-visual equipment - to distribute its products exclusively in Italy. The deal was brokered by Audace's global distribution partner Comsec International.

Following the appointment, managing director of Audace Ltd, Bryan Waters, recently visited the distributors' facilities, which are situated close to Venice. The visit provided Prase Engineering staff with an opportunity to view the system first hand, receive technical training and see future plans for the Intelliplate product range.

Bryan Waters welcomed the appointment, commenting: "Prase is extremely well-placed, in terms of resources, complementary products within its portfolio and its status within the Italian m

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UK - Studio design company, Munro Acoustics, has completed the monitor installation and acoustic refurbishment of a new audio dubbing theatre at BBC Post Production in Bristol. The project involved the installation of a 5.1 surround-sound monitoring system based on custom Dynaudio Acoustics C3F main monitors, BM6 surround speakers and custom T1000 amplifiers. This is identical to the system Munro Acoustics installed in October 2002, when it completed the acoustic refurbishment of a similar dubbing theatre.

The refurbishment is part of general expansion of the audio facilities at BBC Post Production in Bristol, where there are now two main dubbing theatres with Foley facilities and a third, smaller, dubbing theatre with a commentary booth. The complex also houses three track lay areas. Both the large dubbing theatres are equipped with AMS Neve MMC consoles, while the smaller thea

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UK - Pioneer is planning a spectacular stand at this year's PLASA showcase, and the exhibition, held at Earls Court, London from 7-10 September 2003, promises to be better than ever. As well as showcasing the new CDJ-1000MkII, plus the range of professional DJ products, Pioneer is planning to unveil an exciting new product at the show aimed at promising DJs. In addition, Roger Sanchez and the Scratch Perverts will be performing in Pioneer's live DJ Booth - and will also be joined by the amazing Tom Stefan.

(Lee Baldock)

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Portugal - For performing arts lovers everywhere, Portugal is the place to be this summer, with an array of festivals and events taking place right through until September. The programme of dance, music and drama has become a must tour stop for some of the world's most prestigious performing arts companies.

The world heritage village of Sintra is considered to be one of the country's hottest tourists spots for those seeking culture, with much of this accolade owing to its annual festival, Festival de Sintra. Hosting a variety of performances from Opera through to Ballet, the two-month long celebrations take place in every conceivable venue from theatres right through to churches and parks.

The annual success of this festival has seen a number of new builds take place in the small village, the Centro Cultural Olga Cadaval (CCOC) being one of the more recent. Stage Technologies

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UK - Soundtracs has relaunched its website. The new site, which opens with the newly-launched DS-00 digital modular post-production and broadcast mixing system, features more detailed product information, greatly improved navigation and visual design, and full technical support contacts.

Also included are the complete range of Soundtracs digital consoles, worldwide distributor listings, downloadable technical PDFs and details of trade shows at which Soundtracs will be exhibiting. Marketing director Dave Webster commented: "The pace of product development at Soundtracs continues to accelerate and we have completely redesigned the website to reflect this. People can access a lot of information in a clear and easy-to-access format."

(Ruth Rossington)

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US / Europe - Annie Lennox's recent solo tour utilized two Mackie SDR24/96 hard disk recorders used to bring the haunting voice of the ex-Eurythmic to venues across the US and Europe. For programmer and keyboard technician Ozzie Henderson, the Mackie set-up performed even better than expected. He commented: "I used the two Mackie SDRs for the entire 10-week tour of the US and Europe and they performed faultlessly, easily standing up to the rigors of the road without breaking a sweat."

The decision to use the Mackie SDRs came after tour musical director Mike Stevens expressed a need for playing back programmed audio, the ability to cue songs instantly and most importantly, have machines that were reliable. For this reason, he decided to investigate hard disk recorders and subsequently contacted Mackie UK.

The need for a playback option is essential on a live tour due

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UK - Pearce Hire, specialist lighting and temporary power supplier, provided its services for the Forestry Commission tour this June. The tour, now in its third year, took in five forests (Sherwood Forest, Thetford Forest, Bedgebury Pinetum, Dalby Forest and Dellamere Forest) across the country, for a series of concerts involving Status Quo, Jools Holland, Level 42, the Beach Boys, the Wonder Stuff and Motorhead.

Pearce Hire have been involved with the tour since it began in 2001, supplying the lighting equipment, generators and power distribution systems. Shaun Pearce and the team from Pearce Hire worked closely with David Barrow, production manager for the Forestry Commission and event organizer Mike Taylor, to pull the project together. For this year's event, Pearce provided 20 generators allocated across the five sites, as well as a lighting rig for each stage and site-wid

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UK / Germany - Brown Box AV, one of the key wholesalers of quality AV and lighting solutions, has signed a dealership agreement for Germany with Soundcheck GmbH, one of Germany's leading AV providers to the health and fitness industry. Soundcheck has installed AV solutions into top name clubs across Germany, including Reebok, 24 Hour Fitness and Fitness First to name but a few.

Dave Goody, European business development manager, commented: "Soundcheck first saw Audeon [Brown Box's wireless entertainment system for health clubs and gyms] at FIBO and were impressed with the product. Their managing director, Denis Nessler, immediately identified that it was exactly what the German market has been waiting for. I am delighted that we have joined forces with Soundcheck GmbH and am sure that they are an ideal professional partner for our first foray into Germany. Soundcheck GmbH ha

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Belgium - Last Monday King Albert II of Belgium celebrated 10 years of reign with a big outdoor party in Brussels. The event was a huge success; according to the Brussels police more than 45,000 people attended the concerts. On the stage, which was situated in front of the monumental Palace of Justice, 100 Xilver Droplet moving LED luminaires lit the musicians.

The Droplets were placed everywhere on stage between the orchestra and on the catwalk. ETC Source Fours along with VL2Cs, VL5s and VL2200s from Vari-lite, lit the rest of the stage. With the unique Xilver color-combining system (16 million colors) the tiny Droplets could easily match every color from the other fixtures on stage.

On stage, Xilver also placed 12 red LED blinders, made up of 96 Luxeon LEDs, each saturated the stage with red light and strobed extremely fast during the final Dance event of the Kings celebrat

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Europe - Autograph Sound Recording has won the equipment supply contract for three new musical productions across Europe - Les Misérables at the Theater des Westens in Berlin and Mamma Mia! at Het Beatrix Theater in Utrecht, both of which open in September, and We Will Rock You, due to open at the Teatro Calderon in Madrid in November.

One of Autograph's longest-running success stories is its ongoing work on worldwide productions of Les Misérables. The show opened in the West End in December 1985 with a sound design by Autograph chairman Andrew Bruce, and since then the company has been involved in over 30 productions worldwide.Designing the Berlin production is Autograph sound designer Nick Lidster, who was part of the original sound department at The Palace Theatre. This is Lidster's first design of Les Misérables and his updated design no

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UK - The Victorian magnificence of Glasgow's City Chambers is one of nine important landmarks being spotlighted in the latest phase of the council's £2.6m lighting strategy. The three-year plan, launched in March last year, has already gone a long way towards achieving the council's aim of showcasing Glasgow to the world as a beautiful and vibrant 24-hour city.

A sophisticated combination of light fittings spectacularly illuminates the grand façade and sides of the City Chambers' original 1880s West Building which dominates George Square. Other newly illuminated structures include the George V Bridge over the Clyde, the main Killermont Street entrance of Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, St George's Tron Church in Nelson Mandela Place, the historic Tron Steeple in Trongate, and Drumchapel Water Tower.

The city's lighting strategy is being driven forward by council leader, Charles

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USA - Since taking the new Vari*Lite Series 3000 luminaires to the bottom of the ocean floor is not recommended, Broadway lighting designer Ken Billington did the next best thing - and used 17 of the VL3000 spot fixtures to create the illusion of aquatic acrobatics for 'Odyssea', which recently opened at Sea World in Orlando. The 25-minute show features aerial acts, contortionists, trampoline acts and a variety of other performers. All the movement is choreographed to give the impression that the performance is taking place underwater.

Billington needed an automated lighting package with a colour system to pull off the illusion. The VL3000 Spot luminaires allow him to create "water" to light the air and scenery. "Most of the activity is supposed to take place underwater," he explained. "So it was a challenge to be able to get water ripples that could cha

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UK - It's all go for Bristol-based Stage Electrics with two of their eight branches moving to bigger and better premises. The company's London branch will begin construction of its new bespoke warehouse this month. The new 10,000sq.ft location on Long Lane will replace the Waterloo Road unit. As one of the largest suppliers of technical equipment to the West End and Touring theatre market, the new site will include a demonstrations area, dedicated hire inventory and an impressive range of consumables.

Stage Electrics Exeter is moving too, but not so soon. Having outgrown its Marsh Barton site, it will be relocating, 'just around the corner' to new premises in March next year. The 11,000sq.ft building will, in addition to housing the company's hire and sales kit, contain a custom-built demonstration area equipped with the latest lighting, audio, projection and control equipment.

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UK - Saturday 19 July 2003 saw the Millennium Dome spring to life once again, hosting the capital's Respect festival, held in commemoration of Stephen Lawrence, the teenager who was murdered in a racist attack in 1993. The venue was changed at the last moment due to the former venue being destroyed by a fire. However, the Dome proved to be the ideal replacement and London's Mayor Ken Livingston said that next year's event would be on an even larger scale, bringing this festival on a national level. The Dome saw over 30,000 people listening to music from Rap, Hip Hop, and pop over eight stages. Headlining the event was Hip Hop artist's Public Enemy and Gregory Isaacs.

The sound was handled by Will Power PA, with JBL VerTec VT4889s being flown eight aside of the main stage. Adlib Audio supplied their own 2 x 18" subs, stacked eight per side on the ground. Will Norton commente

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  6. Mackie announces new appointment
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