Business

Details
UK - I-Vision has supplied 12m of its new I-LED 1200 colour changing LED strip light system to lighting specialists Fentura Production Services. These went straight out on the road for a UK tour with L'Oreal, starring renowned hairdresser Trevor Sorbie.

I-Vision's latest DMX-controlled LED lighting product utilizes Luxeon high-brightness LEDs. Fentura's Tim Matthews explains that they added the I-Vision strips to their hire stock because the fixtures are ideal for 'set' lighting, and are equally as bright as other LED products - but more cost effective. Matthews' lighting design for the L'Oreal show featured seven I-LED 1200mm strips and four I-LED 600mm strips, which were used to up-light the shiny PVC set, designed by Russ Mamik of Pulse Event Services. The LEDs produced a full range of pastel and deeply saturated colours.

Matthews' biggest challenge was to make the set look

Details
UK - Red Bull UK staged their biggest ever event in Hyde Park, London, in early August. The event, hosted by Tess Daly and Brian Dowling, involved 40 teams launching their homemade flying machines off a 6m high runway into the Serpentine, cheered on by thousands of enthusiastic onlookers.

Attended by an estimated 150,000 people, who watched the 40 teams of mad participants launching themselves in home-built 'flying machines' from the huge floating runway, the event was the climax of 18 months of planning and development, which involved over 110 Red Bull staff.

At the centre of the serpentine was the main runway, built by Star Hire, an impressive 40m long by 10m wide, leaving the contestants and their flying machines a 6m drop into the water. To ensure all the crowds could see the action in the park, which is covered in trees, four big screens with relay sound systems were empl

Details
UK - Vestax Europe has announced that it will be pulling together an all-star line up for DJ Sunday at PLASA 2003. The world famous Carl Cox will be launching his mixer, the PMC-CX, whilst Karl 'Tuff Enuff' Brown and Lisa Unique will launch the all-new PMC-500 club mixer, an industry standard of the future.

Meanwhile Andy Smith of Portishead and Dynamo Productions, will be performing his Document 2 album on the new Vestax scratch mixer and visitors will also be able to see DJ Pogo and Dj Biznizz (En4cers) perform on the Faderboard. Plus, the Vestax World Champion DJ Woody will be throwing open a challenge to all comers to show any innovative tricks on the PDX turntable with the opportunity to win a whole bunch of Vestax goodies. The company is also throwing a party on Sunday 7th with DJ Andy Smith and some very special guests lined up.

Vestax can be found on Stand H80.

(Ruth

Details
UK - This year's Festival of Speed, the 10th anniversary event at the Earl of March's idyllic Goodwood estate, was dominated by a stunning structure built for Ford by Edwin Shirley Staging (ESS). Designed by Gerry Judah of Judah Design and turned into reality by ESS's Steve Colley and Graham Turner, the spectacularly sloping structure presented replicas of the three Ford GT40s which won the historic 1st, 2nd and 3rd place victory at the 1966 Le Mans 24-hour race.

"The project was all about 100 years of Ford," said ESS project manager Rob Smalldon, "and was one of the most challenging projects I've been involved with for some time."

From the ground, the structure rose 34m with a width of 25m. Edwin Shirley Trucking (EST) shipped in 217m of regular roof truss, 126m of LT Tower Truss, 604m of cabling and 102 bespoke purlins in a total of 16 trucks. The ESS tea

Details
UK - The Soundtracs DS-00 digital production console, launched at the NAB Convention in Las Vegas in April, has notched up its first 10 sales since it began shipping last month. The DS-00 breaks new ground in combining a wealth of high-end post-production and broadcast facilities in a compact, modular console at an unprecedented price point.

Among the first 10 customers is renowned songwriter/producer Peter Vettese, whose recent musical collaborations have included Mark Owen, Beverley Knight, Mel C and Annie Lenox's 'Bare' album. Peter is upgrading his Andy Munro-designed production room - Production Suite 2 - at Sphere Studios, south London, having used a Soundtracs Virtua console for several years.

Peter comments: "A lot of production rooms in London are focused around ProTools, which I use at Sphere, but I find that having an external mixing desk with plenty of headroo

Details
The Netherlands - Rising Dutch singer/songwriter Tasha's World opted to use Trantec's award-winning S5000 wireless radio microphone system from the start of her professional tour 18 months ago. Her unique vocals have caused a stir in Europe, Japan and in the UK with her being awarded an Essent Award in June 2003. Numerous radio and television appearances, coupled with performances at major International Festivals, including The Lowlands Festival and Noorderslag Festival and more recently at the world famous North Sea Jazz in The Hague, have further propelled Tasha's World into a league of her own as one of Europe's most talented 'Hip Soul' artists.

Tasha's World performs live with a complement of eight musicians and two backing vocals. As a veritable 'jazz soul' set-up, Trantec's S5000 MC hand-held condenser microphone operates to maximum effect, providing an ideal complement fo

Details
UK - It's being described as popular entertainment at its best, a show which reverts to 'a time when men were men and women were broads'. Frank, Sammy and Dean - The Rat Pack Live from Las Vegas opened to rave reviews in June at the Strand Theatre in London. Just over a month later it has succeeded in breaking the theatre's box office records with more than 200,000 tickets sold so far. The show, produced by Flying Music, celebrates the talents of Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr and Dean Martin, who are immortalized on stage in this lavish production set in their favourite live venue, The Sands Hotel in Las Vegas.

LiteStructures was called in to build the stage set. John Roe, LiteStructures' sales representative said: "When Sean Cavanagh, the set designer came to us asking for something tough but attractive enough to keep up with the glitzy Las Vegas image, ClearDeck wa

Details
Greece - Situated in Markopoulo, some 40km from the gates of Athens, the new Olympic Equestrian Center is setting new standards of excellence in the riding world in terms of modernity, amenities and spectator comfort. The centre in fact comprises four different stadiums: the three outdoor stadia for dressage, show jumping and horse racing and a fourth general purpose stadium indoors. This is one of a total of 26 venues that have been, or are being, built for the Olympic Games scheduled for Athens in 2004.

The vast dimensions of the equestrian arenas posed logical and technical problems, not least in terms of sound reinforcement. Omikron Control SA was entrusted with the task of installing a sound system capable of solving the problems, and chose to rely upon products from Electro-Voice. The new DSP-controlled Precision Series amplifiers of the RL series form the heart of the ins

Details
UK - Following its move to a new facility in the main Bosch HQ in Denham, Bosch Security Systems has just opened an enhanced new integrated demonstration centre for its CCTV, Fire and Intrusion, PA and Congress products. The demonstration centre allows the company's growing product and systems range to be demonstrated at a single location, either as separate products and linked together as integrated systems.

"For the first time, our installers, consultants and customers can see our full range of products and how they can be inter-linked to form complete integrated systems for alarms, announcements, evacuation and building management - all in a single well-equipped location," said MD Joe McCann at the official opening. ""More and more installers and customers are interested in integrating remote surveillance and fire/intrusion detection along with evacuation

Details
France - Professional audio technologies developer and manufacturer, RCF (a Mackie Designs brand), has recently been involved in an extensive audio installation at the famous Charles De Gaulle International airport in Paris. The company supplied a range of equipment to fit a public address system in the airport's new Terminal two building and Terminal two car park.

700 RCF SP400s and 300 RCF SP300 speakers were installed in Terminal two's passenger lounge, whilst for the Terminal two car park, 360 RCF loudspeakers, mounted in metallic cases, were specified. Three racks of equipment were also installed in the technical room of Terminal two: the first rack consisted of an RCF CP3100 control unit, an RCF MB3200 mainframe, an RCF RD2008 digital cassette recorder/ player for announcements, an RCF DX810 digital audio mixer/ signal processor, three RCF PS3400 power suppliers plus a spa

Details
UK - In July 2003, Essex-based Clarity in Sound Light & Vision Ltd became Leisuretec Distribution's 100,000th customer since the Company's inception in 1990. Clarity purchased a Trantec radio mic system, used as part of a complete sound system for a swimming gala event at a leisure centre in Hertfordshire.

Clarity specializes in supply and installation of audio, lighting and visual equipment to theatres, schools, churches and leisure centres. Stuart Graham, managing director of Clarity said: "We offer superb technical support and product knowledge to our customers, built upon knowledge gained from spending the last 25 years working in the leisure and entertainment industry, including a period spent working at Leisuretec Distribution as technical sales manager."

Leisuretec's managing director Nick Spalding commented: "It was pure coincidence that our 100,000th cu

Details
UK - Steve Warren - the well-known sales director of Avolites Ltd - made a rare live appearance as RADlite digital media server operator for last week's Hadley vs Cox gig at Shepherd's Bush Empire. He was hired for the show by lighting designer Dave Gibbon.

Warren is more usually seen at trade shows and on sales missions around the world, flying the flag for the Avolites sales team. He comments: "It's great to get hands-on with actual show operation. I have to admit I was nervous before the show, as this is the first time I've been hired professionally as a RADlite operator, but once it got going, I got into my stride."

Hadley vs Cox was an epic - and unique - show devised by 1980s superstars Tony Hadley of Spandau Ballet and Pete Cox of Go West, featuring all the hits and more from the era of New Romantic and Electronica. The two artists have worked together on many

Details
USA - Musical legend Bryan Ferry is taking an array of Audio-Technica microphones across the water for a short stateside tour with Roxy Music, with AT4054s on vocal duty, AT4050s on electric guitars and overheads and AT4047s covering the acoustic guitars.

Taking a short break before full production rehearsals begin, the tour's monitor engineer, Steve May, explained why the trademark characteristics of the A-T range appealed to the sound crew. "I know it sounds like a standard press release quote, but A-T's mics genuinely sound great and are very reliable. As a live act those are the two main things that you look for in your mics, so it's no surprise that there is a strong A-T presence on the channel list for this tour and for Bryan's solo gigs. The band also use a number of Audio-Technica mics in the studio, so having a similar line-up out on the road enables us to achieve

Details
UK - Lighting designer Will Charles was the first television lighting designer to use all 12 of Richard Martin Lighting's hire stock of the new Clay Paky Stage Profile Plus SV, when he specified them for the second series of quiz show Judgemental. Charles was keen to create a visual identification with the first series of Judgemental, and to achieve this he sought the help of Projected Image, who developed some colour gobos from a jpeg image of a crowded scene, which were then used in the Stage Profile Plus SVs. The image was utilized as a predominant backdrop for close-up and mid-shots.

Will Charles, who was assisted by moving light operator David Bishop, explained his choice of lighting - which also included Vari*Lite VL1000TS, Pulsar ChromaBank and Clay Paky Stage Color 300 fixtures - and gave his opinion on the performance of the Stage Profile Plus SV: "The Stage Profil

Details
UK - CT Screenco returned to the Ross Theatre bandstand at Edinburgh's Princes Street Gardens to fulfil a vast array of technical requirements at this year's Edinburgh Festival - billed as 'The UK's biggest free arts event of the year'. Their contract with Sean Rourke's Arts For Life is one of Screenco's most unusual, since a lot of their work is done 'on the fly' as they come into contact with a vast array of cultural content. Screenco also integrates broadcast students and volunteers into the team, who are sent out with ENG equipment to gather news, which is then edited in real time and relayed live to the 4 x 415mm LED daylight display.

The three weeks of he Festival Fringe are enough to keep Screenco's representative Jon Baverstock on his toes around the clock. The highlight of this year was undoubtedly the scheduled appearance of Joan Baez, Emmylou Harris, Chrissie Hynde, B

Details
UK - Hawthorn Theatrical selected Allen & Heath mixers for use throughout the 5th annual Sprite Urban Games, held from 25-27 July 2003 on Clapham Common in South West London, UK. This increasingly popular free sports festival, revolving around BMX, skateboard, breakdancing and music, saw several improvements this year including a larger B-Boy arena and enhanced Freestyle Motorcross (FMX) jump, as well as an impressive line-up of underground London DJs from the likes of Botchit & Skarper, Catskills, Marine Parade, FAT and the Funkin'Pussy crew.

Hawthorn provided all the audio equipment for the event, selecting Allen & Heath mixers in all the arenas. A Xone:02 scratch mixer was installed on the main stage, running through a GL2200 live sound console at front-of-house. Two Xone:02 mixers were set up for battle mixing on the B-Boy arena, run through a GL2 console. There were also Xo

Details
UK - Cambridge Folk Festival, now in its 39th year, presented an eclectic mix of roots and folk music to a sell out audience of 10,000 avid music fans this August. Many of those fans were also musicians, with impromptu jam sessions running late into the night. The bands on stage ranged from The Sawdoctors, the Eliza Carthy Band, Robert Randolph and the Family Band.

Canegreen designed and installed three separate PA systems for each of the stages, all featuring a range of Meyer speaker cabinets, Lab Gruppen amps and state-of-the-art control systems. Pete Hughes was Canegreen's project manager for the festival, he explained: "We selected the equipment and designed the systems to suit the dynamics and style of music played over the weekend and we have received a lot of praise from the audience about the sound, which is always great."

Production manager Ken Rankin explai

Details
Israel - Sontronics, Soundcraft's Israeli distributor, has supplied a Series 10s broadcast console for a special event that took place recently in the ancient biblical town of Nazareth in Galilee. The occasion was the inauguration of a new cultural centre and radio broadcast studio, set up as a joint Jewish/Arabic cultural initiative designed to foster understanding and co-operation. "This is the first of its kind in this troubled part of the world," explains Sontronics managing director, Sonny Shmueli.

The Series 10s broadcast console, supplied along with microphones, headphones and studio monitors, is designed for use in local and community radio stations. It is simple to use for the novice, but its fully modular design renders it versatile enough to integrate into professional broadcast environments. Frames with 12, 20 or 28 channels are available, selected from Mon

Details
UK - Glasgow-based PA rental company Sound Acoustics has purchased a NEXO GEO S Tangent Array system from Fuzion plc, one of the first companies in Scotland to do so. Sound Acoustics' director Tommy Gorman describes walking into a GEO demo at Fuzion, and leaving with 16 boxes. That very week, the system went out on a three-month tour, and Sound Acoustics rapidly placed another purchase order.

"We've doubled the size of it subsequent to that first order, and what we have now is a rig that can handle George Benson at the Glasgow Jazz Festival, but can also be broken down into three decent conference systems. GEO is so small, so compact and bijou, and it does exactly what it says on the tin - immediately!"

The GEO S boxes have since notched up a variety of events from a touring theatre production, to a live BBC music programme, to a heavy metal festival in the Shetland

Details
Spain - Essex-based Xtreme Audio Visual has snapped up a valuable installation contract in Spain. The company has been asked to provide the audio and lighting for the new Guru nightclub - part of the multi-million pound Heron City complex in Valencia, Spain.

Spearheaded by British entrepreneurs, the Heron City leisure operation has so far opened four venues in Europe - in Madrid, Barcelona, Stockholm and, most recently, Valencia, where its extensive range of family entertainments can attract 20,000 people in an evening. The Valencia site offers a variety of leisure activities, including a 24-screen multiplex cinema, fitness centres and an array of restaurants, cafés, bars and clubs.

The 2,700-capacity Guru is the final piece in the Heron City jigsaw, being the last venue within the complex to be built. In a contract worth £400,000, Xtreme has installed a high specification s

Details
UK - Lincolnshire-based pro loudspeaker manufacturer Logic System has announced its successful move into a new 5000sq.ft factory at Gainsborough. The £500,000 move took place over a three-month period earlier this year. Operations director Sue Ellis says: "For three months we rarely had all the staff at the same site at the same time. It was a case of its Tuesday we must be painting at the new factory today! It is a testimony to the company's staff that few customers even noticed that we were moving."

With the move complete, the factory has settled down to a split shift system to keep up with current demand for product. Logic System's managing director Chris Scott told us: "No one sector has been amazing - we have just seen good solid business across all market sectors. The theme bar market has been flat for most people but with installation customer TTL working

Details
The Netherlands - TiLE 2004 - the international forum for leisure venues - will be held at the Maastricht Exhibition and Congress Centre in The Netherlands, from 15-17 June 2004. In making the announcement, Richard Curtis, the conference organizer commented: "This will be the first time TiLE has been in Maastricht since 1996 and it will be held in the MECC's new exhibition hall and conference rooms."

TiLE 2004 will continue to build on its relationships with key associations in specific areas of the market, including IAAPA (International Association of Amusement Parks & Attractions), TEA (Themed Entertainment Association), WWA (World Waterparks Association), EWA (European Waterpark Association) and ECSITE (European Collaborative for Science in Industry & Technology Exhibitions).

As with previous TiLEs in Maastricht, full use will be made of the beautiful city: the pa

Details
UK - This year the education programme has been relaunched to meet the changing demands of the PLASA visitor and will be hosted by the PLASA Professional Development Programme (PLASA PDP), the Association's new training initiative. A full timetable is now online and taking bookings - check out the website below.

This extended educational platform will examine current trends and issues across the wide range of the industry and provide visitors with the opportunity to broaden their knowledge and learn from the experts. The format has been revised with four different types of sessions - Technical Workshops; Business Seminars; Industry Seminars and Masterclasses.

Many of the sessions are supported by associations, trade bodies and publications and for the first time RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects) are also supporting the programme. Their endorsement is clear recognit

Details
UK - The directors of Martin Audio and TC Group have announced that on 13 August, the management team of Martin Audio purchased the company from the TC Group. The management buyout was supported by ISIS Equity Partners plc and The Royal Bank of Scotland.

David Bissett-Powell, managing director of Martin Audio, told us: "The management of Martin Audio have long aspired to independence and are pleased that under the TC Group we have had the opportunity to attain this goal. Having established strong links within the Group, we will continue to work closely with Lab.Gruppen and other group companies and expect new co-operation with TC Applied Technologies regarding digital power, processing and networking."

The CEO of TC Group, Anders Fauerskov, added: "Since the acquisition of TGI plc by TC, Martin Audio has been a well-managed and strong performer and we wish the m

  1. Audace establishes IT alliance
  2. grandMA comes to stay at Resolution X
  3. TMB opens in Toronto
  4. G-LEC appoints Fourth Phase London as UK representative
  5. Hog PC controls for popular Greek Artist
  6. beyerdynamic digital conferencing system for Southampton
Page 606 of 1813

Latest Issue. . .