Business

Details
UK - Audace Ltd, manufacturers of the Intelliplate programmable control system for audio-visual installations, have forged a strategic alliance with IT specialists CETSAT. The move comes in the wake of an accelerating convergence between IT and AV technologies and markets.

Bryan Waters, managing director of Audace, explains the move: "For some time we have been keenly aware of the increasing need for our customers to be able to offer, at the very least, integration of AV technology with an existing IT infrastructure. Indeed our own SuperHub controller is a classic case in point, offering control and maintenance over the intra/internet using standard networking tools. Often, the need for integration will actually lead to an involvement in modifying, upgrading or even supplying an IT infrastructure. It makes less and less sense to view IT and AV provisions as distinct and it

Details
Australia - Melbourne-based hire and production company Resolution X has recently added a fully-expanded (4,096 channel) grandMA console to its hire inventory. The grandMA was selected by Resolution X to meet its growing need for an all-singing, all-dancing moving light console. In addition to being regularly specified by international tours, Resolution X is finding that an increasing number of local LDs, including Paul Collison and Peter Lothian, are also specifying a grandMA for their productions.

One of the grandMA's first major jobs since arriving at Resolution X, has been at the studios of HSV 7 Melbourne, for Network Seven's latest game show 'Deal or No Deal'. On this production the grandMA is outputting five DMX streams to a multitude of Martin and Clay Paky moving lights, in addition to the studio dimmers. The console has been used in conjunction with a wireless PDA, a s

Details
Canada - In its ongoing effort to serve production and lighting professionals worldwide, TMB is expanding its North American presence with the opening of TMB-Toronto. The new distribution centre will provide a faster response and turnaround throughout Canada.

Lighting veteran and renowned fugitive from justice Mike Gillis will head the new location. Gillis has 20 years' experience in the Canadian lighting industry as a distributor and lighting company owner. Colin Waters, TMB CEO commented: "There's a lot going on up North, but that pesky border keeps getting in the way. This should solve that problem. TMB continues to grow, but all of us are more committed than ever to not forgetting where we came from. Meanwhile, we keep building a global network providing choice, support and service to companies who earn their living from entertainment production."

With locations

Details
UK - With just three weeks to go to PLASA, G-LEC Europe has signed an agreement with Fourth Phase London, for it to act as G-LEC's representative office in the UK. G-LEC Europe manufactures an innovative system of LED curtains utilizing clear rods to house the LEDs, the resulting transparency and low wind resistance making the system ideal for use in the theatre, as well as for concerts, corporate events and architectural use. Weighing just 10kg per square metre, the G-LEC LED curtain is also lightweight, so can be flown effortlessly.

Lars Wolf, managing director of G-LEC, told PLASA Media: "This business is about people - trust and confidence - and before appointing anyone I wanted to be sure they would be absolutely right for us. Having met Alan Thomson and his team, I know that with Fourth Phase London we will be doing great things in the UK." Thomson, the managing

Details
Greece - One of Greece's most popular artists, Yiannis Kotsiras, has performed with 110 moving lights run on a Flying Pig Systems Hog PC controller. Lighting designer George Tellos recently finished 45 open-air shows in Greece and Cyprus this summer using a Hog PC (with software version 3.3), a Playback and Programming Wing, and two DMX Hog widgets. High End Systems' Greek distributor, Telmaco, supplied the system.

George Tellos chose Hog PC for his control because of its convenience factor. "It is a great feeling to travel around the world with two small flightcases and have control at any system and any place," he says. "Hog PC works great, it's very easy to use and I can do a lot of things in the offline editor feature."

Tellos designed and programmed the show at the 'Lighting Design Wholehog & WYSIWYG Studio' in Athens, which is owned by Tellos and busi

Details
UK - beyerdynamic (GB) has recently supplied Crawley-based Advanced Digital Solutions - an integrated systems provider - with its sophisticated MCW-D wireless digital conferencing system for use in the conference chambers of Southampton City Councils.

Southampton's Civic Centre contains all the local government administration departments, as well as a spectacular purpose-built conference chamber. Advanced Digital Solutions were contacted earlier in the year to propose a conference system that would be effective, aesthetic and fall within the budget set for the upgrade. Hardest of all was the caveat that the conference benches should not have cables or equipment fixed to them and that installation was to be non-invasive to preserve the integrity of the installed furniture.

Paul Langridge of Advanced Digital Solutions said: "This project was a natural choice for beyerdynami

Details
UK - Martin Professional is now Ministry of Sound's new technical partner in lighting. The newly installed Martin equipment in the Ministry of Sound in London follows successful installations in in Bangkok last year, making this a global partnership.

Ministry's grand reopening, which takes place on 21 August, will see the unveiling of the new lighting rig, which consists of the new Martin MAC 250 Krypton and MX-10. David Bradshaw, Ministry's head of production, is pleased with the move: "I'm delighted to be involved with Martin in this new, exciting partnership," he commented. The club will be showcasing some of Martin's newest gear, including the latest moving head luminaires, at the forthcoming PLASA Show in September.

(Ruth Rossington)

Details
UK - Entec Lighting is supplying equipment to the 10 week series of Saturday Lakeside Concerts at picturesque Kenwood House in Hampstead, north London. The high profile event is now in its 53rd year, and this is the second year Entec has been onboard for IMG Arts & Entertainment. The company was invited to tender for the Kenwood gig after working with IMG on the Spanish Riding School of Vienna, arena tour of 2001. The cabaret-style series of concerts varies considerably in content, from the likes of Bjorn Again to the Frank Sinatra touring show and several orchestras, as well as high profile international jazz artists like Diana Krall, whose show completely sold out.

Entec's head of lighting Adam Stevenson explains that they are supplying a basic rig consisting of 16 400W exterior sodium floods illuminating the white-clad inside of the stage, for those acts wanting absolutely no

Details
Ireland - Irish PA company, Nolan Sound & Light, have purchased a Nexo GEO S Tangent Array System for use on the next leg of the Daniel O'Donnell tour in the UK. Proprietor Alan Nolan confirmed the order with Irish Nexo/Crown distributor Rea Sound after the Irish singing legend had been impressed with the system - particularly the large CD18 subs - when he performed through it in the States.

Nolan Sound & Light, his long-time PA provider, had earlier experienced the Nexo GEO S system closer to home when visiting Millennium Forum Theatre in Derry with another act, and played through Rea Sound's newly-supplied house system. Alan Nolan explained what had motivated him to make the investment. "Whenever I brought Daniel to the British mainland we always ended up sub-hiring the Nexo kit in - which simply wasn't cost-effective."

And so he ordered 32 GEO S805s and a pair of

Details
UK - DPL Production Lighting in collaboration with laser and video specialists CMT, produced a spectacular mixed-media end to Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra's summer outdoor season, illuminating the skies in and around Meyrick Park in Bournemouth.

This was the biggest ever concert staged by the BSO, and saw them perform Carl Orff's Carmina Burana conducted by Neville Creed and accompanied by The Bournemouth Symphony Chorus. Over 6,000 people enjoyed the event, complete with full lighting, laser and video projections and over 150 pyro cues skilfully interwoven into the piece. DPL and CMT, together with Classic Fireworks and Skan PA, were asked onboard by the BSO's Anthony Brown.

DPL's Darren Parker led the lighting team. The company architecturally lit the production Horizon and coloured the trees behind the stage using 12 Martin MAC 2000s, two 7kW Xenon Space Can

Details
USA - An amendment to the National Constitution Center's initial lighting plan replaced an expensive video projection system with a group of automated VL1000 ellipsoidal reflector spotlights from Vari*Lite. The rig is for Freedom Rising, a multi-media production that introduces visitors to the new Philadelphia museum. As the show begins, the audience is washed in a huge starfield created by custom-designed gobos in the VL1000 units.

When the lone actor takes centre stage in the in-the-round configuration, he is lit with a sharp beam of light from another VL1000 fixture. At that moment, a video begins on a 360° video screen that surrounds the audience. "It's a total immersion experience for the audience," explained production coordinator Kai Brothers. "By adding light, patterns and images directly onto the audience with the VL1000 fixtures, they become part

Details
Australia - The first of the new MAC 250 Krypton moving lights to arrive in Australia were delivered in late July to Melbourne-based hire and production company, Resolution X. Supplied directly from the first production run at Martin's factory in Denmark, these first 52 MAC 250 Kryptons formed part of a package of more than 160 moving lights provided by Resolution X to television station HSV7 for the game show, Deal or No Deal.

The Krypton 250, which owes more of its design heritage to the MAC 2000 line than the previous generation of MAC 250s, is proving much faster, brighter and more flexible than its predecessors, say Resolution X. The company's managing director, Tim Hall, told PLASA Media that he is so impressed with the performance of the new fixtures that he is considering buying more of them when they become available.

(Lee Baldock)

Details
UK - Autograph Sound Recording is using LLW LDS700 ribbon loudspeakers on a production of Stephen Sondheim's Pacific Overtures at the Donmar Warehouse. The musical, which continues Autograph's long relationship with the theatre, chronicles the arrival of an American expedition on the Japanese island of Nippon in 1853, changing its way of life forever.

"Pacific Overtures is a fantastic musical which requires subtle amplification," says Autograph sound designer Nick Lidster. "Choosing a loudspeaker system for this type of reinforcement, while providing the auditorium with even, 360-degree coverage is extremely difficult. These problems are made worse at the Donmar as it has no obvious loudspeaker rigging positions, and this particular production is unusual because it is performed in-the-round, with the stage in the centre of the theatre."

The Sw

Details
Canada - In an effort to stave off the economic downturn suffered as a result of SARS, Toronto hosted the largest ticketed event in production history. Billed as 'Molson Canadian Rocks for Toronto', the show featured The Rolling Stones, topping a 15-act bill at a former air force base in the north end of 'the best behaved big city in the world'.

With only four weeks to put together a show for 450,000 people there was no opportunity for a learning curve, so Stones production director Jake Berry enlisted Fourth Phase's Toronto office to provide stage and audience lighting for the Stones, AC/DC, Rush, Guess Who, The Isley Brothers and ten other acts. Fourth Phase Toronto crew chief Scott Gross and his team of eight thus delivered a system comprising 200 Martin MAC 2000s and High End Studio Beams, plus 700 generics, and a staggering 90 Molefay 8-lites, spread across the 240' wide st

Details
Germany - In the second weekend of August, the Museums Insel (museum island) in Berlin saw (or more accurately 'heard') the first appearance of Alcons Audio's 'The Ribbon' line array system. Its debut came at the museum's annual festival, which takes place on the museum island in Berlin, and features a range of concerts.

Götz Berge, owner of Lichtwerk Berlin who were responsible for the lighting and sound elements of the event, commented: "With a concert stage in the centre of Berlin, and especially in a cultural place like the Museums Insel, we've had to deal with a lot of specific requirements for the audio specification. A number of problems had to be addressed, including limited SPL leakage to surrounding buildings and the fact that SPL inside the adjacent Berliner Dom (Berlin Dome) had to be as low as 50dB. At the same time, sound pressure on the concert ground itself

Details
UK - MTFX's Firedance system has proved very popular this year, with shows up and down the country accompanying many Firework Fantasia¹s and Classical Concerts. It can be used both in daylight and night time productions with extreme versatility. The standard system consists of 12 large jets of fire 8m high. Each jet is synchronized to a smpte track or other show system for millisecond accuracy, or the whole effect can be played live.

For safety reasons, each jet is intelligent enough to shut itself off should the pilot light be lost, thereby disabling that pod until a suitable ignition has been established. The materials used for the effect are completely non hazardous in their primary state, causing no problems with transportation or on site storage. MTFX completed in total over a thousand 'burns' of various sizes, without incident and with the material igniting every time (th

Details
UK - Leading UK manufacturer, Trantec Systems, specialists in the design and supply of sophisticated Radio products, has sponsored talented Irish/London stand-up Comedian John Ryan, supplying him with their award-winning S3500 wireless microphone system. Ryan is making his debut at the 57th International Edinburgh Festival Fringe with two productions, Kids are Best and John Ryan Isn't Normal, which both run through the Festival from 3-25 August. Staged in the heart of the Fringe at the Pleasance Courtyard and The Edinburgh Comedy Room, he has been taking the critics by storm.

Already recognized across Europe as one of the most naturally funny men in Britain, he performs regularly in London's Comedy Store and major comedy venues nation-wide. Taking inspiration from his five-year-old daughter, he has cunningly undermined the adult focus at the Fringe by delivering a

Details
UK - 'Popstars' finalist Liberty X recently made a headline appearance at the Newmarket Races. The event featured the first ever UK outing for AKG's revolutionary WMS 4000 professional wireless system. First past the post in employing the new true diversity UHF system was Nottingham-based Merlin PA. Five headset systems and five handheld systems were flown in specifically for Liberty X's performance and the events proved to be a resounding success.

Neal Allen, owner of Merlin PA, commented: "We were very impressed by the ease of setting up this high end multi-channel system and with the monitoring facilities that the WMS 4000 system offers for both RF and AF integrity. This was also the first time that the company used the AKG C420 headset mics and I was stunned by the quality and clarity of these units."

The AKG WMS 4000 systems are now available from stock and feat

Details
Liechtenstein - Due to an acute risk of forest fire, a Lobo laser show was organized in record-breaking time to replace a cancelled large-scale fireworks display that had been booked to celebrate the national holiday in Liechtenstein.

The long period of drought and the increasing number of devastating fires in the heart of Europe took their toll, and the Liechtenstein government was forced to cancel the traditional fireworks just three days before the event. It was a hard decision for the tradition-conscious Principality in the heart of the Alps, as the national holiday and especially the magnificent large-scale fireworks are a symbol of national identity and an attraction for tourists from all over the world.

The solution to the problem was not far away: by noon that day the telephone was ringing at the facilities of the laser show market leader, Lobo. A few hours later, Lobo

Details
UK - Stagetec has just completed stage two of a highly flexible new dimmer installation at Fountain Television Studios in Wembley, the conclusion of a project started two years ago: the reason for the protracted lead-time was that the studio's schedule has been so hectic and August 2003 was the first opportunity the company had to complete the work.

The full installation consists of 32 Compulite CompuDIM 2000 modular dimmer cabinets plus an additional mobile, flightcased system used on the studio floor and elsewhere in the building. An impressive total of 726 x 20A (5kW) dimmers and 20 x 40A (10kW) dimmers has been supplied and installed, split between Fountain's two large studios. The combination of reliability, performance, ease of control and monitoring made the Compulite range the ideal solution for Fountain.

The 5kW dimmers are all fitted with Hard Power Bypass switches s

Details
UK - Stage Electrics is holding a sale of theatrical and disco lighting and ancillary equipment on Saturday 20 September 2003. The auction is being held at the company's headquarters in Third Way, Avonmouth, Bristol at 10.00am. Lots will include smoke machines, theatre lanterns, dimmers and desks, flightcases, cables, disco consoles and various effects.

Patrick Behan, who has organized the previous successful Stage Electrics auctions, told us: "This year it has been difficult to keep the lots to 1,000 as we have acquired a considerable amount of new and second-hand kit. There should be loads of bargains and the usual chance to meet up with a few mates from the industry."

Electronic versions of the catalogue are available from Monday 8 September and hard copies from 12 September. Auction catalogues can be requested by emailing auction@stage-electrics.co.uk or by phoni

Details
UK - DL Electronics has recently completed the installation of a four-zone background music system by Cloud Electronics at Scalini's Italian restaurant in Botanic Avenue, Belfast. The system is controlled via a Cloud Z4 router with remote source and volume controls, providing control in each of the four areas. A total of 24 JBL Control 23 loudspeakers provide excellent coverage without becoming intrusive to the numerous clients. The loudspeakers were supplied in a white finish but were delicately painted by the interior designers to match the colour scheme and decor.

Meanwhile, DL Electronics also reports that Cloud equipment has also been utilized for the main announcements and foreground music system for the re-furbished Belfast Opera House. The existing JBL Control 1 loudspeakers were re-sited, along with the installation of two 19" LCD monitors for display of the stage

Details
UK - CT Screenco recently undertook its first contract for the burgeoning esoteric dance festival, The Big Chill, a 16,500-capacity sell-out event which was held for the second year in the grounds of Eastnor Castle in the Malvern Hills. Working alongside production manager Ruari Cormack and AV manager Adam Seaman, CT Screenco provided a 5x5 15mm LED screen on its own ground support, situated upstage centre on the Sanctuary stage. Video is the equal of audio playback as the primary content in this dance extravaganza, and Screenco's daylight screen was put to good use, fed by a succession of VJs, providing self-originated video, animations and graphics to complement their respective artistes.

Since the festival was using a Wango elliptical stage (allowing a lot of natural daylight to penetrate the stage) the production would not have been effective without such a high brightness s

Details
UK - A Shropshire audio-visual company has re-launched its website with an online facility aimed specifically at DJs wanting to purchase new equipment.

Telford-based BK Sound & Vision Ltd specializes in the hire of audio equipment, computer projectors, video recorders, stage and theatre lighting and public address systems. The website, however, concentrates on selling DJ tools - everything from headphones, microphones and record cases, to turntables, mixing desks, lighting and portable public address systems. BK director Colin Willacy decided to offer online purchasing having noticed a change in the market. "Initially BK was only a hire company supplying AV equipment to local businesses and hotels. In the last two years, there has been a shift towards sales caused mainly by the ever-falling purchase price of electronic equipment. Our new website reflects this, offering qual

  1. StageAccess.com to add major new features
  2. First installed GEO goes into Millennium Forum
  3. Le Mark's 20th anniversary Catalogue at PLASA
  4. PLASA joins RIBA CPD Network with launch at the PLASA Show
  5. Ministry of Sound extend JBL inventory
  6. Bosch Security Systems wins Frost & Sullivan 'Market Penetration Award 2003'
Page 607 of 1813

Latest Issue. . .