UK / France - Turbosound has appointed pro audio specialist Audiopole as its new distributor for France. Located in Fontenay-sous-Bois, near Paris, Audiopole is a large, well-established organization with a comprehensive network of sales and marketing channels, covering the installation, retail and broadcast markets. The company will be distributing Turbosound loudspeakers alongside its other main brands, which include AKG, Allen & Heath and Focusrite. It has scheduled a roadshow this autumn, which will showcase Turbosound's TXD products in particular, at five major cities across France.

Audiopole's chairman, Bruno Bertrand, commented: "We are very pleased to have been appointed Turbosound's distributor for France. It is a very prestigious name, and perfectly complements our other brands. We had been looking to take on a major loudspeaker range, for the live sound and insta

UK - Drapes and rigging specialist, Blackout was appointed by G2 Productions to help create a cinematic environment at the BMW Group's Oxford Plant, for exclusive preview screenings of the remake of The Italian Job. The screenings were attended by BMW personnel, including a fleet of Mini Coopers, just prior to the film's UK premiere on 12 September.Blackout's Chris Brain collaborated with G2's managing director, Andrew Owls to design and build a giant free-standing truss structure, which was clad in black wool-serge drape, excluded all light and contained the 1,000 capacity auditorium.

Blackout's team suspended the drape onto the truss and rigged the giant 60f x 25 ft screen supplied by Bell Theatre Services. Andrew Owles explained: "It was great working with Blackout - the team handled the project professionally from start to finish with great attention to detail. W

USA - Eddie Izzard is a rock and roll showman trapped in a stand-up comedian's body. Josh Monroe, lighting designer for Izzard's 2003 Sexie tour, refers to the stage and screen star as a "glam rock" comedian, and the first two minutes of Izzard's show explain why. "Eddie likes to have a rock and roll entrance. It's a very 'David Bowie-like' spectacular every time he enters or exits the stage," Monroe said. "It's basically flash and trash that shows off all of the bells and whistles of the lighting fixtures. There's no high art to it, it just whips the audience into a frenzy and lets them know that Eddie is about to hit the stage."

The show opens with a 90-second sequence that combines the lighting, music and projection, leading up to Izzard's grand entrance. To accomplish the look of controlled chaos, Monroe specified the most powerful Vari*L

UK - Leading manufacturer Trantec has recently supplied its new S6000 miniature wireless radio microphone system to GMTV. Deployed to facilitate the live broadcast of Britain's first ever 'interactive wedding', the system was used in conjunction with a fleet of other Trantec radio mic systems.The programme was broadcast live from the Greek island of Rhodes and followed a sensational 14-week build up, during which GMTV viewers created their perfect wedding via a voting scheme, which allowed viewers to choose every minute detail - from the lucky couple right through to the gown, location and flowers on the day.

GMTV's sound supervisor Nigel Gates specified the Trantec systems, which comprised the S6000, S4000 and the S3500, basing his choice on the sonic quality and reliability in a pressured live broadcast environment. Playing the starring role, the S6000 was used specifically fo

UK - Expectations were high at the PLASA show that a detailed presentation concerning this vital set of Regulations would be delivered by representatives of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). However, policy makers from the HSE announced that the promised third draft of the Regulations, with its accompanying Approved Code of Practice (ACOP) and guidance material, would be delayed further - with the consultation period now scheduled for December 2003 through to April 2004.

Those who attended the seminar on the last day of the show were hoping to get an opportunity to discuss the application of the new Regulations and how their impact would affect the entertainment industry, but all that was on offer was a run-through of the existing proposed Regulations published in the last draft, which may or may not have some bearing on the final set of Regulations.

The delayed consult

Japan - Solid State Logic's new C200 digital production console continues to gain popularity in Japan by attracting sales from some of the country's top broadcast and post- production facilities. The most recent C200 installation took place in August at the Imagica Akasaka Video Centre in Tokyo. A 32-channel console offering 64 processing channels at 48kHz was installed in a new studio dedicated to TV magazine and documentary programmes and HD projects.

Imagica is the largest post-production company in Asia, with five facilities in Tokyo and a facility in Osaka. The company is known worldwide for pre- and post-production work on both film and television projects and also owns two satellite broadcasting channels. Alongside its facilities work, Imagica develops specialist equipment and computer graphics software for the film and video industries. Imagica already has an establish

UK - ACCO UK Ltd has announced the formation of a new European Multi Media Group, as part of its ACCO Brands portfolio, aimed at providing the company with a major presence in the growing digital AV presentation technology sector. ACCO's entry into the market comes with the launch of the exclusive NOBO brand of digital projectors, based on Texas Instruments market leading DLP technology.

Ashley Murdoch, who recently joined the company from Sony Europe, is general manager of the Multi Media Group: "The NOBO brand is already a market leader in overhead projection and we are launching portable projector technology in line with the move towards digital devices across all of our core markets. We have developed a range of machines and a business model that specifically address the requirements of business, presentation and education users, in terms of performance, portability, re

UK - News came in last night that a stage collapse left up to 20 people injured prior to a sing-along performance of The Sound of Music at Birmingham's Alexandra Theatre. The BBC news website reports that the temporary part of the stage covering the orchestra pit gave way when audience members were invited onto to the stage for a fancy dress competition. An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive into the cause of the collapse has been launched today.

The Alexandra Theatre, Birmingham is an Edwardian Theatre with a seating capacity of 1,347. The theatre presents a variety of productions from pre- and post-West End productions to touring shows, opera, ballet, musicals and concerts.

(Sarah Rushton-Read)

UK - Professional loudspeaker manufacturer, Mackie Designs, took its turn in the spotlight at this year's T-Scan Awards, organized by DJmag magazine, taking home the award for PA Manufacturer of the Year.

The awards, now in their 12th year and held this year at MoMos nightclub on Regent Street in early September, honour manufacturers whose equipment passes the rigorous testing of the panel of expert judges, which this year included FreQ Nasty, Mark Wilkinson, DJ Woody, Dom and Roland, and in some cases then put to the vote by the readers of DJmag magazine.

Martin Warr, who proudly accepted the award on behalf of the Mackie team thanked the company's dealers and end-users for helping to put Mackie PA products on the professional map. This is the first of several awards that Mackie and the other brands in the Loud Technologies group have been nominated for this year.

(Ruth Ros

UK - High production values topped the agenda at Liverpool's 'City of Light 2003' son et lumière spectacular, organized by Liverpool City Council's Special Events Team, and staged in the middle of the lake in Sefton Park, at the heart of the City. The event, project managed by Kirstie Blakeman, production managed by Nick Handford and designed by Lee Forde, consisted of three 25-minute shows per night, enjoyed - free - by over 15,000 people.

At the technical and creative core of City of Light 2003 - an accessible, historical take on Liverpool to celebrate it winning the European Capital of Culture bid for 2008 - was a fabulous 40m wide by 20m high water screen which formed the projection surface for the show, featuring video, laser projections and lighting effects.

A three tiered production platform, designed by site manager Stu Stalker, was built on the concrete foundations

UK - When the world-famous Merce Cunningham Dance Company perform in the Turbine Hall at London's Tate Modern this November, their programme will take place on Harlequin Liberty sprung floor panels - just the same as the dance company use in their own New York studios. As part of the 25th Anniversary of Dance Umbrella - London's annual international festival of contemporary dance - New York's Merce Cunningham Dance Company will also be celebrating their own 50th anniversary, with performances between the 4 and 8 November.

The choice of floor is naturally an important consideration and thanks to MCDC's successful experience with Harlequin in America, Liberty portable panels were the obvious choice for London too. Harlequin's marketing manager Monica Arnott and Simon Byford, technical director for Dance Umbrella, surveyed the Turbine Hall and quickly established the requirements

Romania - When Chuck Drury, a lighting design professor from Wisconsin, took a sabbatical from his post at Beloit College in the USA to teach in Bucharest, Romania, he spent much of his time preparing his 16 students to get to grips with some state-of-the-art equipment donated by ETC. Drury already had a strong relationship with the company's HQ in Middleton, just 50 miles from Beloit College, and his students there take frequent tours of the factory and receive the occasional donated piece of equipment - a world away from the situation in Romania.

Drury took up the post in Bucharest as part of the Fullbright Programme - a scholarship which aims to encourage Americans to live in and understand other countries like Africa, Asia and parts of Europe. While the University of Bucharest is the first institution to teach lighting design in Romania, Drury says it was very difficult to t

UK - AV rental specialist Blitz created a week-long son et lumière event in the atmospheric setting of Oxford's Oriel College. The show, entitled '1326 And All That', was a specially commissioned narrative of the college's history and featured a dramatic 100ft by 50ft projection onto the façade of Oriel's Front Quadrangle, combined with theatrical lighting effects, narrative voiceover and a cast of characters from the college's past.

Blitz project managed all technical aspects of the 45-minute show, using E//T//C UK to create scroll artwork with historical material from the college's archives. Projection onto the towers, turrets and arched windows of the 360-year old buildings was via two 6k PIGI projectors, each fitted with double rotating scrollers. To achieve the correct projection angle the projectors had to be manoeuvred into a room at the top of a narrow stone spiral sta

UK - The eighth BBC Proms in The Park once again provided a festival of entertainment for nearly 40,000 people assembled in Hyde Park. CT Screenco have been providing image reinforcement for the crowds in the park since the very first Proms event, with the company's then proprietary Sony Jumbotron JTS17 CRT system.

Working through production companies, Mantaplan and Partnership Productions, this year CT Screenco supplied two 60sq.m LED screens, rigged stage left and right. The company also supplied a video delay channel via its Mini Mobile, for the benefit of those towards the rear, helping to alleviate the problems of audio synching. The live 'prom' simultaneously takes place at Donegal Square, Belfast, Pacific Quay, Glasgow and Singleton Park, Swansea before the traditional Last Night of the Proms at the Royal Albert Hall, which is relayed by satellite to the fou

UK - MC2 Audio announce the appointment of SES, Monaco as the company's new distributor in Monaco. SES was established in 1976 by Gabriel Benaglia and operates out of a shop in Monaco and a nearby 400sq.m warehouse. Initially the business focussed on wiring venues for sound, TV and satellite installation. SES has been contracted to supply and fit wiring for sound at events such as the Monaco F1 Grand Prix, FIFA Supercup and Monaco Boat Show.

In 2002 Gilles Laguionie joined SES to develop the audio supply side of the business, having worked for 9 years with SCV Audio and more recently with the CAE Groupe in Paris. SES has moved into the audio rental market over the past year and developed its interest in direct sales and installation whilst also offering its customers a comprehensive after sales service. Currently 80% of SES business is done in Monaco but next year the company ho

South Africa - A full lighting rig and ground support front-of-house truss system was supplied by M.J. Lighting to Rapid Blue, for South Africa's first series of The Weakest Link, which was shot at the Gallagher Estate auditorium during August 2003. M.J. Lighting's brief was to recreate the distinct visual feel of the original BBC programme.

The company's Francois van der Merwe oversaw the installation and reprogramming of the show on a dummy rig set up in the M.J. Lighting premises a week before the load-in to the Gallagher studio. A variety of fixtures was used on set, including six High End Systems Studio Colors, 13 High End Studio Spots, 11 Martin MAC 2000s, 11 custom-made Zip Strips, 2k Fresnel units, 5k softlights and eight 1k spots or 'Pups'. ETC Source Fours were used as key lights on each contestant, as well as on the quizmaster, Fiona Coyne. M.J.'s back-up Wholehog 2 w

UK - The 2003 V Festivals once again formed part of CT Screenco's busy summer season as they continue to service the event with video production. Sponsored by Virgin Mobile, the V Festivals started in 1996, and are now held simultaneously at 'north' and 'south' locations (Hylands Park, Chelmsford, and Weston Park, Staffordshire). CT Screenco provided their services through production companies Maztec in Chelmsford and Roseclaim in Shropshire. Bands this year included the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Coldplay, Foo Fighters, David Gray, PJ Harvey, Queens of the Stone Age, Ash, Underworld, Feeder, Super Furry Animals, Morcheeba and The Hives.

CT Screenco again supplied two 32sq.m (8 x 4) screens, either side of the stage, in both locations. They provided 25mm high brightness LED displays in Shropshire, while at Hylands Park they fielded a pair of 6 x 6 Lighthouse LVP1650 16mm screens, st

South Africa - Melrose Arch, nestled in the north-eastern suburbs of Johannesburg, South Africa, is pretty much self-contained. You could quite conceivably live and work here without ever having to venture outside its walls.

Like most small towns, it has a town square around which are clustered restaurants and boulevard cafés. And like all self-respecting town squares, a tower presides benignly over the activities. Melrose Arch management wanted to make more of this key feature of the area. Ideally, something was needed that would be noticeable and memorable, but subtle. The solution was programmable automated colour-changing lighting to give the building 'life' and character.

While casting around for a company who could meet their needs, architect Graham Wilson of Osmond Lange, the company responsible for the entire Melrose Arch project, came across Bruce Schwartz and Electr

UK / Canada - A.C. Lighting has been appointed as the exclusive distributor of MDG products in the UK. The Montreal-based company has been producing leading fog and haze generators for the entertainment market since 1980.

MDG will benefit from A.C. Lighting's profile as a key distributor of lighting, audio and associated products and be joining an already impressive array of brands stocked by the company. As well as carrying MDG's full range of fog, haze, low fog generators, accessories and spare parts, the deal will also see A.C. Lighting's team of experienced service professionals provide a full technical training and back-up service.

Jonathan Walters, northern sales director for A.C. Lighting, commented: "We are delighted that MDG have appointed A.C. Lighting as exclusive UK distributor. We have been working extremely hard to promote the MDG range of products over t

Europe - ADlite Productions and sister company Adlib Audio from Liverpool have supplied the sound, lighting and set to the current Fun Lovin' Criminals European tour. LD Stuart Gray has been working with the band for the last 14 months, during which time they have used ADLite and Adlib to supply all their technical production requirements. Fun Lovin' Criminals have been gigging constantly since last summer, but for their own tour they approached Gray for lighting design. As their name suggests, the band are renowned for their enjoyment of life and music and came up with the idea of having a real onstage bar as a set piece.

Gray developed three onstage scenic bars with fully working optics and drink mixing facilities. He utilized existing set elements from the ADlite warehouse, and created others with the help of Scenex from the Midlands, who made the bar fronts and mirrors. Them

UK / USA - Autograph Sound has incorporated a new company in London and New York to develop the sales of selected digital products specifically aimed at the theatre market. Named Autograph A2D, it aims to advance the acceptance of digital mixers and infrastructure in the predominantly analogue world of theatre.

In the UK, the company will draw on the combined experience of Andrew Bruce and Duncan Bell of Autograph and Nigel Olliff, co-founder of BSS Audio. The US company will be led by Lew Mead, former owner of ProMix, a New York-based rental company whose association with Bruce and Autograph spans 15 years.

The company has secured the exclusive distribution rights in the US for the DiGiCo D5T, the theatre version of the D5 Live, and will be working closely with DiGiCo to promote the D5T in the UK and the rest of the world. Autograph A2D has been working on the development of

UK - E//T//C UK's Ross Ashton and Nathalie Vin from The Glow Project in Brighton have combined creative, technical and logistical forces to work together on a massive community arts project in Brighton this November.

The Glow Project 2003 will be sponsored - in terms of equipment - by the large-format projection specialists. The two-part event will consist of projections onto a major public building in Brighton on the first night, followed the next evening by a community arts event taking place in Adelaide Crescent and Palmeira Square, in a similar vein to the Glow Project's inaugural concept last year.

The first Glow Project was the public projection of a collection of images chosen by residents in Kensington Place - dubbed "the artiest street in Brighton". The images were converted into large-scale artwork for the projections onto walls in the street, and each hou

UK - Artists playing live at Sound Control's new flagship venue - situated in the basement of the Virgin Megastore in London's Oxford Street - will be able to monitor their sound through Nexo floor wedges. At the same time, a Nexo PA system will broadcast top concert performances to audiences congregated at the rear of what is expected to be Europe's first all-encompassing music megastore.

The famous Live Stage in the Oxford Street Virgin Megastore has played host to some of the biggest acts around over the years. In the new exclusive partnership, this will now form a key feature of the Sound Control London experience, with some huge bands planned for gigs each week. If the clarity of sound is anything like that produced for Dido's showcase appearance at the store on 29 September, then they have a treat in store.

Sound Control has a long relationship with Nexo's UK distributor

UK - Artistic Licence has recently completed a major new architectural installation in the City of London, involving the installation of 550 colour change fixtures in a new public plaza in Finsbury Avenue Square. The project, which is probably the largest of its type in the world, presented numerous technical hurdles and required some ingenious application of technology. The entire system was custom designed, manufactured and installed by Artistic Licence.

The biggest challenge was also the most obvious: each fixture needs a method of setting the DMX512 start address, and with fixtures embedded in the ground, there was nowhere to put an access panel for the conventional DIP switches. Even if there had been room, putting an access panel on a waterproof fixture designed to last for a decade is perhaps asking for trouble. Artistic's solution was to implement the latest development

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