Business

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UK - Stage Electrics has secured exclusive distribution rights within the UK and Eire to one of the most innovative products featured at this year's PLASA show - Ayrton's Eyecolor LED moving head.

The compact unit's versatility, additive colour mixing, LED lifespan of 100,000 hours and fast and accurate movements made it an immediate hit. Stage Electrics' business development manager, Ian Brown, told L&SI: "At PLASA you normally meet your existing customers and make new contacts that lay the groundwork for them to purchase a product at some time during the rest of the year. This year people were looking at the Eyecolor and writing cheques!" One of the first deliveries of the Eyecolor was to an installation in Cambridge where six fixtures were installed by Cambridge Sound and Light.

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UK - Italian pro audio manufacturer Outline demonstrated its innovative Butterfly line array PA system to sound engineers and rental company representatives at London's Hammersmith Apollo in late September. Early arrivals enjoyed time to listen to recorded material via CD and MiniDisc and discuss technical aspects of the system with system designer Guido Noselli and president of international sales Giorgio Biffi, along with Peter Barnard, the UK distributor for Outline products.

There was also time for a demo of Outline's proprietary Software Program - VIP (Vector Implementation Protocol), which works on an Open GL Platform and will calculate the number of modules required to achieve optimum vertical and horizontal coverage of any venue, be it open-air or indoor. Further tools to accompany VIP, including a laser range finder and trim height device which will also incorporate a t

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UK - More details are emerging on the restructure at Arbiter Group, including the news that the Group's chairman, Ivor Arbiter, is to retire. The only official confirmation that the company has closed its Pro Audio Division comes from the Arbiter Pro Audio website (see below), which states: "Arbiter Group PLC are no longer distributing products manufactured by JBL Professional, AKG Acoustics, dbx Professional and Digitech." Enquiries are referred to the manufacturer's representative in each case.

There has been no indication as to what UK distribution arrangements will be put in place for the four Harman brands in the long-term, but negotiations with the manufacturers have been ongoing and an announcement is expected from Arbiter within the next few days.

The Pro Audio division was a subsidiary company of Arbiter Group plc and handled the exclusive distribution in th

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India - Mumbai-based Jagmag Electrical Company has announced that at the recent PALA (Pro Audio & Light Asia) exhibition in Singapore, it secured exclusive distribution rights in India for two leading European lighting brands: Avolites, the London-based manufacturer of show lighting control and dimming systems and Robe Show Lighting, the Czech Republic-manufacturer of automated lighting fixtures.

Jagmag is a high profile event production and lighting sales company headed by Atul Sonpal, with whom Avolites has enjoyed a fruitful working relationship since 1995. In this time, Sonpal, a leading lighting designer, has bought many Avolites products, and has been instrumental in establishing Avo consoles at the forefront of the Indian professional lighting industry. India has proved one of Avolites strongest markets since the Millennium. Their enthusiasm for technology has driven thei

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UK - Nearly 14,000 fans saw David Gray, Morcheeba and Nitin Sawhney perform at a free concert in Trafalgar Square - lined up to boost tourism and showcase the revamped square.

There was also a top line-up of production services to ensure that, technically, the event - organized by b-live, with production by AMP - went without a hitch. Star Hire's Roger Barrett was the show's technical director, working closely with AMP production manager Steve Allen. Other members of the creative team included LD Mark Cunniffe.

The Star Events Group installed a VerTech stage on the North Terrace of the Square, and handled the rigging requirements, with CT Screenco fielding two of the new Lighthouse LVP-1650 16mm outdoor LED screens. While the Lighthouse screens relayed images from the PA wings, the upstage centre backdrop, designed by Cunniffe, took the form of columns of 25mm LED display - th

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UK - The Urban Music Seminar (UMS) was formed in 1998 as a non-profit making organization to inform and educate young people about working in the music industry, and is now annually attracting around 12,000 visitors. Expert panels hosted by celebrities and music industry executives and offering advice on A&R, artist relations, legal issues, marketing, promotion and publishing are held in the main auditorium of London's Royal Festival Hall, which can accommodate up to 4,000 people.

The event also features live performances, celebrity speakers, master classes, a sound stage for unsigned acts and networking and employment opportunities. It attracted a host of names including Destiny's Child's Kelly Rowland, Mercury Music Prize-winning Dizzee Rascal, producer Damon Dash, Big Brovaz, Norman Jay MBE, Jamelia, Javine, So Solid Crew's Asha D and Heartless Crew.

FX provided radio mics,

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UK - PLASA Media has learned that Farmer Studios, the Leicester-based provider of turnkey special effects solutions for leisure attractions, has gone into voluntary liquidation with the loss of 37 jobs. The company, founded by Nick Farmer in 1976, was for many years a highly successful specialist in its field, designing and manufacturing rides, shows, attractions, animatronics, scenery and interactive experiences for attractions worldwide. In 2000, the company won a TEA (Themed Entertainment Association) Award for its creation of a 'dark walk' at Liseburg, Sweden's largest theme park.

(Lee Baldock)

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Sweden - Stage engineering specialist Visual act has installed a unique set of four lifts for the new production of Lee Hall's Spoonface Steinberg set to open on 31 October at the Jewish Theatre in Stockholm. The four lifts are set on a rotating stage which is placed 3m under the stage floor. The lifts can be raised from 1m below the stage surface to 1m above while the revolve is moving.

Visual act's battery-based servo amplifiers are used to allow all of the equipment to be installed on the revolve - no slip rings or special cable arrangements are required. The operator desk communicates with the system over a radio link. The lifts are all lit from within and all visible surfaces are translucent, while the framework is designed to reduce shadows so that the lifts appear as boxes of coloured light.

Spoonface is directed by Pia Forsgren who has worked together wit

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UK - The Tussauds Group has announced that it has appointed City of London investment bankers Lazards as advisors in preparation for a flotation in 2004 which is expected to value the business at £900m. The Group, which owns the world-famous Madame Tussauds and other attractions including the London Eye, Thorpe Park, Alton Towers, Chessington World of Adventures and Warwick Castle, says that following a significant improvement in performance over the last three years, it is now in a position to consider flotation, and will be working with Lazards to evaluate strategic options to ensure further growth in the future.

Charterhouse Development Capital, the private equity group which has a majority stake in Tussauds, acquired its share from Financial Times owners Pearson in 1998, for £352m, and has since invested a further £300m in the business.

(Lee Baldock)

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UK - Few events could match the gathering of celebrity, style and music talent that filled London's Royal Albert Hall recently for Fashion Rocks for The Prince's Trust. The charity event was based around 18 top fashion designers, each with their own catwalk parade and with their chosen artist performing a soundtrack. A circular stage with the catwalk around the outside made an ideal setting for this glamorous event.

Hand Held Audio were asked to provide the radio microphones for all the artists and also presenters Elizabeth Hurley and Denis Leary. Most of the soundtracks consisted of live vocal to playback so a large in-ear monitor requirement added to the complexity of the wireless system.RF expert John 'Freddo' Fredericks, who was on site to oversee operations, said: "It was a great show. There was a really good atmosphere - egos seemed to take a back seat and everything

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UK - Doors open for the 2003 Showman's Show at The Newbury Showground on 22 October for two days. With over 300 exhibitors, there will be a wide range of stands at this year's show, from entertainers participating in the arena's showcase to the latest in hi-tech equipment aimed at outdoor events.

Show Director Stephen Lance commented: "We are anticipating a good show this year and are all set for a prosperous (and fun filled) exhibition. 2003 has been a great summer - both in terms of the weather, which always helps, and in terms of the numbers at events. There seems to be a more positive outlook towards the state of the industry than we have experienced over recent years. I hope we have succeeded in creating a good forum for outdoor event professionals to carry out their business."

Lance is also looking forward to a couple of significant differences at this year's e

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Czech Republic - Inter-Noise 2004, the 33rd International Congress and Exposition on Noise Control Engineering, will be held in Prague, Czech Republic, from 22-25 August 2004. The congress is being organized by the Czech Acoustical Society and sponsored by the International Institute of Noise Control Engineering.

The theme for the Congress is 'Progress in Noise Control for the 21st Century', and all innovative contributions to noise control engineering are welcomed. The organizing committee is arranging an outstanding technical program, with a number of structured sessions and distinguished lectures in preparation.

Inter-Noise 2004 will take place at the Czech Technical University, Faculty of Electrical Engineering in Prague. The university campus is situated in the district of Dejvice, in the western part of the city and close to some of Prague's largest hotels. The main cong

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Malaysia - An iDR-8 has been installed in Berjaya Times Square, a new multi-million dollar development in the heart of Malaysia's capital city, Kuala Lumpur. Measuring 2,100,000sq.ft, it is the largest shopping/leisure complex and houses the largest indoor theme park in the Asia Pacific region.

Allen & Heath's iDR-8 unit, with an iDR-out expander, has been installed as a zone controller in the indoor theme park, where a resident DJ pumps out the music. The signal from the DJ mixer is distributed to 16 zone loudspeakers. An event schedule has also been created using the DSP system's programmable patches, whereby at 2.30pm daily the zone volumes gradually increase with a 10 second crossfade; similarly at 10pm the volume automatically decreases with the same crossfade effect. There is a dedicated PC at the DJ booth for remote control of the iDR-8 & iDR-out over Cat 5 cable.

Malay

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Finland - Audace Ltd, the UK-based manufacturer of the Intelliplate programmable control system for audio-visual installations, has appointed Starlike Oy Ltd of Vantaa, Finland to distribute its products exclusively in Finland. The deal was brokered by Audace's global distribution partner Comsec International. The deal was confirmed at PLASA 2003 recently, where managing director of Audace, Bryan Waters met with Jari Ukkonen from Starlike.

Bryan Waters commented on the appointment: "Starlike is a welcome and highly appropriate addition to our growing portfolio of high-quality distribution partners. We have been in discussion with them for several months now and with the advent of SuperHub and other plans we have for the development of the line, both parties felt that the time had come to solidify the relationship. Starlike brings a broad range of expertise and an excellent

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UK - Spirit Design was invited by production company Corporate Events Plus to light the Tesco's Company Conference 2003 - the second time Spirit has been involved in this project. The biennial event brings 2,000 senior managers from as far afield as Malaysia to attend a one-day conference and gala event. This year Excel in London's Docklands was selected as the venue for the meeting. Using 13 of Excel's 34 flexible venues such as a registration area, plenary auditorium, champagne bar and dinning space were created, totalling 28,000sq.m of presentation space. Spirit directors Danny Evans and Justin Adams shared responsibility for the design of individual zones. Adams commented: "The size of the event and the lead time made it impossible for the entire project to be handled by one designer, Danny and I were particularly careful to ensure that all of our designs gelled into a co

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USA - Shure recently announced that it has been recognized by the second annual Chicago Innovation Awards for the development of the Shure E2c sound isolating earphones, a revolutionary new approach for providing a pure listening experience.

The E2c earphones are the result of Shure's long history in "in-ear innovation." The technology for the E2c earphones was originally developed for musicians trying to monitor their performances in loud onstage environments. They work by using soft foam or flex sleeves to seal out background noise, allowing the high-performance mini-speakers to deliver precise sound directly to the ear. The E2c earphones can be used with any audio or video device such as CD, MP3, and DVD players.

Sandy LaMantia, president and CEO of Shure, said: "This award is incredibly exciting for us. We're thrilled to help bolster Chicago's reputation as

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Italy - Following intense competition, ETC has won a major contract to supply one of the world's best-loved opera houses with a complete lighting and control system. La Fenice was one of the most beautiful opera houses in the world and the leading opera house of Venice until a fire destroyed it in January 1996. The building burned for more than nine hours, leaving only the façade intact, the interior was completely destroyed, leaving the structure in danger of collapse. Efforts to control the fire were hindered because the two canals nearest the theatre had been drained for dredging, ironically in order to facilitate access by Venice's emergency motorboats.

So named because it rose like a phoenix from the ashes of its predecessor, La Fenice has been destroyed twice before by fire. Construction began in 1790 but the building burned down before completion. It was quickly rebuilt

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The Netherlands - Leading Dutch rental agency, Sound Support, currently touring with one of Holland's top acts, 'Van Dik Hout', has recently made a considerable purchase to boost its Allen & Heath stock. In addition to its existing stock, which includes ML5000, GL4000, GL3300 and MixWizard consoles - Allen & Heath's Dutch distributor, TM Audio, has supplied the company with an ML5000, two ML4000s, a GL3300 and a MixWizard.

Sound Support's Jack van den Berg said: "The diversity of our clients and productions generates complex technical demands, which require flexibility and quality in the equipment we provide. Allen & Heath's GL and ML series have been acclaimed all over the world as great sounding, high quality consoles.''

(Lee Baldock)

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France - Delta Sound recently provided all sound reinforcement for the prestigious Microsoft Xbox X03 games festival in the South of France, attended by some 400 guests, among them members of the international games press, developers, publishers and programmers.

Microsoft is a long-term client of Delta, and this was the third year running that the London-based PA company has worked on one of the annual Xbox events. It followed the unveiling of the first console, the X01, at Pierre Cardin's 'bubble' villa, also in the South of France, and a second event on a lake in Seville last year. This year saw a return to the Côte d'Azur and the exclusive resort of Juan Les Pins, where the festival was held at the newly opened Les Pecheurs beach club followed by an all-day conference at the town's Palais des Congrès.

The proceedings kicked off with presentations by Microsoft dignitaries

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UK - Earls Court Ltd and Unusual Rigging Ltd have been fined a total of £100,000 at the Old Bailey following a Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecution into the death of 26-year-old David Mott at Earls Court, London. The prosecution follows an HSE investigation into the incident in which Mr Mott fell 35m to his death at Earls Court Exhibition Hall 1, on 23 June 2000. Six months prior to the death of Mr Mott, another worker had also been killed in a similar incident. Earls Court Ltd was subsequently fined £70,000 in a prosecution taken by the London Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.

Mr Mott, from Brentwood, Essex, fell through fragile, false ceiling tiles while dismantling mobile platforms as part of a refurbishment project. He was taken to Charing Cross hospital but was pronounced dead on arrival from multiple injuries.

Earls Court Ltd pleaded guilty to breaching sect

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UK - West London's trendy Ladbroke Grove has seen the reawakening of the acclaimed Subterania club, which was closed earlier this year. The new venue, christened 'Neighbourhood', is owned by Ben Watt and Alan Grant, partners in the famed Cherry Jam club. UK AV designers Blue Box created the club's sound system, featuring a mix of four QSC PowerLight PL 2.0 and four PL 4.0 amplifiers driving a four way Funktion One system with six F218 bass boxes and six Res4 mid-high enclosures. The club also uses several QSC PL230 amps to drive the Funktion One F88 cabinets in the ante area and on the mezzanine.

The spacious DJ booth, designed by Ben Watt, is centered on a Rane MP44 mixer. The booth is also equipped for live sound mixing, with a Midas Venice 32-channel board. Effects and dynamics are courtesy of Yamaha, BSS and Drawmer. QSC PL236 amplifiers drive monitors in the booth and on st

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Austria - Having received numerous TEC Awards over the years in recognition of its achievements in microphone technology, Vienna-based AKG received the prestigious award again this year for its K 271 Studio headphones.

The award was presented at a ceremony at the New York Marriott Marquis on October 11. Presenters of the awards included music and recording legend Les Paul, Grammy awarded producer Bob Ludwig, bassists Will Lee and T. M. Stevens and famous recording engineers including Al Schmitt and Chuck Ainlay.

The K 271 Studio headphones have been internationally acclaimed and accepted by audio professionals due to their sonic quality, user comfort offered, product styling, and manufacturing excellence. Dr. Richard Barnert from the Vienna AKG headphone team and Mike Torlone, market development manager of studio products and headphones, from AKG Nashville, accepted the TEC A

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Singapore - Richard Lim from ARX's Singapore distributor Bell & Order Engineering Pte Ltd has recently completed two major installation contracts involving ARX products. The new sound reinforcement system Bell & Order has installed throughout the four-storey New Assayfaah Mosque located in Sembawang Road, Singapore caters for the reproduction of both prayers and speech, and includes two EQ60 graphic equalizers, five EQ 15 graphic equalizers, eight ZR 350C constant voltage power amplifiers, one ZR 550 power amplifier and 16 of the company's new Climate weather-resistant loudspeakers.

Bell & Order has also completed the installation of audio-visual systems at the new DSTA (Defence Science Technology Agency) Building, located at Singapore's Science Park #3 complex. The six-storey facility now includes four ZR550 power amplifiers, two ZA400 multi-channel power amplifiers and six ZR3

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Australia / Malaysia - Tryka L.E.D. has announced the appointment of Total Concept Projects (TCP) as its distributor for Australia and Malaysia. TCP have developed a professional approach to customer needs and have grown to become one of Australia's leading lighting and sound solution providers. Tryka's managing director Chris Rolph says: "Thanks to their versatility and experience in several sectors, TCP are well positioned to distribute our products across the many markets our range is suitable for."

Tony Musico, managing director of TCP, adds: "We believe that LEDs are the way of the future. After extensive research, Tryka have come up trumps. Their range of fixtures, quality of build and sheer brightness make them ideal for the Australasian environment.

(Lee Baldock)

  1. Tony Meola's Wicked Wizadry on Broadway
  2. DPA mics impress at San Diego Symphony
  3. World Stage Design - Toronto 2005
  4. Fashion Matches up with Sound Division
  5. ISCE enjoys successful Institute Day
  6. PLASA Elections get underway
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