UK - Andy Reed's APR Audio is gearing up for expansion into the continental market, setting up to become Europe's largest dry-hire source of Electro-Voice branded sound reinforcement systems. Based in south-west England, APR Audio entered the pro audio rental sector in some style in 2002, purchasing a substantial inventory of EV X-Line, X-Array and XLC system hardware, complete with the latest remote controlled amplifiers and Midas consoles. Reed has been gradually consolidating his equipment stocks; APR now owns the largest dry-hire stock of Electro-Voice equipment in Europe.

With the addition of more staff at his Taunton HQ, Reed is ready to take his operation further afield. "With Electro-Voice systems being specified on so many shows these days, we wanted to take advantage of the opportunities in a larger market. The economics of modern touring, with fewer long tours on

Norway - R.E.M. recently wrapped up a 10-day tour of Europe to promote their new album In Time: The Best of R.E.M 1988-2003 with a special performance in Oslo, Norway, open only to fan club members, contest winners and media. The venue, known only to a selected few prior to the event, was an old factory called Uderholdningsfabrikke now dedicated to concert and event production. Midas's Norwegian distributor, AVAB-CAC provided staging, lights and sound for the show, including two Midas Heritage 3000 consoles to take care of both FOH and monitors.

According to AVAB-CAC's Asle Nilsen, the consoles were specifically requested by FOH engineer Joe Ravitch and his colleague on monitors who have both stated that they prefer to mix on an analogue board. "There isn't an engineer in the world who isn't familiar with a Heritage 3000, so if it's a top quality analogue console you

UK - Lighting designer Durham Marenghi has been chosen to design the lighting for the opening and closing ceremonies of the Winter Oympics in Turin, Italy, in 2006. The event will be designed by Mark Fisher and produced by the Italian group Filmmaster.

Marenghi has also revealed that he is to return to London's Royal Albert Hall in November with Classical Spectacular, the son-et-lumiere of favourite classical pieces featuring the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and accompanied by a new lighting and laser design. The sell-out event, conducted by Anthony Inglis and produced by Raymond Gubbay, runs from the 20-23 November.

Marenghi's work can currently be seen illuminating the world tour of Diamonds for Holiday on Ice and the UK national tour of Saturday Night Fever.

(Lee Baldock)

UK - FX Cimple Solutions, the service and repair division of the FX Group, has been appointed the sole UK service centre for Harman Pro UK brands JBL Professional, AKG, dbxPro, Digitech and DOD with immediate effect. The announcement follows the closure of the Arbiter Group's pro audio division, which has led to the formation of the Harman Pro Group to handle UK distribution of JBL Professional, dbx and AKG. Digitech and DOD product lines are now being distributed in the UK by Fender.

The announcement was made following a meeting in October with FX Cimple Solutions' managing director Cliff Whitehead, and Harman Music Group's European sales manager Glen Harris and sales operations manager David Fata. "We're really happy to be working with Cimple Solutions, and they came highly recommended," says Harris. "These brands all have massive customer bases and it is great

Canada - Centre in the Square in Kitchener, Ontario, has installed an InnovaSON Sy80 digital live mixing console in its prestigious Raffi Armenian Theatre, one of North America's most acoustically superior halls. The first of its type to be installed in Canada, the Sy80 console will be used to mix a wide variety of performances.

The Sy80 console was selected to replace a vintage analogue console for a combination of reasons, as Chief Engineer Bob Luffman explains: "The space occupied by the console is in the midst of the seating which is at a premium; the Sy80 has a much smaller footprint and for many events has freed up a number of seats for paying customers. The physical compactness is also important as I need access to console functions without a lot of physical movement that might distract patrons around me. We regularly put on shows with a rock band backed by an orches

UK - d&b audiotechnik has announced the dates for its Sound System Design seminars in the Cotswolds. These increasingly popular seminars address the acoustic signal path between the loudspeaker and the listener's ears. d&b's John Taylor, an experienced presenter with his own distinctive style, believes that, if you are passionate about sound system design, then you need to make it sound good for every listener in the house.

The seminars exists solely for that purpose, there's no fluff, no puff; just comprehensive electro-acoustics with all the physics you'll need thrown in. The style is friendly and the demonstrations memorable! Up coming dates are January 14th, February 4th, March 10th, April 7th.To book a seat either e-mail details to the address below or apply via the website.

(Sarah Rushton-Read)

UK - Surrey based Peter Macuik Installations (PMI) has recently acquired Trantec's revolutionary S6000 radio mic system. Adding to their already expansive portfolio of Trantec's radio products with the S6000, it joins it's brother the S5000 which has proved to be a reliable and robust tool over quite a few years of service. This will allow PMI to further strengthen their ability to realize the more challenging audio projects, particularly across Europe, where frequency pre-planning can often be problematic.

PMI's managing director, Peter Macuik commented: "The S6000 represents a radical departure from traditional radio systems and further underlines Trantec's commitment to quality and innovation. Apart from its compact design and simple pre-programming capabilities, its in-built RF Frequency Scanning Analyser makes it invaluable to us on projects in Europe. It cleverly scan

USA - Multi-Platinum selling post-grunge rockers Nickelback are currently on an extensive sold-out tour of the US to promote their new release "The Long Road". The Canadian band is touring with three Midas consoles provided by Las Vegas sound reinforcement specialists ProMix Electrotec. There is an XL4 on FOH, a Heritage 3000 on monitor duties plus an XL3 monitor sidecar. EQ is handled by Klark Teknik DN360s. FOH duties belong to Nickelback's longtime Road Manager Kevin "Chief" Zaruk, and the monitor consoles are manned by Mark "Sparky" McNeill. Chief discussed the tour and how Midas has made a difference in Nickelback's live show: "I've been working with Nickelback for almost seven years now. This is the biggest tour we've done to date and it's going extremely well. We've got forty crew, five trucks and seven buses out with us. We also have thre

UK/USA - SEOS Limited has recently reported its financial results for the twelve months ending 30 June 2003. Despite the continuing general uncertainty in the global economy and continued turbulence in the airline industry, SEOS experienced an improvement in overall performance. Revenues were ahead of expectations at £23.4 million and gross margins improved by 2%. Retained earnings for the year were £0.5 million, after absorbing an exceptional exchange loss of £0.6 million.

Darren Cosshall, financial director, SEOS, said: "Continued emphasis was placed during the past year on improving gross margins, reducing operating costs and increasing profitability. Significant efforts were also made to improve liquidity and working capital. Considerable progress was made in the period and due to the actions already taken we feel well placed for another strong performance in fiscal

UK/Europe - The award winning West End and Broadway musical Fosse celebrates the unique, pioneering choreography of Bob Fosse, whose unique style is stamped on numerous musicals including Chicago, Cabaret and Sweet Charity. Following a successful run at the Prince of Wales Theatre in London three years ago, Fosse, has taken to the road. Having kicked off the tour in Pasadena, California, the UK leg of the world wide tour opened in Liverpool on 29 October and will play at various venues around the country including Oxford, Manchester and Edinburgh before heading off to Europe in December and returning to the UK again in May 2004.

For this demanding schedule Fourth Phase London was selected to supply an extensive lighting rig as well as full technical support and backup for both UK and European legs of the tour.

(Sarah Rushton-Read)

UK - Pat Smith, Chief Executive of Business Link for Essex, recently visited Litetec, the Rochford-based optics and fibre optics company, to see the brand new showroom Business link for Essex advisers have helped make a reality. With their support, Litetec has recently achieved ISO 9001:2000 quality management standard, re-branded and launched a new website, with direct impact on the order book.

Litetec first contacted Business Link for Essex in search of advice on how to obtain ISO recognition. It became clear to Business Link adviser Angela Kimberley that they would need to look at other areas of business development in order to achieve this standard. Litetec needed to consider developing a new corporate identity and planning their sales strategy. An action plan was put together including a website development strategy, assisted by another adviser Colin Harvey. Specialists fro

USA - Catalyst Version 3 Media Server and the DL1 digital lighting fixture are products that combine the functions of automated lighting with digital effects. The new Catalyst Version 3 Media Server and Version 3 software is a substantial upgrade for an existing Catalyst Media Server system. It has been re-written to take advantage of the Apple MAC OS-X.3 Panther and the developments in Open-GL based video cards. The most obvious enhancement is the twin outputs - allowing two, completely independent Catalyst video feeds from one Media Server.

The software has the capability to cross fade between all four layers using the intensity channel. The preview feature allows complete, independent preview of content on a local monitor before sending it to the output device. Video Montage using the four layers allows the programmer to use scaling and positioning functions to create virtual

Portugal - Portuguese Chameleon distributor Audinova recently introduced the new Atlas digital amplifier range at the Musicália fair in Lisbon held in October this year. Audinova showed Atlas for the first time on mainland Europe, along with a good selection of other Chameleon products including DP/2, DX and the Studio range of amplifiers. Atlas was shown as a pre-production model and was sent out especially for the exhibition, Atlas versions AT-700 2 x 350 watts and AT-1400 2 x 700 watts in to 4 Ohms are expected to begin shipping at the end of the year.

Nunes de Sousa general manager of Audinova commented: "It is amazing, Chameleon is a small company yet has developed technology to produce such a quality digital amplifier. Chameleon analogue amplifiers are well proven and the digital Atlas range has created great interest during the show. The rental companies really appr

UK/Europe - MA Lighting's top-of-the-range grandMA lighting console has recently been specified for several high profile shows in the international theatre, concert and corporate event entertainment lighting sectors. White Light has supplied grandMA consoles to two high-profile shows in the UK and Holland. In London, major autumn musical production Thoroughly Modern Millie has recently received its transfer from Broadway and is the first west end show to specify the console. In Holland, the grandMA provides lighting controls for the new 10th international production of the ABBA musical Mamma Mia!, which opens later this month. UK concert lighting hire company Neg Earth are supplying grandMA's for the current Simple Minds European tour and Beyonce Knowles' UK tour. Stage Electrics has also supplied a grandMA for the recent Pantene Pro-V Style Awards held at the Royal

UK - Stanton presented the Third Allies Allstar Beatdown world finals at London club Fabric, which was rammed to capacity as Tigerstyles defeated I:Emerge in the final, after two closely contested opening rounds. Such was the standard that the contest provided a real challenge for the panel of top judges, headed by the Scratch Perverts. Deliberating with them were DJ Craze, Beatdown promoter Tony Vegas and mixologists, Benny and Go.

At the end of the contest, The Allies' Infamous presented the prize of £2,000, the Beatdown Stanton SA5 mixer and a bunch of accessories. The Allstar Beatdown has turned into one of the most respected and prestigious of all DJ battles, drawing audiences of all ages and cultures.

As a team, The Allies have dominated every DJ battle in the world and the Stanton SA-5 2-channel battle mixer, utilizing custom Penny & Giles line faders and crossfaders,

UK - Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals continue to circle the globe in support of Harper's latest studio release, Diamonds on the Inside. The California-born folk-soul star is on the road for a year long tour of largely sold-out shows with a compact package of audio equipment based around a pair of InnovaSON Grand Live digital sound consoles.

On a world tour that kicked-off in Australia and New Zealand in March, and has taken in multiple legs through Asia, North America and Europe, the cost of transporting equipment could have been astronomical with conventional analogue desks. "It is definitely cheaper to ship the smaller, lighter InnovaSON consoles," acknowledges monitor technician and crew chief, Chris "Grandpa" Rymarz. "Since freight is paid in weight it is just plain cheaper. For Ben Harper, it means the difference between being able to t

UK - Originally built over an eight-year period then opened in May of 1899, Brighton Pier is arguably one of Britain's most beloved waterfront attractions. Its 1800ft span hosts a pavilion, numerous eating and drinking establishments, a 1500-seat concert hall and further attractions. Rich in history, the pier enjoyed its original heyday in the 1920s and 1930s, slowly falling into disrepair after the Second World War, a victim of both mankind and the elements. The sea's erosion has taken its toll, as have the annual winter rains.

In 1984, the pier was purchased by The Noble Organization, which has invested over £30 million in its restoration. Recently, in March 2003 an arson attack gutted most of the pavilion, followed by a smaller fire in May, which caused minor damage to the concert hall and the Ghost Train ride, which housed the audio amplification system. Brighton-based aud

UK - Creative Technology has marked the relocation to its new 54,000sq.ft facility in Crawley by announcing a 'single brand' service operation, in which the staging services of MCL London, currently operating from within CT's premises, will now be amalgamated and operate under the CT London brand. At the same time the company has committed to a heavy investment in new inventory and technology. The strategic decision to operate as a single entity, addressing the broad span of market sectors covered by the two companies, was confirmed this month by managing director Mark Elliott.

"Being able to centralize all our resources into a single building has enabled us to further develop full service capability to provide a wide range of resources. This includes video, lighting, audio, and staging equipment, together with our ever-increasing range of indoor and outdoor LED screens.&qu

UK - Behringer, designer and manufacturer of professional audio products for musicians and sound engineers, recently announced the Behringer Eurorack UB802 was awarded "Best Seller" and "Best Value for Money" at the MIA Annual Conference and Awards in October this year.

Mr. Torsten Notzke, PR manager of Behringer said: "We are honored and delighted to receive these two awards from the UK Music Industries Association and thank the UK retailers for their dedication and trust in our products. The UB Series of mixing consoles bears the initials of our company founder and was designed by Mr. Behringer himself. He incorporated customer feedback whilst guiding the development of the UB Series from the ground up, personally designing every crucial component, from the entire circuit diagram and PCB development to the mechanical concepts. The huge sales success re

UK - FX Music Control, the sales division of the FX Group, has launched a dedicated Apple support phone line, TalktoaTech.com. The company has also been appointed a direct Apple dealer and has been recognized by the corporation as an Apple Solution Expert.

FX Music Control's managing director Emma Brown said: "We decided to set up the phone line as we were getting inundated with technical enquiries, not only from our customers but also from people who were experiencing problems and had discovered that the store which supplied their system couldn't or wouldn't help."

Now both FX Music Control customers, clients whose 12-month warranty has expired and third parties can call the company if they are experiencing problems relating to Apple Music software, hardware or system issues. The support line will also handle enquiries relating to other music software including Log

UK - Manchester DJ Mark One is using Stanton equipment exclusively to lay down scratch tracks for Scottish band, Texas, on their promotional TV and tour dates. Mark's conversion to Stanton's new generation technology came via a chance meeting with his old pal, Lamba's northern area sales manager, Denis Phoenix, at the recent PLASA Show in London.

Mark One said: "I had known Denis from when he worked in retail in Manchester - but hadn't seen him for ages. I knew Stanton's reputation for cartridges - but had no idea how good their mixers and turntables were until he invited me onto the Lamba stand." It takes a lot to turn a DJ from the familiarity of his chosen instruments but by the time Mark had finished his demo he had committed to a pair of Stanton's new flagship STR8-150 turntables, fitted with 680HP cartridges, an SA-12 mixer and Stanton Pro 2000S headphones. These

USA - RCF, a Loud Technologies brand, recently launched its first RCF-branded website for the English-speaking market. The English-language section of the new RCF website follows the Italian-language section launched earlier this month. The new RCF web site is the next step in the recently announced intentions - in September at the PLASA trade show in London - to re-introduce RCF as Loud Technologies' worldwide commercial and industrial audio brand. During this transition, which is expected to complete by the second quarter of 2004, current Mackie Industrial products will undergo a re-branding phase into RCF.

(Sarah Rushton-Read)

France - The SIEL 2004 exhibition (1-4 February 2004 at Paris Expo - Porte de Versailles) will highlight line array systems among its wide range of exhibits. During SIEL, a conference will assess the advantages of medium-range line array distribution compared to traditional sound systems. Acoustical engineer Alain Pouillon Guibert will lead the conference, while a number of leading line array system manufacturers integrating the most specialized technologies will be present at the exhibition, including L-Acoustics, Nexo, Adamson, EVI Audio and d&b audiotechnik.

SIEL will also take a look at safety responsibilities in the nightlife industry. The French government is currently reinforcing safety measures intended to make people in France more aware of safety, particularly when it comes to getting behind the wheel of a car. In view of the number of road accidents caused by drunk dr

UK - The University of Manchester's new £6 million School of Music and Drama celebrated the opening of its purpose-built concert hall, drama studio and recording studio on 21 October 2004. The Chancellor - broadcaster Anna Ford - presided over a ceremony in which writer and comedian Ben Elton, music scholar and critic Michael Kennedy and internationally renowned soprano Amanda Roocroft received honorary degrees.

The building includes the new Cosmo Rodewald Concert Hall, the John Thaw Studio Theatre, the Lenagan Library, audio/visual facilities, improved performance, workshop and practice spaces, as well as new electro-acoustic music studios run jointly with the Royal Northern College of Music.

Stage Electrics designed and installed the new facilities' sound and lighting systems, created specifically for use by students, with Hills Electrical plc, main contractor - Totty Const

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