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UK - Northen Lights is a new exhibition to celebrate the pivotal role Michael Northen played as one of Britain's first lighting designers. Drawn from his personal collection, generously donated to the Museum by Robert Camac, and other sources, it illuminates Northen's illustrious career, which spanned six decades.

Michael Northen (1921-2001) began his career as a stage manager at the Q Theatre in 1938, where he met designer Tanya Moiseiwitsch, interrupted by his wartime service in the RAF, including a tour of India as stage manager for the Gang Show. Post-war he worked as production assistant at the Royal Opera House on many ballets and operas including The Queen of Spades whose décor he supervised in the absence of the designer Oliver Messel.

Northen gained credit as the first lighting designer in the British theatre to receive billing as such in Gielgud's 1950 Kin

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UK - Robe UK has supplied The Willows Variety Club in Salford, with a large Robe moving light rig - including the first Robe Spot 1200s to be installed in the UK. This makes The Willows arguably one of the best-equipped social club in the UK.

John Wilkinson OBE, chairman of Salford Rugby League Club, owns the 700-capacity venue and although sited adjacently, the two are run as completely different enterprises. The Willows has recently invested substantially in the latest production technology.

As the name implies, 'variety' was the operative word when it came to looking for new lighting. They needed a rig that could deal with every type of performance, from comedians, magicians and single performers to duos, dance troupes and large live bands of all genres - and that could also double as a disco/dancefloor system. The venue's general manager Dave Bell and lighting technician/o

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UK - In one busy period over the Christmas break - a schedule designed to minimize the disruption - three London sites received substantial updates and upgrades to their dimming and lighting infrastructure provided by White Light Projects.

The Royal Academy of Music's Sir Jack Lyons Theatre is a versatile 200-seat venue used for opera and musical theatre productions and also as a teaching room. Discussions between the theatre's technician Jake Wiltshire and White Light's technical sales manager Roger Hennigan led to a project that involved installing 144 ways of ETC Sensor dimming, new Andolite outlet boxes on the flyfloor and at stage level featuring both Socapex and 15A outlets, and new internally wired bars overhead, these now ladderbeam-style for added rigidity. The plugging boxes and internally wired bars also carry Ethercon outlets for distribution of Ethernet lighting dat

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China - Panyu Chime-Long Night Zoo is a unique night time safari attraction located in Panyu, a district in the city of Guangzhou, China. With thousands of outstanding color effects and wild animal attractions, Panyu Chime-Long Night Zoo is said to rival anything Las Vegas has to offer.

Within its walls, a 10,000 seat capacity domed amphitheater is home to Galaxy Stars, a space-themed Las Vegas-like circus show. The unusual zoo attraction has invested in more than one hundred Martin intelligent lights, making it one of the largest Martin installs in China. Galaxy Stars is named in recognition of China's emergence as a space-faring nation and features unique human and animal acts. An important aspect of the redesign is a new intelligent lighting system used to highlight the central stage/center ring, backdrops and acts. The show has been completely restaged by a tea

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USA - VLPS Lighting Services announced recently that it has relocated its Nashville shop to a new facility, built to VLPS' specification and has more than 22,000sqft of office space and warehouse. Rusty Brutsché, chairman and CEO of VLPS remarked: "We are pleased to be expanding our operations in Nashville with this beautiful new facility and we look forward to enhancing our service and rental inventory for our clients.

"We are moving for the simple reason that we're out of space," explained Arthur Smith, general manager of VLPS Nashville. "We are growing with the industry and needed a bigger facility to accommodate our clients' requirements." A grand opening ceremony is tentatively scheduled for mid-March. The company's new address is: 8351 Eastgate Blvd., Mt. Juliet, Tennessee 37122, USA.

(Sarah Rushton-Read)

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UK - Corporate audio specialists Audio Alliance recently held a demonstration day to show current and new clients just why the company is rapidly becoming one of the UK's leaders in its field. The Manchester based rental supplier provided clients with a chance to experience first hand the technology behind the shows.

Audio Alliance director Oliver Driver, who strongly believes that showing clients what is available and how it is used benefits all parties, organized the event. The day allowed for a range of Audio Alliance's rental stock to be demonstrated, including digital systems, with ProTools providing surround sound playback, supported by a Sony DMXR100 mixing desk and a Yamaha DME32 processor.

An analogue system was also set up with an Allen & Heath ML series desk and XTA processing, while a smaller console, the Midas Venice, was being demonstrated with Shure DFR22 proces

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UK - Entec Sound & Light supplied a full lighting and sound production package for "East Meets West" 2004. The event was a variety show extravaganza staged at the Carling Apollo Hammersmith, and performed by students from Imperial College Indian Society.

The show featured dance and music - from rap to classical Indian - plus various fusions and theatrical performance. Lighting designer Andrew Keighley, an Entec regular, lit the event for the second year running, and with no stage set apart from some basic props, the visual impact was all down to the application of lights.

He chose a series of simplistic, bold and colourful looks that were ideal for mixing and matching for quick and effective improvisational techniques. There was no time for a full rehearsal or run though, and for lighting in particular, this meant a heavy reliance on Keighley's intuition and busking

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UK - L&SI recently received a statement from The Roadcrew Providential Syndicate which held its first meeting on Saturday 3 January at the Point 101 Club. The meeting resolved to set up a permanent organization, as part of the GMB trade union, to achieve representation for those involved in the production of live entertainment and other events. The RPS has invited any individuals who work in the following areas to join them, regardless of employment status: backline crew, local crew, bus drivers, truck drivers, tour managers, merchandise staff, catering crew, sound crew, lighting crew, AV crew, riggers, set builders, barrier crew, wardrobe, close tour security and other crew who are part of the industry.

Because of the nature of these particular jobs, individuals are often excluded from access to High Street financial services. By joining the Roadcrew Providential Syndicate, mem

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UK - When the English and Wales Court Service made plans to add sound reinforcement to nineteen of the courtrooms at Snaresbrook Crown Court in the London suburb of Essex, they called upon Digital Multimedia Recording Ltd (DMR), who had been providing them with digital audio recording systems for other courthouses in the region. DMR, in turn, approached Birmingham-based LMC Audio to work with them on the installation.

Originally a Victorian orphanage, the building was later converted into fourteen courtrooms, with a modern annex adding another six. "Consequently, the acoustics in the rooms are awful," relates Simon Neller, the Court Service's project manager. "There's always been a major problem for jurors in hearing soft-spoken witnesses." He noted that, in many cases, asking vulnerable witnesses to speak louder or repeat sometimes distressing testimony tend

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UK - Liverpool-based Adlib Audio has supplied 26 of their AA installation series speakers to Kick Sales, for the new Supper Club at Blundell Street. The opening of the new room is phase two of the venue's development. The first room opened two years ago, also with a sound system designed and supplied by Kick Sales. The venue is one of the social hubs of Liverpool's lively regenerated former docklands.

Blundell Street's owners were so pleased with the first sound system that they asked Kick Sales to provide audio, projection and lighting for the Supper Club room. The brief given to Kick's Peter Jeffrey was to make the system as unobtrusive and aesthetically pleasing as possible.

The Supper club is a restaurant with live music, so it needed to have plenty of power. Jeffrey decided that the logical audio route was a distributed sound system. It is a large room with bare walls an

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UK - Network Audio, one of the UK's leading sound hire companies, signalled its commitment to growing its presence in the exhibition and events market with the launch of 'Network AV' in January 2004. Network Audio's no compromise approach to equipment specification and technical expertise has won favour with many blue chip companies and major artists alike. Previous clients have included British Airways, Carl Cox, Fat Boy Slim, Ford, Rolex, The Saudi Royal Family, Virgin Group, Vodaphone and the BBC.

Network AV provides specialist audio visual services for exhibition features, conferences and other major public events. Unique to the company's offer is its breadth of in-house expertise. Focusing on critical sound, light, video and effects production, the company provides a range of services to enhance any event feature.

Within its portfolio, Network AV offers both live and s

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UK / USA - Le Mark Group and Pro Tapes/Permacel - the world's largest manufacturers of tapes for the arts and entertainment industry, have announced an alliance which sees Le Mark Group become a Master Distributor in the UK for the Pro Tapes/Permacel range of high quality self-adhesive tapes. Pro Tapes/Permacel is the leading manufacturer of vinyl-coated tapes including Permacel 665, the world's first gaffer tape.

Le Mark has a wide range of award-winning 'tape-based' products and saw the benefits of offering the Pro Tapes/Permacel range through its own dealer network. Le Mark MD Stuart Gibbons stated: "The alliance between our two great companies is a natural and logical progression. Le Mark needed to meet customer demand for specialty products, in particular gaffer tapes with more colour options. The Pro-Gaffer range is available in 17 standard colours and four fluorescen

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UK - Rock band Feeder completed its 2003 tour of Europe, Japan and the US on home ground, with their final date at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, supporting the Stereophonics. Throughout the tour, Reading-based Skan PA Hire supplied a substantial sound system, including an array of XTA signal processing equipment.

Skan's PA technician, Scott Essen, was there every step of the way: "Feeder's FOH engineer, David Hills - a.k.a Magnus - had tried out the G2s and C2s at Glastonbury and thought they were great, so he spec'd them for the tour. We were using the G2 on drums as a standard gate, which Magnus found suited his style very well, and C2 for compression on general samples and keyboards. We used DP224 and DP226s for system control of the PA and monitors via AudioCore. The 226s are great - they sound good, and are easy to use. We used GQ600s on monitors as they are excep

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UK / Germany - At the Frankfurt MusikMesse (31 March - 3 April), Audient will display its full range of products including Aztec live performance console, the acclaimed ASP8024 recording console, ASP231 graphic equalizer and the most recent addition to the portfolio, the ASP008, which was shown for the first time at PLASA 2003.

The ASP008 is a compact, 1U rack-mount unit, featuring eight high quality variable impedance mic preamplifiers, developed from the renowned mic-pre design used in the ASP8024 recording console and the Aztec. All channels include XLR input, 48V phantom power, switchable input impedance, 25 - 250Hz hi-pass filter, phase reverse, as well as line input selection. Channels one and two also feature a -20dB attenuator and a high impedance instrument/DI input, on a jack on the front panel. LEDs provide indication of signal present and overload. A digital output o

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UK - Provoice, a division of Protec Fire Detection, based in Nelson, Lancashire, carried out the networked Voice Alarm installation at Birmingham's Bullring shopping centre. Already Britain's busiest shopping area, the visitor figures confirm Bullring's status as a European visitor attraction. The installation required the provision of voice alarm, public address, automatic messages, and background music facilities throughout the public areas of the centre.

Mission Pro DML panel loudspeakers were used by Provoice with their proprietary Loop Drive technique secure network. There are four VA racks on the system - a Master and three slave units. These are connected via a secure network loop, which carries three audio paths and a data path. In the unlikely event of a network failure, each of the four racks is capable of working stand alone for emergency pre-recorded messages and liv

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UK / India - Audio Design Services of Stockport has been selected to provide sophisticated sound equipment for the world's most advanced school, which has been functioning since December 2003. The school, which attracts more than 5,000 pupils from around the world, is not in the USA, or one of the more fashionable European cities, but is situated in the picturesque foothills of the Aravalli Hills, south of Delhi in India. More surprisingly, the school belongs to an individual - A K Goenka, a well-known businessman.

The campus is spread over 60 acres of land, and includes a five-hole trainer golf course, set in 17 acres with night play facilities. The school, which has a total of 10 buildings over a covered area of 800,000sq.ft, has two all-season indoor swimming pools that cater to all water sports including water polo, and horse riding is a special attraction. From a technology

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UK / USA - Scary US rocker Wednesday 13 (Murderdolls, Frankenstein Drag Queens) will be using Carlsbro amps on his Graveyard-a-Go-Go tour of the UK in March. While visiting the Carlsbro stand at the NAMM show in Los Angeles recently, Wednesday 13 was so impressed with the Carlsbro Sound that he will be using two NuTone stacks and 1 Bass Reactor stack on his UK tour, which kicks off at the Birmingham Academy on 13 March.

Carlsbro also reports that its amps are currently on tour with Swedish 'thrashed-up Synth Punk' band Surferosa, who are using Carlsbro's NuTone stack and a Bass Reactor stack on their UK tour, which began at London's Club Fandango on 3 February.

(Lee Baldock)

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UK - The Swan Theatre in Stratford upon Avon, part of the Royal Shakespeare Company, has recently purchased nine Vari*Lite VL1000 Tungsten Profiles. The units will hang inside the Elizabethan-style space as a permanent addition to the lighting rig.

Lighting supervisor Wayne Dowdeswell, who chose the VL1000 units commented: "They offer a broad appeal for us, not only as versatile specials but for more delicate moving effects. It is vital that any fixtures we hang are totally silent, as the audience sits within just a few feet of the rig in our theatre space."

The VL1000TS luminaires have already been used in a number of productions by the RSC but these are the first units they have purchased. Wayne continued: "They offer astounding value at present which was a key factor in our decision."

(Sarah Rushton-Read)

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UK - Autograph Sales reports growing sales of Fischer battery chargers and in-ear monitoring amp packages to some of the UK's top rental and technical catalogue companies. After noticing there was a niche in the UK market for such a product, Autograph Sales worked with Fischer to secure the UK distribution. The products proved an immediate success and had their official UK launch at PLASA 2003.

Not only does Fischer manufacture the standard plug-in chargers, but also 19" rack-mountable kits for professional use on tour and stage, for NiMH 9V cells or AA-cells. Batteries are contained in removable drawers, allowing easy access. These batteries also have a much greater capacity than most others on the market, making them more reliable to the user.

Network Audio, one of the UK's fastest growing corporate AV companies, opted for the rack mounted ALC161 and ALC 89. Owner Nick

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USA / Canada - Rod Stewart has launched a major tour of arenas throughout North America, and will be touring with a Meyer Sound system based on arrays totalling 52 MILO high-power curvilinear loudspeakers. Lars Brogaard is at the helm of the sound rig, serving as both FOH engineer and production manager for Stewart's first major North American tour in three years. Sound Image of Escondido, California is providing the sound system.

The MILO arrays are supplemented by 11 UPA-1P compact wide-coverage loudspeakers for front fill, while two LD-3 compensating line drivers provide corrective equalization for low-frequency buildup inherent in line arrays and for atmospheric conditions.

Stewart's From Maggie May to The Great American Songbook tour kicked off at Office Depot Center in Sunrise, Florida on 6 February and travels around the continent until finishing up back in the

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UK - This year's TPi Awards - the third annual Total Production International magazine awards event - took place at the Novotel London West in Hammersmith earlier this week. Hosted by former Spandau Ballet bassist and actor Martin Kemp, the event saw 25 awards presented, with winners including Jake Berry (Production Manager of the Year), Robert Collins (FOH Engineer), Blue Leach (Video Director), LSD Fourth Phase (Lighting Rental Company), Star Events Group (Staging Company) and Carling Academy Brixton (Venue).

Highlights of the evening included the presentation of The Editor's Award to video director Dick Carruthers, made by Led Zeppelin rock legend Jimmy Page. This year's Lifetime Contribution Award went to the original founder of Brilliant Stages, Charlie Kail - presented to him by Brian Croft - and Robbie Williams' tour manager Andy Franks picked up a personal award, plus an

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Australia - Following the enormous success of Australian entertainment venue OneWorld Sport, situated in Sydney's Darling Harbour, a second venue has been opened in the city's Parramatta district. The new bar/club/restaurant follows the same all-action formula, with a barrage of audio-visual, carrying a non-stop feast of sports.

With four big screens, dozens of plasma screens and six satellite feeds, patrons are never far from live sports action. The internal fit-out, by Sydney club specialists Swerve Design, features numerous old and modern classics including a Ferrari racing car, a suit worn by Michael Schumacher and a bat used by Don Bradman.

Sydney-based audio-visual installer Saltec was contracted for the fit-out, which includes Allen & Heath mixing and control, Martin Audio Wavefront 8 system (with over 50 speakers), powered by QSC amplification. In 'The Arena', an area

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Eire - Leading Irish audio installation company Rea Sound recently completed the refurbishment of Scraggs Alley in Carlow, where the traditional Irish bar is benefiting from a new Nexo PS10 sound system. The bar is huge - capable of holding up to 500 people - but has a very low ceiling level. Consequently, Rea Sound has wall-mounted the Nexo PS10 full-range cabinets with asymmetric horn in a horizontal format. Throughout the bar, there are 16 Nexo PS10 speakers, with eight Nexo LS500 sub-bass units in support, powered by PS10 amplifiers.

Although there is a nightclub upstairs at the Scraggs Alley venue, in the evenings DJs also mix club tracks in the main bar. Roger McMullen of Rea Sound explained: "This was one of the main reasons for choosing Nexo as the principal sound system. We needed a loudspeaker that could perform clearly and efficiently during the day when the pub

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UK - London's fabric nightclub has completed major upgrades to its sound and lighting systems. Key to the lighting installation is a package from Coemar UK and its sister company, Lighting Effects Distribution. Coemar iSpot 575 moving heads, iCyc 250s, ProSpot 250s and a variety of LED-based products have been utilized in Rooms 1, 2 and 3 as a result of a new design from Dave Parry's technology team at the club.

The new equipment is predominantly for Room 2. "The room is essentially a black box, but I wanted to put a bit more focus onto the lasers," said Parry. "The room contains a massive block of colour and we've used Coemar iCyc 250s as an architectural backdrop."

The club has also used six Thomas PixelPar 87s from Lighting Effects Distribution to highlight the structural arches, along with a pair of Coemar iSpot 575s and a CF7 as a centrepiece effect. P

  1. High End / Flying Pig update
  2. Core business for Northern Light
  3. Aztec tours with Taboo
  4. Silencing the Farnese
  5. Lighting St Barnabas
  6. HK's Cohedra tours with Carmina Burana
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