Business

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UK - DHA Lighting has been called upon to offer its gobo services to the new musical, Beautiful and Damned. The show, now running at the Lyric Theatre in London, is set in the glittering 1920s and tells the story of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda Sayne. To create the sparkle the show required, lighting designer Nick Richings has included moving spotlights from Martin Professional, including MAC 500s and MAC 2000s, in his rig. Into these lights he has fitted a huge array of gobos from DHA. "We created both custom black-and-white and colour gobos," Richings explains, "to match the back projection used in the show. Designer Christopher Woods supplied us with the original artwork, which we adapted to make work in gobo form."

DHA Lighting can meet practically any gobo needs, whether a production requires a single metal gobo from its library of over 1,100 de

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UK - Bristol-based South West Audio recently completed the 'Evolve' conference for Virgin Mobile using a D.A.S. line array. The conference was held at an IMAX Theatre in Bristol, as the client wanted to use one of Europe's biggest screens and also because the high quality of the IMAX sound.

At the initial technical rehearsal, using the standard Imax Sound system, the client informed South West Audio that they wanted the sound louder, to the point of being almost uncomfortable, but without hotspots and without flying, and with a set-up time of only two hours. Mike Taylor, production manager for South West Audio, explained their solution: "With a clear brief from the client, and with limited time, we decided to put in the active D.A.S. line array system. The system was set-up easily by only two people within the time allowed and, as soon as we powered up, it was clear that th

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Belgium - Martin Professional reports a busy season for its lighting equipment in the Belgian market, with Belgian rental house and production company D-Rent (supplied by Martin's long-time Belgian distributor, EVDV) employing the company's fixtures on a wide range of events, including son et lumieres, corporate events and concerts.

D-Rent recently employed its stable of MACs on a son et lumiere, Magisch Antwerpen, a sound and light spectacular held every spring in the port city of Antwerp. Some 18,000 people crowded the city hall square to see the show, which featured 28 MAC 2000 Profiles, 18 MAC 600s, 72 MAC 250s and other intelligent lights in a visual extravaganza that included effects and colour-washing across the city hall and square.

For a mid-winter fest held in a large Belgian open-air museum, event promoter Croissant Bleu produced a circus show called Station

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UK - Beyoncé's recent USA tour included the innovative idea of 'aroma-ising' audience areas by use of 'Aromatech' systems from the UK's Effects Company. Specified by Justin Collie of Los Angeles / New York based design team Artfag, the idea was to fill the arena along the 'parade route' with a noticeable essence to indicate the artist's arrival.

The Effects Company's Martin Blake explains: "Artfag designed the system with multiple machines hanging from the trussing, with Ducting Adaptors attached to direct the airflow downwards, coupled with numerous machines at floor-level. The complete system was DMX-controlled from the main desk via Aromatech DMX Modules." Blake added: "The Effects Company originally supplied a selection of essences and the final essence chosen by Beyoncé was 'Musk' - as it was not specifically male or female."

(Lee Baldock)

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UK / Turkey - Midas and Klark Teknik have announced the appointment of The Atempo Group as their exclusive distributor for Turkey. The experienced distribution specialist, with offices in Istanbul, Ankara and Antalya, has handled Electro-Voice and Dynacord for some years and is delighted to be taking on the Midas and Klark Teknik ranges.

"We view this as a highly significant appointment for Midas and Klark Teknik," commented Midas and KT's director of sales and marketing, David Cooper. "Atempo voluntarily terminated a long-standing distribution agreement with a major Japanese digital console manufacturer in order to be able to carry the Midas brand. They correctly understand that Midas will retain the profile and competitive advantages that we have achieved in the analogue console market with our forthcoming digital products."

Atempo's Okan Akbay says: &qu

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UK - Stagetec Distribution has supplied a number of new Compulite Spark 4D and SparkTOP systems to TV studios around the country. The Hospital Studio, which opened in Summer 2003, is part of a television and arts complex in the heart of Covent Garden comprising of a café, art and exhibition gallery, TV and audio recording studios with a restaurant and private members club set to open in autumn 2004.

It is the brainchild of entrepreneur and philanthropist Paul G. Allen - a co-founder of Microsoft. The Hospital is a state-of-the-art facility for creative industry professionals in the music, art and film worlds. The unique mix of facilities will allow projects to be carried out under one roof, as they have all the necessary technical facilities for recording and production.

Housed in the two basement floors of The Hospital, The Studio is Europe's first end-to-end High Definitio

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UK / USA - Software provider Stardraw.com has appointed Dove Net Technologies as resellers of the entire Stardraw product range throughout the United States and Canada with immediate effect. According to Stardraw marketing director Rob Robinson, the appointment is a logical extension of Stardraw's activities in North America: "Dove Net's product portfolio complements our own in every possible way," he commented. "Furthermore, they are already familiar with our client base as their own software, The Project System, is designed for exactly the same user profile. Dove Net Technologies are highly experienced in all aspects of complex software sales, technical support and development. I can't think of any company that's better qualified for the job."

Dove Net's own application, The Project System, offers systems integrators a fully featured administration program

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UK - XL Video is supplying projection for an acclaimed production of Maria De Buenos Aires, a co-production between Buxton, Bath and Norwich Opera festivals, directed by John Abulafia. The rare Astor Paizzolla work with libretto by Uruguayan poet Horacia Ferrer, is a story of love and betrayal, good and evil and the tragedy of 'The Disappeared' during Argentina's oppressive military regime of 1976-1983.

XL Video's Malcolm Mellows was contacted by audio-visual specialist and programmer Graham English, with whom he has worked on previous projects. English was asked onboard by Abulafia to design and produce artwork and images for the show, working alongside designer Isla Shaw. XL's other recent work in theatre and the performing arts contributed to their recommendation as equipment supplier.

The projection surface is a simple, upstage 'stonework' set piece, providing abstr

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UK - James Thomas Engineering's Pixel Range team hits the road for two weeks at the start of June with a roadshow highlighting the capabilities of its rapidly-expanding Pixel product range. Pixel Range's Tony Cameron will head the roadshow, alongside Andy Sugars and Emma Long from IRAD, who will be demonstrating the PixelDrive control system.

Products will include the hugely popular PixelPAR 90 and the Pixelline 1044 batten. The roadshow will stop at some of the best-known lighting rental companies in the country. The routing was planned to get a good geographical spread and make catching it for the day as easy and convenient as possible. Those hosting the roadshows will have a chance to invite their customer base plus selected lighting designers and programmers.

Cameron comments: "Roadshows are a great opportunity to demonstrate the new products to existing Pixel Range u

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UK - Neil Muckle has used his 14 years' management experience with Mitchells & Butlers to convert the popular Isobar, in the Cornish holiday resort of St. Ives, into an all-day café bar and nightclub venue and at the same time to increase the capacity. Muckle and his Dude Bars business partner Nick Kenlay decided to retain the name of the popular venue, which has been operating as a nightclub for many years.

To accomplish this he turned to Nigel Hodgson of Core Design, who in turn enlisted Mark Brown of Marquee Installations. Hodgson's brief was to get the ground floor bar fully functioning as a multi-purpose chameleon venue in its own right - from an early breakfast and coffee operation through to a pre-club feeder. "As well as the interior design our brief was to re-design the flow round the entire building to enable it to function as a single unit," says Hodgson. T

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UK - Adlib Audio and Harman Pro UK collaborated closely to design, supply and install a JBL VerTec line array system at the Isle of Man's new flagship multi-purpose venue - the Villa Marina, situated alongside its sister, the Gaiety Theatre.

Adlib won the competitive tender to supply the kit - which also includes other Harman brands including BSS, Crown and Soundcraft. The project was co-ordinated by Adlib's Andy Dockerty and Harman Pro UK's Max Lindsay-Johnson, and for the client by Steve Dawson, general manager of the Villa Marina and Gaiety Theatre Complex.

The brief was to specify the right production values to attract regular touring artists of all types. It also had to match the architectural integrity of the room and maintain clear sightlines from all around the auditorium. Harman did an initial site survey and constructed an acoustic model of the venue, along with a 3D

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Australia / New Zealand - For the Australia/New Zealand opening leg of Sarah McLachlan's 2004 world tour, lighting designer Graeme Nicol opted for a 'warmer' look, employing a mixture of Vari*Lite automated fixtures. Nicol has 10 VL1000 tungsten units, eight VL5 fixtures with tungsten source and eight VL3000 Spot luminaires. He comments: "I'm running the VL3000 Spot units with full CTO all the time because I want that warmer look. I didn't want it to look like an MTV thing."

The eight VL3000 Spot fixtures are placed on the mid-truss, evenly spaced and alternating with the VL5 units. Because the automated rig is a scaled-down version of the rig he will use for the forthcoming North American tour, Nicol was somewhat limited in his design. But he plans to use this first run of dates to get a better idea of his design for the rest of the world tour. One thing that will car

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Australia - Hippotizer, the versatile digital media server from Scene Change, has found a home in Australia, having been selected by the Rise nightclub in Perth as the centrepiece of a new visuals system, installed to help the venue set the standard for clubbing in Perth with "a massive dancefloor, a world-class sound system and a lighting rig that redefines the phrase full-on."

Simon Barwood, managing director and resident DJ for Rise, explains: "We were ready to launch Rise into the 21st century with the installation of a club visuals system. I first came across Hippotizer in a review in DJ Mag's VJ Scan section. After extensive research of software and hardware products I could find no other comparable system offered as an 'out of the box' solution, which included pre-loaded content and an intuitive interface. The claims in the technical literature were substan

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USA - Biamp Systems has supplied an AudiaFLEX system to Central Interconnect of Grand Rapids, Michigan for installation into the Forest Hills Fine Arts Center there. According to Biamp, a single Audia unit can provide the power of an entire rack of processors, bringing even the most difficult acoustic environments under control. "Our flagship Audia currently brings Biamp Systems quality and reliability to the world of networked audio," says Biamp Systems president, Ralph Lockhart. "We're excited to have an institution of the calibre of the Forest Hills Fine Arts Center choose Audia as its central networking platform."

The audio demands at Forest Hills were rigorous. As part of the creation of this multimillion-dollar, state-of-the-art fine arts facility, the designers created an auditorium for musical performances. Originally, facility owners designed a syste

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UK - Soundtracs has reported record sales in the first quarter of 2004, with consoles being purchased by an increasing number of post production facilities across Europe. Sales include DS-00s to Molinaire Studios and Alchemy, along with Peter Vitesse's console at Sphere in London; a DS-00 to BBC Pebble Mill in Birmingham; a DPC to Sky TV adding to its already extensive inventory of Soundtracs products; a dual master section film-spec DS-00 to Alea Jacta in Belgium; a DS-00 to Yellow Cab in Paris, France plus two DS-00s to Endemol Nederland BV, and another to Archipel Productions in Paris.

"We're seeing a general up-turn in the post-production industry," comments Soundtracs' director of sales, James Gordon. "This is reflected in the amazing amount of sales we've made so far this year and the rest of the year looks set to be equally as good."

(Sarah Rushton-R

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USA - Barco Events has reported that all the LED displays used at this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) show, were from Barco. Approximately 3,510 tiles of Barco's popular indoor LED display products and 19,000 tiles of its innovative MiPix LED blocks were used at the show, which was held at the Los Angeles Convention Center, from 12-14 May 2004. Over 400 exhibitors and audience of 65,000 industry professionals attendedE3.

Barco's indoor LED display systems represented at the E3 show were supplied via some of the company's worldwide rental partners, including Creative Technology USA, XL Video USA, IMAG USA, AV Dimensions, Background Images, VER, E-Videowall, Impact, GL Image and AVHQ. In addition to its new award-winning MiPix displays and its indoor ILite 6 mm and 10 mm products, Barco's DLP projection products and its new flat-panel LCD displays also impressed show at

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UK - Leading UK LED lighting design and manufacturer i-Vision has appointed two new European distributors - in Germany and Ireland - for its full range of LED products. In Germany, Munich-based Richard Schahl Group GmbH (the world's largest lamp distributor) will be promoting the i-Vision brand, while in Ireland the company has appointed Dublin-based FibreLED.

The deal is part of ongoing expansion plans by Wales-based i-Vision, which includes the launch of 'Lumos' - a new range of LED products. i-Vision chose the Richard Schahl Group because they're one of the leading German lighting practitioners, with a dedicated LED division and an excellent reputation in the architectural, commercial and industrial sectors. The deal was finalized at the recent Light & Building exhibition in Frankfurt.

i-Vision's LED business has been very active in Ireland over the last two years, particu

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UK - Pro audio specialist Autograph Sales will be attending next month's ABTT show - exhibiting in the Lawrence Hall on stand 116. The event is being used as a launch pad for many new products, now available exclusively in the UK though Autograph Sales. This includes the global premiere of the Swedish LDS 'invisible' true line source theatre loudspeakers.

Another addition to the Autograph Sales portfolio is Aviom, the leading intelligent personal mixer and distribution system. The company's new A-Net digital multicore system, which is available with a Yamaha interface, will be on display and demonstrated with the DM1000 digital mixer.

Autograph Sales' technical department will be hosting a Design Clinic, to discuss any sound reinforcement issues, assist with ongoing designs or projects, and to offer its widely respected consultancy services to venues, installers and audio prof

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UK / Germany - The Praesideo digital public address and emergency sound/evacuation system from Bosch was recently awarded SOLAS approval by Germanischer Lloyd. This follows on from the TÜV IEC 60849 certification gained earlier in 2003, as well as the existing BS 5839 approval. This new recognition means that the Praesideo now conforms to the most stringent industry standards.

SOLAS (Safety of Life at Sea) is generally regarded as the most important of all international treaties concerning the safety of merchant ships. By gaining SOLAS approval from Germanischer Lloyd - specifically in the C, EMC1 and EMC2 environmental categories - the Praesideo is certified suitable for use on cruise ships, other merchant vessels and offshore gas and oil drilling platforms. It meets the strict safety and reliability criteria demanded by the treaty, which deal with issues such as monitoring of

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USA - Autograph A2D, US distributor for the DiGiCo D5T digital sound console, has confirmed its first sale to Masque Sound, the well-known New York rental company. The console will be used for the US premiere of We Will Rock You, which opens at the 1,450-seater Paris Theatre Des Arts in Las Vegas, this coming September.

Scott Kalata from Masque Sound says: "We are very enthusiastic about the use of the DiGiCo D5T on We Will Rock You, this console has definitely initiated a new era in theatrical sound design. It's a highly refined product that even Broadway's most particular designers are keeping a very close eye on. Let the revolution begin!"

The D5T is the result of an 18-month collaboration between DiGiCo and Autograph's Andrew Bruce, which has transformed the D5Live into its theatre counterpart, the D5T. The first fully featured console was installed

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UK / France - The grand finale to the Cannes Film Festival - a concert promoting the new movie De-Lovely - made the most of its stunning beach-side location, with a stage in the middle of the sea. De-Lovely, a drama based on the legendary American composer Cole Porter, is the latest musical to come out of the studios of MGM. To create a stage set which was in keeping with the theme of the movie and also elegant enough for the performers, including Robbie Williams, Alannis Morrisette and Sheryl Crow, MGM turned to scenic artists Hangman to come up with a concept for the design. Hangman in turn called upon LiteStructures to help them realize their ideas.

"MGM asked us to come up with a concept for the stage set, sending us to a top secret preview screening of the film to give us the opportunity to sketch out some ideas", explained Hangman's Sam Booker. &qu

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UK - White Light Events recently supplied lighting design services to King's College in central London for an evening's entertainment which told the story of the college's history - marking its 175th Anniversary. Inspired by son-et-lumiere-style presentations on other historic buildings in London, King's College created a light show and theatrical performance complete with marching bands, a re-enactment of the famous Duke of Wellington Duel, dramatic musical presentations and a huge firework display as the evening's finale. This all took place in the college's historic quadrangle, hidden behind its 1970s facade.

"Our brief was to transform the look of the building, bringing it to life" comments Jason Larcombe, lighting designer for White Light Events, "and at the same time to use lighting to support and enhance the drama of the show. Up until one week before the l

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Spain - Hotel Omm in Barcelona, designed by Juli Capella, a young architect is at the forefront of modern architecture in Barcelona. Inside the hotel, the Moo restaurant, managed by the Roca brothers, offers a gastronomic experience second to none. After putting on the calories in the Moo restaurant, patrons can dance them off at the Hotel's Ommsession Club, Barcelona's newest nightclub which also boasts live music. This new venue demanded a high quality and flexible sound system. Netso PTB was called in to design and install a system capable of delivering sound quality for live concerts and a variety of other events. "It was important that the sound system fitted in with the hotel's carefully chosen design standards," said Reni Mititieri of Netso PTB.

With support from d&b audiotechnik's local office, Mititieri chose a minimalist system powerful enough to be used in b

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Japan - High in Tokyo sky, on the 52nd (top) floor of the Mori Tower building in Roppongi Hills an all night event Roppongi Hills Cultural Festival 'till Sunrise was held for the release of the new Japanese movie Innocence.

Tokyo based rental company Sound Service MMU, in co-operation with Sound Projects representative STK, provided the sound equipment for this special event, with main FOH systems based around the Sound Projects 4 (SP-4).

Sound engineer Asada split the area into two zones (two stages). For the main stage he specified double SP4 Diamond stacks for FOH, two SP2-FM floor monitors on stage and two personal monitors as side fills. The second (smaller) stage was reinforced by a SP-3 systems and again personal monitors as side fills. All around the top floor several X-act full range monitors and XM studio monitors were used.

The event took place on V

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  2. EV's new software tunes up Classical Brits
  3. Video Artist Bill Viola Returns To VLPS
  4. Sound Acoustics fit first t&m's into Eastgate Centre
  5. Allen & Heath comes to its senses
  6. A.C. Lighting Supply Multi-Purpose Venue
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