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UK - When White Light's production manager Jon Coventry decided to arrange some rigging training for his production team, he wondered whether the training would also be helpful to others. To that end, he contacted Stuart Graham, technical manager at the New Wimbledon Theatre, the closest venue to White Light's South London base.

After discussing options, Coventry and Graham agreed on a three-day rigging course offered by Chris Higgs at Total Fabrications. This course is often conducted at a client's site, and Coventry and Graham felt a theatre environment would better suit their needs, while Higgs had previously hosted training there for the ENO. Fortunately, the New Wimbledon Theatre was dark for its summer break and so it provided the perfect venue.

The New Wimbledon Theatre is part of the Ambassador Theatre Group (ATG) - one of the country's foremost theatre producers. It i

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UK - International - Autograph Sound Recording, which recently celebrated 30 years of sound design and rental supply, has in addition to their usual dominance in the West End, been in high demand outside the UK, across Europe and as far a field as Asia. The company is currently supplying or is about to supply large-scale theatre productions in Athens, Berlin, Utrecht, Stuttgart, Madrid, Moscow and Tokyo.

Having just designed the new Miss Saigon UK tour, Nick Lidster one of Autograph's designers, is now in Tokyo working on another new production of this popular musical, which opens in mid August at the Imperial Theatre. Supplying the equipment for this Japanese version of Miss Saigon demonstrates how successfully Autograph has expanded their global market.

Another hit show to make use of not only Autograph's sound design but also rental expertise is Mamma Mia!

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UK - Charter, one of the UK's largest broadcast television equipment rental companies, has recently supplied its OB facilities at both Euro 2004 for ITV Sports in Lisbon, and Formula 1 circuits for German broadcaster RTL in Hockenheim. For each event Charter provided equipment including master control and switching centres, production hubs and edit suites.

Steve Jones from Charter says: "We spent over £2 million last year investing in new technologies and in 2004 we plan to invest a further £3m. This substantial investment ensures that our customers, including RTL and ITV Sport, have access to the latest equipment. The bespoke outside broadcast production facilities that we offer can be flown to any part of the world and rigged on-site in order to meet ambitious timescales. With the broadcast and production industry still facing a tough economic climate, we try to ensure

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USA - Wharfedale loudspeakers are featuring in Andreas Buechele's successful sound design for the touring theatre show, Alma Mahler. First performed in 1996 at the Vienna Festival Week (and made into a film in 1999), the cult film - about the wife of the celebrated composer, known for her many high-profile relationships - moved to Venice/Italy in 2002 and to Lisbon/Portugal in 2003.

After three months in Portugal, the production now arrives in Los Angeles, and will perform at the famous Los Angeles Theatre between 30 September and 5 December. ATEC Audio Technology, Wharfedale's Austrian distributors, originally equipped the show with 14 x EVP12P (powered 200W trapezoidal enclosures, with 12" woofer and 44mm compression driver) which worked so well that Andreas Buechele decided to take them around the world with him.

However, the sound designer's first task on takin

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Tunisia - Since Marantz' workhorse PMD320 was installed in 'Dar Zamen', a visitor attraction in the Tunisian cultural tourist complex of Dar Cherait, back in 1997, the 20 rack-mount CDs have provided continuous playback over a full duty cycle - without a single aberration.

Situated in the southern resort of Tozeur, the park, which is open seven days a week, recalls 3,000 years of Tunisian history. "To this day, the PMD320s continue to function impeccably over an eight-hour cycle, operating until midnight on a daily basis," says M N Chelli, from Backstage Technology - a company created with the visitor attraction's owner Chérait Jallel back in 2002 to take care of all the Chérait Group's technical requirements.

But times have moved forward and the professional playback device has now evolved into the PMD325. In addition to playing conventional CDs it will handle CD

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UK - Stage Two Ltd, the Watford-based sound and lighting company, has recently completed a project to supply and install a new paging system at the large Watford Sorting Office for the Royal Mail. The Watford Sorting Office covers a large area and following the re-structuring of the postal delivery pattern is subject to significant variations in the ambient noise level within the sorting hall itself when the letter-sorting equipment becomes active.

The project called for some 150 speakers in a combination of ceiling and wall units, together with outside projectors for the loading bay. It was also important to create a zoned approach and Stage Two opted for the Cloud Electronics range of products for the amplification and signal processing equipment, augmented by an ambient noise computer from Symetrix and a telephone interface from Baldwin Boxall. Speakers were selected from Pen

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USA - Lighting/projection programmer Rodd McLaughlin, Emmy-nominated lighting/projection designer Patrick Dierson, and programmer Kim Grethen have launched Idyll Hands Imagery, which will offer digital content design and creation, media server programming, and pre-visualization services to the concert, corporate, theatre, film, and television industries. Among the services offered by the company is the optimization of digital content for media server playback.

"Our combined understanding of lighting and control, projection and media products, and the needs of designers makes this a unique partnership," says McLaughlin. "Patrick, Kim, and I have worked on projects together for many years, and given our combined technical knowledge and involvement in the industry, it was a natural evolution to come together in this effort. We offer a host of experience, not only in

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UK - Canegreen managed the sound at the 40th Cambridge Folk Festival, where an eclectic line-up mixed the traditional folk of Ralph McTel with contemporary sounds of Beth Orton and classic reggae in the form of the legendary Jimmy Cliff. The audience and artists alike commented on the sound quality produced by Canegreen, says production manager Ken Rankin: "A high percentage of our audience are musicians and the quality of the sound really affects their enjoyment of the weekend. Since Canegreen has provided our PA, there has been a huge improvement and I have had loads of compliments about the sound."

Cambridge Folk Festival has never been easy to work on, but Canegreen, now on its third consecutive year, has always risen to the challenge, creating a system unique to this event. The festival is situated in the middle of a residential area, so sound levels have to be c

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UK - CT Screenco again worked with show producers, Endemol UK on the latest series of the Big Brother reality show at Elstree Film Studios. This is the fourth time the video specialists have provided big screen reinforcement for the series. Having supplied a 16mm LED display to Endemol UK for last year's 10-week run they adopted a different format for this year's innovative production, supplying a 14sq.m Barco DLite 10 LED display at the back of the Orbit stage to augment presenter, Davina McCall's Friday night eviction slot.

As the announcement is made by Davina, from her interview den, to the crowds assembled outside the purpose-built house on the Elstree lot, the action is relayed to guests backstage on four 42" plasma screens; these, too, were supplied by CT Screenco. Series director, Tony Gregory, said that he had deliberately set out to develop an arena feel, w

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Canada - Strand Lighting has won the contract to supply the lighting system for the new Toronto Opera House. The 2000-capacity Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts will be the new home for the Canadian Opera Company and the National Ballet of Canada. The design team for the project includes Jack Diamond and Gary McCluskie, Diamond and Schmitt Architects, Shaili Patel and Lana MacInnes of electrical engineers Mulvey & Banani International, and Josh Dachs and Richard Hoyes of the theatrical consultancy Fisher Dachs & Associates. The acoustical consultants for the project are Sound Space Design of London in association with Aercoustics Ltd.

Strand Lighting has worked closely with both the Opera Company and the Ballet for over 30 years, most recently at their current home at the Hummingbird Center in Toronto with opera technical director Julian Sleath and resident master elec

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UK - The Glastonbury Extravaganza is a three-day event that was started in 1996 by Michael Eavis, founder of the Glastonbury Festival of Music and Dance, with the aim of giving something back to the local community for any inconvenience caused by the larger event.

Entec was responsible for supplying the lighting production for this year's Extravaganza, which was set once again in the picturesque grounds of Glastonbury Abbey and included the varied line-up of Van Morrison, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Jools Holland. This was the first time that Entec has supplied the event, working with legendary production manager Dick Tee.

To co-ordinate the lighting needs of Van Morrison and Jools Holland, both regular Entec users, as well as the classical event with the RPO, Entec enlisted the help of Fraser Elisha. He and his Entec team-mates utilized the structural elements of the

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USA - It's been a busy season for Total Structures, with the fabrication of a range of aluminium outdoor load-bearing roof structures. Systems have been supplied to a number of clients including Brown United, Stages Northwest, Hughies, Rhino and E-Staging and will be used in a variety of locations from Mexico to Oregon, California to Ohio. Clients continue to be attracted by the modular nature of the Total Structures' roof system that can be readily configured to a variety of sizes, say the company. The roofs are based on a 10ft x 10ft grid to facilitate the suspension of loads above the stage: multiple covers and engineering reports have been supplied with some of these roofs so that they can be configured in a variety of ways using common structural components.

Braced goalpost and rectangular sound wings are also provided with some of these roof systems. The roofs can be used

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Germany - After the successful prelude of the Stralsund Festival of the Zar und Zimmermann opera last year, this summer season opened with the premiere of Mozart's Magic Flute on the open-air stage of Stralsund. Once again, the cargo ship Ursula B is serving as a floating stage between 20 July and 28 August, during which time it will provide room for 1,600 visitors, five times per week.

Every year since 1995 sound engineers of the Theatre Vorpommern have been faced with the challenge of staging open-air performances during the summer season with a symphony orchestra and choir performance in front of an audience of up to 2,000. The sound system varied each year, according to the specific requirements of each performace, and it was decided that a more permanent solution had to be found for the next few years. After intensive research, the final decision fell on K.M.E

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USA - With less performance time - and usually less stage and overhead rig access - it's always challenging for an opening band to make itself stand out. But for country music rising stars Rascal Flatts (currently promoting its latest release, Melt, while opening up for Kenny Chesney) set designer Mike Swinford employed the Versa TILE system from Element Labs.

Although the band has a standard risers-and-stairs setup on stage, the risers are covered with about 20sq.m of Versa TILE, supplied by Large Screen Video (with offices in San Francisco and Miami). "When designing the show, we entertained the idea of bringing LED video onto the stage and we decided that we wanted some sort of self-illuminating video," Swinford says. "We went with the Versa TILE system because it was much more cost-effective [than regular LED], it was lighter weight, it required less power and

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Canada - Flow Restaurant and Lounge Bar is centrally located in the more expensive dining and nightlife area of Yorkville Avenue, Toronto. Operated by Tony Longo and partners - proprietors of a chain of superior restaurants in the city - the modern and stylish venue is already attracting many customers who can enjoy a meal on the main floor, or sample wine and food on the lower level, whilst listening to live and DJ music ranging from jazz and blues to R&B.

Chimera Electronics Corporation was responsible for the external lighting specification and installation. The client's wish was to use lighting to enhance the look and style of the building, as well as having a colour-changing system to create a subtle and inviting atmosphere. Tryka's L.E.D. luminaires were selected for the project: Module 3s with 25º optics are used to highlight the brushed metallic columns along the patio

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UK - Electrosonic was responsible for the overall system design, project engineering, installation, programming and commissioning of the AV systems at the Science Museums's new Dana Centre in London. The stylish, purpose-built venue provides a forum where the international research community and the general public can take part in exciting debates about contemporary science, technology and culture.

The Science Museum has a full time staff engaged in the realisation of interactive exhibits, and has enormous experience of the realities of using AV techniques in the public domain. With the Dana Centre, it was quite clear about its objectives, but it did not have the in-house resources to complete the detailed design. Electrosonic was chosen from among the proposed solutions, not only because its proposal appeared cost-effective, but also because it was clear that it had relevant e

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Sudan - The Ministry of Energy and Mines in Sudan has placed an order for a complete conference system, to be supplied by Brähler ICS UK Ltd. The system is to be installed into the Ingaz Conference Hall by local Sudanese company, Federal Information Technology Co. The Ministry's premises is located adjacent to the UN headquarters offices in Khartoum.

Brähler ICS was chosen as the principle supplier for the project. Facilities will include an 85-user Automic microphone system, linked to an Infracom simultaneous interpretation system with infra-red delegate receivers and a full public address system. A flexible and robust system was required, as uses will include conferences, seminars and training sessions in multiple languages.

The Automic microphone system comes with portable delegate and chairman's microphones, both with gooseneck stems and interfaces with the interpretati

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UK - E//T//C UK brought its large format projection magic to the ancient ruins of Caldicot Castle in Monmouthshire recently, for a three-weekend son et lumière production, called Footprints On The Sands of Time, part of the 2004 Chepstow Festival. Projection, lighting, sound, pyrotechnics and over 100 actors combined in a highly memorable show directed by Nick Bamford, and produced by Ned Heywood and Anne Rainsbury.

Three PIGI 6kW projectors with double rotating scrollers were used, located on a specially-built platform at the rear of the seating stands - a throw distance of over 100m. Two PIGIs shone onto a special arched screen to the left, and the other beamed onto the castle keep on the right. The show maximized the dynamic effects of the projectors, which scrolled and rotated constantly in all directions throughout the 90-minute show. E/T/C's Ross Ashton comments: &

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UK / The Netherlands - LGH Rigging Services, specialist in the hire, sales and service of rigging and associated equipment, has signed a two-year contract with Q-Production, the leading producer of dance-events in Holland. The contract, which has been secured by LGH Rigging Services' Dutch operation, is for the hire and supply of Lodestar motors, control and associated rigging equipment for rigging the lighting, sound and video equipment at over 50 annual dance events held all over Holland and supported by well known DJs such as Tiësto, Paul Van Dyk, Mauro Picotto, Sven Vath, Marco V, Dana and many others.

'Q-Production have until now sourced their rigging equipment through their lighting supplier but realized that it would be more beneficial if they were to come direct to a supplier of rigging materials," explained Frank Kreuk, Dutch manager, LGH Rigging Services. "A

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UK - Following the sale of a suite of Yamaha's new generation mixing desks by Marquee Audio to Blitz Sound, the Shepperton-based suppliers helped the service company to organise a training day at the latter's plush demo facility in Elstree.

With a number of high-profile shows and events in prospect, Blitz had systematically purchased a DM1000, PM5000 and PM5D digital desk from their long-term suppliers over the past couple of months - and all were on display, allowing a number of leading independent freelance, corporate and theatre engineers (including the National) to get hands-on training by Marquee and Yamaha support teams.

"This is part of our ongoing inventory upgrade, and Marquee have supported us as they always do," said Blitz Sound regional manager, Chris Jordan. "Today is overview-type training . . . when we need to do intense training we can either do

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UK - Pure Distribution, a division of Stirling Audio, has supplied a number of Sanken COS-11 microphones for use on the current ITV hit series, Bad Lads Army. The brand new reality show takes 30 young men who have gone off the rails and puts them through their paces with a dose of 1950s-style military training to try and get their lives back on track.

Richmond Film Services' founding partner Nigel Woodford provided location sound supervisor James Godard with a total of 20 COS-11 lavalier microphones from its stock of nearly 100, which has been built up over the years with a number of purchases from Pure Distribution. The COS-11 is an omni-directional miniature lavalier microphone that is so small it is almost invisible, yet still provides superb sound, with the frequency response being consciously adjusted to the human voice which makes it ideal for use on this kind of s

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Denmark - Jens Moeller, the MI and concert sound sales representative for Ascon Trading a/s (the Danish distributor for EV, Dynacord, Midas and Klark Teknik), has become the proud owner of his first Midas console. A Midas Verona 400 now occupies pride of place at the heart of his home recording studio in his small apartment in central Copenhagen. Moeller and his musical partner Peter Alfred form the electronic duo 'Transport' and are currently in the process of putting together their first album.

Moeller is reportedly delighted with his purchase, despite the fact that he had to consign most of his furniture to the skip in order to make room for it in his apartment. Home also happens to be on the fourth floor, so he was obliged to call in a few favours from several of his skinnier musical friends to help him lug it up the stairs! "It was a fair amount of effort, but definit

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UK - Barco has announced that its outdoor LED display solutions have been chosen by Arena Leisure to improve the race day experience for customers at its racecourse locations throughout the UK. The chosen Barco display solutions combine a 40sq.m SLite 10 mobile outdoor LED screen together with a secondary 22sq.m SLite 10 outdoor LED display. Arena Leisure Plc is the UK's largest independent racecourse owner in terms of fixtures, hosting over 2,000 races and approximately 23% of all British horseracing fixtures.

Says Ted Taylor, chief operating officer of Arena Leisure's Racecourse Division: "The screens will mean that Folkestone, Lingfield Park and Royal Windsor racecourses will have at least one big screen at every meeting throughout the year. These are state-of-the-art products and mark the dawn of a new era in entertainment and information distribution at our racecourse

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UK - CP Sound has supplied a complete lighting and sound design, specification and installation to the new independent club, 90 Degrees - The Right Angle in Grantham, with the technical work being completed in just four days! CP's Colin Pattenden was approached by the owners after they researched the nightclub trade press to find good options for sound and lighting. Pattenden asked David Linger from Robe UK to supply the lighting, whilst he concentrated on the sound and lighting design.

90 Degrees is located in a cavernous old building above a wine warehouse and consists of several rooms, including a main DJ/dance area, a secondary dancefloor and a seated 'booth' area with rounded, cocoon-like seats. From the outset, the club has been designed to be truly multipurpose. The name '90 Degrees' refers to the owners wanting everyone to have a clear view of the performance area in fro

  1. Sound Division gains BEDA nomination
  2. UK install first for QSC's AD-S52
  3. Seven London musicals use Yamaha PM1D
  4. Martin launches Acade-media
  5. Sennheiser Golf scores well for charity
  6. Intellectual Property Forum launched for Creative Industries
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