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USA - The Entertainment Services and Technology Association (ESTA) has announced that Production Resource Group (PRG) has made a substantial $100,000 donation to the development of the new Entertainment Technician Certification Program (ETCP). PRG's contribution brings the total pledges received to date to just over $600,000.

Announcing the donation, Jere Harris, chairman and CEO of PRG, stated: "PRG is proud to be a cornerstone sponsor of the ETCP. We recognize that our future success will be tied to the skills and training of our people, and the ETCP will help us identify the very best technicians available."

"We are very pleased that the PRG has recognized this important program with their very significant and generous contribution. For this program to succeed, it is essential to have support from major employers like PRG," said Tim Hansen, ETCP Council

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UK - In recent years the groundwork has been laid for dramatic changes to the way the UK will have to manage the several million tonnes of special or hazardous waste it generates each year.

The implications of the WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment) regulations - which are currently being finalized and come into effect in August next year - are only just beginning to be understood, though it's too early to say exactly how the government will implement this directive. So too, the RoHS (Restriction of use of Certain Hazardous Substances) directives which follow 11 months later in July 2006.

These two heavyweights come in on the back of other existing legislation, all of which has been designed to ensure that EU countries meet some fairly ambitious targets for the recycling of electrical and electronic equipment.

In anticipation of the new legislation, specialist

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UK - Based in Cheshire, VME has over 15 years experience in concert, film, video, broadcast, corporate and theatre production and is the UK distributor for Kling & Freitag loudspeakers and a main dealer for Sennheiser UK.

VME supplied the comms system used on the Sky Sports coverage for the Zurich Premiership, the Heineken Cup and the Parker Pen Cup and the BBC coverage of the RBS 6 Nations. Unknown to most, mics on the referee and other match officials provide the commentary team with more 'inside information' on decisions made during the game, and enable the referee and officials to communicate with each other. The system consists of four Sennheiser SK50 radio belt-packs, for the referee, touchline judges, 4th match official in the dugout and a 4-wire communication link from the 3rd match official in the TV outside broadcast truck, all mixed on a Rane 1U digital mixer. The mix

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UK - Star Rigging was pivotal in ensuring Wembley arena could play host to four sell-out concerts as part of Madonna's Re-Invention tour. A Madonna concert was always going to be a spectacular production, so when production director Chris Lamb, Madonna and her team planned the 2004 Re-Invention tour, it was no surprise that the result was a complex, physically huge, highly technical production.

Following rehearsals in March and 45 US dates the tour has crossed the 'pond', with promoters Solo selling out 17 European dates in seven venues. Star Rigging's Phil Broad and Steve Armstrong were contracted as tour riggers throughout Europe joining Dano Rowley and Jimmy Vaughn. Phil's role included accommodating the complex rigging into each of the Arena venues.

The production includes 130 rigging points and 160 motors, carrying five moving video screens (the largest of which is seven

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UK - Continuing with its major re-investment programme, corporate event specialists, Dimension Audio, has purchased its first line array system - keeping continuity with the d&b audiotechnik brand which already features heavily in its inventory.

Dimension has purchased six Q1 tops and six subs, along with six D12 digital amplifiers, purpose designed to power the system. "It was time we moved into line array technology, and it will enable us to quote more competitively on larger projects," explained general manager Mark Boden. "This is a discrete line array system and ultra compact - ideal for our corporate work," added project manager, Dave Rondeau. "If we need to extend the system we can simply sub-hire in."

Dimension made the decision following a system demonstration. Aside from its sonic attributes - making it deal for playback in the corporate

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Germany / UK - Element Lab's Versa Tube has made its entertainment debut on the German touring production of Saturday Night Fever, currently playing Circus Krone in Munich. The project is the result of a highly successful collaboration between Element Labs Europe, based in Germany and headed by Claas Ernst, and UK partner Projected Image Digital. Element Labs Europe supplied 120m of the units to the production's main lighting equipment contractor, Showconcept. Control was through a PixelMAD media server control system specified by UK-based lighting designer Andy Voller.

The Versa Tube - already popular for architectural applications - is integrated into Saturday Night Fever's eye-catching set, designed by Walter Schwab. The units are used as powerful, dynamic and - at times - subtle effects, particularly prominently during the show's hi-energy 'disco' sequences. <

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USA - Reaffirming its commitment to provide systems integrators and contractors in the Canadian installed sound marketplace with professional, knowledgeable representation Biamp Systems today announced the appointment of Power Group Ltd. as its Canadian manufacturer's rep firm. Power Group Ltd. provides its customers with the industry's best performing, most versatile audio technologies. With offices located in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal, the Power Group immediately assumes responsibility for Biamp sales and customer service in Canadian market.

"Now, through our relationship with Power Group, Biamp Systems is able to expand our commitment to provide quality representation to our partners in the Canadian marketplace," said Ron Camden, vice president of sales, Biamp Systems. "Having one national sales force headquartered in Toronto, enhances communications bet

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UK - MP Event Trailers and ROKA will be joining forces on a stand at the Showman's Show 2004, showcasing a selection of their state of the art exhibition and hospitality trailers and mobile bar and catering units.

MP Event Trailers has made heavy investment in its hire fleet this year, producing Rainbow 18, manufactured in Holland by pan European brand, Lamboo Specials, for which MP Event Trailers is the sole UK agent. The Rainbow 18 currently offers the largest expandable internal space (plus a roof terrace) of any specialist exhibition trailer in the UK, operated by a one-touch button hydraulic system. Due to the demand for the Rainbow 18, its smaller sibling, the Rainbow 8 will be on display at the Showman's Show, reflecting the same bespoke design and marketing opportunities as the larger trailer.

ROKA is a supplier of high quality mobile bar and catering units, both for h

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USA - CMX Las Vegas Studios of Nevada has purchased six Drawmer DL241 auto compressors and four Drawmer DS201 dual noise gates for use in live reinforcement. The units will become part of a concert and corporate sound system for CMX tours and events as well as outside rental. CMX Las Vegas Studios is the Nevada division of CMX Productions, one of the USA's leading sports marketing and events management companies.

According to CMX Las Vegas Studios' Troy Green, the Drawmer units were purchased initially for the CMX tours, parties and events that are thrown for and by various artists, sports stars or organizations. "We have CMX corporate and entertainment events weekly ranging from a few hundred to thousands of guests and VIPs. Drawmer not only fit the bill as the best gear available for touring and corporate use, but also to meet the riders of outside renters and events oper

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USA - The Hollywood Bowl, summer home to the Los Angeles Philharmonic since 1922, recently wrapped up a complete rebuild of its band shell that considerably improves the acoustics onstage while preserving its distinctive concentric ringed motif. But performers at the Bowl aren't the only ones to benefit from better sound this season thanks to the concurrent addition of a new concert reinforcement system largely comprised of 87 L-Acoustics loudspeakers driven by 40 LA Series amplifiers.

Twin arrays each consisting of ten V-Dosc cabinets, eight SB218 subwoofers, seven more V-Dosc, and a tail of six dV-Dosc flank the left and right sides of the new shell with an additional centre hang of 17 dV-Dosc flown from the apex of the structure. Furthermore, three 112XT enclosures are hung from the catwalk halo to provide nearfield coverage for the seating areas directly in front of the stag

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UK - Music-lovers again converged on the Sennheiser Sounds of Summer Festival, which took place over two days at the Bristol International Balloon Fiesta in August. On the first day the audience listened and danced to non-stop music with an all-female line up from Flipside DJs. DJ's Emma Feline and Nomio started the event off with a mixture of Hip Hop and R'n'B, then DJ's Miss Behavin', Sophie Sugar and Sarah G played house and trance, continuing late into the night. Sennheiser also ran competitions throughout the day to add to the party atmosphere and hundreds of lucky winners took home Sennheiser headphones, T-shirts and other prizes.

On day two, the eight finalists of Sennheiser UK's Best Unsigned Artist Contest 2004 took to the stage. With well over 1,000 entrants, the competition, now in its 4th year, aims to help bands and artists who don't fall into the category of manufa

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UK - On Sunday 12 September, the first day of the PLASA show at Earls Court, Pioneer promises to provide an audio-visual experience like you've never seen before! A line-up of DVJs including VJ Kreil and James Zabiela will be performing live in Pioneer's DJ Booth, offering a spectacular live performances on Pioneer's new DVJ-X1. Combining Pioneer's world-famous CD Jog Dial technology with the flexibility and capacity of DVD, the DVJ-X1 looks just like the company's own CDJ-1000MK2 CD player - and has the same functionality - with the added capacity to playback DVDs as well as CDs.

Crucially, DVJs will also be able to use the DVJ-X1 to manipulate DVD visuals in exactly the same way as they would music, so real-time digital video scratches, loops and instant cues are all possible, while the video and audio streams always stay in perfect sync, even when they're being reversed and

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UK - i-vision has completed a lighting, laser and audio installation at London's newest clubbing experience - Club Supreme in Vauxhall. Owner Nick Derry of Atomic Creations, an experienced promoter, wanted a cool venue with a high production values. The venue's railway arch location immediately lent itself to dynamic lighting and effects designs. Club Supreme's equipment spec was top of the agenda, and Derry chose i-Vision to deliver all the technical elements, and the best value-added solutions for his clubbing showcase. i-Vision worked closely with Derry on the visual and sound designs and ideas to produce a specification to meet his aesthetic, technical and budgetary needs.

The main room, a hard house haven, features seven GLP Ypoc 250 Spot moving lights and two Coef DVP 250 scanners, complete with custom Club Supreme gobos. There's also a Griven UV cannon, two mirror balls,

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UK - A.C. Lighting has been appointed dealership for Funktion-One, consistent innovators in loudspeaker system design and manufacture for many years. The company's pursuit of excellence in design and manufacturing has now culminated in the development of the Resolution range.

With the starting point being the amazing acuity of human hearing, every component has been meticulously developed and combined to create a speaker system with a balanced and powerful output based on intelligent speaker design and efficiency - not electronic processing. This purist approach gives Funktion-One an unrivalled resolution, clarity, quality and power - delivering the true emotional experience of the sound, say the company.

The Resolution family features models tailored to the varying needs of professional audio installations and touring situations. Each unit's design and power to weight ratio i

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The Netherlands - The second edition of Integrated Systems Europe will run in Amsterdam's RAI exhibition centre from 26-28 January 2005. As a consortium of leading industry associations CEDIA, ICIA /InfoComm and NSCA, ISEurope fuses these complementary disciplines into an advanced showcase. It represents the future of digital applications-led solutions for the home and the workplace, as well as in commercial and industrial sectors, say the organizers

Including a full conference program, training forums, new product launches and new exhibitors, the show is on target to expand by more than 50%. The organizers report that a host of leading European and international manufacturers have already reserved 70% of the available floorspace, including AMX, Artcoustic, Christie, Crestron, Imerge, Jamo, Linn, Russound, Runco and Sony. Working with CEDIA's team, ISEurope delivers a unique opp

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UK - Rigging industry personality John Jones is to launch a new company, LTM - Lift Turn Move, at PLASA 2004: "It's the perfect opportunity - having the whole industry in one place at one time," he says. Based in Birkenhead on the Wirral Peninsula - at the centre of the current Merseyside regeneration strategy - LTM is a new, independently owned company which will specialize in the sale of Lodestar Motors and other rigging accessories for the professional leisure and entertainment industries.

Jones is joined by co-director David King, and the LTM team is further boosted by Dawn Gerrard, Paul Hadfield and Dave Ward - all skilled and knowledgeable in the world of rigging and show presentation, and all previous colleagues at PCM. The tightly focused operation will concentrate on making life simple and cost-effective for the client.

(Sarah Rushton-Read)

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UK - Royal London Private Equity (RLPE) has announced the completion of the £33.5m management buy-out of McKenzie Group (MKG), the UK's leading owner and operator of nationwide live music and club venues, including South London's award -winning concert venue, Carling Academy Brixton.

The investment by RLPE provides MKG with the financial strength to pursue its ongoing strategy of rolling out the Academy brand across the UK, building on its existing successful venues. Carling Academy Brixton is MKG's flagship venue, having hosted major live acts including the Rolling Stones, Madonna and Eminem. MKG owns further Academy venues in Birmingham, Bristol, Glasgow, Liverpool and Islington (London), as well as West London's Shepherd's Bush Empire and Bar Academy sites in London and Birmingham.

RLPE is taking a 52% stake with existing shareholders, MKG's management and three of the U

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UK - Essex-based Xtreme Audio Visual has installed an audio package from Fuzion in The Elbow Room, Notting Hill, part of a highly successful chain of pool bars and club venues around the UK. The system comprises a pair of Nexo PS10 full-range cabinets, three pairs of Nexo PS8 compact cabinets and Crown CE1000 amplifiers. In addition to pool tables, The Elbow Room has a bar and dance floor area which has just been fitted with a portable DJ booth for use at weekends. The PS10s provide the dance floor with enough level, while the PS8s are used around the pool tables.

Commenting on the install, Xtreme's Duncan Baines said: "This bar is in a very densely populated neighbourhood, so potentially there are problems with the neighbours. The PS10s and PS8s provide good-quality sound without needing to be pumped."

Xtreme AV has just been awarded the contract to equip the Elb

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UK CT Screenco's association with the V Festivals extends back to the event's inception in 1996. This year, the big screen specialist began a new three-year contract with the promoters and were again in action at both Hylands Park, Chelmsford and Weston Park in Staffordshire, where they fielded identical 32sq.m 25mm daylight displays at left and right of the main stage.

With Stuart Young project managing the event for CT Screenco, feeds were taken from the respective content providers and at Hylands Park this included some creative messaging from Blink TV. In addition, Barco DLite 7 high resolution displays were provided independently to Basement Jaxx, whom CT Screenco have been supporting on tour and to Red Bull's Kingsize II skateboard ramp in Weston Park, which is also midway through a national tour, with CT Screenco again providing visual reinforcement.

Artists appearing

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Italy - From 2-26 July, 2004, the Tuscan city of Lucca, near Pisa, once again became the centre of the Italian music scene, as some 70,000 visitors flocked to the four week Summer Festival, now in its seventh year, to hear famous names from the worlds of pop, rock and jazz, including major attractions like James Taylor, Bonnie Raitt, Alicia Keys, Peter Gabriel, Burt Bacharach, Pink, Giorgia and the Black Eyed Peas.

In the Piazza Napoleone the picturesque town has what must be one of the most beautiful locations for live concerts in the world - the only problem being the acoustics, with the danger of feedback from the magnificent old buildings lining the square ever present and the occasions legion when the sonic image during outdoor concerts has degenerated into a confused wash of sound.

In 2004, however, the sound engineers from Milano Music Service (MMS) demonstrated that wi

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UK - White Light and The Moving Light Company are the chosen lighting suppliers for The Producers, which is coming to London. One of the biggest hits ever seen on Broadway when it opened there in 2001, The Producers is an adaptation of Mel Brooks' classic film, brought to the stage by director/choreographer Susan Stroman. The New York production won a record 12 Tony Awards, including the prizes for Best Musical, Best Original Score, Best Book, Best Direction of a Musical, Best Scenic Design, Best Costume Design and Best Lighting Design.

All of these award winners, including Susan Stroman, set designer Robin Wager and lighting designer Peter Kaczorowksi, will soon see their work re-created in London, with a new production opening at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane. Working with them will be US associate lighting designer Mick Smith and a British technical team includi

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UK / Brazil - Midas-Klark Teknik has announced the appointment of Pride Music Ltda as the new distributor of Midas and Klark Teknik products for Brazil. Based in Sao Paulo, Pride Music is Brazil's largest distributor for professional audio, lighting and MI products and already carries a number of internationally renowned brands.

According to Telex's Franck Fabry, director of export sales to the Americas: "Pride Music has been operating for 15 years as a true value-added reseller of pro audio products and has extensive experience in the sales, support and service of electronics equipment in Brazil. They only supply products that can be supported in-house by their team of manufacturer-trained technicians, which means that our customers in Brazil can count on full service and support from engineers that have been trained at the factory in Kidderminster. This policy enhances th

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To make this years summer a little hotter Tchibo, the German coffee company invited three legendary soul ladies to form a comeback on stages in Hamburg, Munich and Oberhausen.

Whitney Houston was of course star of the show, no less remarkable was the re-appearance of her cousin Dionne Warwick, the Burt Bacherach voice of the swinging sixties, and Nat King Cole's daughter Nathalie who had turned her father's jazz songs into nineties pop hits. This melange of rich soul voices sold out crowds at Hamburg's Color Line Arena, the Olympia Hall in Munich and the Kvnig Pilsener Arena in Oberhausen.

For these German summer soul events a total of one hundred d&b audiotechnik loudspeakers in various configurations were supplied and rigged by Yousound Showtechnik of Augsburg, Germany, ensuring clear, faithful reproduction of the Divas brilliant performances. "We chose d&b equipment for this

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Malaysia - Spanish manufacturer D.A.S. Audio offered a series of concerts coinciding with the 16th PALA 2004, which was held from 15 - 18 July in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. During the three days of the show, the new line arrays were on hand for demos at an outdoor stage adjacent to the fairgrounds. Six Aero-48 large format line array systems were flown on each side of the stage and bass reinforcement was provided by six Aero 218 Subs. Stage monitoring was provided using D.A.S. ST-32 co-axial floor monitors. Demos were also provided using the Aero-28 compact line array systems, comprising of four CA-28 mid-high units and 2 x CA-215 for low frequency reproduction.

The D.A.S. Malaysian distributor, Syarikat Instraco Sdn. Bhd., was in charge of organizing the line array demos. Providing factory support was D.A.S. engineer Joan La Roda, who helped out with the final adjustment of the

  1. CT meets Olympic technical challenge
  2. Refit for Avalon in Hollywood with ShowCAD
  3. Scottish Parliament opts for Bosch
  4. D.A.S. at Naadam Festival, Mongolia
  5. Waxy O'Connor's, Birmingham
  6. Polaron plc acquires Zero 88 & iLight
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