Business

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UK - Adlib Audio has serviced a plethora of its North American client base throughout 2004, after concluding the European section of David Bowie's "Reality" tour in 2003, including Jill Scott, N*E*R*D and The Calling.

US soul and blues diva Jill Scott (not to be confused with Gill Scott Heron) used a JBL VerTec PA system supplied by Adlib Audio for her UK tour. Gigs included two nights at Brixton Academy, Bristol Birmingham, Barrowlands in Glasgow and a grand finale at Manchester. Adlib supplied 20 JBL VT4888s and their own DF418 subs; the system was driven by ADLIB's new Camco Vortex 6 amplifiers. FOH engineer Chaz Clifton used a Soundcraft Series 5 desk, with BSS FDS-366 OmniDrive Compacts for system control and BSS FDS 360s for EQ. This offered the flexibility to zone the system as required. Monitors featured one of ADLIB's new Yamaha PM5D consoles. The console's

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UK - When the Wales Millennium Centre (WMC) opened on 26 November it became one of Europe's most vibrant arts developments to date. After 30 months of construction, the £104.2m venue will be home to seven leading Welsh cultural organizations, staging musicals, opera, ballet and dance day and night.

The 33,000sq.m building occupies a key site in Cardiff Bay's 'Inner Harbour'. Daylight floods the building, as 15cm thick glass open the foyers to views both outward and inward, and at night the lights of the foyer will be seen from afar. The striking building inscription is a poem composed by leading Welsh poet and writer Gwyneth Lewis and reads, 'Creating truth like glass from inspiration's furnace, in these stones horizons sing.'

ETC has been involved with WMC almost from the beginning of the project, having delivered a truckload of equipment as far back as the summer of 2003

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USA - Intelix, the US manufacturer of audio and video equipment, will relocate all operations as of January 15, 2005. The new facility will be located at: 2222 Pleasant View Road, Suite #1, Middleton, WI 53562. All other contact information such as telephone, web and email details will remain the same.

"For some time now, Intelix has been searching for a larger, more suitable facility to accommodate our rapidly increasing staff and inventory needs," stated Steve Cohan, Intelix CEO: "The pleasant view location allows us to meet both goals, as well as remain in the general area."

(Sarah Rushton-Read)

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UK - Harman Pro UK recently collaborated with Sound Division to provide a host of Harman products for the new sound system in the exclusive Zeta Bar at the Hilton Park Lane Hotel. Sound Division was approached by manager John Darling when the Zeta Bar replaced its old audio system as part of a refurb. A keen JBL user, Sound Division's David Graham states that this was his "obvious" choice for speakers, and also specified BSS control, Crown amplification and an AKG radio mic system to complete the installation.

Graham worked in close consultation with Harman Pro UK's Andy Duffield on the project, and the pair pooled their knowledge of sound design for high profile nightspots to produce the best and most appropriate audio for the Zeta Bar. The positive sonic results have been immediately noticed and commented on by clients, visitors and staff, the company reports.

Th

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Italy - In the first significant expansion since the purchase of Orbit, Star Events Group announced the immediate opening for business of Star Orbit Italia. Working from offices in central Milan and with a brand new warehouse situated near Milan Linate airport, this will be a full service operation.

Stocks of the unique Star Orbit stages are already in Milan, along with trained crews, transport and associated services such as front of stage barriers. The modular nature of the Star Orbit range enables the company to temporarily increase stock levels in Italy, from the UK, for large projects.

The Milan office will also be offering other Star Events Group products to the Southern and Eastern European markets. The first confirmed contracts for the new venture are to supply 15m Orbit stages for the pre Christmas and New Year's Eve concerts being organized by the City of Milan outsi

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UK - Marquee Audio, in conjunction with Sound Directions, has carried out a sound system installation in the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern in support of conceptual visual artist, Bruce Nauman's mesmerizing Raw Materials exhibition.

For his fifth Unilever commission, the American artist has deployed a wide range of spoken texts in a way that orchestrates and measures the space of the Hall. Contracted to provide the audio, Sound Directions was tasked with taking 21 diverse audio tracks and samples from previous works, and playing out via a series of 28 directional electrostatic speaker elements, running 100V line, and distributed the length of the Turbine Hall.

Marquee Audio, meanwhile, has supplied all the additional hardware and designed an elaborate cabling infrastructure in which the complex routing protocols have been carefully created in BSS Soundweb architecture.

Marquee

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UK - As part of an enlarged company commitment to in-depth customer education, Meyer Sound will blanket the UK in January with a series of free, one-day seminars in five different cities. Following three consecutive sessions in London commencing on 10 January, the company's seminar tour continues on to the north of England, Scotland, and Northern Ireland.

"The seminar program works to provide support to our UK dealer network and customers," says Roger Harpum, Meyer Sound's UK sales manager. "These sessions introduce audio professionals, at no charge, to fundamental aspects of modern sound systems, in the process making clear the benefits of Meyer Sound technologies."

The day-long introductory course, entitled System Design Principles, provides a broad overview of principles involved in the design and measurement of complex sound reinforcement systems. Par

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UK - It's been a busy inaugural season for new lighting design company, timroutledge.co.uk. To finish the year before Christmas, LD Tim Routledge recently finished two very different design projects: starting in Battersea Park's famous party venue structure, Routledge created rigs for two music stages for the testimonial of the England Rugby team's illustrious captain, Martin Johnson. On the anniversary of the historic win in last year's Rugby World Cup, this major event was produced in association with Next with all proceeds going to Johnson's nominated charities. Routledge was contracted to produce the lighting for both stages by DW Associates. Two stages were required to cope with the large number of acts, headlined by Lionel Richie.

Hawthorn Theatrical supplied the equipment required to work alongside Routledge's regular lighting team headed up by Andy Hopkins. "I chos

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UK - Customers of intelligent lighting controls group iLight are being assured that business remains very much as usual following the company's acquisition by Polaron plc in September. The company says that the new ownership means the group remains intact, while benefiting from the increased resources arising from being part of Polaron's control systems division. iLight group's products will continue to be marketed as before, while new products will benefit from the expanded R&D team. "Customers need have no worries about the future of the iLight brand," said John Thorne, UK sales manager at iLight. "We're still the same iLight that customers know and love, but with the advantage of greater financial and technical backing."

The focus of the enlarged group will be on developing the brands and the business, with the aim of becoming the largest lighting control

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UK - This year the ever-popular Barco Showcase event was held at two locations North and South of the country. The first was at The Three Mills Studios in London and the second held at the Magna Science Museum in Rotherham, Yorkshire. LSI visited the Three Mills Studios, which proved to be an ideal location for showing the huge range of Barco products.

(Jane Cockburn)

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UK - Star Vertech is supplying 7,500sq.m of its proprietary Vertech platforms to support temporary ice-rinks through the 2004/2005 festive season. Star Vertech (part of the Star Events Group) is more commonly known for supplying staging at large concerts and festivals; but as the trend to install temporary ice-rinks has grown over recent years, the unique Vertech platforms have been called in to use to create strong, level bases for ice rinks.

Star Vertech crews have installed the large platforms in Newcastle, Dublin, Glasgow and Warwick, with another going into Leeds Millennium Square in January. Phil Addyman has managed the projects, commenting: "The Vertech staging system has proven popular for ice-rinks as it provides a very stable base and as it is designed to be installed quickly it saves time and money over other systems."

In addition to supporting the weigh

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UK - Details of the programme of 11 RIBA CPD seminars to take place during the ARC 05 exhibition have been finalized. All seminars taking place during the exhibition (14-15 February, Business Design Centre, Islington, London) will be RIBA-approved CPD and will all be related to lighting topics for architects. There are a number of lighting-related CPD seminars available, ranging from office and retail lighting to LEDs and lighting control. A seminar theatre seating approximately 60 people will be built on the exhibition floor and will be promoted by Mondiale Publishing as well as specifically targeted at RIBA member architects.

Joni Tyler, head of CPD, commented: "RIBA is pleased to be working with Mondiale Publishing on this event. We are delighted to be able to highlight the many excellent lighting CPD seminars from our member companies and to be able to bring their tech

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UK - Entec Sound & Light is supplying full lighting and sound production for the Bootleg Beatles' current UK tour, continuing a relationship with the band that has lasted for many years. One of the highlights of this tour was a sold-out performance at London's Royal Albert Hall. On this leg, FOH engineer Marc Langley is using Entec's d&b Q Series line array: Entec believes it has perfected the task of designing d&b systems for this challenging space. The Bootleg's show combined the skills and experience of Entec's systems engineers Stefano Serpagli, Tristan Johnson & Liam Halpin with help from John Taylor of d&b - plus the aid of d&b's Q-Calc line array prediction software - to help calculate the optimum set up.

They opted for a left and right array plus two side arrays instead of the conventional centre cluster for two reasons - because it seemed the most logical way to fit th

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USA - Loud Technologies Inc has announced the appointment of Miami-based Tropical Music Export Enterprises Inc as distributor for EAW products in the Caribbean and Central American markets. "Tropical Music has represented our Mackie brand with distinction for many years," commented Dave Christenson, Loud's director of international sales. "We're extremely pleased that they will now be representing EAW in the Caribbean and Central America. Tropical Music is uniquely positioned to offer the product expertise, financial stability and wide dealer network necessary to lead this market."

"Representing the Mackie brand has substantially added to our overall success and we are thrilled to incorporate EAW for distribution," said Frank Peruyera, senior international sales manager for Tropical Music.

(Lee Baldock)

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UK - The results of this year's elections for places on the PLASA executive committee have been announced. Seven candidates put their names forward to contest the four available seats which had arisen from the natural rotation of committee members and the resignation of John Jones (then of PCM) earlier in the year.

The 2004 Treasurer David Hopkins OBE (Audio Design Services) and Chairman Diane Grant (DHA Lighting) were joined on the list of candidates by Stuart Gibbons (Le Mark), Iain Price-Smith (Light Engineering - Multiform), Siobhan Hitchen (Rope Assemblies), Linda Moore (Stage Electrics) and Duncan Smith (Roscolab).

Voting closed at 5pm on Monday 6 December with Diane Grant securing the most votes, followed by David Hopkins, Linda Moore and Siobhan Hitchen. Those four will now serve on PLASA's executive body - the first three serving three-year terms, whilst Siobhan Hit

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UK - Glasgow Rangers FC has replaced the public address system at its 8,000-capacity Main Stand at Ibrox Stadium with nine of Martin Audio's new AM10 enclosures. The system was requisitioned by the club's head of AV, Stevie Scott of Scotrae Productions, as part of a multimedia upgrade, and purchased from local dealer, John Murdoch of Scotia Sound Services - a long-standing Martin reseller.

Scott said: "We had experienced difficulty projecting to the back of the stand with the existing system. We knew Martin had brought out a stadium speaker that was more directional, and when we contacted John he confirmed that the AM Series offered a superior reach." Stevie Scott undertook the installation himself - a simple replacement into the roof of the stand, facilitated by hardwired cable through grommet holes.

The AM10 uses a 300W 10" LF driver with a 1" exit HF c

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UK - Howard Payne and his newly created company, SPL Distribution Europe Ltd, has completed a high-profile installation of Sound Physics Labs SPL-runt loudspeakers at the 606 Club in London, just in time for the recent London Jazz Festival. The 30-year-old club, located in Chelsea, has long been the favourite club for top artists on the London jazz scene. The loudspeakers, designed by Tom Danley, are manufactured in Glenview, Illinois.

Payne says: "The SPL-runts were just amazing, and exceeded everybody's expectations. The guy who runs the place, Steve Rubie, who is a musician himself and has owned the club for almost all of its 30 years, was skeptical about whether two small speakers would cover what is basically a very wide room. It's about 65ft wide by only 20ft deep, with the stage area in the centre on one side."

Indeed, the 606 Club's small size belies its hu

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UK - As part of a significant expansion for 2005, Cheltenham Stage Services has purchased a Meyer MSL-4 system from Marquee Audio. For the last year, CSS has been operating a sub-hired MSL-4 system, building up a roster of festival and touring clients, and moving beyond its local Cheltenham circuit. After a busy summer, the company, which covers the whole of the Midlands, Wales and the West Country, has taken the decision to make a permanent investment. As a result, Marquee Audio has supplied eight MSL-4s, four 650-Ps, four UPA-1Ps, and a 48-channel Allen & Heath ML4000 mixing console.

"Our sister company, Event & Management Services, was instrumental in specifying the Meyer M1D line array system that has been installed here at The Centaur at Cheltenham Racecourse. This is the biggest venue in this region," explains Steve Roskilly of CSS. "It therefore made great

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Poland - A recent special concert for the Pope, the 40th anniversary of the Student Song Festival and Poland's International Percussion Festival all relied on Audio-Technica microphones to deliver high quality sound reproduction, supplied by Polish distributor, Konsbud-Audio.

At the special concert for the Pope, held at the Castle Square in Warsaw, and broadcast live by TVP 1 Polish Public Television and TV Polonia international, four channels of Audio-Technica 5000 Artist Elite Series wireless microphone systems were used on stage. These operated seamlessly, without interference, in parallel with other wireless systems, thanks to the unique IntelliScan tuning system automatically searching out interference-free frequencies.

At the 40th jubilee of the Student Song Festival on the 13-17 October, Audio-Technica 5000 Artist Elite Series wireless microphone systems again perform

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UK - Compulite's Vector Red and Blue consoles were launched at PLASA 2003, with the system officially available from March 2004, when it was immediately put into service on a number of major TV productions such as Top of the Pops and Friday Night with Jonathan Ross. Vector Green, the smallest in the Vector family, was already in demand way before its launch at PLASA 2004, as many programmers could see the potential of having so much power and flexibility in such a compact console: Stagetec Distribution reports that it has just delivered six Vector Green systems to customers, one of the first to TV lighting director, Bernie Davis.

Davis is one of Britain's most successful TV lighting directors, with a long string of credits to his name. From Robot Wars to The Proms, Royal Variety Performance to the Royal Wedding and many, many more in between, he has a vast

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A Flying Pig Systems Wholehog 3 console was put into play in a big way in the newly-released film, Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, starring Jim Carrey and Meryl Streep. Scott Barnes, California-based lighting programmer, purchased a Wholehog 3 last year and has kept it working steady ever since. Filming for Lemony Snicket began in summer of 2003 and ran through until May 2004. Barnes used the Hog 3 to control everything from the lighting of interiors and exteriors of the sets, to close-ups of the actors. He also created the daylight, dusk and nighttime looks as well.

"When you do a film, you never know what you're going to have thrown at you: whether it's adding last minute lights or creating spur of the moment effects, as the movie changes from one set to another," Barnes explains. "Hog III makes me prepared for anything. It's the better

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UK - The Picture Works, one of the world's most comprehensive and pioneering video services companies, has placed an order for two Barco XLM H25 projectors. Established in 1996, and with offices in Wales and London, The Picture Works will add the 27000 lumen projectors to its rapidly growing range of specialized hire equipment, making it the first company in the UK to have the XLM H25s on its fleet - a move which the company believes will place it firmly on the map of heavyweight events companies.

Barco's impressive XLM H25 projector, the first DLP projector with a native wide-screen aspect ratio, native 2048x1080 resolution and 27000 lumen light output, is ideally suited to ultra wide screen projections. Robin Wealleans, managing director of The Picture Works, explained his decision to choose Barco: "The XLM H25 offers a functional design, fully sealed DMD engine and an a

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UK - The legendary Cavern Club in Liverpool's Mathew Street has purchased two Soundcraft mixing consoles as part of a major equipment upgrade. Cavern director Bill Heckle opted for a large-frame 48-channel MH3 to mix monitors from the FOH position. Heckle explained: "With the improvement of the club's infrastructure we needed to give the place a boost with the standard of equipment we could offer visiting production crews and our own LIPA engineers. We initially spoke to two companies but were more comfortable with Soundcraft as their desks convert theory into practice and I know I will get the after-sales service."

But with limited available space, he was advised by Soundcraft's live sound sales manager, James Baker and Adlib Audio's Andy Dockerty - who has a long relationship with both the club and Soundcraft - that the better solution would be to opt for the smalle

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UK - In September 2004, London's legendary music venue, The Camden Palace, was re-launched as KOKO following a multi-million pound refurbishment. KOKO's traditional focus on live music influenced its re-design: an 80sq.m stage is available for live bands, while a new DJ booth, which extends over the dance area from the first floor of the club, features London's first installation of two Pioneer DVJ-X1 DVD turntables that enable DJs to manipulate video in exactly the same way as if they were using CD decks. Synchronized digital audio and video can be mixed so that real-time digital video scratches, loops, tempo control and instant cues are all possible.

KOKO wanted to design an exceptional audio experience for performers and customers. Technical manager Santi Arribas was intrigued by the visual possibilities presented by the DVJ-X1. He says, as a technical person I was not sure

  1. Hand Held Audio's 1046 Christmas
  2. Soundcraft at Balham's Globe
  3. D.A.S. Aero at Madison Square Garden
  4. Consultation for new PEL fees
  5. Music & Lights completes Nexo collection
  6. Robe fixtures show cool in Lapland
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