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UK - Blackburn-based HSL has supplied the lighting rig for the long running Bill Kenwright UK touring production of Joseph and His Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. This smash hit version is now in its second year and still selling out nationwide.

Nick Richings created the original lighting design for the show, however lighting operator Simon Deary, who has been with the show since its beginnings, is undertaking the re-lights.

"Working with HSL in this way is just like having a hire company on the tour" explains Deary, "Whatever we might need in terms of repairs, maintenance or spare parts is dealt with quickly and efficiently - mostly within 24 hours. I can't emphasize how vital that is to a show like this - every piece of kit is worked really hard."

The rig is spread across approximately five LX bars at each venue. LX Bar 1 has three Martin MAC 2Ks

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UK - Color Kinetics Inc has been issued with two new US patents relating in part to LED-based illumination systems designed to generate colour changing effects in enclosures, and to the use of LED-based light sources to convey information about temperature changes of a device. US Patent number 6,888,322 (issued 3 May), is directed to a colour-changing enclosure where illumination is provided by multicolour LED-based sources. The colour-changing device could form part of a neon replacement system, tile light, consumer product, computer, peripheral or accessory, for example.

US Patent number 6,883,929 (issued 26 April), is directed to generating power for LED-based light sources based on a thermoelectric process called the Seebeck Effect, which allows a temperature differential to generate electricity. For example, the invention may be used in a stove where the temperature of the

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USA - Artists often identify some pretty creative uses for their favourite audio gear. Once found, the ideal combination of equipment that delivers "just the right sound," is like a custom fit in an off-the-rack world, and very difficult to live without.

This is exactly what Stephen Jay, bass player for Weird Al Yankovic, has found in his trusted and well-used Mackie SR1530 Active loudspeakers. For years, he's been using them as his primary bass rig for live shows.

"My bass set-up consists of four Mackie SR1530's, a Mackie 1202 VLZ-Pro mixer, and a Mackie CFX•12 mixer," commented Jay. "The great thing about using the SR1530's is that when I want to get deeper into the groove, I run a little kick and snare through them to punch up their overall impact. And the 1530's allow me to do this without losing any of the original tone of my bass. This would

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Italy - First opened in 1961 to celebrate the centenary of the Unification of Italy, Turin's Palavela has recently come to new life after extensive renovation works, in time to host the Turin 2006 Winter Olympic Games. Designed by Gae Aulenti and Arnaldo De Bernardi to host the figure skating and short track speed skating events, the Palazzo del Ghiaccio (Ice Palace) has turned out to be the first of a series of major Olympic construction projects to be completed in Turin: the complete renovation of this historic building has produced a truly magnificent architectural and technological gem, at a total cost of 35 million Euros. The prestigious venue was deservedly inaugurated in style with a spectacular opening ceremony, followed by the European Short Track and Figure Skating Championships.

Coemar, as always, played its part in the success of the event with a lighting rig supplie

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USA - San Diego's largest and highest profile nightclub, the On Broadway Event Centre, has installed an Allen & Heath Xone:92 professional DJ mixer in the main DJ booth. Located in the city's downtown area, On Broadway occupies two levels of a historic bank building, and features five themed rooms with a total capacity of nearly 2000, regularly featuring top international DJs such as Paul van Dyk, Deep Dish, Tiesto and Darude.

According to Tim Walter, who was recently appointed director of sound and lighting, the upgrade to an Allen & Heath Xone:92 DJ mixer is just the latest step in an ongoing mission to restructure the venue's sound system for maximum performance and clarity. On Broadway, the shining star of owner Mike Viscuso's string of Southern California clubs and restaurants, catapulted San Diego onto the international DJ circuit when it opened six years ago and helped re

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UK - The UK festival season accelerated into action this weekend, kick-started by Radio 1's Big Weekend in Sunderland. Star Events Group was contracted to supply the staging structures for the event, including a Vertech 20m x 15m ground support and stage in the main arena and a smaller Vertech stage of 12.5m x 12.5m in Arena 2.

In addition, Star Vertech also supplied 130sq.m of raised technical and production space at the rear/side of the main stage, wheelchair user and front-of-house platforms for both arenas, together with ramp and stair access to all raised areas. The main stage showcased some of the world's biggest acts including The Foo Fighters, Athlete, Basement Jaxx and Jamiroquai. Meanwhile in Arena 2 the crowds were treated to performances from some of the up and coming acts of the moment as introduced by Radio 1's Zane Lowe.

Steve Hill (production manager, Stage 2)

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UKEmbrace, currently touring on both sides of the Atlantic, is the latest UK band to endorse Audio-Technica microphones for live sound. On stage, the band has a complete A-T back-line and vocal mic array.

Completing a series of dates across Canada and the US with Snow Patrol, the band return for a number of UK dates, including a sell-out two nights at Leeds' Millennium Square, before returning to the States throughout June and July for their first headline US tour. The band's FOH engineer, Mark Jones, approached Audio-Technica at the beginning of the year with a view to extending the kind of performance he had experienced using AT4050s on overheads and guitar cabs, across the entire sound mix.

"I approached A-T, principally about the vocal mics," he explains. "We wanted something that was very smooth-sounding, but we've got a singer who walks in front of the PA,

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Lebanon - Martin Professional Middle East (MPME) has added a landmark to the city dubbed the 'Paris of the Middle East'. With the collaboration and execution of MPME distributor LightBox, shades of coloured light from Martin Architectural Exterior 200 colour changers have put the final touches to one of Lebanon's natural attractions - the Downtown Garden - a place where one can enjoy a peaceful escape from the hustle and bustle of the rest of the city.

Situated between the Mediterranean and the foothills of Mount Lebanon, Beirut sits on a promontory that juts out into the sea, halfway up Lebanon's coast. The newly reconstructed Downtown district around the Grand Serail and Place d'Etoile is the city's financial and retail centre. Here, new boutiques, restaurants, cafés, and gift stores are springing up. And because Lebanese are night people, these new retail spaces often stay o

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UK - Specialist trade AV hire company, Steljes Hire, supported the launch of the Royal Mail's World Heritage special stamp issue, with a visually inspiring stunt organized by Steljes' client, Eulogy. The Royal Mail and Australia Post celebrated the special relationship between the two countries with the launch of eight stamps of their countries' World Heritage Sites, issued in four pairs, featuring four UK sites matched with four Australian sites, these included Stonehenge - the UK image chosen for the 1st class stamp. To launch the range, an image of the stamp was projected onto the stones at sunrise using a Sanyo XF45 10,000 lumen projector and photographed by renowned landscape photographer Charlie Waite.

Andy Horn, sales manager, commented: "We build our reputation by supporting the trade with the best audio-visual equipment and support. We strive to ensure that no matt

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UK - Scottish lighting specialist black light has been at the heart of a major but delicate installation in Rutherglen, South Lanarkshire. Rutherglen's Town Hall is Grade 1 listed, which meant that the £12.5 million refurbishment project had to be undertaken extremely carefully and use some innovative techniques. As the main sound and lighting contractor for the venue's Grand Hall, black light had to achieve the difficult task of providing a 21st-century installation, but working around the stringent restoration requirements of an historic building.

One of the first major hurdles to be overcome was in the Hall's back wall. For historic reasons, traditional lath and plaster had to be used, the plaster takes literally months to dry. Therefore all the cabling had to be installed a year ago in order for the plaster to dry. Once the plaster dried the cables would be inaccessible, he

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UK - John Henry Enterprises' audio division is using one of its dbx DriveRack units for monitor system management and EQ on the BBC's Strictly Dance Fever, presented by Graham Norton.

As the popular Saturday night show - broadcast live - builds up to its shimmying finale, a live band has joined the glitter, glamour and action in Studio TC1 of the BBC TV Centre in West London each week. This necessitates a full 20-piece monitor system plus four ways of hard wired IEMs in the mix, all controlled and processed by the DriveRack. The DriveRack is coupled to a Soundcraft Series 5 console being engineered by JHE's Jim King.

The DriveRack system consists of a 480 master unit, a 480R remote control, and three 482 slave units, all flight-cased into one on-the-road package - an ideal solution for situations like this where space is at an extreme premium.

The DriveRack 480, 481 a

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USA - Since publicizing its involvement this past January with the first national tour of the award-winning Broadway musical, Wicked, Tomcat has been asked to manufacture custom items for an additional production. The need arose after tickets went on sale for the show's run in Chicago - and sold out immediately for the entire nine-week run, from 29 April through to 12 June. Given the high demand for the show, the producers decided to add another production that would stay in Chicago for an open-ended run, allowing the original tour to go on as planned.

"Wicked Tour Productions has been pleased with the equipment provided by Tomcat, so it just made sense for them to continue using the gear that has been working so well thus far," explained Brad Barnhill, US sales manager for Tomcat USA. "Our design team understands the challenging requirements for touring Br

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International - With just one week to go until Showlight 2005 (22-24 May, Munich, Germany), more details of the event's papers programme are available: A paper by technical broadcast specialist Chris Bretnall will address HD and how it's affecting television production. As digital replaces analogue as the broadcasting standard, such rapid advances are being made in technology that it's easy to feel left behind. 'High definition' (HD) is a current buzzword, but how many of us know exactly what it entails? What new equipment needs to be bought? What new techniques need to be learned?

The technology at the heart of HD broadcasting is the HD camera. Closely complementing Chris's paper will be a presentation, by television Director of Photography Sue Gibson and representatives from manufacturer ARRI, on the company's new high definition camera. Originally designed for motion picture

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UK - Sony Entertainment Television Asia recently staged its Boogie Woogie International Finals at the Sheraton Skyline Hotel at Heathrow. Hawthorn's main challenge was to create a suspended stage across the Sheraton's 11m wide swimming pool. Martin Hawthorn, managing director said: "Its not often we tell our crew to pack their swimming trunks, but on this event it was a must, as the stage was rigged from the swimming pool!"As well as the stage, Hawthorn also provided full lighting and sound for the live studio audience as well as for the TV broadcast.

The lighting had to take account of the daylight from the glass roof at the beginning of the event, and then accommodate the fading light as the event progressed. Hawthorn's sound engineer Jon Curnew had the unenviable task of balancing sound against the pool acoustics. Jon commented: "The combination of the high roo

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UK - Size and scale are no advantage when it comes to overall financial success, according to a new study by Sound Equipment industry analysts Plimsoll Publishing. It seems the industry's smaller players are putting their larger counterparts to shame when it comes to overall financial performance. The study has looked at the industry's largest 40 companies and compared their financial performance with that of 238 smaller UK Sound Equipment competitors.

There is no doubting the dominance of these 40 'major players' - they currently control almost 94% of the market. Yet look beyond their size at their individual financial performance and their image appears somewhat staid.

Of the Top 40 companies profiled; 12 failed to increase sales beyond that of the industry average, dispelling the myth that they are capturing ever more market share. 14 made less profit than the average indus

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UK - Original supergroup Cream's four-night appearance at the Royal Albert Hall in May 2005 following a 36-year absence from the spotlights is already being hailed as the musical event of the year, if not the decade. Such classic rock and roll musicianship demanded sound equipment of a similar pedigree, which is why both front of house engineer Chris (Privet) Hedge and monitor engineer Chris Wibberley chose Midas XL4 consoles for the sonic excellence and reliability such a concert demanded. The PA system was supplied by Concert Sound, which has counted Eric Clapton amongst one of its loyal clients for over 20 years.

"We just wanted to go for the best sounding board we could, and to me that is an XL4," says Privet. "This is a classic, straightforward blues-rock gig and it's all completely organic, there are no scenes or midi; Sound quality is the only criterion.

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UK - Creative sound design and installation specialists CP Sound has completed its latest installation - at 'Blush', the newest venue to open in central Cheltenham. The club is part owned by Glendola Leisure and part by operator/manager Stuart Hunt. The space - previously a club - has been completely gutted, re-fitted and installed with new sound proofing, aligning the building as a stylish downtown 'chameleon' venue.The key to running this specific type of operation is its ability to have the facilities to react quickly to the diverse demands of a dynamic and mixed clientele, all of whom may want slightly varying elements out of the same space. CP Sound's Colin Pattenden is well experienced in chameleon installations, and has an extremely good ear for the acoustic properties that the different ambiences within it might require. Colin comments "The disco needed to be powerful

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Canada - Adamson Systems Engineering has appointed independent rep firm Joe Desmond & Associates, based outside of San Francisco, to be its authorized sales representative for Nevada and California. Joe Desmond, CEO and founder of JDA, is a native Bostonian who has been in the pro audio and musical instrument industries for over 25 years.

"Adamson fits perfectly into the direction that we want to take our newly-established firm and we consider it an honor to be associated with them," said Desmond. "I was blown away at a demo we recently did in Reno for the Jazz Festival with Star Sound. Not only did the system sound better than anything I've ever heard, but the ease of hanging the boxes was unbelievable. With no heavy lifting by anyone, sixteen boxes were hung in less than thirty minutes; and this was the first time the guys from Star Sound had hung an Y10 system!

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UK - Presentation specialists PSL has devised a portfolio of low-entry packages to enable event producers to take advantage of a tailored staging solution. PSL's scalable audio visual options incorporate projection, mics, speakers and lighting. Each can be customised to individual requirements (including client branding) and come with full technical support.

Remarked PSL managing director, Gary Davis: "These have been created as a flexible and cost-effective alternative to custom design and build, or off-the-shelf display and set systems. Whatever the presentation needs, these packages provide outstanding value - including everything required to stage an event at a fixed price."

The six separate alternatives - which range from simple wall-flats to more striking and multi-textured set designs - can be mixed and matched to suit client requirements and venue limitations

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UK - Bandit Lites UK supplied all lighting equipment to LD Nick Jevons and his company Electric Fly Productions for the main stage at Radio One's One Big Weekend event in Hetherington Park, Sunderland.

Electric Fly has supplied innovative and exciting visuals for all the One Big Weekend events, of which this was the sixth. "I always use Bandit" Jevons states, "I would not go anywhere else. The kit and the service is excellent". General manager of Bandit Mark Powell handled the show.

Jevons traditionally uses the One Big Weekend occasion to introduce new and exciting visual tools and ideas - particularly video orientated ones - into the lighting design mix, and the Sunderland event was no exception. He clearly sees the creative potential of integrating video effects as lighting features, and many of the LED fixtures now on the market are proving a gre

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USA - Robe Show Lighting moving lights were specified by lighting designer and programmer John Westermann at the recent Home Depot Drive 2 Zero Safety Meeting event, staged at the Renaissance Waverly Hotel in Atlanta, Georgia. It's north-west Atlanta's only full-service hotel, featuring over 60,000 sqft of meeting space.

Dillon Production Services, Inc, an Atlanta, based rental house run by Matt Dillon and Westermann supplied lighting equipment. Dillon Production Services has been designing light shows for The Home Depot and Coca Cola for over ten years.

The fixtures utilized for this event were eight Robe 1200E AT Spots flown downstage and mid-stage; and four Robe 1200AT E Washes, two flown mid-stage, with two mounted upstage on the ground upstage. These 12 fixtures were used to produce the main effects and colour washing lighting.

Other fixtures on the rig included

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Denmark - Bosch has supplied the public address and emergency sound system for the new opera house in the Danish capital Copenhagen which was opened in January 2005. Installation was handled by Pro-Partner ApS Denmark. The decorative interior of the Opera House features lots of wood, glass and marble, which meant that the sound system had to be unobtrusive and yet very efficient. Bosch's Praesideo system was chosen to fulfil the dual functions of public address and emergency evacuation as the flexible system architecture permits any type of equipment to be located wherever required in a building.

The Opera House has around 1000 rooms with a total surface area of 41,000sqm, divided into some 280 extensive acoustic zones with 1,200 loudspeakers in all. The feed to the speakers comes from 79 Praesideo power amplifiers, which are in turn controlled by two network controllers. These

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UK - Dartington College of Arts was founded in 1961 near Totnes, Devon and is now well established as a University sector College for Higher Education, specializing in the performing arts.

As part of a major refurbishment a new studio complex 'Lower Close Studios' has been constructed to cater for the College's expanding and diverse courses, including contemporary classical/art music, jazz, pop, world and folk music, as well as courses in theatre, choreography, fine art, performance art, arts and cultural management and writing, engaging the students through practical work and research by developing interests and abilities in preparation for a professional career.

Rob Waite, live sound technician comments: "We have regular concerts, visiting artists, residencies, and more than thirty professional instrumental music tutors who come to teach, perform, and play music. The ne

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UK - Britain's leading jazz star Courtney Pine is equipping himself, and every musician on his stage, with Electro-Voice microphones. Courtney has chosen for his soprano and tenor saxophones the new RE920TX condenser, just launched by EV and designed especially for horns. According to him and his sound engineer Steve Reece, the mic not only sounds great but is giving him unprecedented freedom on stage.

Pine and his five-piece band are currently touring to promote the new Devotion album, but this world tour has been going since 1981, according to Pine, who is as much road warrior as jazz warrior.

"Jazz musicians are even more critical than classical musicians about which microphones we use," explains Pine. "We may be capturing a live moment but we've got ears like bats!" Reece agrees, admitting that he had one or two nervous moments when he first put

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