Business

Details
UK - An Avolites Diamond 4 Elite console was chosen by lighting designer Alan King to control the newly upgraded and boosted lighting rig for Manumission at Privilege - one of Ibiza's hottest superclubs and also used for its new 2005 Ibiza Rocks Friday night event.

The D4 was also utilized for Manumission's famous, highly theatrical Monday night club night, also staged at Privilege, the largest club in the world with a capacity of 10,000 and including a huge swimming pool in its midst.

The additional lighting for Privilege's 2005 summer season, which also includes several other high profile club nights, was supplied by Oxfordshire-based Production Hire Ltd (PHL). Alan King designed the new rig and ran it for the season. It was this first time he'd used an Avolites Diamond 4 console, selected because he needed a powerful, versatile and easy to use control platform for the large

Details
UK - Sunbaba will score a hat-trick of prestigious events this weekend, with its plain and full colour digitally printed banners and PA scrims featuring at the fifth Ashes Test at the Oval, the BBC Proms in the Park and at Artsfest, a huge free festival-taking place in Birmingham City Centre.

Events branding specialists Sunbaba was brought in by Surrey Cricket to provide over 600sqm of its Austronet and DigiMesh branding for use at The Oval during the fifth Ashes Test. Sunbaba's specialist work in the events industry makes them a key choice when venues and sponsors want printed branding that fits perfectly and matches their corproate image.

For the BBC's Last Night of Proms in the Park events, Sunbaba was chosen to provide its specialist "DigiSound" PA scrims for the events in Manchester, Glasgow and Swansea, in addition the company supplied BBC Scotland with heras f

Details
UK - Perth Concert Hall is to be host to a Gala Concert, given by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, on 16 September 2005.

The event marks the public opening of the first full-scale purpose-built concert hall in Scotland since 1990. The £17M building is the result of an international architectural competition, chaired by Eva Jiricna, and won by BDP's Glasgow office in 1998.

Located in Perth's historic Horsecross, once a thriving market area but more recently marginalized, Perth Concert Hall is viewed in the round and BDP's free form plan is a unifying response to the irregular edges of the urban fabric bounding the site. The Horsecross area has already witnessed significant urban regeneration, as a result of the impending opening of this new facility, which includes a streetscaping project by the local authority following completion of the Concert Hall.

Bruce Kennedy, B

Details
UK - S-Cluster has recently been successful in securing a series of major orders. The systems are to be installed throughout the German Railway network after a pilot project was conducted by Tramway Operator SSB in Stuttgart earlier this year. SSB were so impressed that it is due to update its complete audio communication system to S-Cluster technology in 2006.

One of the very first S-Cluster installations was the Metro system in Athens, which was completed just in time for the Olympic Games. S-Cluster encoders and output boxes are now in action, streaming train times, background music and security alerts to stations via a fibre optic network. S-Cluster system can also stream audio using Mpeg 4s and aptX over a standard IP Network (TCP-IP).

"This is great news," commented John Midgley, managing director of beyerdynamic. "The system has already proven itself to b

Details
The World Youth Day 2005 in Cologne - the highlight of which was the Pope's visit on the Marienfeld - was an exceptional event, equipped by CT Creative Technology Germany, the international supplier for audio-visual media technology, with a gigantic array of LED screens, LED trucks and the latest production and broadcast technology. CT Germany together with XL Video as supplied more than 1,200sq.m of LED screens and mobile LED trucks, which were used in and around the city.

For the Pope's visit on 20-21 August, 20 modular LED large screens and 12 mobile LED trucks were set up and technically supported by CT and XL. Each modular LED screen measured more than 40sq.m and the mobile trucks were equipped with LED screens which with a size between 25 and 40sq.m. About one million of pilgrims met on the former open-cast mining area of more than 2.5sq.km. They were able to experience live the

Details
USA - The Gibson Amphitheatre at Universal CityWalk is currently undergoing a complete audio system retrofit from Sound Image of Escondido, California. Using the Harman Pro HiQnet System Architect configuration and control software, the 6,000-seat amphitheatre represents the first multi-brand HiQnet installation in North America. Additional Harman HiQnet installations are now operational at the Hong Kong Stadium in Hong Kong and the Stade due Suisse in Berne, Switzerland.

Located in Universal City, California, the Gibson Amphitheatre at Universal CityWalk has been a state-of-the-art indoor venue since 1982. The amphitheatre has long been known for its sightlines and outstanding acoustics, a reputation that has been upheld and enhanced with the recent installation.

To date, Sound Image has installed 42 Crown I-Tech 800 amplifiers outfitted with HiQnet technology, along with 24

Details
Italy - When it comes to Jazz, Italy is a very special country. Gil Evans, elsewhere known only to Jazz aficionados was a superstar here, and Keith Jarrett, the master of almost claustrophobic Chamber Jazz, is filling stadia and other giant open air spaces.

It started ten years ago in the Arena di Verona, the place of monumental opera works like Aida or Nabucco, that Italian rental company BH Audio together with Fichtner Tontechnik from Germany joined forces to provide crew and equipment for a breath-taking concert of Jarrett's trio.

Ever since whenever the American pianist along with Gary Peacock on bass and drummer Jack de Johnette perform in Italy it's the same sound team that are used to reproduce their subtle interpretation of Jazz standards. This year was no exception when in July they took to the stage at the Arena Flegrea in Naples.

A d&b audiotechnik sound system, s

Details
UK - Specialist Mobile staging company SRC has signed a five-year contract to provide all of the mobile staging to Liverpool Culture Company's events, debuting at the Matthew Street Festival 2005.

Liverpool Culture Company's three day Mathew Street Music Festival is Europe's biggest free city centre music festival, annually attracting over 350,000 visitors over the August bank holiday weekend. Visitors watched artists spread over five SRC stages. Still a celebration of where it all began with the music of the Beatles, the festival, now celebrates a myriad of musical tastes from Abba to Tony Christie.

SRC and its fleet of mobile stages enabled the hugely complex logistical requirements of installing performance areas in the City Centre, which were operated and then removed - some within a 24-hour period. The scale of the operation is unparalleled in any city in the UK, with ove

Details
Australia / Hungary - ARX Systems, the Australian manufacturer of professional audio equipment, has announced the appointment of Budapest-based RMS Audio KFT as its new distributor for Hungary. ARX's managing director Colin Park said: "Following discussions with Tibor Kiss from RMS at the Frankfurt Pro Light & Sound exhibition earlier in the year, we feel RMS Audio offers ARX the opportunity to team up with a very professional and driven distribution company to promote and develop ARX's products in the Hungarian market."

Along with ARX, RMS Audio also represent Martin Audio in Hungary.

(Lee Baldock)

Details
USA - Audio Products International Corp, manufacturer of the world famous Energy, Mirage and Athena Technologies brands, has announced its entry into the professional and commercial sound markets under the brand Energy Pro.

The first products created under the new brand will be launched on booth 636 at the AES (Audio Engineering Society) Show in New York City, 7-10 October 2005. On show at AES will be a comprehensive line of studio monitors, focussed on the recording, post production, project studio and broadcast markets. Stereo, surround, passive, active, analogue and digitally controlled systems are all featured and API has used its considerable R&D resources to design in digital compatibility and upgrade paths for this advanced range.

To manage the business unit, API has employed the services of industry veteran Bill Calma, well known as the man who established Tannoy in No

Details
UK - Wigwam has invested in 20 channels of Klark Teknik DN9340 Helix EQ for touring use by art-rockers Franz Ferdinand. The band from Glasgow debuted the new units at selected festival appearances this summer, before heading off to start an autumn tour in the USA.

The KT Helix system, which was specified by FF's monitor engineer Tilda Bruynooghe with full STS (solo tracking system) and wireless tablet control, will be used with a Midas Heritage 3000 console. Wigwam's Chris Hill confirms that the Helix system was chosen primarily because of the wireless control, which allows instant and simultaneous online control of up to 64 channels of EQ from a tablet computer. "This frees the engineer from the traditional side-of-stage monitor world position, and that's especially useful during initial system equalization. Tilda can take her tablet and set up the system from anywhere on

Details
UK - Star Events Group Ltd was approached to offer a staging solution for three regional football stadiums - Hull, Ipswich and Nottingham Forest - for the UK leg of the REM World Tour, and, made innovative use of Orbit Flexidome technology. The brief from promoters CCE was to maximize audience capacities whilst maintaining the large, festival appearance of a traditional Vertech stage and, of course, accommodate REM's exciting and creative lighting and video set. After the first round of site surveys it became obvious that the way to maximize the capacities would be to construct as much of the stage as possible in the terraces of the stadiums. Once the limited height to the underside of the stadium roofs was taken into consideration, it became apparent that a new approach would be required.

With the experience gained from involvement with the Wembley Pavilion project, where a lar

Details
UK - There's just two days now before one of the most energetic and creative PLASA Shows opens its doors in London. The show, which begins on Sunday at Earls Court 1, will feature over 300 companies, 1,000 new products, 30 seminars, workshops and presentations, and hundreds of events, parties and launches.

But the key thing about an exhibition is always the people and PLASA is known for being one of the best events for networking - everyone comes together at PLASA. And PLASA 2005 is taking that networking opportunity a stage further with the introduction of 'speed networking'. This will be a chance to increase your business contacts with people specifically involved in your sector of the industry. The PLASA Show organizers will be looking to recruit willing participants on the show floor, and the whole session will only take up 30 minutes of your time! And, who knows, you might

Details
UK - The 2005 PLASA Show opened its doors at 10 o'clock this morning, and the crowds streamed in to the show floor, which looks better and brighter than ever. Sunday at PLASA is DJ day, of course, and the annual Gemini DJ competition will once again prove a big draw for budding mix artists, with the contest taking place in the DJ lounge at the rear of the hall, and the final taking place at 4.30pm. There's plenty more going on as part of DJ Sunday, supported by iDJ magazine, offering all kinds of opportunities to learn about the art and practice of DJing.

Appropriately for DJ Sunday, seminars today include a session on Digital Turntablism and Mixing, chaired by David Eserin, editor of the Technoscan section of DJ Magazine, the session features world-renowned DJs Chris Liebing and Jonathan Lisle, and Eitan Zilkha of Sapphires. Following the session, Jonathan Lisle will be perform

Details
UK - Yesterday was a full-on first day at PLASA 2005, with both exhibitors and visitors in agreement that PLASA retains its position as the leading international show within the entertainment, corporate, event, architectural and installation industries.

Visitor numbers bucked industry trends by remaining strong, with professionals from all over the world arriving in London to discover the latest creative and technical innovations from 300+ exhibitors, representing all the leading brands.

As ever, the mood on the show floor was upbeat and positive with the focus very much on making this one of the most dynamic events ever. Feedback from exhibitors and visitors indicated that everyone was making the most of the opportunities for business.

A host of top DJs, including Richie Hawtin, Jonathan Lisle, Chris Liebing and James Zabiela were at PLASA for the launch of 'DJ Sunday'. Not

Details
UK - PLASA has announced the launch of a new National Rigging Award, designed to give riggers across all sectors of the industry a recognized framework by which their knowledge and expertise can be measured.

Initiated by the rigging sector, who looked to PLASA to further develop the template for a National Rigging Certificate, the Award has become vital in a climate where there is a growing focus on health and safety, and an increasing expectation from the insurance sector.

For the last 10 months, PLASA has been working with government bodies and members of the rigging community on the development of the Certificate, a consultation process which has been underpinned by the formation of the PLASA Rigging Advisory Group.

The Group is now working on the fine details of the criteria and assessment process, but once finalized, the scheme will include a tiered progression structur

Details
UK - The winners of the PLASA Awards for Innovation were announced last night during a well-attended awards ceremony hosted by PLASA CEO Matthew Griffiths on the main show floor at Earls Court. The Awards, which focus on the best design and development work going on across the industry, came at the end of a day that reaffirmed PLASA's reputation as a forging ground for future innovations.

The Awards, which are judged by a panel of professionals, attracted 66 nominations, leading to eight technical awards and an additional award for environmental impact.

The winning products were:

  • Artistic Licence's Visual Patch is going to prove the ultimate time saver for converged lighting and video applications. It creates an on-screen geographic map of two or three-dimensional pixel array, whilst automatically also assigning DMX512 start addresses. Described by the judges as anot

Details
UK - PRG Europe has reported a strong response to Vari-Lite's new VL500 luminaire, with orders for the new fixture flooding in. Following what the company has called an "overwhelming demand for a return of the VL5 wash luminaire", Vari-Lite is debuting the VL500 at the PLASA Show. Based upon the 1994 Emmy Award-winning VL5 Wash luminaire, the VL500 offers users significant performance enhancements over its predecessor, say the company.

The VL500 is available with either a 120V/1200W lamp or a 230V/1000W lamp. The most economical and lightest version of the luminaire, the VL500 is designed for those who require the 3200-degree colour temperature along with the most space-efficient unit. No external ballast or dimmer is required.

The VL500D is also available with a 120V/1200W lamp or a 230V/1000W lamp, plus an internal yoke-mounted IGBT dimmer. While retaining the 3200

Details
UK - Simon Brophy, the former head of lighting at the Millennium Dome who was earlier this year found guilty of defrauding the New Millennium Experience Company, was yesterday sentenced to a four-and-a-half year prison term.

Brophy, who was given the £70,000 per year job at the Millennium Dome in 1998 despite his lack of experience, and used his position to award contracts to Pro Design - a company he had set up with his mother Ruth Barclay and his friend David Gordon as directors. £3.9m of lighting contracts were awarded to Pro Design - £2.8m of which was paid to the company before the fraud was uncovered. Equipment was rented by Pro Design from another lighting company and then hired out to the Dome at hugely inflated rates. In all, the investigation found that Brophy stole a total of £1.1m from the NMEC. During the trial, it was also found that that Pr

Details
UK - PLASA 2005 was the setting for a trio of major sales orders by the Holland-based sister lighting rental companies Flashlight and Metam, announced late on Tuesday afternoon.The two companies confirmed the joint purchase of substantial quantities of the latest products from VARI*LITE, Xilver and Syncrolite.

100 units of the newly-announced VARI*LITE VL500 wash luminaire, the updated version of the classic VL5, will be delivered to Flashlight's Utrecht headquarters. Commercial director Jacco van Pel told LSI: "We already had the complete VARI*LITE product range in our rental stock, but there was a hole where the VL5 used to be. Lighting designers loved it and we've talked to VARI*LITE a lot about for the past two years, so needless to say we're absolutely delighted that the VL500 is here and that we can offer it to our rental clients."

100 of Xilver's brand-new Xol

Details
UK - Midas and Klark Teknik have launched Midas Consoles Middle East in conjunction with Nicholas Kyvernitis, owner of NMK Electronics. NMK was one of the first pro audio companies to be established in the region and is a long-term dealer of Midas and Klark Teknik products. From October, Midas Consoles Middle East will become the official distribution channel for Midas and Klark Teknik products throughout the region, with a head office in Dubai as well as branches in Abu Dhabi and Sharjah.

The move to develop a structure to concentrate exclusively on Midas and Klark Teknik follows the success of Midas Consoles Holland, set up in 2004. "This proved to us that customers like being able to deal directly with the factory," says Midas sales and marketing director David Cooper. "It increases their confidence in the brand, and from our point of view we get much better in

Details
UK - Specialist event branding company Sunbaba has been exhibiting its range of bespoke banners, screens and other branding materials at the PLASA Show.

The company, which began working in the events industry in 1997, followed on from its successful launch at PLASA 2004 of its DigiSound fabric and reported a busy summer season during which it supplied material to the Fifth Test Match at the Oval, as well as all of the Gcap Radio Party In the Park events.

The latter shows featured DigiSound fabric as PA scrims and PVC banners and stage décor. DigiSound fabric is design to take digital printing while its wide mesh minimises sound degradation when used in front of a PA system.

(Mike Lethby)

Details
UK - Newly formed pro audio distributor Amber Sound exhibited at PLASA 2005 - the first tradeshow for the fledgling company, formed in May this year by Graham Paddon.

A variety of products were on show, including Aviom's personal monitor and digital snake system, available exclusively through Amber Sound in the UK. Other brands demonstrated included Clear-Com, Meyer Sound, Lexicon and K & M.

Amber Sound's first trading quarter has been a noteworthy one including the sale of a complete Clear-Com FreeSpeak system to one of Europe's largest scientific research centres, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, as well as a Party line system to UK defence and security company QinetiQ. The company has also supplied classical and contemporary music rental specialist, RNSS with an Australian Monitor paging system for installation in London's Royal Festival Halls.

Meanwhile the capital's cele

Details
UK - Digidesign hosted a press reception during this week's PLASA Show in London to thank customers for giving their Venue live sound environment such an auspicious first year out in the field. Helping them were some familiar sound engineers on the touring circuit, including Robbie Allen (Manic Street Preachers), Matt West (monitors, The Cure) and Simon Honywill, the guiding hand at the desk behind a thousand large-scale spectaculars.

It also gave them the opportunity to swap road tales with Digidesign's own resident sound technicians, Robert Scovil and Ian Nelson, who have worked with some of the world's top bands.During the conference Digidesign VP of sales and marketing, Christopher Bock, talked of the company's achievements during the year, and Venue's high profile appearance at events such as Live8 in Paris, the Montreux Jazz Festival, and supporting acts such as Nine Inch

  1. Essential new lighting hire service
  2. Strong business at positive PLASA Show
  3. Pioneer DJ success in Ibiza superclubs
  4. Harman supplies Albannach
  5. Court 'dismisses' SV's HES patent rights
  6. Celestion sets pro audio driver sales record
Page 744 of 1813

Latest Issue. . .