Business

Details
UK - Living Ventures takes its music seriously. Despite using a hard drive delivery system to distribute music through their 13-strong Living Room bar/restaurant estate, the company's head of music, Steve Walter knows that the art of achieving the optimum mix is too complex to be entrusted to remote customer profilers and preset track categorisations.

"The music content and environmental management are a vital part of our offer, which is why we invest heavily in our sound systems and installation expertise," he says.

For the new flagship Living Room W1 in London's fashionable Heddon Street, Green-I has installed multiples of Martin Audio's new horn-loaded AQ6 and AQ8 architectural enclosures - liveried in white and brown custom colours to match interior designer's Shideh Shaygun's imaginative concept. These maintain the moods over the defined time cycles into

Details
UK - Wrap & Roll is a new sandwich shop with a difference in Cardiff city centre. Owner Dylan Reardon-Smith wanted it to stand out from the crowd in other ways apart from its reputation for serving quality food, and so he asked Chepstow-based architectural and feature lighting specialists I-Vision to design an eye-catching lighting scheme.

I-Vision's Dave Mackay undertook the task enthusiastically, "It was a great concept in a great location" he says. The venue also features the work of local and international artists, notably some specially commissioned pieces by Robert David, currently famous for his distinctive 'bar code' style.

The seated area has a wall and floor finished in polished concrete which was "just asking" to be lit explains Mackay. To add atmosphere in here, he has employed seven Lumos 3 LED down-lighters complete with 6 degree lenses, ensco

Details
UK - History was made on an unseasonably warm and sunny day at the end of October when, for the first time ever in the UK, all the heads of the enlarged EU met together in Hampton Court's Great Hall. Having responded to an invitation to tender, Brähler ICS was selected by the UK Government to provide the 21 language channel simultaneous interpretation system. Brahler supplied their flagship CDS-VAN digital system which has a maximum capacity of 32 uncompressed digital audio channels and runs on industry standard Cat 5 computer cable.

For the first time at such a high level EU summit, the Interpreter booths were located outside the main meeting room. Discreet broadcast quality cameras were placed strategically in the Great Hall and the images relayed to an adjacent Interpreter Marquee. Brahler provided a total of 22 interpretation booths in the marquee fitted with 67 CDS-VAN dig

Details
USA - Intelix, has developed and introduced www.AVoverCat5.com as "a single, definitive online resource for audio, video, VGA, and DVI distribution over structured cabling".

"We realise audio-visual distribution over Cat 5 cabling can be complicated," explains Intelix CEO Steve Cohan, "especially for those integrators who are unfamiliar with IT standards and all the structured cabling distribution options on the market. AVoverCat5.com was created to give integrators the answers they need quickly and easily."

AVoverCat5.com allows users to find solutions based on: application type, audio-visual equipment used, audio-visual connector type, audio and video signal format, and product. Additionally, dynamic technical areas provide "a myriad of information" ranging from terminating structured cables to digital video definitions.

(Jim Evans)

Details
UK - This summer the Chemical Brothers toured the European Festival Circuit and for the second year running LM Productions supplied laser effects to enhance their performance. LM supplied three 5 watt DPSS green lasers which were all controlled via DMX through a lighting desk. One laser was fixed under the bands set and the remaining two lasers positioned either side of the stage all creating atmospheric beam effects co-ordinated with the music. The band will be performing at a host of UK venues this December before they take a year out in 2006 to record the next album.

Wild Fruit took its legendary club night to Preston Park in Brighton for the annual Pride celebrations. LM provided two DPSS green laser systems producing high impact beams effects became the focal point for 5,000 clubbers inside the Wild Fruit Big Top tent.

For the Top Shop & Dorothy Perkins Fashion Show, Lond

Details
UK - Large format projection specialists E//T//C UK covered the 323 ft high Shell Centre on London's South Bank with giant projected poppies for Remembrance Day 2005.

E//T//C was working for media and production company The Bank, who produced the event for Shell UK. It's the fourth year running that E//T//C UK has illuminated this prime site with high impact projections for the event.

The 26 storey building - once the tallest in the UK - was covered by eight 6 kW PIGI projectors that were sited 100 metres away on the edge of Queen's Walkway (the corresponding riverside path), housed in a curtain-sider truck. Six of the projectors, complete with double scrollers running vertically, produced the poppies, three targeted at the top half of the tower and three at the bottom.

The stunning red on turquoise background images were overlaid to maximise brightness, and were scrolled to

Details
France - L-Acoustics has announced a new V-DOSC Partner for Moldavia - Radio Polidisc Ltd, founded in 1993 and based in Kishinev.

Initially, the company's main activity was exclusively based around studio recording, but it rapidly expanded into a radio station and in 2001, the company started to rent sound equipment.

The founder of the company is sound producer, Valerii Galupa, his business partner Andrei Vasilatii was a former contrabass player, and Eddy Van Nuffel from the Belgian company AED was able to offer a high level of assistance towards the emergence and development of their operation. Valerii Galupa states: "We have two completely different directions for our business, first, musical radio stations - we now have two. Secondly, rental support - sound, light, rigging and stage equipment. We supply with the equipment to rock festivals, live concerts, television sh

Details
UK - In spite of a blustery series of drenching thunderstorms, nearly 45,000 music lovers descended on Hyde Park for the tenth anniversary of London's end-of-summer celebration, Proms in the Park. The steadfast audience warmed to performances by the BBC Concert Orchestra, along with tenor Andrea Bocelli, violinist Nicola Benedetti, pop vocal quartet G4, and special guests Simply Red. This year's event also marked the debut of a 96-cabinet, self-powered Meyer Sound system built around MILO and MICA high-power curvilinear arrays.

The audience spread out in casual picnic fashion, making the coverage area immense: 300 meters deep and nearly 250 meters wide. In addition, because of the eclectic combination of pop/rock and classical fare, the system must project delicate transients as well as handling a wide dynamic range. Beyond all that, everything is broadcast live on the B

Details
Europe - Bandit Lites UK supplied LD Bruce Spillman with full lighting production, rigging and crew for the European leg of Michael Bolton's Til The End of Forever tour.

Bandit Inc has serviced Bolton for the last three years, since he resumed active gigging in the US. However this is the first European tour for some time and also Spillman's first experience working with Bandit UK. The tour was project managed for Bandit by Lester Cobrin.

Spillman, based in Anaheim, California, had to create a big show with an expedient amount of lighting fixtures. There were a few set pieces extracted from previous tours and carried forward to this one, notably three fast fold projection screens, upstage of the risers, used for gobo projections and other lighting effects, and to give the stage a shape and a sense of form.

The rig consisted of 142 PARs spread across three 40ft pre-rig

Details
UK - PRG Europe has supplied the lighting for what is believed to be the biggest moving light rig for a British television series, Stars in their Eyes on ITV, which is filming now for transmission next year. PRG Europe supplied some 90 VariLite luminaires and 80 PixelLine battens, along with mains distribution, cabling and distribution racks, all controlled by a Virtuoso VX desk and an EX1 media server.

"Stars in their Eyes has been going for about fourteen years," explained lighting director Neil Yates, "and we've used PRG Europe for about ten of those. We like the fact that we get a total package from PRG - they have a great deal of expertise, and all problems and changes are quickly sorted out. They're always very amenable with changes and redesigns."

The brief included the stipulation that the lighting rig should not be seen, difficult when you'r

Details
Europe - Turbosound reports that its Aspect series products are being deployed by UK rental company WE Audio, for the current European tour by Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings. The tour follows WE Audio's concert and festival successes with Aspect during the summer and, with the resultant growth of interest in its services, WE Audio has placed an order for a further 12 stacks of Aspect, as well as an additional 8 Turbosound TSW-218double-18" sub-bass enclosures.

Taking in over 50 dates across western and eastern Europe, the one-truck Rhythm Kings tour is visiting venues with audience capacities ranging from 500 to over 3,000. WE Audio is covering these capacities with just 12stacks of Aspect touring cabinets, with each stack comprising a TA-890H mid-high and TA-890L bass cabinet.

The Aspect loudspeakers are being flown as a 3 x 2 left-right system, with ground-stacked TSW-218 su

Details
USA - Look Solutions' Unique hazers, Viper NT fog generators and a Power-Tiny battery-powered fog generator have reprised their role from the London production for the new Broadway version of The Woman in White.

Paul Pyant lit the original London production of The Woman in White, with associate lighting designer David Howe tasked with recreating Pyant's design for Broadway. "The lighting and atmosphere of the show has to be precisely controlled because of the projections," remarked Howe on why Look Solutions' machines were chosen for the production. "Previous experience told us the Look Solutions machines were quiet, compact and had no fluid compatibility issues."

The Woman in White features four Unique hazers, which are placed in the proscenium area of the Marquis Theatre. A Power-Tiny battery-powered fog generator is used for a spot

Details
USA - The musical Rent has been running for ten years at Broadway's Nederlander theatre . Recently, Sound designer Brian Ronan was charged with replacing the sound system and opted for self-powered loudspeakers from Meyer Sound.

Achieving the required clarity is fairly straightforward on the orchestra level of the 1,200-seat house, but not as easy in the steeply-raked 500-seat balcony. "The Nederlander is a room with two very different sounds upstairs and down," Ronan explains. "It's fairly predictable and consistent on the orchestra floor, a nice combo of reflective and absorbent surfaces. But the balcony is a very reflective space, which is subject to drastic changes in response due to humidity."

Despite the differing needs of the upper and lower parts of the hall, Ronan had little time to experiment on the long-running show. "It's very unusu

Details
UK - Following the launch at the end of June of Belgacom TV, a digital TV package offering a range of channels including film and sports, Belgacom, the leading telecommunications company in Belgium, has recently installed a full digital I/O Sy80 mixing console from InnovaSON in a new control room dedicated to the European Soccer Championships at its Net Center in Brussels.

The move comes as a result of Belgacom Skynet's acquisition of the TV broadcasting rights to the Belgian Jupiler League and the Italian A Series, enabling Belgacom TV to offer viewers the nine Jupiler League matches every weekend, as well as the three best Calcio matches from the Italian A Series. Belgacom also broadcasts to other cable TV and pay-per-view channels.

The installation was handled by Unitecnic, a Spanish audio visual systems integrator specialising in broadcast applications who won the bid issu

Details
Very little formal recognition exists for the creative designs produced by those working in the entertainment industry, so PLASA (the Professional Lighting and Sound Association) and the PLASA Show have become joint sponsors of a new category in the 2006 Lighting Design Awards.

The award for Entertainment Lighting is open to theatrical productions, concerts, festivals, corporate events, exhibitions, temporary and one-off lighting installations, and will see a lighting team in the event sector recognized for outstanding achievement.

Judged by leading industry professionals, the finalists and winners stand to earn the plaudits of their peers, industry respect and publicity across a wide range of media, including national press and TV. The deadline for entries is Thursday 12 January 2006 and an application form can be found on the LDA website at the address below.

The event nominated

Details
UK - Capital Sound Hire set three separate production levels (for theatres, small arenas and large arenas) for comedian Lee Evans' current tour - based around Martin Audio line array (and non-line array) components. Evans' gags are embroidered by numerous 'pops' (the mic is used as a stage prop), VT play-ins and a closing song which he delivers on mandolin.

During soundcheck at Hallam FM Arena, the artist listened carefully to the playback of his mandolin track at the three different delay points (each containing three clusters of four Martin W8C's). He is equally concerned about his monitor sound - and although production carries Martin Audio LE12J floor wedges, these are generally forsaken in favour of boosted side fills (provided by six Martin Audio W8LM Mini Line Arrays).

The shows are promoted by Off The Kerb and the production manager is Mark Harris. Capital Sound Hire,

Details
USA - Clay Paky's Alpha Wash Halo is being used extensively on the new Broadway production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Woman in White which opened on November 17.

The Halo, a 1,000W (3,200 K) halogen wash light fixture, was specifically designed for use in theatre and television, and The Woman in White marks the Broadway debut of the Halo. The original London production of the musical, was lit by UK-based lighting designer, Paul Pyant. Pyant's Associate Lighting Designer for the original production, David Howe, was tasked with recreating Pyant's design in The Marquis Theatre, New York.

"We needed a bright, colour mixing, tungsten-source wash light with a great range of subtle pastel and tonal colours that was consistent across all units," remarks Howe on the decision to use the Clay Paky Alpha Wash Halo fixtures. "As the show's scenery is entire

Details
Belgium - Mixing Fun Lovin' Criminals through the house system at Brussels' 2,000-capacity Ancienne Belgique theatre may seem a far cry from Oasis at Knebworth Park in 1996 for top sound engineer Huw Richards, but it provided the opportunity for a good workout for Digidesign's Venue mixing environment.

While the tour had picked up production from Tour Tech on the UK leg, in northern Europe they were flying solo, dependent on whatever the house threw at them. For instance, the previous night they had had the luxury of playing through a brand new Line Array at Het Paard in The Hague, while in Brussels it was through a classic, but ageing conventional stacked system.

After being introduced to Venue by Robbie Allen while babysitting the Manic Street Preachers last year, Richards then spent three weeks in Brazil on the board, taking over the Placebo reins from Ian Nelson. "Ven

Details
USA - New York City College of Technology has been named the 2005 recipient of the Martin Intelligent Lighting Technology Grant. Runners up schools were the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music; and North Carolina School of Arts.

The Grant was presented on November 12 at a special ceremony at the LDI exhibition in Orlando. Martin US vice president of sales and marketing, Eric Loader, commented, "Once again this year there were a large number of applicants with very strong packages which were submitted for consideration. We are very pleased to award this year's Grant to New York City College of Technology. Their Entertainment Technology program which is cutting edge and targeted to the core of our industry will certainly benefit from the award but they will also utilise the grant in a way which will affect a large number of students in a key area of

Details
UK - Lightfactor Sales, exclusive distributor for Italian moving light brand SGM, has now sold leading UK rental company Siyan over 135 different SGM fixtures, which are in constant use on a huge variety of shows and events. Siyan's Bryan Leitch - himself a well known lighting designer - says: "We wanted to offer a variety of different moving lights to our clients, and SGM is one of the most popular in our current range. From a rental company perspective it has all the features, the lamps are extremely bright and it's a very cost-effective purchase. The service and support from Lightfactor as a distributor is excellent."

Siyan was recently also the first UK rental company to add the new Palco 3 Mobile moving fixtures to their hire stock. Its current and recent tours using SGM include Bloc Party (LD Craig Allnutt), Athlete (LD Dom Smith), The Ordinary Boys (LD Steven Ab

Details
USA - When Sony Pictures Television's Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! leave their respective studios to tape shows, PRG is there, providing substantial gear and support for both productions. During November, both Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune will be airing shows that took place on the road. Jeopardy! taped a college tournament at RBC Center in Raleigh, North Carolina while Wheel of Fortune taped their shows at the New Orleans Convention Center in New Orleans, Louisiana.

"Typically, when people think of a show like this coming to their town, I doubt they have any idea how much is involved. We travel with over 100 staff and crew members, and there are usually 14 to 17 trucks of equipment and set," explains FOH engineer and system designer Bill Daly from PRG Audio.

Daly takes a significant quantity of PRG's audio gear out on the road with bo

Details
UK - Since Arena Structures' revolutionary TFS was launched in the UK two years ago, it has hosted the most prestigious exhibitions, concerts and conferences, but in a first this Autumn; one TFS took on cathederalesque stature for the Church of Scientology's Annual UK Gala Weekend.

This year's event built on the Church's consistently increasing popularity since its inception in 1954, attracting over 7,000 international guests over the weekend of events to Saint Hill Manor in East Grinstead, including John Travolta, Kelly Preston, Isaac Hayes and Ann Archer. Realising the increased demand in capacity two months in advance of the weekend, Saint Hill events manager Tatjana Keenan contacted Arena Structures.

Mark Shelly was Arena's project manager who installed the 40m x 95m TFS into the manor grounds; incorporating a stage and two Star Orbit arches to carry the technical producti

Details
UK - Norfolk-based PA Company, K Tech Music Services, has purchased an Allen & Heath GL2800 multi-purpose live sound console as part of an expansion of the company's hire stock. Operating in the East Anglia region, K Tech manages sound systems for a diverse range of local events from rock festivals to religious groups.

"This was highlighted this summer during a gig with a visiting community gospel choir from Tottenham. Apart from the usual band instruments and vocal inputs, everyone wanted monitors! The desk coped well but I realized we needed a larger desk with more features if we were to keep providing good service," says K Tech's owner, Ken Tarling.

Tarling opted for a 48-channel GL2800, part of the new range of GL mixers from Allen & Heath. "We already own an Allen & Heath GL2200 24-channel desk, which was chosen because of its dual functionality - an import

Details
UK - Dennis Fernandez, front-of-house engineer for Stiff Little Fingers is a major fan of Audio-Technica microphones, and has kitted out the band's vocals and virtually the entire backline from the A-T range.

The band has just come off the road after a four-week UK tour, and will be touring Ireland in December, as well as playing a number of gigs across the country. Dennis has worked with SLF for more than four years, and in that time has worked hard with the band to develop engineering and mic techniques to get the very best sound, and capture the full excitement of their performance. Dennis's vocal mic of choice is the Artist Elite AE5400 cardioid condenser, perhaps not what you would immediately expect a singer like Jake Burns to use.

"Jake's vocal range has a lot of hi-mid frequencies, and being punk, the guitars are very hi-mid as well," says Fernandez. "

  1. MC2 Audio & Quested in Russia
  2. GearSource Europe Goes Live
  3. Wybron completes lighting industry research
  4. Metropolis at the Darli Bar
  5. ABTT announces training opportunities
  6. ChainMaster update
Page 758 of 1813

Latest Issue. . .