Business

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UK - Star Events Group have built a 9.5m by 12.5m screen tower in Canada Square Park, Canary Wharf on which a giant screen was scheduled to broadcast World Cup Football matches from the BBC throughout the tournament. Organisers at Canary Wharf provided the service so that visitors and workers in and around Canary Wharf could enjoy a break from their daily routines and enjoy constant coverage of sport and news items.

Despite some unexpected crowd disturbance that took place during the first England match, Canary Wharf Group took the decision to keep the screen tower, and its huge screen provided by XL Video, in situ to broadcast the forthcoming events such as Wimbledon, Royal Ascot and other popular BBC programmes and events.

Sian Astrop, manager of Arts & Events for Canary Wharf Management Ltd said: "The screen and screen tower together looks like a huge television in the

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USA - An unlikely combination, one might think, but one that is nevertheless finding great success as guitar legend Mark Knopfler and US country diva Emmylou Harris tour Europe and North America with their collaborative album, All the Roadrunning. Knopfler turned to the company, and with it the loudspeaker brand, he has relied on since the beginning of his solo career; that is Luton-based Concert Sound, and EAW.

Concert Sound's Andy Davies confirmed that Knopfler has been an EAW aficionado since his debut as a solo artist some 10 years ago. "Back then we were using what was at the time the industry-standard touring rig - a KF850/853 system. Three years ago, after many years of long and tireless service, we replaced it with the KF760 line array, which performs fabulously well. For my money, there isn't a better system on the market in terms of audio clarity and consis

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Spain - Rigging, drape and starcloth specialist Blackout, were instrumental in providing the facilities for a truly star studded event held in early June in the National Museum in Barcelona, Spain (MNAC).

This was the Laureus World Sports Awards Welcome Party for 800 VIP guests from the realms of Sport, Cinema and Music. Some of the famous people in attendance were His Majesty King Juan Carlos of Spain, actors Teri Hatcher and Morgan Freeman, and Edwin Moses who represented the Sports interest.

"Blackout provided StarLED starcloth and new pipe and drape system which were instrumental in providing the flexibility needed to achieve another dimension within the confines of the space," said designer Adrian Smith. "They also helped to create a setting for both formal and informal seating areas to suit the various moods that we invoked."

The use of Blackout's s

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UK - 2006 sees HHB Communications, Europe's leading independent supplier of professional audio equipment, celebrating 30 years in business. The occasion was marked with a party at the Belvedere in London's Holland Park on 24 June, at which staff, customers, suppliers and friends from as far afield as the USA, Canada, India, Thailand and Europe, gathered to enjoy a relaxed get-together on a perfect English summer's day.

"We've always tried to run a quality business and be a source of advice and support to our customers," says HHB's founder and managing director Ian Jones, himself celebrating a fiftieth birthday this year. "We're proud of the role the company has played in pioneering digital audio technology, and of our continued innovation with groundbreaking products like our own HHB FlashMic, the world's first digital recording microphone."

Today, HHB is a

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Greece - Historically, the 'Prytanion' was the ancient Greek equivalent of a town hall, the place for discussing political issues as well as the venue for official ceremonies and the welcoming of important guests. In one of the oldest and most historic areas of Athens can be found the contemporary equivalent: In downtown Kolonaki, the Prytanion Restaurant is known as one of the most famous dining places in the Greek capital - a place for bon viveurs who have good taste in both food and music.

Now owners, Niko and Antonis Iliopoulos, have contracted QSC Audio's Greek distributor, I. Diamantopoulos SA to design and install the sound equipment for his new Prytanion 2, in the wealthy area of Kifisia, in the north suburbs of Athens. Project manager Sotiris Sofianos designed a system in which the processed audio signal is relayed though an all-QSC AcousticDesign PA.

With the rooms d

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Canary Islands - A landmark of Tenerife's night club scene, Sketch Club has been revamped with new lighting, video and audio equipment using D.A.S. Audio's self-powered sound systems. Veteran sound reinforcement and audio systems installation company, Oscar Molowny Sound & Lighting, was called upon to refit the legendary club's complete audio-visual systems components with new state-of-the-art equipment. For this task, the company chose two self-powered D.A.S. Audio Sub-18A speakers, two DS-115A and six DS-108As for their design and functionality, particularly suited for indoor sound reinforcement in places like clubs, discotheques, gymnasiums or any other PA application.

Not only a place to enjoy music, the Sketch Club remains an outlet for artistic expression as it can show independent film screenings, art exhibits, or fashion shows. The club's innovative approach is reflected

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Greece - Held in the Olympic Indoor Hall at the heart of the 2004 Olympic Games complex in Athens, this year's Eurovision Song Contest attained new heights in terms of technical production. Looking after front-of-house sound for the event was Greek audio production specialists, and Innovason distributor, Enttech SA.

Enttech specified a total of four Innovason digital audio mixing consoles for the show; two Sy48s on Front of House duty handling both the main act and all the other microphones such as commentators, presenters and guests; and two Sy80s on monitors. Enttech's sound designer, Nikko Xpovomoulos explained that for such an important show that was broadcast live to over ten million viewers, not to mention the 13,000-strong audience in the arena, full redundancy was imperative. He therefore set up A and B systems each comprising and Sy48, a stagebox and an Sy80.

"We

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USA - Dave Rat from US-based Rat Sound Systems is a big Midas fan, and has no reason to compromise, even when mixing in smaller venues. Having chosen a 32-channel Venice to mix FOH for the Red Hot Chili Peppers at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles, he was more than confident about taking a 32-channel Verona out on the band's European TV and radio promotion tour.

"My experience has been that the function and sound quality of the smaller format Midas consoles is close enough to the larger Midas consoles that I can switch back and forth relatively easily," says Dave Rat. "I also wanted to step away from the increasingly popular trend of wedging highly complex and powerful consoles - digital or analogue - into simple and relatively non-complex gigs. I wanted a compact and easy to set up FOH world, yet I also wanted to be able to see everything that is going on at a sin

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USA / UK - High End Systems (HES) of Austin, Texas and Wynne Willson Gottelier (WWG) UK have formed an agreement on the licensing of certain WWG digital lighting technologies patents.

Richard Belliveau, chief technology officer for HES, says: "WWG is a truly innovative source of inventive creativity in the lighting industry. The relationship between WWG and HES has been instrumental in the development of HES digital lighting products. We are pleased to form the licensing agreement with WWG."

Peter Wynne Willson of WWG says: "The hard and soft engineering of the HES digital products is exemplary. Richard Belliveau and his team have made a fabulous job of bringing our Catalyst project to market. WWG has learned much from HES en route to concluding this licensing agreement."

High End Systems is a worldwide automated lighting and control systems manufacturer

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Canada - The town of Castlegar in Western Canada is home to about 7200 people. Last month, the Element Club, Bar and Grill - a 600 capacity club and the third largest licensed establishment in British Columbia - opened in the town. Martin dealer Skaha Sound of Penticton, British Columbia supplied a Martin lighting package along with LED lighting and conventional luminaires for the cub. Lighting design was handled jointly by cousins Florio and Fred Vassilakakis, who enlisted other family help as well. Florio comments: "The actual physical design of the club was done by my father, Nick, with collaboration from me, my cousin Fred and my brother George. My uncle John also helped out. It's a family company - what can I say."

Element is located on a main floor overlooked by a lounge grill. Above the dance floor and mounted directly to the ceiling for a clean look are eight M

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UK - Presentation Service Providers (PSP), the Birmingham-based technical service company, was appointed by the MS Society for the seventh year in succession to provide project management and technical support for its annual convention. This year's event was staged at Manchester's GMEX Centre and over 2,500 visitors attended the Conference and accompanying Exhibition which also saw 80 speakers and 30 presentations take to the stage over two days. This was the biggest event ever held for people with MS in Europe.

For the plenary session, PSP designed and constructed a set that represented MS Life's logo and branding. To achieve this two 18ft wide screens were used to relay live camera, video and graphics. LED and intelligent lighting was used extensively to provide effects and colour changes throughout the presentation.

A fibre optic link was installed to relay sound and images

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UK - Brighton-based production company AVT offers design, management and implementation of complete corporate communications solutions. Among their core markets is conference and live event production, and during May alone the rental staging specialists serviced three major ceremonies in consecutive days - the Public Servants Awards at London's Grosvenor House Hotel, the Cornwall Business Awards near Truro and the Argus Achievement Awards at the Brighton Metropole - with Christie LCD projection in use on all three.

Headed by Robin St. Clair Jones AVT has been servicing blue chip and events across the world over a 30-year period, organising the whole scenography from set and stage, graphics content, multimedia and project management. But since moving their projection requirements to Christie three or four years ago they have been able to broaden their scope enormously.

Robin St

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UK - XL Video has invested in a wide range of new video and AV equipment to help meet its busy summer touring and business events schedule. This includes six brand new Barco B10 mobile LED trucks - each offering 10sq.m of high-resolution, rotating LED screen surface. It debuted at the Honda Hospitality area at the British Grand Prix, Silverstone, and they will be used at a host of festivals and outdoor events throughout the summer.

XL has also bought a fleet of the new High Definition Barco FLM 20 water-cooled 18,000 ANSI lumen projectors for assorted tours. XL's hectic touring and event summer schedule includes work with Foo Fighters, The Who, Roger Waters and Robbie Williams' Close Encounters tour.

Other projector purchases included new Panasonic XP12s, and a selection of lenses and lamps for XL's fleet of Digital Projection Lightning 35HD high-definition machines. Ad

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Australia - Klark Teknik's new Square One processing range is making its mark down under. The new range made its Australian debut in Sydney at Powerhouse Productions' rave event, Prophecy - Ultraviolet, at the Sydney Superdome, Homebush Bay.

Sound hire company Innovative Production Services encountered Square One at Entech 2006 on the stand of Australian KT distributor APAC Audio, and were impressed with both the performance and price. "The compression was smooth and the cue on the graphics was extremely realistic," sais Innovative's sound engineer, Nathan Tasker.

Square One graphics units were also used on Australia's largest celebration of contemporary Christian music, the Australian Gospel Music Festival, which is held in the Queensland city of Toowoomba. Klark Teknik has had a high profile over the eight years of the festival and it was raised even further this y

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UK - The BBC has selected Allen & Heath's iDR DSP system to form the core ofan audio switching system that is used at most large sporting events, including the Olympics, the Commonwealth Games, European Championships, and Wimbledon this year. The digital system - comprising the iDR-8 mixer, plus iDR-in and iDR-out expander units - manages audio between the studio and remote commentators.

"We need to deal with up to 14 incoming sources at any one time so we use the iDR-8 with expansion units to give a 16x16 clean-feed matrix," explains BBC Radio Outside Broadcast Manager, Jonathan Wilson.Generally, commentary circuits are fed into the local control room on digital bearers, which could be Vandas or ISDN. These are subject to a noticeable transmission delay, which means that the return path of the 4-wire - back to the commentator's headphones - must be fed with a 'clean f

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UK - Preparations for PLASA06 at Earls Court in September are hotting up with the announcement of this year's feature-packed agenda for DJs - in particular the headlining events of DJ Sunday.

PLASA06 will give DJs a chance to get their hands on all the latest gear and mix with some of the best-known names in the business, offering DJs everything they need to get great sound and fantastic visuals, with hands-on demos of everything from stylish turntables to cutting-edge VJ kit.In fact, all the major developments in DJ and VJ technology will be on show - decks, CD players, mixers, video kit, effects, software, samplers, samples, styli and headphones - spanning both analogue and digital domains. And there'll be other gear to check out too, with over 300 pro audio, lighting and video companies previewing major new products.

Exhibitors with new DJ and VJ products confirmed to date

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UK/Europe - Guitar hero Joe Satriani was illuminated by lighting equipment supplied by Bandit Lites on his recent sold-out tour.

It is LD Ernesto Corti's first tour with the legendary artist. The UK and European section is the second leg of a tour that kicked off in the US in April. It was also the first time that Corti has worked with Bandit, and he is extremely pleased with the results. The account was handled for Bandit by Lester Cobrin who has worked with Joe Satriani's production management team since 1997.

Corti received some brief directions from Satriani's manager Mick Brigden at the start of the tour, and then the rest of the lighting and aesthetics were left up to him. The most important element is, of course, Satriani and his guitar, so the design and operation are kept simple, straightforward and stark.

The set is hugely dynamic - incorporating plenty of power gu

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UK - Specialist rigging supply company, Rope Assemblies, won the best standaward at the ABTT Exhibition in the Royal Horticultural Halls for its innovative, giant game called "LOLER revisited using Snakes and Ladders".

The Retford based company had a giant two metre square snakes and ladders board on the back wall of their stand. Visitors were invited to test their knowledge of the LOLER regulations as they progressed up the board. Completion of the game with all questions correctly answered wonthe player one of a number of prizes from new rigging gloves to head torches, Frogs, to Rope Assemblies unique rigging multi-tool.

Having counted the number of prizes given out at the end of the show, a knowledgeable 200 people had played and won.

"We were delighted to win this award, it was quite a surprise when our name was called out at the ABTT Dinner. Many thanks t

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UK - Leading UK loudspeaker manufacturer Turbosound is set to further increase its penetration into the Asia market at PALA 2006, to be held in Bangkok, Thailand from 20-22 July. Exhibiting in conjunction with its Singaporian distributor Total Solutions Marketing on Stand B36, Turbosound will be showing the new TA-500 Aspect Wide and the TSW-218 horn-loaded bass cabinet, along with TSB-118 bandpass subwoofers and the trapezoidal lightweight self-powered 2-way TQ-315DP.

"Total Solutions and Turbosound will also be at the AVL Thailand show in Bangkok at the end of July," says Turbosound's Middle East and Asia sales manager Tim McCall. "There we will be taking part in a live loudspeaker shoot-out/demonstration there against other leading manufacturers with a combination of our new TA-500 (Aspect Wide) and TSW-218 loudspeakers. This allows both existing and potential

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UK - The Society of Television Lighting Directors (STLD) is holding a Generic Lighting Shootout and Sponsors Exhibition at Pinewood Studios on Saturday 5 August 2006 from 11.00 - 17.30. The event will be held in TV One, one of a pair of TV studios at Pinewood which are the home to programmes such as The Weakest Link, Test the Nation and My Family.

The event will focus on comparing the latest profile spots, fresnels, softlights, cyc lights and followspots side-by-side in a TV studio environment. Come and see how well a 90° profile spot performs. How many cyc units are required to evenly cover a 15m cyclorama? Can LED units be used to replace the traditional cyc lights and groundrows?

The performance of the displayed products will be viewed on camera, and a panel of expert lighting directors will be on the lookout for the best products in a number of categories

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UK - Tecton luminaires from Zumtobel lighting are delivering a combination of style and functionality at landmark Sainsbury's store in London.

Situated beneath Sainsbury's business centre in Holborn, the Sainsbury's Local store required a lighting solution that would offer clean, direct illumination for a busy retail environment while maintaining unobtrusive impact. The answer was Tecton, a continuous row lighting system from Zumtobel Lighting.

Designed by Nicholas Grimshaw & Partners, Tecton is a flexible, cost effective lighting system which incorporates the needs of future technology, says the company. Well-balanced, uniform lighting vital to the supermarket retail experience is complemented by the addition of Proton, a flexible spotlight for directional light in highlight areas.

Tecton is an adaptable trunking system, meaning that data cables, power supplies and lighting

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Germany - The Ostelbienhalle in Beilrode is proving to be a popular venue for sports and cultural events, following the installation of a line array sound reinforcement system which successfully meets the acoustic challenge of the hall's contemporary design. Berger Veranstaltungstechnik of Mehltheuer worked closely with Camco's fixed installations division to win the contract with computer simulations of the finished design.

The Ostelbienhalle is 44m long and 22m wide, equipped with a gallery all the way round. The area opposite the stage has been built in an attractive, contemporary design using concrete and glass. Though very pleasing to the eye, this presented a problem for balanced sound reinforcement. The Halle's management was looking for sufficiently dynamic musical reproduction, even SPLs and speech clarity throughout the venue - all within a tight budget.

The challeng

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Greece - The 51st Annual Eurovision Song Contest, a televised live event, took place on 20 May at the Olympia Sports Arena in Athens, Greece.

After five weeks of set-up and two weeks of rehearsals, the indescribably lavish production which included more than 65 tons of trussing, more than 23 European solo artists and bands competed for the title, while a jury at the venue and viewers at home voted for this year's winner.

The Athens based Adamson rental partner Enttech, took on the welcome challenge of designing the audio for this massive production with the help of consultant Scott Willsallen (previous work includes the sound design for the 2004 Athens Olympics also with Enttech). There were some obstacles to overcome, such as having to fly the sound system really high, to accommodate TV cameras and massive lighting rigs, but also finding a comfortable balance for sound

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Hungary - Budapest's Fine Arts Museum has purchased a new 24-channel Allen & Heath GL3800 multi-purpose mixer, which is part of a new mobile PA system that can be set up anywhere in the museum. The museum has a wide range of cultural programmes, including lectures on visiting collections, children's learning sessions, and every Thursday during late opening hours, a Jazz Salon.

"It was very important that the new console should serve many kinds of events, and therefore I specified a mixer that could manage 4-6 wedge monitor mixes and two effect mixes, and had 12-16 mic channels, inserts on each channel, up to eight groups, a matrix, and extensive metering. The GL3800 provided all of these functions and more," commented the Museum's sound engineer, Peter Rozgonyi.

The console is kept in a flight case with cabling to multi-pin connectors for easy installation and transp

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