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USA - dbx Professional Products, a Salt Lake City-based manufacturer of professional signal processing products and a division of Harman International, has announced that five of its premium DriveRack 4800 loudspeaker management processors have been selected to control a JBL sound system in one of London's premier cinemas.

The Empire Cinema in Leicester Square, which hosts many of the UK's film premiers, has undergone a much needed equipment upgrade following its takeover from UCI by the newly-formed Empire Cinemas Ltd. According to The Empire's marketing and development manager, Kevin Anderson, the investment has run "well into six figures".

Technical manager for the Group, André Mort, says that the requirement was for a THX-approved system, and appointed Bell Theatre Services (BTS), who have a long association with the venue, to come up with a specification

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Denmark - Since 1971, music fans have flocked to the Danish town of Roskilde to attend what has become one of the biggest annual music festivals in Europe. This year, just short of ninety thousand fans descended on the town to listen to one hundred and seventy bands from around the globe. Bands and artists such as the Arctic Monkeys, the Kaiser Chiefs, Bob Dylan, Morrisey along with new and up and coming artists performed over five days. The entire area for the festival covered around 1.25 million sq.m of ground.

The seven stages of varying sizes and audience capacity, were each devoted to a particular musical genre, such as Heavy Metal, Hip-Hop, Electronic and Rock to name a few. Each stage had its own sound system with three stages plus the 'Chill Out' area being equipped with d&b audiotechnik sound systems.

A variety of d&b equipment was used for the Metropole stage, which

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USA - The recently renovated and expanded worship sanctuary at Blackshear Baptist Church, located in Flowery Branch, Georgia, includes a new sound reinforcement system headed by Danley Sound Labs SH-50 and SH-100 full-range loudspeakers, along with the company's TH-112 subwoofers.

Blackshear Baptist is one of the fastest growing churches in the Atlanta area, with the expansion of the sanctuary from 1,000 seats to more than 1,700 reflecting this growth. The sanctuary now offers theatre-style raked seating and a huge balcony wrapping around three sides of the room. Members enjoy worship services that include spoken word, a large traditional choir, and more contemporary music provided by a rhythm section and brass/reed section.

dB Audio & Video (dB A&V) of Gainesville, Georgia, provided the sound system design and installation, in addition to the acoustical design and a sophistic

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USA - Aviom has been selected to enhance the sound system at 30,000-member Lakewood Church in Houston, the largest church in the US. Lakewood Church televises its broadcasts, reaching over 200 million households. Audio Analysts, the audio technology company for Lakewood, installed several AN-16i Input Modules and AN-16o Output Modules in addition to multiple Pro16 Personal Mixers for the worship team.

"Aviom's bandwidth is excellent," says Joe Caruso, senior audio engineer for Audio Analysts. "It's easy to use and guarantees an accurate performance. We tested it against other snakes and listened to the bandwidth for any concern in regards to audio degradation and there is none."

Caruso installed two Aviom AN-16i Input Modules and two AN-16o Output Modules to amplify the sound in the newly renovated church. Both AN-16i Modules are set up in the monitor room

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UK - Worcestershire-based Intasound PA has a long history of running Martin Audio rigs as their premier PA - dating back to the classic F2 of the early 90s. Since then they have kept pace with the changing technology, having been an early adopter of the Wavefront 8 Compact - and now the W8LM Mini Line Array.

Francis Dale who runs the PA company, has already fielded the company's 14 W8LMs and two W8LMD down-fill boxes in large capacity theatres and summer events, including the tour by illusionist Derren Brown and a two-day event at the National Trust-owned Waddesdon Manor near Aylesbury, home of the Rothschild family.

This event included six full orchestras and on the second (Amphitheatre) stage Intasound ran 10 W8LMs and two W8LMDs on each side. "We've also done a Proms concert with the LMs - so they've seen a good cross section of work," says Dale. "We always u

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UK - White Light, the exclusive UK distributor for the range of DMX networking and control equipment from ELC, has supplied eight ELC miniStores to the new Dino Jaws travelling exhibition from the Natural History Museum.

Designed by exhibition designers Ralph Appelbaum Associates (RAA), the lighting for Dino Jaws has been designed by leading architectural and exhibition lighting consultants dha design. "Dino Jaws features eight automated dinosaurs and an interactive display area called the LAB. The aesthetic requirement was to light each dinosaur, but not to make a light show so dazzling it distracted from them," explains Flick Ansell of dha design. "The brief was subtle changing landscapes and, importantly, to make shadow play on the different coloured backdrop between each dinosaur."

"There was also a practical brief that each display area could, in

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India - PALA India has announced the appointment of Visionaire Group as a sponsor of Install India 2006, held in conjunction with PALA India. The company will provide 'proof of concept' showcase installations, demonstrating the most advanced AV integration solutions for the Modern Boardroom and The Smart Home.

Visionaire is a leading region-wide systems integrator throughout the Middle East, India, and South East Asia. The company's advanced solutions for systems integration span across the meeting, living, security, learning, retail, and hospitality markets.

Visionaire's installations are prevalent throughout the region and include some of the most prestigious projects and developments, says the company, such as The Indian School of Business, Four Seasons Hotel Mumbai, Reliance Infocomm and Reliance Petroleum NOC's, L&T Infotech campuses in Chennai, Mumbai and Bangalore, Micr

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UK - PLASA is organising a group of UK exhibitors to the first presentation of PALA India, which takes place from 5-7 October 2006. This international exhibition will be held at the NSE Exhibition Complex in Mumbai and will focus on the professional sound, light, audio visual, music, broadcast and project installations markets.

The show provides the ideal opportunity to enter one of the world's fastest growing economies. Growth of around 9% over the next decade is forecasted for the tourism market with strong support from the Indian government to support this development. The media and entertainment industry includes film, music, television, radio, and live entertainment and is considered one of the fastest growing business sectors. Entertainment parks and visual effects are emerging as significant contributors to the economy and will make a significant impact within the enterta

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Germany - During the FIFA Football World Cup, huge events were taking place beside the numerous football matches in the 12 German World Cup cities. The most important events outside the stadiums were the official FIFA Fan Fests with big open air stages and LED video walls on which every match was shown live.

In four of the 12 cities - Munich, Nuremberg, Stuttgart and Kaiserslautern, an HK Audio Cohedra system was applied for the FIFA Fan Fests. Rental company Ostalb PA based in the Swabian town of Westhausen near Aalen was taking care of the four stages, supported by the Cohedra User Network. Besides the live broadcasts of the matches, several promotional activities of the World Cup corporate sponsors and many concerts with international acts were taking place at the FIFA Fan Fests.

Munich, Nuremberg and Kaiserslautern each have a Cohedra 2x12 system, with an additional

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UK - Having worked on similar events in Leicester over the last eighteen years, Hawthorns secured the opportunity from the Jalaram Charitable Trust, Leicester, to provide the power, sound, video and lighting systems for this year's special festival.

With the visit of the religious leader, Morari Bapu, the organisers changed the festival to a more corporate style format including the erection of an enclosed Arena TFT structure 95 metres long, 50 metres wide and 16 metres in height to the apex, accommodating 8000 people.

In order to power the whole site, two pairs of generators were used, one of which was a one megawatt set, which provided all the power to the catering facilities, lighting, sound and the all important air conditioning, given the recent temperatures.

To illuminate the Arena TFT structure and stage both decoratively and safely, over 250KW of lighting was used.

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Philippines - More than 100 bands rocked at the new SM Mall of Asia at the recent Fete de la Musique Festival, in Manila, Philippines as part of 'French Spring in Manila' celebration. The festival, which was held at the SM Mall of ASIA for the first time, was divided into four stages, playing various genres from rock, heavy metal, indie and pop - and ran from mid afternoon of the Saturday to the break of dawn of Sunday.

Sound reinforcement for the four stages was supplied by local hire company Stage Pro sound and lights, owned and operated by Ronnie Osabel, whose says his ideal sound system is "one that goes up fast, needs little or no tweaking, offers many years of service and pleases the ears of sound techs of bands and singers - and with RCF's 4PRO system, we've found it."

Stage Pro has recently taken delivery of the 4PRO-6001 Powered 3-way Speakers, 4PRO-3002SMA

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UK - Stage Technologies have supplied the Royal Shakespeare Company's Courtyard Theatre with a portable automation control system. The new 1,000 seat theatre is a temporary venue for the RSC while major renovation works transform their permanent home at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon. The temporary venue has been designed as a prototype for the auditorium planned in the permanent theatre which will re-open in 2010. The new thrust-stage brings the audience closer to the actors to re-create the intimacy of the theatres known in Shakespeare's time.

The entire Courtyard Theatre project is estimated to have cost in the region of £6m and following careful planning it is envisaged that a large amount of the equipment and materials will subsequently be reused in other RSC theatres and to support its works in London and on tours in the UK and around the world.

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Germany - The sixth Straubing Bürgerfest wasan experience to remember. In the course of the weekend from 23-25 June, over 100,000 people flocked to the city, which besides producing electrical equipment and beer is the major market centre for the fertile Gäuboden plain, to visit the patchwork of booths, savour a smorgasbord of culinary delights from 20 different countries, and enjoy musical and cabaret performances distributed between nine different stages.

Providing sound reinforcement for the four largest stages was the responsibility of the Straubing-based sound company StereoMike, whose engineers, directed by MD Mike Wittenzellner, relied exclusively on systems from EVI Audio. He says: "I even received a thank-you letter from the organizers in which they noted that 'the professional stage equipment was 100 per cent convincing' - a compliment we found highly gratifying

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Switzerland - Celebrating its 40th year-and the 70th birthday of founder Claude Nobs-Montreux Jazz is noted for its diverse line-up and international attendance. In its first year as a festival sponsor, Digidesign collaborated with the audio staff to consolidate and streamline the technology, most notably by bringing its award-winning Venue live sound mixing environment and DigiDelivery high-speed file transmission system to the event.

Comprised of the D-Show digital mixing console, the FOH rack, the Stage rack and a multichannel digital snake system, Venue was used at FOH and monitor positions in three of the major venues of the festival: the Auditorium Stravinski, the Miles Davis Hall and the Casino Barrière. Digidesign also provided a console for the Jazz Café.

Many of the 30-plus visiting sound engineers took advantage of the Pro Tools recording options. The HDx op

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Canada - Dog Day Afternoon was held at Toronto's Historic Fort York. Headliners Metric performed at the first two Toronto Island festivals in 2004 and 2005, at this year's SXSW in Austin, as well as their recent tour's kick-off dates at the Koolhaus in Toronto and dates across Ontario and Quebec on an Adamson rig.

Engineer Sean Richards is FOH and is a big fan of the Adamson Y-Axis line. Richards, who continues to request the system, says: "Mixing Metric on an Adamson Y10 system, I am getting the clarity, range and focus I need for their inherent subtleties, along with just enough bite to justify a rock band that needs to be heard as a rock band in their increasingly energetic shows."

Toronto's Towers Productions provided full production for the event. The stage was erected directly in front of the Toronto downtown skyline on a wonderfully hidden green space just alo

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India - Laser System Europe, the leading international laser and multi-media sales, rental and event production company, has been appointed laser showcase sponsors for PALA India. In this role, the company will stage a laser display every hour, throughout the duration of the exhibition.

The Belgian based company operates extensively throughout India, the Middle East, Russia, and South East Asia through its branch offices located in those regions, and boasts production credits for major international events such the Vietnam South East Asian Games, Moscow 850 Years, Dubai Shopping Festival, Moscow Youth Olympic Games, and St Petersburg 300 Years.

In India the company is represented by Stagegear, an organisation for designing and executing light, laser and 3D video. The company's credits includes high quality events like KBC-2, Nach Ballye, Film Fare, Femina, Time for Heroes, and

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UK - Currently on a major UK and European tour, the Pet Shop Boys are spicing up their stage presence with cleverly-designed 4m x 4m screen props, and a full complement of PSL's newly-acquired Barco R12+ projectors.

Conceived by the show's designer Es Devlin, the unique screens play an integral part in the PSB production. Stretching and elongating from a relatively small 4sq.m to take up the full width of the stage, the screens can be projected on, or lit from inside using Versa Tubes. They have been constructed in such as way as to allow dancers to perform inside them, on two levels. Mounted on wheels, they can be easily moved into several different configurations, including side on to the audience.

"It's the most staged and theatrical concert I've ever worked on," says PSL's Pod Bluman, comparing it to fringe theatre rather than a rock show. "This is very much

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UK - It would appear that business has developed a distinctly oriental flavour for AV installation specialists, Sound Division. Hard on the heels of the installation in the exclusive Just Oriental in London's Picadilly comes a comprehensive AV installation into a brand new bar called the V-Bar which belongs to the adjoining Mandarin Palace Chinese restaurant in Hornchurch in Essex. In this instance the client required a full PA set-up, lighting and plasma screen in addition to a background music system.

Sound Division's David Graham explained that the V-Bar is a new piano bar that is attached to the main restaurant. "It's a very picturesque setting so they wanted to make the most of it with a proper professional set-up." To this end, Sound Division supplied and installed a pair of Martin Audio Blackline F10 2-way passive loudspeaker systems on stands, a Soundcraft Foli

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Thailand - W-DMX was recently used during a two-month tour with the Dino Fantasy Park World Tour 2006 in Thailand. The show thrilled visitors with life-sized dinosaur replicas and a special effects light show, provided by LDS Show of Bangkok. Although the set and props were imported from Japan, the lighting was locally contracted to LDS, with lighting design by Poon Limpapun and Sermsak Boonyhai. The team was faced with a large venue and hard-to-reach areas to light. Wireless Solution's S-1 Transmitter was used with 24 R-512 Receivers to control 24 Wybron Nexera Wash and Profile fixtures in these remote areas. Par cans and colour changers were used for general overhead lighting.

Subtle shades of green, orange and blue wash created the look and feel of changing sunlight patterns that helped tell the story. The audience entered the exhibit, surrounded by blue sky and soft daylight

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Germany - The citizens of Achern, Offenburg and Freiburg were all treated to the recent World Cup action on Lighthouse R19 19mm LED screens courtesy of Modul-Vision, a new division of German rental companies Cassiopeia and Badensound.

Achern, the smallest of the three towns with a population of 25,000, had its screen in the Stadtpark where up to 5,000 people congregated for the matches; Offenburg, with a population of 60,000, saw an average of 7,000 people joined the public viewing at the central marketplace; and Freiburg, a university city with a population of 155,000 which includes young and international students, had more than 10,000 fans watching each game on its screen in one of the city's parks.

"The games were transmitted in 16:9 format, so we had 20 panels of Lighthouse R19 at each site in a five-column by four-row configuration and we used a Lighthouse X-Drive P

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US - John Fogerty is back, loaded with the complete Credence catalogue after years oflegal maneuvers, and Fogerty and his band sing all the classics he penned back in the day. The show has been well received in Europe and the US shows promise to be the same with Willie Nelson signing on for most of the run.

Designer David Davidian has created a very moody environment for the classic Fogerty tunes. The approach is very traditional with a touch of automation. There are PAR cans, lekos, cyc lights, eight-lights and colour changers, Davidian also uses the Martin Mac 2000 spot and wash fixtures. Control is withboth a Whole Hog 2 and an Avo Sapphire 2000.

Bandit Lites works with Nelson every year at Farm Aid but this is the first project for Bandit with Fogerty.

(Chris Henry)

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Norway - Oslo-based PA company Frontlite has made a substantial investment in Nexo's Geo T tangent-array loudspeaker systems, ordering one of the largest rental inventories of the year to date. Used in full, the new 24-a-side Geo T rig will be capable of handling the very largest events in Norway.

Frontlite placed its order for Geo T and a number of Camco amplifiers following a visit to the Monsters of Rock festival in the UK. Frontlite's head of audio Stuart Kerrison had wanted to hear the system at a large event, and, with 85 cabinets of Geo T supplied by SSE Audio Group for artists such as Deep Purple and Alice Cooper, the Milton Keynes show was the ideal audition. On hand to offer advice were Jon Petter Westerlund of PSS and Asle Skårslette of FotoPhono, François Deffarges of Nexo and Mick Anderson of Camco.

"We already had Nexo Alpha cabinets," explains Kerris

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Germany - Traditionally utilities are housed in functional buildings, often outside of town, away from the scrutinous eye of urban dwellers, but not always. Centrally located in the city of Leipzig is the gas and steam cogeneration plant, GuD Heizkraftwerk. Owners Leipziger Stadtwerke GmbH sought to integrate the building with the more aesthetic structures of Leipzig's architectural centre and thereby positively influence the city's night time image. Commercially, the company wanted to visually brand the cogeneration plant with the yellow and blue logo of Stadtwerke Leipzig. In November 2003 the company presented IPRO Leipzig with a draft and implementation plan that called for a unique night time lighting concept that could achieve these goals.

Lighting artist Jürgen Meier was subsequently contracted and worked with Armada Signs, the leading lighting promotion company in centr

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UK - Entec Sound & Light supplied audio and lighting production for three of the seven stages at Guilfest 2006 now in its 15th year. Guilfest is one of the most popular 'new wave' family festivals on the calendar.

It's the fifth year for Entec Lighting and the second year that Entec Sound have been involved at Guilfest. The departments provided sound and Lighting production services to the Radio 2 Main Stage and the Rock Sound Stage. The Lighting Department also installed a system into the Theatre Tent for the Howard Cragg's festival team to service.

Having taken delivery of their new d&b audiotechnik J-Series line array, Entec naturally used this for the main stage, where headliners included Embrace, A-Ha and Billy Idol. The system was designed by Stef Serpagli, and featured eight J8's and two J12 elements per side for the main arrays, neatly tucked in behind some elegant tri

  1. Aviom sponsor Church sound workshop
  2. Sennheiser sponsors Musicians Hall of Fame
  3. Allen & Heath introduce finance scheme
  4. Blitz at The Motor Show
  5. L-Acoustics rig at Liberty State Park
  6. Lyd Partner buys Nexo Geo D
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