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UK - Visitors to the South Bank of the River Thames over the last few months will have seen a dramatic visual change to the concrete structures of the South Bank arts centre as night fell and a new lighting scheme took over.

Lighting designer Willie Williams - most commonly thought of for his work with U2, but also represented in London's West End and in theatres around the world with the musical We Will Rock You - was asked by the South Bank Centre's creative director Jude Kelly to devise a lighting scheme for the Centre, both to give it its own identity and to ensure that it wasn't overshadowed by the dramatic exterior lighting scheme now in place at its neighbour, the National Theatre.

Working to a tight budget, Williams devised a fixed look for the buildings; White Light supplied a large quantity of MBI floods and ETC Source Fours to implement the design, which Will

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USA - "We've had great success integrating the LSC maXim series of lighting consoles in small and large spaces, houses of worship in particular," says Bill Manning of All Pro Sound. "While they have some very sophisticated features, they still maintain a simplicity that's attractive to clients working with limited resources through volunteers.

Pro Sound Installations of the console include Village Baptist Church in Destin, Florida, and the Mendham Hills Chapel in Mendham, NJ. Chad Edwardson.

All Pro Sound's lighting guru, reports that when training customers on the operation of the maXim he has found that the learning curve is rapid. "The layout is very well designed and the graphical display is very intuitive," he said. "Controlling intelligent lights is a breeze and the scene setup is much quicker with the use of the filter function."

(Ji

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USA - D.A.S. Audio staged its North American Aero Line Array Training Seminar on October 18 and 19 at the Fitzgerald Hotel in Las Vegas. The seminar was addressed to US Aero line array system users as well as potential clients. At the same time, the new Variant line array and EASE Focus software were presented to the US market.

The main seminar speakers were Ashok Maharaj, independent professional audio consultant from Venezuela; Javier Navarro, D.A.S. Audio sound engineer; Kevin Hill, head of sales for the US; Ramón Franco, sales representative for Colombia and technical adviser for Latin America; and Jack Palacio, international sales director of D.A.S. Audio. Roberto Giner, D.A.S. marketing director, as well as all sales representatives for the US were also present.

Close to ninety people attended the sessions which focused mainly on the line array theory and the dev

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UK - The Showman's Show takes place at the Newbury Showground in Berkshire every October and its outdoor situation makes it an ideal platform for large-scale products to be examined at close quarters. Star Events Group took full advantage of this at the 2006 event to officially launch Morbit.

"The response to our announcement of the concept earlier in the year was excellent," says Jane Russen, director of Star Events Group's mobile division. "The majority of people who came to see the stage at Showman's had already heard of it, although I'm sure there were some who came along to see if it actually existed!"

Star Events Group founder Roger Barrett developed the first modern mobile stage in 1988 and, with the company having acquired Orbit UK in 2004, it rapidly became clear that a mobile version of the popular Orbit stage would appeal to a wide range of event

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USA - Fits & Starts Productions will bring a pair of its How-To Church Sound Workshops to next year's NSCA Expo on March 16 and 17 at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, FL. Offering applied, hands-on training for volunteer staff, music ministers, youth members, choir directors, musicians, or anyone seeking to gain a better understanding of sound systems or considering a sound system upgrade, the workshops will focus on both basic and advanced techniques.

The How-To Church Sound Microphone Techniques Workshop will focus on the proper choice and use of microphones in a house of worship environment, the workshop will examine correct microphone placement for musical instruments, choirs, and soloists, as well as the operation and differences between hardwired and wireless microphone systems. Different microphone polar patterns will additionally be evaluated

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USA - The ESTA Foundation raised over $55,000 for Behind the Scenes at the recent LDI show in Las Vegas. Members of the industry supported the charity through the purchase of raffle tickets, bidding on silent auction items, and contributions including a generous donation from Cheryl and John Cox, owners of Sacramento Theatrical Lighting.

A wide range of items were offered at the silent auction sponsored by LDI and Live Design, ranging from an original signed lightplot by Wally Russell Lifetime Achievement Award recipient Allen Branton from this year's MTV Music Video Awards, a copy of Foundation Board member Robert Bell's book Let there be Light signed by all the interviewees, Cirque du Soleil and Disney packages, to a host of equipment and services donated by LDI exhibitors.

The raffle drew a steady stream of contributors all hoping to ride home on

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UK - The Institute of Sound and Communications Engineers held their annual Institute Day on Friday 20th October 2006 in Watford. The event comprised the ever popular Warren Barnett Memorial Lecture which this year was presented by Sam Wise BSc CEng of Arup Acoustics, whose subject was loudspeaker arrays and how they work.

The AGM followed the lecture and the day concluded with a dinner at which presentations were made to individuals who were recognised for giving outstanding service to the Industry. Bryan Robinson of Robbotronic Co, vice president, was made a Fellow of the Institute and Terry Baldwin and David Boxall of Baldwin Boxall were awarded Lifetime Achievement certificates for their contribution, mainly to the voice alarm industry and to export.

In his address, David Hopkins OBE, president of the Institute, thanked the members for their support and in particular the su

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Italy - Clay Paky were chosen for the latest reality show La Pupa e il Secchione, adapted from the format of the American The Beauty and the Geek.

The idea was to mix the American format with the ingredients that work in other Italian programmes, and the result is a sort of comedy show which has gained great attention with the public and press.

In line with modern trends for TV studios, the La Pupa e il Secchione studio is a stage in-the-round with the actors in the centre. This structure offers more than one advantage: it centralises the scene, gives more shooting points and improves audience participation. With respect to the traditional stage, however, this solution presents certain problems during the stage-setting phase. "We had to install all the lighting material on the ceiling since there were no other support structures available, while the s

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UK - Summit Steel was called into London's Roundhouse to rig the hugely successful 5-day BBC Electric Proms festival event. Summit was contracted direct to promoters Metropolis Music, who were one of the organisers along with the BBC and the Electric Proms team, all working under festival director Lorna Clarke. Summit rigged various elements for lighting contractors Siyan, video and screen suppliers XL Video and Brit Row who supplied the audio.

The stage was set off to one side of the atmospheric circular venue, configured in an 'end-on' format. Summit put in points and rigging for two semi-spherical trusses used for lighting positions - upstage and mid-stage and a straight lighting truss at the FOH position was rigged on four points and used for key lighting. Two spreaders, each with two points a side were installed off the house beams and below their Cable NET mesh grid, to ha

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UK - Speedy Hire has announced the acquisition, from the Parkinson family, of the entire issued share capital of Lifting Gear Hire Limited, a specialist provider for the hire of lifting equipment and associated services including the repair, maintenance, testing and inspection of lifting equipment.

Lifting Gear Hire also provides a full range of test and inspection, calibration and training services to customers in the industrial and construction sectors. It operates from 34 UK depots employing 309 people, with a further 26 at its head office in the North West of England. The total consideration, subject to completion accounts, is £13.5m - comprising £7.6m in cash, the assumption of an estimated £3.4m of debt on completion, and £2.5m of shares in Speedy Hire.

For the 10 months ended 30 April 2006, Lifting Gear Hire reported audited turnover of £16

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UK - One of the first UK customers for the Soundcraft Vi6 digital console is Simon Kennedy Lights Ltd (SKL) in Edinburgh which has just confirmed an order for a second desk. SKL took delivery of its first Soundcraft Vi6 in July. and immediately despatched the desk to a 5-week rental at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

The Vi6 was stationed in the E4 UdderBELLY, a new comedy venue sponsored by digital TV channel E4. The 322-seat theatre space hosted a wide range of comedy and music comedy performances, including The Sperm Monologues and the juggling extravaganza Tossers: More Balls than Most.

SKL has made a substantial investment in a high-specification PA rental inventory, with the digital desks - supplied through Harman Pro UK - at its heart. Established as a lighting business for some ten years, SKL also provides staging, rigging, trussing and power distribution,

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USA - At this year's LDI Show, Tomcat offered attendees the chance to register to win a scholarship: the winner could choose to attend the 2007 Hoist and Rigging Workshop or the Advanced Truss and Motor Workshop. The winner is Kurt Jaeckel of Quickbeam Systems, Inc. in Albuquerque, New Mexico. QSI is an event production company that covers a wide range of services including video, audio, lighting, roofing and rigging.

The president of Quickbeam is no stranger to the industry and had to take a break from putting the Sandia Casino's roof system "to bed" for the winter to accept the much coveted scholarship. "I'm absolutely thrilled," he said before getting back to the project at hand.

Because Jaeckel has already attended the four day Hoist and Rigging Workshop, he has selected the Advanced Hoist and Truss Workshop.

Tomcat's annual school is February 21 - 24

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UK - In April of this year, John Moss (drums), Mikey Craig (bass), Phil Pickett (songwriter and keyboard player) and Tony Gordon (manager) decided to bend to public pressure for Culture Club to play live and re-enter the touring circuit.

After launching a daunting but successful quest to find 'Sam The Man' - a front man to temporarily replace the inimitable Boy George - they performed their first live gig since 2002 during this summer at London's Too2Much club, where front of house engineer Mark Portlock and monitor engineer Liam Halpin made groundbreaking use of their DiGiCo D1 Live digital mixing console.

"As production manager as well as FOH engineer, sometimes I have to make difficult decisions for the overall benefit of budget and ultimate show delivery," says Portlock. "With DiGiCo I feel that the decisions are now far less difficult."

Playing a sma

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UK - Large format projections specialists E//T//C UK created a 150 metre wide high-impact image across 350 metres of water onto Caernarfon Castle for a massive son et lumière event, Merlin's Magic Quest, a show celebrating Welsh history, heritage and community.

The event follows on from a pilot project staged in 2004, in which E//T//C UK projected onto a portion of the castle walls from the bottom of the hill on the town side of the Seiont River. This time, the projections - fed by five Pigi 6Kw projectors with double rotating scrollers - filled the entire side of the castle including three towers and two curtain walls facing the water - and were beamed from across the far side of the river.

The brown stone surface was a challenging surface on which to project, but the Pigi's cut through spectacularly, despite the long throw distance.

The 35 minute show involved over

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UK - Leicestershire-based Hawthorns recently provided lighting to the Alton Towers Electric Towers firework spectacular. Lighting designer and the park's technical manager Simon Horsley specified City Colours, Alpha Spot and Washes and Martin Atomic Strobes. Hawthorns were using, for the first time, their new TowAir inflatable clear domes to protect the moving lights from the elements.

Thirty of the strobes gave lightning effects to the Towers during the 20-minute spectacle. In addition three 200a three phase lightning strikes were suspended in and around the towers to light up the sky. A row of Alpha 575's along the lakeside raised up on decking allowed Horsley to create some stunning effects bouncing light off the water.

In addition to the lighting, Hawthorns also created two 5m x 5m ground support Prolyte truss boxes to contain two HVFX tesla coils.

(Jim Evans)

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The Netherlands - The Interactive Multimedia & Collaborative Communications Alliance (IMCCA) will be hosting a Collaborative Conferencing Pavilion at Integrated Systems Europe 2007, which opens on January 30th 2007 in Amsterdam.

The Pavilion is designed for companies to showcase solutions and technologies in video conferencing, audio conferencing and data/web conferencing in a dedicated area. The pavilion will encompass a presentation room where participating companies will also have the opportunity to be included in the scheduled programme of seminars to visitors.

Carol Zelkin, executive director at IMCCA states, "Any form of business communication including business conference calls, web conferencing and video conferencing is a key market that unites the corporate business, IT and AV industries. By working together, Collaborative Conferencing can create the perfect plat

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Russia - Bossman Ltd, D.A.S. Audio distributor for Russia has supplied D.A.S. powered systems for installation in the Cinema Art Hall theatre in Norilsk and in the Mir Kino movie theatre and auditorium located in Moscow's Tsvetnoy Square.

The 1,000-capacity Mir Kino can be used for both movie screenings and theatre performances. When the stage is used for conferences, theatre plays or concerts the main PA designed by Bossman consists of four CA-28A powered line array systems flown at the centre of the stage as well as eight powered Compact 2 systems built into the flanks of the stage.

PA Mixing is through a Yamaha PM5D , while Bossman installed six SM-15A powered stage monitors. The microphones for theatre and music performances are Audix and the lightning by Robe.

For film screenings, screenings, Bossman opted for Dynamics, with 24 DS-12 boxes distributed throughout the aud

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UK - Stagecraft reports a healthy increase in sales for its hire department during summer 2006. The combination of a prolonged summer of fine, dry weather and an increase in the number of outdoor performances and festivals has resulted in an abundance of new opportunities for the Salisbury-based company.

"It has been an excellent summer for hire this year and we have thoroughly enjoyed working on such a wide variety of projects," comments technical director Mike Naish. "Fine weather has also helped organisations to feel confident about staging outdoor events although we always build into our plans the possibility of a downpour!"

The company supplied Martin Mac 250s and Mac 500s for a private performance by the band Madness, the Arc Roof and stage for the Salisbury International Arts Festival, Art Asia and the Honey Pot charity appeal; Source 4 profiles and

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UK - Rigging Specialists Nippy Industries has supplied London's National Theatre with a 14-way Kinesys automation system featuring Liftket vari-speed motors. The system will be primarily based in the popular Lyttelton Theatre, but will also be available for use in the National's other venues.

Nippy has been a rigging supplier at the National since 2001 and works closely with the National's rigging department including rigging resources technician, Matthew Wheeler and his colleague Rob Barnard, head of stage facilities.

Wheeler and Barnard first saw the Kinesys system on the Nippy Industries stand at the 2005 ABTT show, and were immediately struck by its potential flexibility for the National. The theatre has an action-packed production and repertory schedule across all its theatre spaces. "The demands of the theatre are really quite considerable," says Wheeler, and w

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UK - The Engine Shed, the University of Lincoln's brand new £6 million multi-purpose venue, opened to great acclaim thanks to the entertainment install carried out by Stage Electrics. Stage Electrics worked with the University back in 2004 when carrying out the installation of the Drama Studio and were the obvious choice for this most recent project.

The Engine Shed, now the largest music venue is the East Midlands, has been built on the site of old railway buildings by Brayford Pool and retains much of the old brick architecture. The interior walls are decorated with posters illustrating the site's historic background as a major railway junction.

A comprehensive lighting and sound system was installed throughout the venue which consists of four main areas, the main room with a capacity of 1500, the Mezzanine Bar, the Tower Bar and the Sports Bar.

The main EAW loudspea

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USA - The Dave Matthews Band (DMB) spent four months crossing the US on their marathon summer 2006 tour for which FOH engineer Jeff Thomas switched the band to a system of self-powered Milo curvilinear array, supplied by San Francisco-based Pro Media/UltraSound.

Thomas and the DMB have worked with UltraSound since early in the band's career, originally assembling a sound system based around Meyer Sound's unpowered MSL-3 reinforcement loudspeaker. Derek Featherstone, UltraSound's director of rentals and touring, says, "When Jeff Thomas and I first started talking eleven years ago about sound systems, the direction to go was with Meyer. A decade later when we were looking for a compact, high-powered, tour-friendly line array and Milo was on the market and proven in the field, it was a natural fit for the band."

"The tour carries 28 Milo cabinets, so we can hang as

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Eire - The Abbey Theatre in Dublin has two auditoriums, the Abbey being the main theatre seating 628 and a smaller studio space called the Peacock Theatre seating 157. Recently the theatre management took the opportunity to install a d&b audiotechnik system that could be used in either auditorium.

"When the prospect arose to acquire a new sound system I consulted my technical staff for their views," said director of technical services, Tony Wakefield. "They were very enthusiastic about the quality of d&b systems."

The system, designed by sound engineers Cormac Caroll and Eddie Breslin with input from MOSCO's Kevin McGing, comprises Q7s, Q-SUBs, E3s and E12 SUBs all driven by d&b's E-PAC amplifiers and was supplied by Dublin based dealer, Big Bear Sound.

The installation is semi-permanent and can be used in either auditorium as well as other areas of the b

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Worldwide - Jay-Z's tour Global Express, could be described as open and empty. Everything is reduced to a minimum. To fill the visual void lighting designer Gary Westcott and his associate Matthew Button, applied three Barco LED screens, and lighting control is by grandMAs.

"The system is simple enough - three screens of Barco LED, one a wide-screen centre stage, flanked by two in portrait orientation - very narrow, side screens. There's a three-camera system for live shots, one front-of-house, one in the pit and one on stage," says Drew Findley, who is responsible for the video content. Findley controls the four used M-Boxes from a grandMA. "The show is event driven: what I like about the grandMA is the flying faders - having the ability to move quickly and easily between pages, and copy out of existing pages," he says.

Logistics have proved challen

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UK - For the sixth consecutive year, London-based event services company PSL has enabled the master coiffeurs of British hairdressing to show off their intricate skills at the Salon International exhibition at London's ExCeL.

The masterclasses of Vidal Sassoon, Trevor Sorbie and Tim Hartley provided the big draw to Salon Live, where, for £90 a ticketed session, hairdressers from around the world could watch their scissor-work on three giant screens in a purpose-built theatre, designed by PSL.

The auditorium featured a flat stage with catwalks, dominated by three 14' x 10.5' screens, coupled with double-stacked Barco ELM R12 projectors. PSL provided a 4-camera PPU to capture every detail of styling technique and relay it to the screens. Over three days of special events, the theatre also hosted presentations on products and techniques from leading brands in the hair indus

  1. Flower Power in Paris for Summit
  2. Xone joins family
  3. Philipshalle choose Soundcraft Vi6
  4. SGM Struts the BBC Electric proms
  5. Bandit provides lighting for Montgomery Gentry
  6. LTP installs spectacular light-wall
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