Business

Details
UK - Lakeside Arts Centre in Nottingham has become one of the first venues in Europe to take delivery of ETC's newest lighting control console, Congo jr, via dealer Stage Electrics. Lakeside is the University of Nottingham's public arts centre and presents an eclectic programme of music, dance,theatre, visual art and family events.

"It became clear that our old desk was not up to the demands we were making of it," explains technical manager Gareth Chell. "We test drove a few consoles and decided that the Congo jr was by far the best of all of them. It's made a real difference to the quality of lighting at the theatre, and we're really proud that we got one of the first desks in Europe.

"We chose the Congo jr as it has all the features and more that we were looking for and has the flexibility to meet with the demanding needs of a very diverse building. We al

Details
Sweden - Dalhalla, a natural amphitheatre by picturesque Lake Siljan, hosts an annual summer programme of opera, classical, jazz, and rock concerts. The open-air design makes it impractical to maintain permanent audio and lighting installations. As a result, Dalhalla requires an AV installation each May. That task is the responsibility of Park Brothers (Bröderna Park AB), a full-service production company with headquarters in Insjön. Managing director Bengt Park notes that the annual installation consists entirely of sound and lights. "We don't use much video," he says. "Because the environment is so bright, video is not often used." What is often used is the venue's system of Meyer Sound self-powered loudspeakers.

Diana Krall's FOH engineer, Dave Lawler, was impressed with what he found at the facility when the jazz pianist and vocalist played at Dalhalla

Details
Hong Kong - The Hong Kong Jockey Club (HKJC), one of the largest horse racing organisations in the world, has recently undergone an overhaul of the audio system in its plush executive suites. The extensive new system comprises seven Allen & Heath iDR-8 digital processing mixers, an iDR-switch, iDR-Out, and from the accompanying range of PL remote control units, six PL-10 rotary fader panels, four PL-9 connection hubs, and forty PL-4 wall plates.

Designed and installed by Eastern Acoustic Development (EAD), the new system has been installed to manage three executive floors at the Happy Valley racecourse, which house the offices of the chairman, vice-chairman, and board members, as well as various meeting rooms. Each floor has two iDR-8 digital mixers with PL-10 LED display rotary fader panels to manage the audio distribution to different zones. The system is accompanied by Lab.gr

Details
USA - Elation Professional has announced the schedule for its 2007 Elation Training and Products Roadshow.

A series of travelling seminars designed to educate dealers on the use and application of Elation lighting products, this year's Roadshow will stop in major U.S. markets from coast to coast and will even travel north and south of the border to Canada and Mexico City. Presented by factory-trained specialists, the one- or two-day seminars are offered free-of-charge to Elation dealers.

"The market for professional stage, club and architectural lighting products is booming, while at the same time these products are becoming increasingly more technically sophisticated," said Eric Loader, director of sales for Elation Professional. "There are great opportunities for retailers to grow their lighting business, but to do so they must possess the knowledge required t

Details
UK - CP Sound has completed the installation of two JBL sound systems with Adastra 100V line amplification at Beirut Express venues in West London - Old Brompton Road in South Kensington and at the prime location of Kensington Church Street.

Beirut Express, part of the Maroush Group, is one of the liveliest and fastest growing new restaurant chains in London. Old Brompton Road is the second complete Beirut Express venue to be kitted out from scratch by CP Sound, following on from the success of the busy Kensington Church Street outlet.

The client wants to create an animated, lively atmosphere in the restaurants - so good sound is an essential ingredient. Some venues also feature live music, belly dancing and other entertainment.

The Brompton Road location is a long narrow design with stunning marble walls and stainless steel finishes - so a real acoustic challenge for CP Sou

Details
USA - Picture the band in a box, interior-decorated with 12 High End Systems DL.2 projections all around. That's the set design for The Tragically Hip, touring North America to promote their new CD World Container.

LD Brent Clark, says: "The DL.2 looks pretty cool and I was really surprised by the brightness and the edge blending. They are way brighter than I thought and creating the Collage (using Collage Generator software feature) on 12 of them a day is actually pretty easy. Also to be able to move the image around from the band to the house to the rear screens is so cool. DL.2 is an amazing light!"

Concerning the overall set design, Clark says: "The idea was to make a box (relating to the CD title World Container) and then project images from around the world. We contracted a company from Vancouver called The Collective to film all the content,

Details
USA - A pair of grandMA consoles is controlling lighting and video for the national tour of High School Musical: The Concert which is now touring major US cities. Loosely based on the Emmy Award-winning Disney Channel Original Movie, High School Musical, the show includes songs from the teenage-targeted feature and showcases solo material from the powerhouse young performers.

"High School Musical onstage is more like a rock concert than a Broadway show," notes lighting programmer Patrick Dierson. "There's a lot of choreography, set piece moves, pyro, CO2 jets and big video projection screens."

With so much happening, Dierson hails the grandMA's multi-user programming capability, saying: "It's great. Touring lighting director Calvin 'Mac' Mossier can run the show and call spots as he would normally, and I can take notes from Patrick

Details
UK - A.C. Lighting's Audio division has been selected as an authorised dealer for the KV2 Audio range. KV2 Audio was founded as an environment for people with a passion for creating professional audio products to expand on their ideas. The team of industry veterans has many years expertise in electronic design as well as acoustic design. This expertise has been utilised to create a new generation of high definition active loudspeakers for live use which get the most out of the technology inside their very compact, smart designs.

Under the agreement A.C. will sell and support the complete KV2 Audio product range, which was selected due to its natural fit with the company's existing portfolio of high end, specialist pro audio brands. The partnership further expands A.C.'s ability to provide a range of bespoke solutions for the increasing demands of modern live entertainment applic

Details
Australia - Robe moving lights, LED Blinders, smoke and haze machines have been specified, supplied and installed into the legendary Queensbridge Hotel venue in Melbourne, Australia.

These were specified by Andrew Stanley from ULA (Australia's Robe Distributor) and QBH's Eugene Brouwer as part of the new house lighting scheme, and supplied by Bytecraft to QBH, one of the largest superclubs in the southern hemisphere.

QBH is a fully contained entertainment and function centre, kitted out with touring-standard sound and lighting systems, a large stage, several bars and a commercial kitchen. Its size and state-of-the-art facilities have made QBH an ideal location for a whole range of live concerts, product and media launches, gala dinners, conferences and parties. Its flexible layout can accommodate function style events and cocktail parties for up to 2100 guests and seated dinin

Details
UK - Stage Electrics is supplying lighting to The Sound of Music, working alongside production electrician Fraser Hall and production manager Matt Towell. The show premiered at the London Palladium on Wednesday 15 November 2006 with Stage Electrics also supplying the lighting to the star studded after show party.

The Sound of Music opened to critical acclaim with Connie Fisher the winner of the hit TV show How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria? taking the lead role. The show produced by Andrew Lloyd Webber, David Ian, The Really Useful Group and Live Nation is already a huge success. In January 2007 Fisher pledged her allegiance to the show till February 2008.

Stage Electrics have supplied a total of 17 tonnes of equipment that was delivered to the Palladium in just three weeks from point of order. The show has 108 moving lights consisting mainly of Martin

Details
UK - Summit Steel supplied a Kinesys automation system for the English National Ballet's recent UK tour of their acclaimed production, Alice in Wonderland which culminated in a run at the London Coliseum.

Summit was asked by ENB technical director Al Riches to come up with a tourable solution for accurately flying in and tracking the house - a large scenery piece weighting almost a tonne - diagonally across stage at a 45 degree angle; an effect specifically required by the production's choreographer Derek Deane.

Summit's Chris Walker came up with the method of using a vari-speed, position encoded, motorised beam trolley and two Kinesys-modified Lodestar hoists. The system was supplied for the ENB crew to be able to operate it themselves with Summit providing a technician to oversee the installation into each venue.

In previous tours of this production, the house has b

Details
USA - Lighting solutions company Holophane and Martin Professional have formed a commercial cooperation in the United States that enables Holophane to offer Martin Professional's complete architectural range of automated, colour changing luminaires countrywide.

A leader in lighting for commercial, industrial, emergency and outdoor applications, Holophane's and Acuity Brand's Lighting New York City's extensive network of factory-trained sales representatives will now have Martin's complete Martin Architectural product range of exterior and interior colour changing luminaires at its disposal with the full support and technical back-up of Martin Professional, Inc.

Gorm Teichert, Martin Professional's vice president of public spaces and vice president of marketing, says: "The agreement to work together with Holophane is a positive decision for both companies and a real win-wi

Details
UK - A complete rig re-fit at The Woman in Black in London has left some classic lighting equipment looking for new homes and White Light has decided to offer them to schools and other education facilities for free.

Producers of the long-running show decided that its continued success meant that it would be worth purchasing a new lighting rig to replace the hired rig that has been performing Kevin Sleep's design since the show opened back in 1988 at the Lyric Theatre in Hammersmith. The show subsequently made a 'mini-tour' of the West End, to the Strand Theatre and then the Playhouse, before settling in its current home, the Fortune. The show has been there since 1989, which made it White Light's longest ever hire contract.

White Light's Sales team supplied a complete new lighting rig to the show, with ETC Source Four profiles and Selecon fresnels replacing Patt 23s, Pa

Details
USA - Arriving in Miami for the Super Bowl XLI, Alpha One's new 7k Xenon Falcon Beam searchlight shared centre-field at this year's Pepsi Super Bowl Halftime Show where Prince performed at the Dolphin Stadium in South Florida on Sunday, 4 February.

Emmy Award winning lighting designer, Bob Dickinson, used 12 of the new Falcons in clusters of three on custom field carts to augment the 12-minute spectacular. The Super Bowl is the nation's highest-rated TV programme. More than 141 million viewers watched last year's game in the U.S. alone. This year's Super Bowl will be broadcast to a potential worldwide audience of one billion people in more than 230 countries and territories. The Super Bowl Halftime Show is produced by Don Mischer Productions and White Cherry Productions.

The Falcon Beam, available in 3k to 8K, is a compact, indoor/outdoor, DMX controlled, xenon beam-light wit

Details
UK - Dormston School Theatre in Sedgely has replaced all of its working lights after being "blown away" by the unique, Award-winning GDS Blues System, distributed by Leisuretec Distribution.

BlueBeams in 5 and 10 degree versions and BlueDomes have replaced all working blue lights in and around the backstage area, the fly level and front-of-house cross-over gantry position. All existing fittings in the technical areas have been replaced - an unusual move for a theatre built just three-and-a-half years ago.

"They asked us to provide a demonstration and were blown away when they saw the products in situ," explained Leisuretec's Andy Duffield. "We assessed the best products and fittings for the different areas and depending on throw, elected either 5 or 10 degree BlueBeams. For the quick change areas stage left and right we chose BlueDomes with eyelids.&qu

Details
USA - PRG drew on its experience with theatre and other staged events for the scenic and lighting innovations that helped draw crowds to exhibits for Hyundai, Jeep, Chrysler and Dodge at Detroit's North American International Auto Show (NAIAS). PRG also provided lighting and rigging for press events for other top automakers at the expo, which ran January 7-21 at Cobo Hall.

"Being a broad-based company allows us to draw on a wealth of experience and innovations in all areas and apply these to meet our customers' needs," says Jere Harris, founder and chairman of PRG.

To dramatize the sleek durability of Hyundai Motor America's new concept car, the HCD-10 Hellion, Hyundai asked its partner, Exhibit Works Inc, to design a turntable that tilted while it rotated - an eye-catching contrast to the flat, earthbound motion of typical auto show turntables. Putting Hyundai's ide

Details
Qatar - Stage One pulled off one of its greatest technical challenges ever, putting their extensive engineering capabilities into practice for both the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the 15th Asian Games in Doha, Qatar, in December. Both the Opening and Closing Ceremonies were produced and created by David Atkins Enterprises (DAE) of Australia and told the story of a young man on a voyage of discovery through Asia, guided only by the stars and his Astrolabe.

Stage One was commissioned to supply all the aerial engineering and associated automation for both the Opening and Closing Ceremonies along with three of the Opening Ceremony's' main stage trucks. Working closely with the director of ceremonies and Cultural Events in DAGOC Sharif Hashisho, producer David Atkins, director of design Eamon D'Arcy, technical director Paul Bates and production designer Michael Scott-Mitchell,

Details
UK - Arena Group, the UK's largest events services supplier, has undergone a management buyout from parent group Evenser. The MBO team is being led by Group CEO David Walley, managing directors Grahame Muir and Joe O'Neill, sales director Dave Withey and finance director Mike Seaman.

Also investing in the group and joining the board as non-executive directors will be Greg Lawless and Dermot Divilly, the industrial investors who have also invested in a number of other event companies including furniture supplier Spaceworks, Well Dressed Tables, Caterhire and Hireall in Ireland.

The Arena Group Companies are recognised as the very best in their respective fields; specialising in the provision of temporary and permanent seating, temporary structures, multi storey hospitality boxes and temporary support systems. Servicing many of the major events held in the sporting, exhibition a

Details
France - ARX Systems, the Australian based manufacturer of Professional AudioEquipment has announced the appointment of LCB Distribution as their new distributor for France.

ARX's managing director Colin Park says: " We're very pleased to haveJean-Paul Querry and his team at LCB Distribution as our new distributorin France. France is a challenging market for most manufacturers, LCB have a wellestablished Distribution network and have been active in the marketfor many years and are well respected in the live sound and installation sectors.which is where ARX's product focus and research and development have always been focused."

Along side ARX, LCB are distributing Xenum, Zero 88, New Wave Trussin the French market.

(Chris Henry)

Details
Argentina - Named after Christopher Columbus and declared a National Historical Monument in 1989, the Teatro Colón is a significant example of cultural heritage in the City of Buenos Aires, and plays a key role in Argentina's artistic industry, defining, promoting and projecting national identity throughout the world. The theatre was recently equipped with Selecon Pacific Zoomspots, chosen for their "exceptional luminaires with outstanding performance, optically and mechanically".

Located on de Julio, the widest street in the world, the 2,367-seat Teatro Colón is the second largest performing arts theatre in the southern hemisphere, second only to Australia's Sydney Opera House. The theatre opened on 25 May 1908 with a performance of Verdi's Aida and during the twentieth century has deservedly earned the reputation of a world-renowned operatic centre possessin

Details
Germany - Following the acquisition of Telex Communications by Bosch Security Systems in late 2006, the company has announced that the title and structure of the Bosch organisation that contains professional audio product brands Telex, RTS, Electro-Voice (EV), Dynacord, Midas, and Klark Teknik will be named Bosch Communications Systems with effect from 1 January 2007.

The creation of Bosch Communications Systems - a business unit of Bosch Security Systems - sees Bosch poised to become one of the world's leading manufacturers and suppliers of professional audio, wireless, life safety and communication equipment. Bosch systems have been installed in a wide range of applications, such as large stadium and airport projects where customer demand for turnkey solutions combined with security systems is growing. Likewise, the recently acquired brands Telex, RTS, Electro-Voice (EV), Dyna

Details
USA - When Californian turntablist superstar Josh Davis, aka DJ Shadow, toured the UK in December last year, XTA GQ600 equalisers were hard at work throughout, being manipulated by FOH engineer Suneil Pusari.

"I think XTA kit sounds great, it's always very clean and detailed." says Suneil. "Having such a smooth graphic as the GQ600 is very important on DJ Shadow's shows.

"Where you would normally have natural dynamics from a band, you are limited in the dynamics that come from recorded tracks. To keep the gig exciting and not to tire the audiences' ears, I constantly work the graphics during the show, using them to highlight the nice bits, the cool sounds and the weird little hooks that draw the listener into the mix.

"The GQ600 is precise and smooth enough that the audience wouldn't hear the changes, but they will feel them," he says, adding: &

Details
UK - Strengthening their position in the market as a leader in digital snake and announcement systems, Roland Systems Group and Stage Electrics has forged a new distribution deal commencing 1 February 2007.

As one of the largest professional hire, installation and professional audio suppliers with branches in Bristol, London, Birmingham, Exeter, Cambridge, Plymouth and Tyneside, Stage Electrics offers comprehensive UK coverage and was felt to have all the necessary ingredients to take RSS by Roland products to a wider audience. As well as being stockists Stage Electrics will offer demonstration and installation and key staff have benefited from comprehensive product training.

Offering a straightforward high quality solution to any situation requiring noise and trouble free audio transfer, Digital Snake offers the reliability and flexibility that the professionals need. The AR

Details
UK - All are invited to High End Systems' Open House of new products on Wednesday 28 February and Thursday 1 March in London, UK. The company will be offering drinks and refreshments all day (11.00-18.00) with a complimentary lunch buffet available from 12.30-14.30 each day. The day will include demonstrations of the company's DL.2s and its new software features, Wholehog 3 and Hog iPC consoles, all three models of Studio Command (700W, 1200W and Halogen), and Catalyst and Axon Media Servers.

The location is at the Red Stage at Dukes Island Studios on Dukes Road, Western Avenue, London W3 0SL. Those interested in attending should RSVP to the e-mail address below, noting 'London' in the subject field.

  1. Bosch systems at Kempinski Hotel, Antalya
  2. KV2 Audio at Hnioxos, Cyprus
  3. The Star Screen Awards with Clay Paky
  4. Vari-Lite and Strand get a Spring Awakening
  5. Congo training dates revealed
  6. Tomcat USA & Cirque du Soleil get delirious
Page 860 of 1813

Latest Issue. . .