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UK - The APRS (Association of Professional Recording Services) are to honour a number of renowned individuals with APRS Sound Fellowships in recognition of their special contribution to the art, science and industry of sound recording. They are being presented at the Association's special 60th Anniversary Lunch at The Roof Gardens, Kensington, London, on 27 September.

The first recipients of the Fellowships are:

Chris Blackwell - founder of Island Records, Bob Marley producer and introducer of reggae to the mainstream music public.

Sean Davies - now a well-known audio consultant specialising in studio design, the master of vinyl mastering and audio historian.

Alan Parsons - performer and producer who not only recorded Dark Side of the Moon, but also created the standard test tape for recording studios.

Keith Grant - an engineer whose long association with Olympic

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UK - Martin Audio took the opportunity of presenting their annual awards during PLASA 07 - recognising outstanding achievements in their partner channel worldwide.

This year the recipients, who were honoured with a presentation on the Martin Audio stand, were as follows: International Distributor of the Year: Audiosales, Italy; European Distributor of the Year: Algam, France; Far East Distributor of the Year: Dah Chong Hong, Hong Kong; Record Sales of Tour Sound: Ampco Belgium, Belgium; Record Sales of Installed Sound: Audiotonas, Lithuania; Record Sales of Cinema Sound: Arttech Cinema, Poland; UK Dealer of the Year: LMC Audio; Best New UK Dealer of the Year: Willow SV; Most Improved Territory: SSBC International Co., Taiwan; 25 Year Lifetime Achievement: Rea Sound, Northern Ireland.

(JIm Evans)

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USA - Bandit Lites recently lit Volunteers Crusin' For A Cause homecoming celebration. Coaches, Holly Warlick and Nikki Caldwell road Harley Davidson motorcycles for an 11-day cross-country journey to raise breast cancer awareness.

The Market Square homecoming event was the last stop in a 3,000-mile ride from Berkley, California to Knoxville, Tennessee. The trip also included special events and rallies in Las Vegas, Albuquerque, Dallas, Little Rock, Memphis and Nashville.

Lighting designer, Chris Lisle, chose to use six-Lamp Bar Silvers, Martin MAC 500s, 600s, Coemar LED Pars, and Martin Atomic Strobes. Lighting was controlled by a WholeHog II.

"Lighting design for Crusin' For A Cause was actually pretty simple, but I tried to add some uniqueness to it," explains Lisle. "Because there was a lot of TV coverage, and IMAG for the video screen, I bas

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UK - The UK sound equipment industry is seeing a mini resurgence, despite recent jitters on the domestic and world markets, according to business analysts Plimsoll.

"Our summary of the market finds 48% of companies in the sector in a surprisingly confident mood," says David Pattison, senior analyst at Plimsoll. "This has been fuelled largely by their latest results, but we have identified a group of 17 companies which are the driving force behind the resurgence, having increased their sales by 23% and lifted their profitability from 3% last year to 7.4% this year.

"We always knew that for many companies 2007 was a make or break year, but with all the talk of a slow down in the UK economy the figures from this elite group of companies are really refreshing. A lot of hard work during the past couple of years is finally starting to pay off."

(Jim Evans)

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UK - The first LED fixture capable of competing against a conventional 575W washlight made its debut at this month's PLASA Show on the stand of German company GLP. And waiting to snap up the first consignment to arrive in the UK were leading theatrical hire companies, White Light and Hawthorn Theatrical.

Ian Kirby, of UK distributor Lighting Effects Distribution, confirmed that the two companies had secured the first GLP Impression compact moving heads to arrive in the UK after they had been previewed at this spring's ProLight&Sound expo in Frankfurt, and then successfully trialed at Live Earth in Hamburg.

German promoter Marek Lieberberg commissioned Cologne-based Showtec to handle the lighting, and they designed 75 of the pioneering heads into their stage grid for the event.

This was all the encouragement Ian Kirby needed. The delighted distributor reports that L.E.D. now

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UK - The Sound Division Group Technical Team assembled a full Public Address specification, ensuring complete audio support to celebrity supermodel, Naomi Campbell at her recent media Press Conference. Held at the Rotary Club's headquarters in Regents Park, Naomi Campbell, accompanied by fellow models Elle Macpherson, Jodie Kidd and Yasmin Le Bon, had come to announce a 'Fashion For Relief' catwalk show and auction in support of this years' UK flood victims.

Naomi Campbell was involved with a previous 'Fashion For Relief' charity event, held in 2005, which raised a million dollars in aid of the victims of Hurricane Katrina in the US. Anticipating an exceptionally high number from the Press and media would attend and in order to achieve optimum, full-range sound coverage within a confined space at maximum capacity, theSDG Technical Team supplied stand mounted EV SX 300 loudspeake

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UK - The London Coliseum has carried out the first upgrade of its dimming system since the completion of its four year restoration programme in 2004, with the installation of an ETC Sensor+ 96 way dimming rack. The complete installation, from receipt of order to re-energising the system, took just eight days, ensuring the house was ready for rehearsals and performances in the new season.

The order for the new rack was received by Fagan Electrical on 30 August 30 and ETC delivered the rack to the Coliseum the following Monday. The Sensor+ rack upgrades the house light dimming system, supplying more than 80 channels, most with an RCD on each channel. Other channels utilise the Sensor+ emergency lighting modules, some dimmed, some relay switching. Control is from an ETC Unison system, which was installed during the refurbishment.

Nick Ewins of Fagan Electrical said, "We had

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UK - As in the past three years, PRG Europe has supplied the lighting and control for the Edinburgh Tattoo, which includes over 120 VL5s, 17 City Colors and seven MAC 2000 performance spots, which carry gobos for the show sponsors, as well as a Wholehog III.

Project manager Keith Duncan explains: "Through my company Amorphous Projects, I supply project management and crewing for the entire site electrics. We install the electrical infrastructure for emergency lighting, sound and the show lighting. I have a core crew of four on site: lighting director and operator Gerry Mott, crew chief Biz Bauermeister and lighting technicians Clive Mitchell and Cara Wiseman, who look after the day to day running of the site."

Project manager for PRG Europe John McEvoy notes: "The Tattoo took the opportunity to test out some new follow spots this year and, after I brought some u

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UK - York College, a £60 million development consisting of a 29,350 sq.m facility at Sim Balk Lane in York, is one of the largest single further education buildings ever constructed. The building consists of a main theatre space and a separate drama/rehearsal studio. The main space was equipped with 96 ways of Compulite CompuRACK digital dimming.

The College wanted to utilise the very latest technology throughout and a Compulite Vector Green control system, complete with iControl riggers control system and WYSIWYG console edition, was specified. The Vector was chosen because of the ability to completely customise the behaviour and syntax of the console to suit a wide range of users and a multitude of multimedia features using the latest software Release 3.15. Its improved theatre style features were a further advantage.

The Vector PC software is available as a free downl

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Australia - Following the success of the Colour Your World Conference in March, Mandylights' Greg Yates was again behind the drawing board and then the lighting console for Australia's largest conference - the Hillsong Conference, which saw an abundance of Martin gear in use including the new semi-transparent LC series video screens.

This conference attracted more than 26,000 Christians from 68 nations representing 19 denominations who call the Acer Arena home for five days as part of the annual Hillsong Conference. Considered Australia's largest annual conference, each year it attracts pastors, worship leaders, musicians, community workers and individual believers representing hundreds of churches.

During the conference, the rig has to light everything ranging from the contemporary worship music that Hillsong is famous for, through to ballads from Guy Sebastian and Pau

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UK - Academy Music Group's long-term A/V system suppliers, Marquee Audio, have taken an inventive approach to the installation at its newest Carling Academy venue in Oxford, which opened on 20 September 2007 with New Young Pony Club.

Formerly the Zodiac on Cowley Road, AMG invested £2million into the refurbishment programme and increased the overall building capacity to 1,350, creating three, production-complete performance spaces.

Marquee Audio carried out a site survey and identified where they could overhaul and upgrade some of the existing equipment, re-cabling each room to allow them to be used as part of a site-wide network, for which they are designing an advanced control system.

Marquee Audio's project manager Scott Wakelin said that this installation was not only about what the integrators were able to achieve, but also the forward-thinking approach of Academy

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USA - Modelled after the US Capitol building, the Georgia State Capitol building in Atlanta with its gilded dome and monumental neoclassical structure was considered the perfect expression and symbol of the "New South" when it was built in 1889. More than 100 years later, it's still an architecturally impressive and symbolically important building for one of the country's fastest growing states.

However, at night, the building and dome lost much of its lustre with a lighting scheme that created uneven lighting. The rotunda was primarily lit with 400W high-pressure sodium lamps from an extremely steep angle, resulting in deep shadows above the curve of the dome and at the upper cupola. A mix of lower wattage metal halide lamps and high-pressure sodium lamps combined to create hot spots and uneven colours on the stone and gold leaf.

"The overall result was somewha

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The Netherlands - TM Audio, part of the Ampco Flashlight Group, has sold a complete Martin Audio Wavefront W8C rig to Korean traditional percussion group, Dulsori, after the group appeared on this year's Edinburgh Festival Fringe and WOMAD world music festival. These performances formed part of a complete European tour.

The demand for natural amplification of their dynamic drum performance matched perfectly with the Martin Audio Wavefront characteristics.

The sale was the result of a team effort on the part of the AFG, and was co-ordinated by Dieter van Denzel, Ampco Pro Rent's production manager at WOMAD. Playing through the Martin Audio Synco system supplied by production company (and Synco partners), RG Jones; the ensuing sales enquiry was routed back to TM Audio's Jaap Pronk in Utrecht, who processed the order.

Dulsori purchased four Martin Audio W8Cs and f

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USA - Reflecting ever-increasing use of LED sources to light sets and stages around the world, Philips Solid-State Lighting Solutions, the new entity formed by Philips' acquisition of Color Kinetics, has announced the adoption of its new tour-friendly lighting system, ColorBlast 12 TR, by the industry's leading supplier and integrator of entertainment technology equipment - Production Resource Group (PRG).

To provide a one-stop solution for its customers, PRG also purchased the complementary power/data supply, PDS-750 TR, designed by City Theatrical, specifically to withstand the rigours of the touring world.

To date, the integrated LED lighting system has already been supplied for the concert tours and corporate events of Aerosmith, Gwen Stefani and Astra Zenica, and television productions including 1 vs. 100, the Daytime Emmy Awards, and the presidential candidate deb

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Sweden - Wibban Produktion has purchased a Soundcraft Vi6 digital console from distributors Septon AB, to bolster its hire fleet. Owner of the production company, Micke Viberg, confirmed the order at this month's PLASA Show in London.

Wibban are no strangers to Soundcraft technology, having already been involved in the sale of a system to Uppsala Stadsteater north of Stockholm. Micke Viberg first saw the Vi6 on a Harman Pro roadshow back in March and knew it would be perfect for the wide range of shows his company produces - including an annual season in a Stockholm amusement park. "I liked the console's sheer simplicity and overview in being able to see exactly what you are doing, as well as the sound and FaderGlow system," he said.

Described as a "third-generation" console due to its joint development with sister console company Studer, the Soundcraft boa

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Canada - étienne St-Jacques is the technical quarterback behind all those performances on Canadian Idol, a summer blockbuster show seen on Canada's CTV Television Network. He is the project manager at Solotech, a Montreal-based company supplying lighting, sound and video equipment on the market since 1977. He makes sure that dozens of microphones will be in working order during all those taped rehearsals, run-throughs and live shows.

étienne states: "Confronted with such a challenge, you start with the obvious. The thing is, most performers associate the word microphone with the name Shure. There are quite a number of singers out there that are basically expecting nothing less than an SM58 microphone when they arrive here. This suits me fine because Shure has a great tradition for quality and reliability while being able to stay one step ahead of the pa

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World - The harmonies of Crowded House have reunited in song on a worldwide tour. In control of the show are two Wholehog 3 consoles.

LD/set designer Paul Normandale and lighting director Glen Johnson have carried Wholehog 3 consoles on a number of tours the past few years.

Says Johnson: "Its Only Natural (referencing a popular Crowded House song title) that I would choose the Wholehog 3 console again for this tour after my faultless year with it on James Blunt."

UK's Lite Alternative provided the two Wholehog 3 consoles, along with two Playback Wings, a full-size Expansion Wing and 2 DP 2000s. Upstaging is the lighting contractor on the US tour.

"Crowded House have a catalogue of 100-plus songs with over 70 programmed in the console," Johnson explains. "While I am given a set list every night of 20 songs, it is rare for them to keep to the set, an

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UK - KV2 Audio had much to showcase on its stand at PLASA 07. Alongside a UK product launch, the company recognised both KV2 UK Installer and KV2 UK Dealer of the Year, and unveiled the company's new brand image, demonstrated in the stand design and the recently updated company brochure and website.

KV2 CEO Jonathan Reece-Farren commented: "The new brand image was tried out at Frankfurt last year and everyone loved it and this has now been rolled out into the new brochure and website to reflect our intention to align the image of the brand alongside the high level perception that our products enjoy, something that hasn't necessarily been the case in the past and it was about time to change.

"The website is easier to navigate and provides a very simple format in which to store a large amount of information whilst looking fantastic. And the brochure is similar. It's pa

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Australia - Novatech Production Services have used the power and reliability of LSC to bring Australia the third annual Roc Tha Block series of concerts, the biggest urban experience ever to be staged in the Southern Hemisphere.

Novatech provided all the sound, lighting and video production services that were required, including the logistics for touring three states in 72 hours: Vodafone Arena in Melbourne, the Adelaide Entertainment Centre and the Sydney Entertainment Centre.

The concerts presented a huge challenge due to the close proximity of the tour dates and the tyranny of distance which needed to be covered, some 5,600km, with Novatech arranging the logistics, equipment and staff for the shows as well as the actual production.

Lighting control included a combination of six LSC ePAK dimmers and numerous LSC Delta DMX splitters to ensure that the shows ran smoot

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USA - Aviom was an important element in the audio system for the production of Love In: The Musical, a theatrical celebration of the music of 1967 featuring legendary artists recently held at Birch North Park Theatre in San Diego.

The event featured the award-winning Pro16 personal mixing system, with an Aviom digital snake distributing all of the mixes to a Yamaha PM5D console outfitted with an AVIOM16/o-Y1 A-Net Interface Card.

Adams Entertainment, who also produced last year's live documentary/concert Primal Twang: The History of the Guitar, filmed the Love In performances for commercial release in 2008. That meant that the show's audio producer, Henry Austin of Professional Production Associates, had to design a system that would serve the needs of both the live and recorded elements of the production.

"I selected Aviom for this mission-critical gig fo

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Canada - Rush are currently on a world tour backing their latest album Snakes & Arrows. This 62-city run is scheduled across Canada, the United States, the UK and Europe.

After being involved with the Rush in Rio Vapour Trails Tour, Pyrotek Special Effects was consulted to brighten up a number of songs for their present tour. Long time lighting designer, and agent, Howard Ungerleider approached pyrotechnician John Arrowsmith to come up with a number of special effects.

With a focus for a concussion effect to emphasise a specific moment in their newest hit single Far Cry, the requested effect was to synchronise upon the completion of the course. Arrowsmith collaborated with Doug Adams (designer & president of Pyrotek Special Effects) to design an element to the theme which ends with a big punctuation.

During production rehearsals at the Hershey Centre (Mi

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USA - High End Systems (HES) has announced the completion of a new $9 million line of credit with Wachovia Bank, NA.

"Our strong financial performance during the last three fiscal years has allowed us to team up with one of the largest banks in America," said Frank Gordon, HES CEO. "We intend to use the new facility to further support technology innovation and its global sales effort."

"High End sales revenue continues to grow dramatically in Europe, the Middle East and Asia and we have now strengthened our position to provide customers more financing options and to support dealer sales with more demonstration equipment," said Bill Morris, HES executive vice-president.

Merritt Belisle joined High End Systems as chairman in January. "I was excited by the outstanding team of innovators when I joined High End," Belisle said. "The sea

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UK - When the first Eurostar pulls into St Pancras on 14 November 2007, it will be the culmination of a project some 10 years in the making. To celebrate the incredible construction, a lavish event recently took place to mark this piece of landmark engineering.

Lighting designer Vince Foster created a breathtaking centrepiece for the 4,000 revellers - a moving LED chandelier structure featuring 100 PixelArt video battens and 50 PixelLine 1044s. Over 100 Pixeline 1044s highlighted the enormous ground support truss and another 50 provided a chevron video wall on the live acts stage.

Foster enthuses: "PixelLine 1044s are one of my favourite LED fixtures and are constantly specified in my designs. I am very impressed with the new PixelArt video batten, the resolution is outstanding, creating further design flexibility."

To enable the guests to see the trains going in a

  1. Show Technology to distribute Robert Juliat
  2. Sound Check deploys JBL for Aguilera in Manila
  3. Zandar installed in Russian TV station
  4. d&b with the Assemblies of God
  5. Sound Network is DPA distributor of the year
  6. Avolites & Robe into Carling Academy Oxford
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