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UK - A study from the University of Salford has found that women in audio-video engineering are being held back by the industry's working practices, and more work is needed to open up careers in the sector.

University researchers asked students, workers, managers and academics of both sexes for their views on the career prospects of women in audio-video engineering. They found that the unsociable working hours, poor work-life balance and job insecurity are putting women off a career in the discipline.

The team behind the Women in Audio Visual Engineering (WAVE) project will present their findings and develop recommendations at an event at the BBC studios in Manchester on 5 December 2007 where the keynote speaker is BBC's head of technology delivery, Ela Jastrzebska.

The project was led by Dr Haifa Takruri-Rizk of the University's School of Computing, Science & Engineering. S

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Germany - 3LCD Technology reports that BenQ, a leading lifestyle device provider, has joined the growing list of manufacturers who utilise 3LCD projection technology to offer their customers the highest quality home theatre projector solutions. BenQ ranked third in worldwide projector shipments in 2006, according to DTC, a leading market research company.

"We are excited that BenQ has joined the growing number of manufacturers that are utilising 3LCD technology for its projectors," said Tim Anderson, senior marketing manager, 3LCD Technology. "BenQ has been a leader in the projection market, and by adding 3LCD to their line up, they are joining a list of companies who are dedicated to delivering the best projection products on the market."

(Jim Evans)

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Norway - PA rental company Lydfiksern, has purchased an Allen & Heath iLive digital system to add to its hire stock. Comprising an iDR10 mix rack and iLive-144 control surface, the new system was used for the first time at the premiere of a new musical, called Snow and Fire, which debuted at the annual Polar Spectacle festival held in Varanger, in the northern extremes of Norway.

"Varanger is literally located on top of the world, it must be the farthest north iLive has traveled," comments °ystein Wierli from XL Audio Norway, who sold the system. "The iLive performed flawlessly, and the entire crew quickly felt comfortable with operating it."

Snow and Fire is a new musical depicting the race by air and land to the North Pole between Norwegian polar explorer, Roald Amundsen, and Italian aeronautical engineer, Umberto Nobile. A theatre stage

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USA - Audio Logic Systems, of Bloomington, Minnesota, recently completed an Electro-Voice audio installation in the new 650-seat worship facility at Plymouth Covenant Church (Plymouth, Minnesota). The all-EV system features Xi series loudspeaker arrays, CPS amplifiers, NetMax processing, and REV wireless microphones.

"This is a beautiful new addition to the church," says Jason Kartak, installation manager, Audio Logic Systems. "It's a wide open room with a balcony, and has a multi-angled ceiling with a peak about 50ft (15.2m) over the stage. This is a very 'live,' acoustically challenging space, and the EASE modeling made it clear that we needed to combine acoustical paneling for absorption with an extremely focused, ultra-linear loudspeaker. The Xi was the ideal choice, as it balances high output, concert-quality performance with precise coverage and EV's charact

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UK - London communications agency Imagination has once again revealed its Christmas lighting display, continuing its 29-year long tradition of celebrating the festive season.

The façade of the company's red brick headquarters has been adorned with a spectacular illuminated wreath which was constructed out of 250 Christmas trees sourced from Balcombe Estates in West Sussex. It is filled with 8,000 glimmering UV blue LED lights. Underneath the sparkling wreath is a huge blue and green bow attached to a ribbon made entirely from blue neon.

The impressive Imagination building, flooded in a wash of blue light serves as the backdrop to the wreath. The installation of the lighting display took place over the last weekend in November. Imagination enlisted the help of a team of 19 construction specialists as well as Imagination's in-house production managers and lighting designers.

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Finland - FogScreen has announced its AV Rental Partner Programme. "Our partners have greatly benefited from having the FogScreen projection screen available to them," said Mika Koivula, CEO of FogScreen. "We have expanded our reach worldwide by working closely with our AV rental partners. With the added benefits that come from our gold and platinum levels of service, we feel that our partners have chosen the perfect time to team up with FogScreen."

Both platinum and gold-level members are currently taking advantage of incentive-filled packages. FogScreen is working with all its resellers and dealers to provide added benefits, including Website positioning, product access and technical support for the one-meter and two-meter projection devices.

"We chose FogScreen projection screen because it fits our image of marvelous and never-before-seen acts and e

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Malaysia - Concerts to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Malaysian independence are expected to attract 100,000 people this month, as Belgian staging manufacturer Stageco provides the stage at the heart of the event.

This is the largest event of its type ever to take place in this territory so Malaysian promoter Live & Loud drew on the international expertise of Stageco to help achieve state-of-the-art production values. The project demonstrates how Stageco can help medium-sized promotion businesses anywhere in the world grow to meet the standards demanded by international artistes.

In conjunction with the Malaysian government, Live & Loud is organising a series of major concerts featuring Western, Chinese and Malaysian acts, in a pop and rock spectacle featuring Whitney Houston, Shaggy and James Morrison among the global acts on the bill.

For Live & Loud's head of technical

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UK - Stage Electrics' new addition to its hire stock, the smartStage 45, was fully utilised during the Exeter city centre Christmas lights switch on.

The smartStage 45 is a mobile stage trailer with a characteristic lean-to roof and a set up time of only 30 minutes. It offers a tandem axle and overrunning brakes and the roof is lifted using an electro-hydraulic system with remote control. The stage conforms to the temporary demountable guidelines of 5kN/sq.m and was launched by Stage Electrics at the Showman's Show in Newbury in October 2007.

Stage Electrics has supplied the lighting and sound equipment for the Exeter event for the last three years, previously the official switch-on team performed from a traditional modular stage system, ground support truss and a tarpaulin roof.

Project manager for the event, Simon Foster explained: "Access into the area is very

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The Netherlands - High End Systems' Showgun automated luminaire recently made its debut on Dutch Television. Het Beste Idee van Nederland (The Best Idea in the Netherlands) is a live show in which people compete on the basis of their own inventions, with a selected jury and the viewing public voting on who has the best idea. The show is broadcast on SBS Channel 6 in Amsterdam.

Flashlight Rental supplied 15 Showguns. Part of the Ampco-Flashlight Group, the company is one of Europe's biggest rental houses and the first in Europe to purchase HES' new automated luminaire.

Lighting designer Jeroen Jans said: "For this new high-level TV show I was looking for a fixture that was both new and fit well cosmetically into the scenery with a high LED and lamp output. The choice was easy: Showgun. All 15 units did a job well done for two months, with nice slow and smooth moveme

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Italy - For the 2007 Miss Italia pageant, lighting designer/DoP Fabio Brera specified over 250 Robe moving lights - including ColorSpot and ColorWash 575E ATs, ColorSpot and ColorWash 700E ATs and the workhorse ColorSpot and ColorWash 1200E ATs - all supplied by rental company Mixer di Taietti.

The show was staged at the Sport Palace in Salsomaggiore Terme (PR) which was transformed into a large studio for the show that was presented by Mike Buongiorno and Loretta Goggi. It was produced by RAI Milano and broadcast live on RAI 1, watched by 6.2 million people - about a 32% share of the viewing public - jumping to nearly 60% as the winner was announced.

Brera has lit Miss Italia since 2003 and also used Robe on many previous occasions. He works very closely with the set designers on these large projects, and in this case it was with Sabrina Fontanini and also with choreographer

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USA - Rigging Seminars is the largest and longest established entertainment rigging training programme in North America. The 2008 dates have been confirmed as: Las Vegas - 10-13 March, Atlanta, GA - 28 April - 1 May, Chicago - 14-17 July, Seattle - 6-9 October.

Attendees learn safe and efficient rigging techniques for sound, lighting, video, scenery, and special effects. The methods taught apply to theatres, circuses, arenas, stadiums, schools, hotels, museums, conference centres, outdoor venues, and studios.

The Atlanta class is combined stage and arena rigging, taught by Bill Sapsis and Harry Donovan. The Seattle class is combined stage and arena rigging, taught by Jay O. Glerum and Harry Donovan. The Las Vegas and Chicago classes are intensive arena rigging classes taught by Harry Donovan.

(Jim Evans)

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UK - Blaydon Communications recently deployed Biamp Nexia digital sound processors at the new Pan-Asian restaurant Fat Buddha in Durham City. The AV design for the £1.4m, 220-seat restaurant needed to be visually discreet, highly intelligible and scalable for future expansion.

Blaydon insisted that the system be controlled by two of the Nexia SP digital sound processors purchased through beyerdynamic UK. Dave Chapman from Blaydon commented: "we have used these and other products from Biamp and found them to be extremely adaptable and allow us to give the client virtually whatever they require."

The multi-zone restaurant comprises a ground floor bar covered by six powered loudspeakers; a side seating zone covered by an additional two powered loudspeakers; a main restaurant with four loudspeakers, and four 'Tatami' rooms, catering for about 12 persons in each roo

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France - Lighting designer Nick Jevons of Electric Fly Productions used 60 i-Pix Satellites to create a spectacular effect for the Paris launch of the Adidas "Predator" PowerSwerve football boot.

Electric Fly was working for brand experience agency Slipstream who brought them onboard to provide all the specialist lighting and effects required for the high profile event.

Staged at the Trocadero, in front of the Eiffel Tower, the set - built by Stage One - consisted of a large 6 x 8m 'shoe box' which was set up two days prior to the launch and acted as a count-down monitor. Three LED strips were installed along the sides of the box that flashed every second.

England's Steven Gerrard and Liverpool team mates Dirk Kuyt, Andriy Voronin and José Reina were joined by a host of international football stars for the box opening event.

When the time came for this to

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UK - Illusionist Derren Brown is once again set to tour the country with the Audio-Technica AT892 Micro Set headset. In February he begins the second, three month, 40 date, leg of this his third tour.

.Previously Brown had been miked with a lapel mic, but this was proving problematic in providing good pickup of his voice at critical moments during the show. Sound engineer Francis Dale of Intasound has worked with Brown's touring show for two years, and recommended the low visibility AT892.

"On the last tour, getting a consistently good sound with a lapel mic was an issue. Having experienced all the 'usual' constraints and quality characteristics, we needed another solution, but one that was very discrete," he explains.

"There has always been resistance to using a headset mic because they tend to be very noticeable. We purchased the AT892 into hire stock last y

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UK - Entertainment technology supplier A.C. Lighting has been welcomed as a BRDC Rising Star Patron of the British Racing Drivers' Club. Formed in the late 1920s, the BRDC is the champion of British motor sport and owner of the Silverstone Racing Club, the home of British motor sport and centre of international motor sport.

Regarded as the most prestigious racing club in the world, the exclusive membership includes F1 World Champions and those who have obtained international success over a number of seasons, or made a significant contribution to the sport. Every British or Commonwealth World Champion is, or has been in their lifetime, a full member of the Club.

As part of the scheme, promising young British drivers will benefit from A.C. Lighting's BRDC patronage. With its emphasis on cutting-edge new technologies, the sport provides a natural affinity with A.C.'s own product

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UK - Situated at Southend-on-Sea's Western Esplanade, Adventure Island is a 40-acre leisure site packed with fun park rides, experiences and restaurants. Having provided sound reinforcement earlier in the year for the restaurants and bumper car rides, Mike Glover's locally-based Essex Sound & Light were called in again when Adventure Island owners Stockvale decided to launch a new weekend carnival parade titled Light Fantastic. Designed specifically for the Autumn and Winter season, they wanted a potent sound system which would envelope spectators, to complement the new illuminations.

After purpose designing the structure for the new illuminations, Robert Roberts, general manager of Adventure Island, tasked ESL with matching the catenary effect of the festooned lighting by fixing discreet loudspeakers to the custom-designed lamp post-style poles - spaced equidistantly alo

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USA - Formed in suburban Washington in 1993, indie rock band Modest Mouse has come a long way from 'The Shed', their practice space built by guitarist and vocalist Issac Brock next to his mother's trailer. Now embraced by both indie enthusiasts and mainstream listeners, the six-member group has become a platinum-selling act, and performs for fans on three continents.

During an early leg of this year's tour supporting their latest release, We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank, the band found it difficult to hear themselves properly and decided they needed better monitoring equipment.

"When you're using mismatched gear and whatever the local house has, it's a roll of the dice every night," says monitor engineer Myles Kennedy, who was pleased to learn that Taylor, Michigan-based Thunder Audio was bringing a set of new Meyer Sound MJF-212A high-power stage monit

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USA - Bandit Lites recently lit nine shows for long-time client Garth Brooks. The nine-performance event took place at the Sprint Center in Kansas City. Brooks' wife, country singer, Trisha Yearwood opened for him for a majority of the shows.

Lighting designer Dave Butzler chose to use 18 VL 3500 Washes, 43 VL 3000 Spots, 55 Martin MAC 2000 Washes, 22 MAC 2000 Spots, 18 Coemar Halos, 33 Coemar Infinity Washes, 39 Coemar ParLite LEDs and five Lycian M2 Spots to light this event. Lighting was controlled by three grandma full-size lighting consoles, with a single grandMA Lite and four grandma NSPs (Network Signal Processors).

The fundamental design concept is similar to what Brooks has done in the past- a wide rig with all moving lights. The rounded truss structure featured a custom-built centerpiece, surrounded by VL3500 Washes. Coemar ParLite LEDs were used as truss illuminator

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USA - Shure Incorporated continues its support of industry education initiatives for a third year with its recent commitment to match up to $25,000 in contributions to the NSCA Education Foundation's fundraising campaign.

"We take pride in, and feel an obligation to, continue our support of the NSCA Education Foundation because of our shared commitment to ensuring high quality training and education of future audio professionals," said Shure US vice-president and general manager Al Hershner. "Through this matching campaign, we encourage others in our industry to join us in contributing to the expansion of the Foundation's activities."

"We are honoured that Shure continues to support our programmes," said Tom Frericks, president of the NSCA Education Foundation. "Each year, industry members meet Shure's challenge, which emphasises the value th

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UK - Top experts in their specialised field will be speaking when the Institute of Sound and Communications Engineers hold their annual exhibition on Tuesday, 26 February 2008 at a new venue, the Park Inn Hotel, Northampton.

The wide range of seminar topics, which will run alongside the exhibition, are: The Speech Transmission Index Demystified (Thomas Steinbrecher - Bose Professional Systems); The Application of Sound Field Systems (Kevin Sherwood - CIE-Audio); The Unlimited Possibilities of Using Standard IP Networks (Johannes Rietschel - Barix AG) and The Significant Contribution to Performance that Well-Chosen Connectivity Can Offer (Michael Whiteside - Fuzion plc).

More than 20 specialist suppliers to the sound industry have already signed up including; Ampetronic, Barix AG, Baldwin Boxall Communications, BC Technology, Canford Audio, CIE Group, Clockaudio, Communication

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UK - Summit Steel is co-ordinating rigging for all departments on the massive Take That Beautiful World tour, as well as supplying over 110 chain hoists to the main system, 100 hoists to the "B" system and 28 points of Kinesys automation.

The project is being co-ordinated for Summit by Jon Bray - whose history with the band dates back to the early 1990s when they first burst onto the UK pop scene. Bray is working in close collaboration with the tour's production riggers Jez Craddock and Phil Broad, production manager Chris Vaughan from The Production Office, production designer Ray Winkler from Stufish plus all the other contractors including Capital Sound (audio), PRG (Lighting) and XL Video/CT (video).

One of Summit's major tasks for the tour was to produce a comprehensive rigging plot covering the requirements of all technical departments, and realise Stufi

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The Netherlands - Dutch rental, sales and installation specialists, Sound & Light Factory in Heerlen, has recently taken delivery of a total of 36 Crest Pro 200 Series amplifiers including 20 Pro9200s, the most powerful amplifier of the Pro Series range, and a further 16 Pro8200s from Crest's Dutch distributor, TM Audio.

"We were already familiar with Crest, having owned 7001s and 8001s in the past, which were, in my view, the best amplifiers available at the time," noted Sound & Light Factory co-proprietor, Danny Juretzko. "When the time came to renew our stock, we had no hesitation in going back to Crest. We loved our trusty 7001s and 8001s, but the Pro 200 Series amps are even better."

The new Pro 200 Series amplifiers are mainly destined for rental stock to drive their EAW PA system as well as Sound & Light Factory's proprietary PA. Being so close to Ma

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USA - Symetrix has appointed MixWave located in Tokyo as its distributor to build and manage its sales network in Japan.

MixWave president Hirokazu Saika comments: "We decided to name our company MixWave because we are striving to find companies that are making waves in the industry." The company currently represents TC Electronics, Ashley, API Audio, Furman, Sonic Studio, A Designs, Doremi, Buzzaudio, Dynaudioacoustics and Weiss.

Paul Roberts, director of sales for Symetrix noted: "MixWave is a fresh new distributor in Japan with great people that have a lot of experience in the industry. We are excited to be aligned with MixWave and their aggressive approach to promoting the brands they distribute."

(Jim Evans)

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France - One of the leading full service production companies in the south of France, Sound and Light Systems (SLS), has recently taken delivery of two Sy80 digital mixing consoles from InnovaSon. SLS is based in Alès near Nîmes and has recently opened offices in Longjumeau, south of Paris.

Established in 2001, the company has rapidly grown to become one of the biggest rental companies in the south of France, offering a wide range of sound, lighting, video and staging equipment. SLS proprietor Léon van Empel comments: "It's not just about spending money. It's also about making sure we stay up-to-date with what's going on in the market so that when we do spend the money, we spend it wisely on products that will both satisfy our clients and offer us a good return on our investment. That is one of the reasons why we opted for InnovaSon consoles rather than any other b

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