Business

Details
Hungary - Having only recently taken on the distributorship for QSC Audio products in Hungary, Interton Electroacoustics has already provided QSC system solutions for a number of diverse venues across the country - including the first phase of the College of Nyíregyháza's upgrade.

The city is located in the north-east of Hungary, where Interton - working alongside general contractor, Strabag Inc- has designed the complete audiovisual system for the multi-purpose, 1000-capacity auditorium, including the room acoustics.

In order to create a system that fulfilled the many requirements, project manager Zoltán Horváth constructed a CobraNet network between the stage and the studio, and between the studio and amplifier room, where QSC's new PowerLight 3 amplifiers are monitored and controlled via the company's Basis 902zz, operating under the QSControl.net platform.

A second B

Details
UK - Two major TV productions - the 2007 Sports Personality of The Year (SPOTY) and the 2007 Royal Variety performance - utilised Catalyst digital media servers to drive their video content. In both cases, the Catalyst was programmed and operated by Ian Reith, who provided his server along with comprehensive content collection.

The Royal Variety Show was staged at Liverpool Empire Theatre, produced by ITV Productions and presented by Philip Schofield and Kate Thornton. It featured performances from Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Bon Jovi, James Blunt, Seal, Katherine Jenkins, Got Talent winner Paul Potts and numerous others.

Lighting designer Al Gurdon and producer Glen Middleham both specified Catalyst onto the project, so Reith supplied his Version 4 server to feed images to a front projection screen, a main upstage video wall and also to Barco MitTix panels.

The majority of the con

Details
USA - The entertainment industry has again named Bandit Lites as 'Lighting Company of the Year'. The awards ceremony took place on 7 February, 2008 at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles and closed out the 2008 CIC Convention.

Bandit general manager, Dizzy Gosnell was there to accept this honour on behalf of Bandit Lites. Bandit has been named 'Lighting Company of the Year' 16 different times through the years. "This was made possible by the tremendous global Bandit family. Please accept my most sincere thank you and offer my thanks and congratulations to all the staff worldwide," commented Bandit CEO, Michael T. Strickland. "This is the perfect start to our 40th Anniversary."

(Jim Evans)

Details
UK - A.C.'s Lighting and Audio divisions have been appointed the stage equipment suppliers into the new South Bank Arts Centre at Bedford College.

A.C. Lighting's initial introduction to the Arts Centre came after on-site training for Bedford College on an existing WYSIWYG set-up. The £6 million Arts Centre, which is part of a £60 million redevelopment plan for the College, provides students with a bright and inspiring stage for their talents, and brings together all course creative disciplines under one roof.

The new state-of-the-art facility, which officially opened its doors in November, comprises of a fully equipped studio theatre, a TV studio, video and audio control, along with sound recording suites.

Lighting equipment includes Martin MAC 250 Krypton moving lights and 3000 Atomic Strobes, Robert Juliat Buxie followspots and various DTS, ETC and Spotlight c

Details
UK - London's Arcola Theatre, one of the UK's leading independent venues, has installed a hydrogen fuel cell to power its café/bar and selected main house shows. The fuel cell operates almost silently, producing nothing but electricity and clean water.

The 5kW fuel cell system takes pride of place in the foyer of the theatre accompanied by displays describing the benefits and challenges posed by this ground breaking technology. The prominent location of the fuel cell and the challenge of relying entirely upon it provide both a powerful educational tool and a source of motivation for reducing energy use.

The first show to be powered by the fuel cell, Simple8's The Living Unknown Soldier, produced by Strawberry Vale, may well be London's premier ecologically sustainable show - the environmental impact of all aspects of the production have been minimised, including

Details
The Netherlands - Record numbers of exhibitors and attendees are reported by the organisers of Integrated Systems Europe 2008, which took place at Amsterdam's RAI Convention Centre at the end of January.

A total of 22,199 attendees (up from 16,269 in 2007) were drawn to 481 exhibiting companies (up from 363 last year) during the show's three days.

Reflecting on the speed with which ISE has risen to prominence, Mike Blackman, managing director of Integrated Systems Events, said: "ISE 2008's exhibition area of 38,500 gross square metres is ten times that of our inaugural show in Geneva - just four short years ago."

Also broadening markedly is the geographical make-up of ISE's attendee base. Once seen primarily as a show for Northern Europe, ISE now attracts substantial numbers of visitors from across the continent and beyond. Italian attendance was up almost 40% on 2

Details
Oman - XL Video supplied 150sq.m of Martin LC40 screen - the largest configuration of this surface to date - as a large format, big pixel LED solution for the opening of the new Lexus Cars showroom in Muscat, Oman.

XL was working for production company Live Communications. The Martin LC40 was specified due to its light weight and transparent properties, allowing viewers to see into the showroom whilst off, then provide large video canvass when in operation.

XL Video's brief was to fill the interior of the showroom window with a semi-transparent LED screen, showing a series of high-impact 'Wow factor' images for the reveal moment of the show. Once activated, the screen went on to show a series of graphics and video content supplied by the client and delivered via a Catalyst digital media server.

David MacIntyre, Live Communications' technical production manager states: "

Details
South Africa - Over 50 Robe 700 Series moving lights have been specified for the new Lyric Theatre at Gold Reef City Casino in Johannesburg, South Africa by Denis 'Hutch' Hutchinson, one of the country's best known lighting designers.

The 1100 capacity Lyric Theatre is part of the new 66 million ZAR casino complex. Hutchinson was asked onboard as lighting consultant by the theatre's management team headed by Richard Loring, and he's also LD for the first production to be staged there, a run of the hit musical Hairspray.

The 24 Robe ColorWash 700E ATs, 24 ColorSpot 700E ATs and 6 ColorWash 750AT Tungsten units were supplied by Robe's South African distributor DWR Distribution.

Hutchinson first used the 700 Series and the 750Ts on Soweto Story and was very impressed with the light output, which enabled him to wash a large stage with just eight ColorWash 700E ATs

Details
UK - With 138 points, Summit Steel has once again broken its own record for the number of load points rigged in London's Royal Albert Hall for Cirque du Soleil's new show Varekai, which is making its UK debut at the venue.

It's the seventh year that Summit has installed the rigging infrastructure for a Cirque production in the venue, and this one has been particularly challenging because of the sheer scale, complexity and the amount of spreader trusses needed to ensure that the show rigging could be hung in exactly the right places.

Summit project manager Chris Walker led a team of 12 riggers who started work on Boxing Day following work completed by an overnight crew of five riggers in the run up to Christmas, who took care of the pre-rigging and proof testing of the anchor points.

The main crew worked in two split shifts in order to get everything finished and ready

Details
Dubai - The Elegante club housed in the prestigious Royal Ascot hotel in Dubai is the latest venue to benefit from a state-of-the-art sound system driven by no less than 11 C Series dedicated installation amplifiers from Lab.gruppen. The entire system, which also features a powerful Avalon loudspeaker system from EAW, was designed and commissioned by Middle Eastern systems integrator, Dubai-based Smart Vision LLC, with support from Lab.gruppen/EAW distributor, Executive Audio.

With a capacity of over 1,000, the Elegante club has been designed as a multipurpose entertainment venue. According to Oussama Mansour Abou Faraj who manages Smart Vision, Elegante is a unique venue, boasting a "one-of-a-kind light and laser grid, state-of-the-art liquid nitrogen Kryogenifex effects systems and of course, the absolute best sound system design and technology. It all combines to make fo

Details
Italy - During the Notte Bianca (White Night) in Rome, monuments, historical buildings, museums, shops and theatres come to life, hosting shows and other events often at unusual times of day.

At the last edition (on 7 September 2007), over 1,000 artists from all over the world transformed the city, with poetic installations, such as that at Palazzo della Civiltà, one of the symbols of the city's EUR district.

The building hosted the Tribute to Mark Rothko in three parts; an impressive 'son et lumière' show thought up by photographer Ottavio Celestino and dedicated to the American expressionist painter. Exploiting the characteristic arches of the building as a "die", lighting designer Raffaele Cerri installed a SGM Palco 3 fixture at each window, in order to fill the interior with colour and make the outline completely visible from outside.

On a "virtu

Details
USA - FiberPlex reports that its LightViper audio transport system was recently acquired by David Jacques for the Atlanta-based contemporary Christian music group, Third Day. The 15-year old band's first usage for the advanced fiber optic audio transport system was on their recent Christmas 07 tour that also featured another popular CCM group, Jars of Clay.

Two standard Model 1832 'plug n' play' LightViper fiber optic audio 'snake' systems provide a total of 64 channels of LightViper fiber optic audio transport (32 sends by 8 returns each). Performance mics terminate into racks of digital preamplifiers that are remotely controlled by two, 96-channel Yamaha digital FOH and monitor consoles equipped with LightViper plug-in VIM-MY-32 mini-YGDAI circuit cards.

David Jacques, production manager and FOH Engineer for Third Day, commented on replacing the super group's old-school copp

Details
UK - Granada TV's Coronation Street, the UK's longest-running soap opera is still filmed and produced at the famous studios, now renamed The Manchester Studios and operating under the title 3sixtymedia, which have been its home since the show began in 1960.

The Manchester Studios has recently upgraded the audio monitoring in all five of its multi-camera studios by purchasing a wide range of loudspeakers from Klein + Hummel. The studios now boast five pairs of O 300D active studio monitors, six pairs of O 110 near field monitors and three O 800 subs.

Dubbing mixer Martyn Whitley comments: "I'm very much enjoying having the Klein + Hummel 500s. They're very different to the equipment we were previously using. They have proper detail, are more accurate at the bottom end and produce a better image."

(Jim Evans)

Details
Malta - Voted the number one DJ in the world last year in the DJ Magazine Top 100 DJs poll, Armin Van Buuren recently played the popular indoor venue Eden Ice Arena, which is located in the heart of Paceville. The event attracted 5,500 clubbers and was promoted by Fresh Music Agency.

The sound equipment for the night was supplied by Visage Sound and included three XTA DP226s. One controlled the main arena, one was used for the VIP area and the third for the DJ booth monitoring system. XTA AudioCore software was loaded on to a laptop to control the three XTA units, utilising an XTA wireless cards and Wiser2400 receiver antenna kit.

(Jim Evans)

Details
USA - The Long Reach Long Riders and The ESTA Foundation have announced details of their annual raffle to benefit Behind the Scenes at the USITT conference. This popular event will be held on 22 March, 2008 at the Behind the Scenes booth on the trade show floor of the USITT Conference in Houston, Texas. Every dollar raised will be tripled thanks to challenge grants sponsored by Bigger Hammer Production Services, Sapsis Rigging and Strong Entertainment Lighting.

Twelve raffle prizes have been donated by: Altman Rentals (ghostlight), Barbizon ($250 gift certificate), City Theatrical (Lightwright), D&D Software Co. (LD Assistant 04), Field Template (SoftSymbols and Field Templates), Le Maitre Special Effects (Radiance Hazer), Live Design (Broadway Master Class), Nolan Engineering Services (Structural Master Class by Shawn Nolan), Sapsis Rigging (Safety Seminar by Bill Sapsis), USIT

Details
USA - Shure has announced the release of an upgraded version of its Wireless Workbench software that is now compatible with Mac OSX including 10.5 Leopard. Wireless Workbench lets users of Shure UHF-R and U-series wireless microphone systems easily configure and control large installations of wireless microphones in performance venues, theatres, meeting facilities, and houses of worship.

"Remote control of audio equipment is becoming increasingly critical in professional sound systems," said Nick Wood, Associate Product Manager at Shure USA. "We're excited to bring scanning, frequency coordination, and control of Shure wireless systems to Mac users," he continued. "Wireless Workbench 5.0 brings a new level of confidence, efficiency, and performance to wireless microphone operation."

Like earlier versions of Wireless Workbench, the software can sca

Details
UK - Maltbury Staging has supplied RAF Brize Norton with equipment for its maintenance hangar which is prone to flooding.

A Maltbury Metrodeck package comprising some 80 decks, phenolic-coated boards and alloy legs has solved the problem and the RAF has ordered further supplies. Now the base has more than 300sq.m of decks on which to maintain, prep. and store their equipment.

(Jim Evans)

Details
USA - When the monster is shocked to life in the current Broadway production of Young Frankenstein, no effect is spared in Peter Kaczorowski's lighting design. The stage visuals are achieved by a creative combination of projection, conventional and moving lights, with the elaborate automated rig controlled by an ETC Eos system.

Young Frankenstein's extensive light plot is based around a mix of 120 Mac 2000s - including performances, profiles and some washes. "Eos is great for handling a large rig like this," says Josh Weitzman, moving light programmer for the production. "It has new tools that help you manage that size of rig and work really quickly."

The opening scene features dramatic flashes of lightning, which involve the use of both projection and lighting. "With projection," explains Weitzman, "you can't change the colour

Details
Writing in The Times, John Niven makes some interesting observations on how the music industry has changed: "The late Nineties are increasingly starting to resemble a glorious last hurrah for the music industry, a spangled fall-of-Rome era. The sales of CDs have declined year-on-year since 2000. Profit margins have been decimated. Bands give their music away free with newspapers to drive up ticket sales for their profitable live shows - a complete reversal of the time where an act lost money on the road in order to drive CD sales.

And on the green front, over to Ken Livingston, Mayor of London: "The Arcola Theatre is a good example of why London's cultural sector is so dynamic and successful. Arcola is leading the theatre industry in developing this premiere sustainable production and I know that many other theatres are now keen to follow. The Living Unknown Soldier is

Details
UK - Harman Pro UK, distributor for AKG microphones in the UK and Ireland, recently supplied British broadcast equipment provider and rental company VME with 20 AKG C77 WR lavalier (lapel) microphones for use in their work for television sports broadcasters. VME provides equipment and comms systems for Sky Sports and BBC TV coverage of many major Rugby tournaments.

The CK77 WR is a dual-diaphragm, wireless-compatible omnidirectional lapel mic with a water-resistant head widely used by broadcasters in situations where moisture, either from the wearer or the local weather, can be a problem. The 20 new CK77 WRs debuted on Sky's coverage of the Rugby League Gillette Fusion Test Series in October and November, in which England's Lions beat New Zealand's Kiwis for the first time in nearly 15 years.

VME Director Dion Davie comments: "We needed something reliable and waterproof,

Details
Ireland - Over 80 Robe moving lights proved they were real winners in an eye-catching design by LD Tom Kenny for the 2008 Meteor Irish Music Awards, staged at the RDS in Dublin last weekend, produced by Caroline Downey and Louis Harte for MCD and broadcast on national TV channel RTE in a special programme directed by Niamh White. All lighting for the celebrity clad event honouring the very best in contemporary Irish music, was supplied by Dublin rental company Just Lite.

The show was presented by comedian Dara O' Briain, and featured performances by 11 leading artists including Westlife, Shane Ward, the newly reformed Boyzone, Sinead O'Connor, Scouting For Girls, Tom Baxter, Cathy Davey and others.

Robe fixtures took centre stage for the Awards, a mix of ColorSpot and ColorWash 1200E ATs and 700E ATs which were arranged across four trusses and operated by Darragh McAuliffe usi

Details
USA - Bandit Lites recently lit the University of Tennessee 16th Annual Lead-off Banquet, which was held at the Knoxville Convention Center in front of a sold-out crowd.UT honored former UT athlete, Todd Helton, by making him the first baseball player in school history to have his jersey number retired.

Lighting designer Chris Lisle chose to use Martin MAC 600s, 500s and 300s and Color Kinetics iColor Accent 4ft tubes to light the event. Lighting was controlled by two High End Systems Whole Hog IIs.

"It was truly a pleasure to be involved with the UT Baseball Lead-Off Banquet," commented Lisle. "One of the key purposes of this event was to honor Todd as they were retiring his UT jersey at this ceremony. I used Mac 500s with custom gobos to project onto the walls with both [Helton's] UT and Colorado Rockies jersey numbers."

Lisle used Mac 600s to spread so

Details
UK - The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, or RADA, in London is internationally renowned for producing generation after generation of actors and production specialists for the theatre world. Graduates include Sir Anthony Hopkins, Peter O'Toole, Alan Rickman and Kenneth Brannagh. This year's students were given a hands-on opportunity to use a high-performance Electro-Voice XLE sound reinforcement system for their annual musical production.

Shuttlesound, the UK distributor of Electro-Voice, was keen to show its support for the leading academy of stage arts, lending an XLE181 PA system to the Jerwood Vanbrugh Theatre at RADA for this year's graduate production of Little Women - The Musical. RADA is a keen user of Electro-Voice loudspeakers, with EV SX300s in all three of its live venues.

The 200-capacity Vanbrugh Theatre required something a bit more punchy for Little Wom

Details
South Africa - Questek Broadcast Technologies (QBT) has recently been appointed as the local agent for Chromatec and Chord Professional audio monitoring, Chromatec video display and openGear products on behalf of Michael Stevens & Partners.

"We are thrilled at the opportunity of representing Michael Stevens & Partners in Southern Africa," says Justin Thathiah, general manager of Questek Broadcast Technologies, "Many of our customers are planning to upgrade and improve both the quality and efficiency of their operations. This new agreement allows us to offer the latest specialist technologies from a world class international partner."

"Any manufacturer benefits from an experienced reseller with good local knowledge," says Ian Burkinshaw, business development manager at Michael Stevens & Partners. "We are very pleased to be working with QBT who

  1. Sky News goes worldwide with Sennheiser
  2. CitySprint appointed SameDay courier for J&C Joel
  3. Avolites takes Tiger to ProLight & Sound
  4. V-DOSC training for Adlib
  5. PixelRange rocks Subsonica
  6. Harman opens PA School in UK
Page 948 of 1813

Latest Issue. . .