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UK - The University of Glamorgan has recently teamed up with MA Lighting to offer training on the grandMA range of lighting consoles. This new relationship allows MA to offer regular free training sessions to users who are unable to easily travel to MA's London offices. Level 1 and Level 2 training courses are to be held at the University's facility in Treforest during May.

Level 1 training (12 May) is designed to give new users the ability to move around and work with the grandMA, grandMA light or grandMA ultra light consoles. Level 2 training (13-14 May) is designed to bring existing moving light and conventional lighting console operators to a competent level on those consoles.

"We are very excited to be able to work with MA Lighting in this way," commented Glamorgan's Stuart Green. "The University recognise the importance of training industry technicians and

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USA - Pro Tapes & Specialties, a leading provider of pressure-sensitive adhesive (PSA) tapes for industrial and consumer use, has announced plans to expand and relocate all its operations to a single 140,000sq.ft. corporate headquarters and manufacturing centre in North Brunswick, New Jersey. The company also plans to invest $3.5m during its current fiscal year in equipment, facilities, and personnel.

The move to North Brunswick will be completed by 1 June of this year. Pro Tapes currently operates out of two facilities in Edison, NJ totaling 40,000sq.ft.

According to Pro Tapes executives, the company has enjoyed five consecutive years of double-digit sales growth, straining the capacity of its current production facilities. They forecast continued sales growth for 2008 and beyond in such key markets as contract converting and private-label services for the retail, paint and h

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UK - DiGiCo has chosen 5 Star Cases to manufacture an innovative flightcase solution - based around the popular industry 'Nosecone' type flightcase - for its recently launched SD7 console. 5 Star worked closely with DiGiCo's Chris Ladbrook, who heads the company's mechanical design team, to develop a case to meet the additional demands of this high specification console.

"We wanted a flightcase that took on the no-compromise design concept used on the SD7 project. Working through the process with 5 Star, it was clear that they value attention to detail as much as we do. It's a great case for an awesome console," says DiGiCo's managing director James Gordon.

(Jim Evans)

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Australia - Melbourne's St Paul's has had an ambitious restoration and conservation programme in place since 2001. Along with many important structural building repairs, substantial work on the interior and a major upgrade of the building's services is being undertaken.

A key component of the restoration is a complete reworking of the Cathedral's audio distribution system. To this end the services of Acoustic Directions' principal acoustics consultant Glenn Leembruggen were engaged. His brief was to design and commission a modern and effective audio system which would enable the Cathedral to more effectively conduct its ministry and communicate with the congregation.

Leembruggen is a pioneer in the use of beam steered line arrays and knew that this technology would be the best solution for the problems associated with long reverb times and multi-path reflections which are evid

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Thailand - Ten Years After Audio (TYAA), one of the leading audio rental firms in Thailand, provided the live sound system for the recent Assanee and Wasan Ram-Rai Concert at Rajamangala National Stadium in Bangkok. TYAA deployed JBL Vertec line arrays throughout the entire venue.

Brothers Assanee and Wasan Chotikul are popular, pioneering Thai rock artists. With a strong following of local fans and support by Thailand's music industry for over 20 years, Assanee and Wasan are being heralded for having brought back the classic rock era of the 70s and 80s. Their latest production, the Assanee and Wasan Ram-Rai Concert, drew a sell-out attendance of more than 50,000.

The audio system included a total of 54 Vertec VT4889 full-size line array elements, configured as 30 enclosures for left and right main arrays serving the open field, with four clusters of six VT4889 line array elem

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The Netherlands - Integrated Systems Events has opened its own operations office in Amsterdam. The hiring of a full-time operations team brings to an end ISE's four-year working relationship with Congrex, which had handled ISE's event management since 2005.

Mike Blackman, managing director of Integrated Systems Events, comments: "With our main Integrated Systems Europe show in Amsterdam breaking all exhibitor and attendee records this year, and further expansion inevitable, we felt it was time to bring the functions previously performed by Congrex in-house, so that they can be carried out by a dedicated team."

ISE's new Amsterdam team will be headed up by Martine Niermans, who becomes operations director. Niermans has worked for Amsterdam's RAI Convention Centre as an event co-ordinator for four years, and was the venue's ISE Account Manager when the show first came

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Australia - Easter 2008 saw the Australian Gospel Music Festival celebrate its tenth anniversary with a name change to Easterfest. Getting bigger by the year, the festival featured seven stages across Queens Park in the centre of the city of Toowoomba, Queensland.

Located inside a large six pole tent, the festival B stage -called the Bigtop - featured a full Electro-Voice sound system, including XLC/XLD combination line arrays, QRx 218 subs, and a spread of new Phoenix monitors, all powered by EV amplifiers.

The Bigtop stage also relied upon EV equipment at the input end of the signal chain, thanks to a complete EV microphone kit. Along with a number of RE-1 wireless systems, a pair of new REV wireless handheld transmitters, custom supplied in chrome, made a visual impact.

The REV dual receiver was purchased by longtime festival FOH engineer Phill Webb."I have an

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Italy / USA - LDR (Luci della Ribalta) the Italian lighting manufacturer and Strong Entertainment Lighting, the leading American followspot manufacturer, have jointly announced an exclusive, multi-year distribution agreement for the whole LDR range in the United States.

Under the terms of the agreement, Strong will market and distribute the extensive LDR product line of theatre, television and architectural products in the US using their existing distributor network.

"The US market is very significant market for us," said Fabiano Besio of LDR. "Strategically, Strong is the right partner at the right time. They are very well established and have significant distribution skills in the US. Together, following the success of the Canto followspot line, we look forward to expand our sales in the theatre and architectural market sectors."

Paul Rabinovitz, vice-p

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USA - Clair Brothers Systems has installed six Dolby Lake Processors at HSBC Arena in Buffalo, New York to control a zoned and distributed speaker system that is part of a complete audio system upgrade and modernization at the venue. The multipurpose HSBC Arena is home to the National Hockey League's Buffalo Sabres and the National Lacrosse League's Buffalo Bandits and hosts a variety of other sporting events in addition to music concerts, ice shows and other entertainment.

Jim Devenney, senior audio designer, Clair Brothers Systems, selected the Dolby Lake Processors for their familiarity, he said. Although the processors may be controlled from a wireless tablet, Devenney said: "They have a rack-mount computer with which to control the system. They didn't feel there was a need to go around tweaking the system once it was in and tuned."

The full audio system replacem

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Australia - Viewed by over 300,000 spectators, the 30th Annual Sydney Mardi Gras Parade was held in Sydney's Darlinghurst on 1 March. The massive 4km procession travelled over a 1.6km route and was made up over 150 floats and 10,000 participants.

Produced and designed by Wayne Mulder of Sydney's Action Sound, the Wireless Solution system was featured on the Surf Life Saving Australia's float themed Whatever floats your boat. W-DMX was used to communicate between the two float trucks that travelled anywhere from 150 to 200m apart. Dancing between the two trucks was a contingent of life savers, illuminated by four City Lights that were required to change colour on cue.

"It was very important that the lights on the two trucks were in sync without the need to have two lighting controllers and two operators," says Mulder. "Through the use of W-DMX we were able

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Germany - The Kosmos, located close to the famous Alexanderplatz in Berlin was the largest most modern and popular cinema of the former GDR. In the old times it had more than 1000 seats. The building now stands under landmark protection, and since 2005 has been operated by Kosmos KG Berlin, which offers made-to-measure entertainment concepts for all kinds of events.

Kosmos offers five different halls plus a summer terrace and a lounge. The entrance hall has a capacity of approximately 600 people, in addition to two conference areas and a theatre auditorium.

The oval main hall extends over 1000sq.m. More than 10% of the space is reserved for the main stage with a 18x9m cinema/video screen and two 4x3m screens on the stage sides. Halls 2 to 4 are mainly used for seminars and theatre performances. The main hall is designed for big events and club dancing.

Two 10kW JBL Sound-Pow

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UK - The University of Surrey Students' Union in Guildford is the home to Rubix, the campus-based nightclub, which recently had a new Turbosound loudspeaker system installed.

The multi-levelled nightclub has a capacity of up to 1,500 students and sits directly on top of the Students' Union building. There are five areas: the main dance floor, Haris, the Bottle Bank, PJDs Bar and the main foyer and walkthroughs.

Ian Lipp, technical manager of Rubix explains the reasoning behind the new install: "The previous system was 10 years old and sounded like it needed replacing. The old one was a cross between an installation and a touring rig that we used in our other venues. We wanted to get a rig installed that was designed purely as an install for our club without the requirement of needing it to be used elsewhere."

The Turbosound products that make up the installation ar

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UK - An Allen & Heath iDR DSP system has been installed in St Paul's Church in London's Covent Garden as part of an overhaul of the sound distribution system.

The church, affectionately known as 'The Actors' Church' because of its long association with the theatre community, commissioned Autograph Sales to supply, design, install and programme a new audio system in time for the Julian Slade memorial where a host of stars, including Christopher Biggins, Jeremy Irons and Humphrey Barclay, turned out to pay their respects.

EM Acoustics speakers and MC2 amplifiers were installed in the main areas, with JBL speakers in the foyer and vicar's office. Processing is provided by the Allen & Heath iDR-8, which offers easy operation for non-technical users.

"The iDR-8 allows control of system presets, levels and muting from the front panel of the iDR-8 or from three remote location

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UK - The Winchester Passion held over the Easter weekend was a success and powered in the two major locations by Shermann RS5 systems. Three rental companies were involved in the process of providing sound for an estimated audience of 6,000 at Orams Arbour and up to 10,000 for the finale at Winchester Cathedral.

With 60 radio mic channels and a number of other inputs, sound and other peripherals for this event were handled by Soundbite of Winchester, Kinetic of Woking and AS Sound from Cambridge.

(Jim Evans)

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USA - A Renkus-Heinz loudspeaker system is helping deliver a visitor experience on the Valley Railroad Company's Essex Steam Train, an historic railroad which takes passengers back to the days of coal-fired locomotives.

At 20 miles an hour, passengers have time to sightsee and photograph historic towns, pristine natural scenery and bird life - even the occasional bald eagle - while riding 12 miles of resurrected 19th century track in the Connecticut River Valley.

Andrew Deneen of Xplore Productions, an exhibit design firm based in Old Lyme, Connecticut, reports: "The cars are about 60ft long and just 9ft wide, so it's difficult to get even sound coverage."

Deneen discovered that the only viable space to install loudspeakers was almost directly above the heads of some passengers. "We needed wide coverage in both the horizontal and vertical planes," he poin

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UK - Scala nightclub is a multi-purpose venue in King's Cross, on the north side of central London. In its current incarnation, the building has four main levels and accommodates events for up to 1,145 people. There are three bars, two dance floors and a stage for live performances. Last year, the owners of Scala decided the sound system in the main area needed an upgrade, so resident sound technician George Gregori contacted LMC Audio Systems to design a system using new Turbosound products that would work with the lively acoustics of the room.

"When considering a new sound system for Scala, the venue needed a system both versatile and robust across all music genres for both live and club events, and most importantly one that delivered clarity and quality," explains Gregori. "Since most of our week is taken up with quality live music and the weekends with high pr

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Canada - Adamson Systems Engineering struck a new Greek distribution deal with Nedis S.A. during Frankfurt's ProLight & Sound, and the contract has now been finalised.

Athens-based Nedis S.A. presently employs four full-time employees and two contracted technicians. To date, manufacturers such as Dynacord, Digico, and Beyerdynamic have come on board with Nedis S.A. for their Greek distribution.

Nedis S.A's business structure covers the entire country; 50% is managed through a total of 50 dealers dispersed in every populated centre around Greece, facilitating direct customer contact. The dealers are supported by Nedis S.A. whose staff will not only visit them frequently, but provide design and support on every installation, and perform continuous technical support with every sale, says the company.

Aris Kountouris, who continues as an active engineer with many famous Greek ar

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Norway - Norwegian PA rental company Lydfiksern used its new Allen & Heath iLive system to its full potential during this year's Sami Grand Prix (SGP) music contest.

SGP is part of the Sami Easter Festival, the biggest cultural gathering of the Northern Europe's indigenous Sami people, held at the Bakteharji Arena in Guovdageaidnu.

FOH engineer Thomas Mikarlsen selected the iLive system - comprising an iDR10 stage rack and iLive-144 control surface - for the event, and took full advantage of the eight effect engines, using no outboard processing.

The show was broadcast live by Norwegian national station, NRK, and for the first time in the event's history the FOH mix was used for the broadcast rather than the usual separate mix provided by NRK's own engineers.

Lydfiksern also provided a multi-track recording system for record producer Bernt Mikkel Haglund, comprising the

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UK - Event and entertainment lighting solutions provider MattLX is inviting industry professionals to a Meet, Greet and Scenic LED event to be held on 24-25 April 2008.

"The open days will give an opportunity to get a hands-on demonstration of Scenic LED - one of the newest and design elements to hit the event and entertainment industry and we are one of the few full service lighting companies specialising in this technology," said the company.

There will be four sessions across the two days at 11am and 3pm each day.

The event will take place at Essential Lighting's premises - Unit F, Imber Court Trading Estate, Orchard Lane, East Molesey, Surrey KT8 0BY. Due to the limited number of places at each session, those wishing to take part are asked to confirm their interest with Debby Clutterham at the MattLX office: email admin@mattlx.com or telephone 01580 8803

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UK - With a list of credits that includes the Big Chill fluidnation nights, Chill (DAB), the Fluid Nation compilations, and a previous career as one half of the acclaimed production duo Fragile State, Ben Mynott, now uses Audio-Technica's ATH-PRO700 professional headphones.

"I'm absolutely blown away with the ATH-PRO700 headphones. A lot of music I am mixing is orchestral in style, a lot of stuff with upright bass; with the Audio-Technicas the sound is beautiful. I love the bass response and the clarity. I have never used a headphone that's so perfectly balanced."

A resident fixture at London's Big Chill and Chill House nights, and on Chill (DAB), Mynott now pursues his multifarious activities under the Fluid Nation umbrella, producing, compiling and remixing compilations.

(Jim Evans)

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UAE - Special awards recognising the outstanding and creative use of light in the Middle East are to be sponsored by Philips. The Middle East Lighting Design Awards (known as MELDA) celebrate the creativity of the world's leading lighting designers who are enhancing the region's built environment through the power of light.

With climate change, Kyoto targets, rising energy prices, energy shortage and pressure to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions are major issues in today's world. However, Philips has been taking a lead in lighting technology that makes a significant difference in terms of energy and CO2 savings.

The company points out that more than 90% of the total cost of lighting is energy and prices of energy are rising year by year. "Switching over to energy efficient lighting systems can save on running costs," said Vikash Banwarie, Philips ME.

MELDA is a

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Finland - Thrash metal purveyors Megadeth kicked off another ambitious world tour in Finland in February, and once again, Dave Mustaine and the band were relying on equipment from EV.

Dave Mustaine and bassist James Lomenzo are longtime users and endorsers of EV microphone products. From the band's employment of EV's RE-1 dual guitar/bass wireless systems on the past two world tours to their recent upgrade to EV's latest offering, the REV, in mid-2007, the band has come to rely on EV, says the company. The EV N/D967 vocal microphone has also become a mainstay for its high gain-before-feedback, while the RE27N/D is the microphone of choice for James Lomenzo's bass.

(Jim Evans)

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Russia - The new multi-purpose ballroom and conference facility at Moscow's Holiday Inn Sokolniki hotel has been installed with over 60 Robe moving lights and colour mix fixtures, all custom finished in white to compliment the surrounding interiors.

The Holiday Inn Sokolniki is one of Moscow's newest hotels with one of the busiest function spaces in town. The room is utilised to stage anything from conferences and corporate presentations to exhibitions, weddings, awards shows and gala dinners.

The Ballroom can be divided into two separate areas by a screen-style folding wall, and the lights are installed on two box trusses in the ceiling - one in each room. "The idea was to ensure the room lighting offered absolutely the most flexible options," explains Dimitri Nikitin, head of lighting for lighting specifiers Light Sound Contractors (LSC).

The Ballroom - as it is

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UK - Back in the golden age of disco, Mr. Smith's in Warrington was at the vanguard of 1980s club culture, and with its advanced moving rig was firmly in the 'superclub' bracket.

Last December the venue was one of three purchased by Paul Kinsey's Nexum Leisure. Earmarking a generous £7m for redevelopment, the company assembled a design team - including Alan Brown at Blueprint Design and Will Norton at Leicester-based Willpower Sound and Vision - to reinvigorate the nightclub and transform the interior into a 2,000-capacity, two-room space.

Although the experienced Willpower started out in the rental industry more than 25 years ago - and still services stages at the major festivals - today the company is making great inroads in the corporate nightclub installation sector. While Will Norton has been buying QSC amplifiers for many years, he has chosen a QSC-processed line a

  1. The Week in Lighting & Sound
  2. Hotel Alexandra upgrades to C Series
  3. ETC lights St Petersburg theatre
  4. Crest powers rapper Bushido to victory
  5. DiGiCo D5 drives Bestt Sound
  6. Bielefeld Centre gets digital network
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