Business

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Bahrain - Almost a year to the day after Creative Technology (CT) formally established its Dubai operation, the company has again played a major part in the Middle East's flagship Bahrain Formula 1 Grand Prix.

The event, in its fifth year; has taken place at the spectacular Sakira Circuit in the Gulf Kingdom of Bahrain has involved CT every year since the inaugural race in 2004. This year however saw the introduction of several new products from the CT inventory.

CT works alongside long-time partner Screen Visions, who are responsible for the overall project management, logistics and production of the circuits dedicated closed circuit TV channel 'Fan TV'. In previous years this required a fully equipped PPU (Portable Production Unit). This year CT streamlined the production with the introduction of the "Slate", a revolutionary PC-based production system which incorpo

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In the increasingly digital environment we work in, interested parties are making big efforts to explain the potential benefits. The Roland Systems Group (RSG), for example, is to host a series of Open Afternoons to introduce the new M-400 Digital Mixer and the Digital Snake, the latest technologies from RSS by Roland. RSG is recruiting specialist support from allied companies to provide a fully rounded programme for "a day rich in hands-on opportunities".

The major lighting story of the week is Clay Paky's announcement that it has signed Production Resource Group, LLC (PRG) as the exclusive distributor of Clay Paky moving lights in the US, English-speaking Canada and Japan.

China continues to offer great business opportunities for specialist manufacturers and installers. In total, the multiple venues of Guangzhou University City utilised 124 Community R2, 124 R.5 systems,

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Turkey - The CRR (Cemal Resit Rey) Concert Hall annually hosts a wide variety of live shows, concerts and events - including rock, pop, jazz and classical in addition to conferences, theatre and dance productions.

ELIT, L-Acoustics distributor in Turkey, supplied and installed a complete L-Acoustics FOH line source array in the 860 seats venue. The system consists of nine dV-DOSC and three dV-SUB cabinets per side, all driven and protected by six LA8 amplified controllers. In addition L-Acoustics self-powered coaxial enclosures 112P and 108P are being used as mobile systems for monitoring and fill applications to suit the various production requirements.

Cédric Montrézor, technical support engineer for L-Acoustics, comments: "I was very impressed by the professionalism of ELIT's crew and by the quality of integration in this project. Our combined engineering

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UK - Academy Music Group (AMG) has agreed terms with Portmanor Projects to acquire the Dome on Bristol Street, Birmingham, for development as a live entertainment venue. AMG proposes a full £4m refurbishment programme of the 45,000sq.ft purpose-built 1970's nightclub, which has been closed for many years.

Birmingham has welcomed major regeneration in recent years, including the Bullring Shopping Centre and in 2006, Birmingham City Council granted planning consent to Martineau Galleries for a £600m Eastside Parks development, including the Priory Square Shopping Centre and Dale End, incorporating the existing location of Carling Academy Birmingham and surrounding area. The project team proposes a mixture of retail, leisure, office and residential spaces, with work anticipated to start in 2009. The Academy will continue to trade whilst development of the new venue take

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Spain - The Carnaval de Vinarós in Valencia is one of the most famous Spanish fiestas. The whole town is given over to two weeks of highly colourful festivities including parades, concerts, and this year's highlight, a spectacular drag queen fashion extravaganza. Full service production company, E.J.R. Systems SL based in Benicarló was responsible for the complete system used throughout the carnival, with collaboration from two other production companies, Dodinuf and Yapadú Produccions.

Dodinuf and Yapadú Produccions, who were responsible for the audio element, opted for Lab.gruppen amplification throughout, in the form of 10 fP Series fP 6400s, eight fP 3400s and two FP 13000. Processing was courtesy of Dolby Lake with an EAW KF730 system on the front end.

Eduardo Soriano, Yapadú Produccions co-owner and sound technician specialist reports, "I honestly enjoy my job

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UK - The Association of British Theatre Technician's ABTT Theatre Show is approaching its 30th anniversary event in London's Royal Horticultural Halls, 11-12 June 2008.Many new innovations on the lighting front will be showcased this year with an emphasis on energy efficiency in line with the Theatres Trust conference on sustainable theatres to be held on 10 June. Selecon will showcase its new 80V power supply with direct DMX control removes the need for any dimming products. When combined with the Philips 80V 100W energy saving lamp it delivers the appearance of 2kW of white light from the Pacific range or the Rama 175 high performance Fresnel.

ETC will also highlight products that offer low cost of ownership and sustainable solutions. Its highly efficient Source Fours will be on display. These fixtures are currently being deployed in Hackney's Arcola theatre being powered by a

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Slovakia - Rock band Team has just completed a tour with Allen & Heath's iLive digital mixing system and an ML4000 VCA console. Headed by singer and guitarist, Pavol Habera, Team embarked on a 17-date Best of tour covering the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Allen & Heath's ML4000 VCA console was used as the FOH mixer, with the digital iLive system, comprising an iDR10 mix rack and iLive-144 control surface, managing monitor sound.

(Jim Evans)

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USA / UK / Germany - At the beginning of March the film production of the Sony Foam City commercial took place in Miami. The foam effects were provided by well-known special effects rental company Back Stage Technologies from Wiltshire (UK). To carry out the job they expanded their special effects rental equipment by eight MBN F-630 foam generators, an MBN FC-500 foam cannon and an MBN F-300 foam generator. Also, a large quantity of MBN foam fluid was used.

Back Stage Technolgies copied the idea of a concert speaker system - i.e. the complete system was made up of many smaller systems that were bolted together. The foam machines were made in such a way that they became modular and, like the speaker systems, could be bolted together on location and suspended in arrays. In this way they could create a foam generating system that was both portable as well as giving them the

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UK - The Roland Systems Group (RSG) is to host a series of Open Afternoons to introduce the new M-400 Digital Mixer and the Digital Snake, the latest technologies from RSS by Roland. RSG is recruiting specialist support from allied companies to provide a fully rounded programme for "a day rich in hands-on opportunities".

The V-Mixing System from RSS, comprising the M-400 48-channel digital console and 40-channel digital snake, will be offered up for test drives. Sister company Edirol will be presenting professional video technology and addressing topical issues such as audio-video integration.

Sound reinforcement system manufacturer RCF will be demonstrating its new line array and power amplifier designs. Sennheiser will offer a selection of wired and wireless microphones to be tried out in a real live environment, with real live musicians.

RSG's Open Afternoons wi

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Norway - Norwegian projector manufacturer, projectiondesign will be exhibiting for the first time on stand B117 at ITEC 2008 and will present their comprehensive range of high resolution and specification projectors.

The ITEC exhibition is dedicated to defence training, simulation and education and takes place at the Stockholmsmässan in Stockholm, Sweden from 10 to 12 June 2008.

The projector range includes models at 1,920 x 1,200 (16:10), 1,920 x 1,080, (16:9) and 1,400 x 1,050 (4:3) resolutions, all of which are based on DLP technology. They are available in a variety of platforms and applications and come with multiple lenses and optics, advanced colour and black-level processing, interfaces and asset management properties. The projectors are designed, hand-built and made for each specific application in Norway and are ideal for the most critical and consistent operations

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UK - Currently celebrating their 30th anniversary, North London-based John Henry's Ltd have constantly kept their equipment inventory at the cutting edge. Specialising in primetime TV productions and artist showcases, late last year JHL purchased their first Soundcraft Vi6 digital console to mark the new BBC series of Strictly Come Dancing.

The purchase was recommended by JHL's general manager (and head of audio) Robert Harding. It proved so successful that it's now incorporated it into the regular control and PA package on the new series of Later ... With Jools Holland (BBC 2) - which now incorporates a live-to-air show, broadcast on Tuesday evening, as well as the regular show that airs on Friday.

While Harding also project manages Later..., it is JHL's Aden Gregory who has started operating the Vi6 on the show. He comments: "We started doing this s

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Dubai - Islamic architecture proved to be the inspiration and motivation for creative architectural lighting specialist Speirs & Major Associates. The international lighting design company garnered two awards at the Middle East Lighting Design Awards, which included the prize for 'Project of the Year', for their innovative lighting design for the Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan Mosque in Abu Dhabi.

The Mosque which accommodates more than 30,000 worshippers and is the sixth largest in the world also provided the perfect canvas for Speirs & Major to win the best interior lighting design for a 'Public Building'.

Speaking about the multi-award winning project, Jonathan Speirs, director at Speirs & Major Associates commented: "To win not just one but two awards for the same building is a testimony to the talent and dedication within our team as well as the quality of our lig

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Dubai - Having experienced success at the PALME, Dubai exhibition earlier this month, Robert Juliat have decided to return to the region for the Light ME fair, also to be held at the Dubai International Exhibition Centre (25-27 May 2008).

"We attended PALME with the express intention of demonstrating the superb capabilities of Robert Juliat profiles for long-throw projection of images onto building exteriors," explains Robert Juliat sales director, Lionel Garraud. "The response amongst event and advertising companies from all over the Middle East was phenomenal. The full potential of this form of promotion and branding is now being realized and our clients are eager for us to help them fulfill their ideas."

At Light ME, Robert Juliat will be showing clients how to transform their own brand with clear, bright, eye-catching projections. Robert Juliat will be

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UK - 3M and Impact Marcom report that The Work Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation that advises enterprises on best working practices, is using the 3M Digital Wall Display (DWD) 9200IW plus in conference rooms at its Central London headquarters.

"Customers of the venue and clients of our consulting activities include public sector organisations and large blue-chip enterprises, who expect access to powerful presentations combining a variety of media and techniques," said Nina Gryff, venue manager, The Work Foundation. "The 3M-based solution delivered by Impact Marcom significantly enhances our in-house activities and our offering as an independent conferencing venue."

(Jim Evans)

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China - Guangzhou University in Guangdong Province is one of the largest and most prestigious university communities in China. With the largest investment in infrastructure in China's higher education facilities to-date, Guangzhou University City is comprised of 10 universities and educates 200,000 students on a campus that houses 10 stadiums, 10 gymnasiums, one natatorium and a large central stadium. Sanecore Audio was appointed as the sound system designer and supplier for 16 venues within this 'university city'.

Eight gymnasiums were outfitted with Community R-Series loudspeakers, Crest amplifiers and Symetrix DSP systems. In the multipurpose 4,986-seat Guangdong Pharmaceutical University Gymnasium, 16 Community R2 and four R.5 loudspeakers were installed, along with 11 Crest Audio CPX amplifiers and Symetrix Express Cobra DSP systems for audio control. Similar equipment was

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Hungary - Nine Miles Down, the new psychological thriller from director Anthony Waller, delves into the human psyche and explores what happens when fears and superstitions triumph over logic and reason.

The story starts in a deserted, storm-battered drilling station in a remote region of the Sahara Desert. Filming the interiors, however, took place in a disused champagne factory in Budapest, where ETC's Source Four luminaires and Congo lighting control desk helped to create some of the special effects. The equipment - which included 21 Source Four 19° and six Source Four 26° profile spotlights - was supplied through Visionteam (Budapest) and TSF (Paris).

Director of photography Roger Simonsz had a few different lighting challenges to overcome. The brief required him to create the feeling of a building surrounded by a sandstorm as well as an ambience of moonlight

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Singapore - Covering an area of four floors of the Suntec City Convention Centre, SAP Asia held its annual field kick off meeting in Singapore. Concept 360, the responsible event management company based in Singapore, organised the convention with the theme of Take it Higher. Bringing customers, partners, top executives and employees from all over Asia and Australia together, the convention gave an insight in SAP's strategy for the upcoming years. The three days of intensive workshops culminated in the Sentosa Gala Beach Party.

Lighting designer and programmer Fares Aljunied used two grandMA full-size, one grandMA light, one MA NSP and two grandMA video media server for the show. The sheer size of the venue made it necessary to consider a network based layout. Several stages and installations were spread out over the various floors which had to be linked. According to Alj

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Sweden - One of the largest touring musicals of 2008 has completed a nationwide run, playing 15 arenas all over Sweden. The Sound of Music, starring Pernilla Wahlgren and Tommy Nilsson, has carried full technical production from Malmö to Luleå, including a full Nexo Geo T line array system.

Originally, this production opened in a theatre in Stockholm, using a compact Geo S line array. On tour, the show is on the road for five weeks, playing in ice-hockey arenas to audiences of between 2,000 - 6,000. The sound reinforcement system has been provided by Music & Lights AB, a left/right flown Geo T line array design which varies slightly from venue to venue.

"Although they are all sports venues, we assess each one independently," says Matthias Andersson from Music & Lights. "We consider the needs of each location, especially the sightlines. The Geo T system

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UK - High End Systems Inc, located in Austin, Texas, USA wants to host one lucky winner to an all-expense-paid trip to Austin to visit their facilities and see some of their latest products - including the DL.3 Digital Light, Showgun, and the Road Hog Full Boar, plus many other exciting tools. Austin is the live music capital of the world, full of cowboy boots, margaritas and sunshine . . .

To enter, simply visit www.highend.com/austintrip

One winner will be selected at random to visit HES' world-class facilities for a private demonstration and be treated to Texas-style hospitality. But hurry! Contest ends June 15, 2008 at midnight BST.

Drawing rules: No purchase necessary. Entrants must be 21 years of age or older and possess a valid passport. Limited to one entry per person. Entries must be received by June 15, 2008. Random drawing will be held on June 16, 2008.

The priz

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UK - KT Tunstall will judge the final selection for an innovative new award for aspiring singer-songwriters in the UK - the Shure Creative Award, which will be sponsored by Shure Distribution UK, the Institute of Contemporary Music Performance and Play Music Pickup magazine.

Applicants will be required to upload a video of themselves performing an original song on any instrument to the website www.shurecreativeaward.com, which will be live beginning 30 May. All entries will be judged by the general public and a panel of experts. Tunstall will pick the final winners.

The winner will have the once-in-a-lifetime chance to professionally develop his or her musical talent and skills, including the opportunity to perform in live showcase events in London, by receiving a free scholarship for the Institute's one-year Higher Diploma course in London, which will commence in Octob

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UK - The Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama is the first education venue to purchase a Stage Technologies' power-flying system for use with training modules which will be integrated into their curriculum. With an Illusionist control desk on their fly-floor and an additional 28 computers in their PC lab running Chameleon software, the RSAMD can now offer their students offline training on a virtual flying system and a real system to operate in their theatre.

Steve MacLuskie, lecturer of stage technology at RSAMD, comments: "The PC lab is an excellent facility and will allow students to play and experiment in a virtual environment without the worry and safety concerns of the real motors. Once comfortable with the virtual environment it will make the transition to the real desk and the real motors less intimidating."

As well as providing the RSAMD with the latest

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Singapore - Visitors to evenTech Singapore (Singapore Expo from 25 - 26 June, 2008) can expect an informative and tailored educational programme of seminars across the two-day format, alongside the trade exhibition and social networking functions, say the organizers. Exhibitors and sponsors of the inaugural event include DAS Audio, d&b audiotechnik, Audio Technica and ProAktiv Systems.

Darren Brechin, Scattered Media director and evenTech co-creator, states: "AV equipment suppliers in south-east Asia and AV manufacturers from around the world had requested an event of this type for this area. In a region where the market is currently very strong, it is clear Singapore was lacking a networking event dedicated to this niche sector."

(Jim Evans)

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Ireland - onepointtwo designed and supplied the interior lighting for the Louis Fitzgerald Hotel which recently opened in Dublin on the Naas Road. A prestigious hotel which is contemporary yet inviting, the lighting had to reflect the character of the hotel.

"We wanted the lighting to blend effortlessly with the rest of the décor but in certain key areas such as in the lobby, bar and restaurant we wanted to make a real statement," says Paul Donegan, design director at onepointtwo.

"The lobby is the visitor's first port of call in the hotel and should reflect the kind of hotel that you are staying in. In the Louis Fitzgerald Hotel, it is modern yet comfortable and the lighting concept needed to complement this."

The lighting design for the four star Louis Fitzgerald Hotel caters for all aspects of the hotel's lit environment including the bar, resta

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USA - Nexxus Lighting reports that Advanced Lighting Systems, a Nexxus Lighting company located in Sauk Centre, Minnesota has completed the lighting for the Norbert F. Beckey bridge in Iowa, which stretches from Iowa to Illinois across the Mississippi River 170 miles west of Chicago. A ribbon cutting ceremony officially marked the occasion on 12 May.

"The lighting system only requires 43 Advanced Lighting Systems LiveLED 100 RGB fixtures to illuminate the fifteen hundred foot bridge including the girders measuring 60 to 90ft high and piers 100ft high," explained Paul Benton, national sales manager for Advanced Lighting Systems. "Using a DMX lighting controller, multiple colour patterns wash the structure and create a stunning picture for this bridge and the surrounding area of Muscatine."

"This project was three years in the making and it was satisfyin

  1. Jands Vista controls the 2008 Césars
  2. Eurogress expands with Dreamlines
  3. Alfa Romeo Turkey installs Vikuiti Film
  4. Hungary's A-Logic invests in Nexo
  5. EV at Australian Olympic Torch Relay
  6. High End Systems debuts on-line training centre
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