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14 March 2016

These were followed by 'hands on' sessions that permitted the sound professionals attending the course to form their own impressions of the practical advantages of the systems on view. Academy participants were also given a full tour of the works and were able to inspect the production and test facilities at EVI Audio's European headquarters in Straubing.

Export sales manager Frauke Jungbluth, who, together with Dynacord product managers Uwe Peppler and Martin Traut, was responsi

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14 March 2016

Wigwam is Ateis UK's first reseller of the Messenger digital line array column series, which are recognised for their exacting speech intelligibility in reverberant environments.

"Wigwam has enjoyed much success with the range and is excited about offering this training day to all designers, engineers, installers and rental specialists wanting to learn more about Messenger's potential across all commercial, ecclesiastical and auditoria application environments," say the company.

Most notably, Messenger has been deployed in Liverpool's Cathedral to offer a precise and effective solution in one of Europe's largest and most cha

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14 March 2016

The stadium, home to the MTSU Blue Raiders teams that play in the Division One Sun Belt Conference, is the newest venue within the university's Murphy Center Complex, which comprises all the athletic venues on campus. According to Josh Hoevelmann, electronic equipment engineer for MTSU Murphy Center, the Technomad Berlin loudspeakers rival the larger PA systems used for the football and baseball stadiums on campus.

"Everyone I talk to on campus is surprised at the audio quality and power output we're achieving from just two loudspeakers," said Hoevelmann. "The output is extremely clear even at mid-field, and it's not overbea

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14 March 2016

Worshippers packed out ExCel's main hall for Festival of Life, an event supported by over 150 churches in the UK.

Reading-based production company SFL Group provided the complete technical solution and production management for both events. This included over 120 speakers of d&b audiotechnic with Yamaha digital control surfaces, Barco projection and control systems, acoustic draping and stage lighting.

Brighton-based Tamplins Stage Lighting was engaged by SFL to provide the stage lighting element.

Lighting designer Sam Tamplin comments: "Last year I was looking for a more powerful desk to handle our growing show control needs and entered a competition to win a day's free

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14 March 2016

The Red TX mobile recorded the concert for promotional broadcasts and for a 13-minute electronic press kit that Universal is issuing to the media to promote the band's album and forthcoming tour.

Mike Kaufman, from production company Live Nation, commissioned Red TX to handle the audio recording. He says: "We needed an experienced team and you don't get much more experienced than the team behind Red TX. Choosing them for this project was a no-brainer."

(Jim Evans)

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14 March 2016

Given a choice, personally I would put SM57s on everything," Scott Sherbin says. "Ask me how to mic an elephant, and I'd just put a 57 on him. First and foremost, this is a rock 'n' roll band. That means they were born and bred with SM57s and SM58s. We don't ever want to lose sight of that fact, but at the same time we want to augment those sounds. Given the volume we're producing, we need something that steps out and allows us to change for so

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14 March 2016

Directional amplification, also referred to as Source Oriented Reinforcement (SOR), describes a practical technique to deliver amplified sound to a large listening area with even coverage while providing directional information to reinforce visual cues and create a realistic and non-contradictory auditory panorama.

The session included audio demonstrations of the fundamental psychoacoustic techniques employed in an SOR design and its limits discussed. Workshop chairman, Out Board's Dave Haydon, outlined the history of SOR; from Steinke & Fels pioneering work with their Delta Stereophony System in the m

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14 March 2016

Created by owner Phillippe Baeijens and Architects 4A, and with visual design by Luc Peumans' Painting With Light, the Royal Bowl was designed to combine a bowling alley with a restaurant and dance area. In the words of Candela project manager Geert Custers, "They created a bowling venue of a type never seen before in Belgium - a place where people could enjoy a complete night out."

The installation covers the venue's bowling lanes, restaurant, bars and dance floor with an integrated system that puts lighting, audio and video under the control of an E:cue system, commanded by a pair of ELO touch screens, programmed by Custe

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14 March 2016

The action-packed line up included Madonna, The Kooks, Usher, The Fratellis, Scouting For Girls, Goldfrapp, The Enemy, The Zutons, The Wombats and many more. The event was project managed for XL by Des Fallon and crew chiefed on site by Carl Martin.

The main stage visuals were designed by Paul Normandale, for which XL supplied 40sq.m of Lighthouse R16 LED screen, rigged left and right of the stage, plus 24 panels of Martin LC2140 screen onstage.

Two delay projection screens inside the tent were fed by two Barco R12 projectors. For the outside delay video, XL supplied one of their Barco B10 trailer-based LED screen systems.

The XL package also included a three Sony D50 camera system for the m

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14 March 2016

"Flexibility and reliability are what make the grandMA control system perfect for us," reports Artfag, LLC's Patrick Dierson, the lighting director for both artists. "We have both main and full-tracking backup consoles for lighting and video.The lighting consoles are networked into a PRG Series 400 system, which provides both power and data distribution for the show. A laptop in the dimmer pit runs grandMA onPC software to help facilitate everyday system checks before the FOH consoles are brought online."

(Jim Evans)

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14 March 2016

Aviom has identified training as a top priority in 2008. "There's a lot of interest in audio distribution and networking, but there's also a lot of uncertainty and confusion," says Lange. "Good, reliable information is critical to helping consultants and contractors make good design decisions. This year's training programme marks the beginning of an ongoing

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14 March 2016

Charting over a century of turbulent English history, this ambitious project reached its climax in the spring of 2008 in London's Roundhouse venue. One of the RSC's own DiGiCo D5T consoles ensured that the sound for this complex series of productions was delivered flawlessly.

With a sound design by Andrea J Cox and operated by Sarah Hollyman and Ed Borgnis, the audio system was necessarily intricate to accommodate regular performances of eight different plays in the same venue - sometimes with three different performances running back-to-back in a single day.

However, the D5T's internal matrix and snapshots ha

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14 March 2016

The annual Charity Awards ceremony, sponsored by the Charities Aid Foundation and The Times newspaper, is the most high-profile event in the charity world calendar. Now in its ninth year, the awards recognise excellence in the management of charities, acknowledging the outstanding work and achievements of all charities, big or small, from across the UK and the tireless commitment of the people behind them. The ch

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14 March 2016

London Transport Museum won the 2008 Permanent Exhibition Award for its New Permanent Galleries - and was also shortlisted for the Educational Initiative, Use of Technology and Classic Awards.

Vertigo undertook a variety of projects at the museum in preparation for its reopening in November 2007. Vertigo's chief rigger Matt Davies managed on-site projects that ranged from erecting the structural steel frame for the combined exhibition structure in the Museum's main display space, to suspending artifacts at high level inc

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14 March 2016

The Africa Day festival is a free annual event held in the Trafalgar Square and celebrates the contribution of London's African communities to the capital, including African arts, theatre, live music, food, stalls and crafts. The event was this year headlined by Manu Dibango, with a host of other artists including Bassekou Kouyate, Emmanuel Jal, Kanda Bongo Man and Gina Yashere.

Sunbaba provided seven custom-made full colour Ultramesh panels, with Keder and Eyelet finishing to brand the Star Events Group Morbit stage for the event, working with their extensive library of stage specifications to ensure the branded fitted perfectly for event organisers Bliss Events Management Ltd.

Technical director Trevor Booth explai

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14 March 2016

"The Jonas Brothers' Look Me In The Eyes tour started as a theatre tour then blew up and became a sold-out arena tour," notes John LaBriola who served as the tour's lighting director and programmer as well as lighting, set and video designer. "Initially there was going to be a modest amount of video and LEDs and not many other lights, then the show got bigger and added movers and additional LED panels.

"The goal was to make it video-heavy with a big, industrial look. When you look at the stage the main thing you see are the LED walls." LaBriola tapped two grandMAs for lighting and video con

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14 March 2016

The GE Edison Award competition, which celebrated its 25th anniversary this year, is open to those lighting professionals who creatively employ significant use of GE light sources (lamps and/or LEDs) in a lighting design project completed during the previous calendar year.

Situated on a promontory overlooking the Pentagon, the Washington Monument and the U.S. Capitol, the Air Force Memorial takes its place among the capital city's key monuments. Lighting is critical in establishing the nighttime identity of each of these structures. Soaring t

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14 March 2016

"The first few months of 2008 saw the Live Event safety passport grow from a good idea to a scheme that is gaining acceptance across the whole back-stage production area," said Andy Lenthall, general manager of the Production Services Association which represents companies and contractors in the live entertainment industry.

"With safety passport holders now numbering 1,000, and candidates spread across all disciplines at all levels, the PSA is confident that both the concept and course content deliver real benefits in terms of safety awareness."

Lenthall said that many major suppliers were now delivering safety passport courses to their in-house staff, with many insisting that sub-contractors should also hold safety passports

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14 March 2016

Of particular interest to visitors, the company says, was its new ATCS-60 infra-red conference system. Making an exclusive pre-launch appearance on the roadshow prior to its official unveiling at InfoComm 08 in Las Vegas on 18-20 June, the ATCS-60 drew praise from both trade and press attendees for its "flexibility, ease of use and keen UK pricing", say Audio-Technica.

Key features of the ATCS-60 (comprising the ATCS-C60 master control unit, ATCS-M60 mic unit, ATCS-A60 antenna unit and ATCS-B60 battery charger) include secure wireless conferencing - the result of using IR technology; self-contained M60 mic units with built-in speaker, negating the need for e

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14 March 2016

With three floors in Reading trading on 7,000sq.ft, and giving them a combined capacity in excess of 600 people, the company brought in Redgates as the main contractor, Julian Taylor of Taylor Design Associates to reconceive the interior, and SSE Audio Group to design a networked sound solution, using Martin Audio components. The result is a vibrant new infrastructure geared up for a long duty cycle, and unrecognisable from its days as The Fez.

Faced with specifying a system that on the one hand could reproduce hi-fi background music from midday onwards, and high-energy Hed Kandi nights for th

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14 March 2016

The consoles have been installed in the Palace's concert hall, the largest in the country, which hosts a wide range of events from pop and rock through to orchestral performances, opera, ballet and theatre. The 56 channel H3000 is being used at front of house, and is paired with the H4000 - again a 56 channel version - for monitors.

To complement the purchase of the consoles, the Palace has also invested in seven Klark Teknik DN370 graphic EQs and 1248 Plus mic splitters.

"The Midas consoles met all our venue's requirements for new analogue mixers," says the Palace of the Republic's sound engineer Ivan Barovsky. "The user interface and sound quality are second to none. This, coupled with the wide range of featu

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14 March 2016

Beneath the extensive production facilities of the Southampton Solent University's new 200-seater venue Studio C, lightweight Cat 5e cables are distributing up to 40 channels of high-quality 24-bit/96kHz audio between stage and recording studio, TV studio, and either or both of two discrete PA systems. Although it holds all the audio together, the RSS Digital Snake remains out of sight and out of mind, only visible at the point of source connection, where there is a 32x8 modular stagebox.

SSU's Studio C is an ambitious concept; a former lecture theatre which has been converted into a multi-purpose live space, it aims to provide training and performance facilities f

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14 March 2016

"The client's brief," says Private Drama Events director Adam Blackwood, "was for a glamorous, spectacular awards dinner with a knockout theatrical element, and the Science Museum was chosen to align the theme of space exploration with people who had done extraordinary things for the company's customers."

After a reception in the museum's Exploring Space gallery, guests made their way upstairs past a flashing runway and into a recreation of the Houston NASA Mission Control Centre, starring a life-sized

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14 March 2016

Many product developments will be on show, across all disciplines of lighting, audio, rigging, staging and accessories.

On the lighting front, Selecon will showcase its new 80V Power Supply with direct DMX control, while ETC will highlight products that offer low cost of ownership and sustainable solutions. PRG Europe will highlight its products and services.

Zero 88 will demonstrate its new version 3 software for its Leap Frog 48 & 96 consoles and its Jester ML series. Stage Electrics will premiere the QMaxz 575 moving head, which they say offers cost effectivity and high performance as the latest addition to its expansive rental fleet.

TMB will showcase the multi-award winning Blues System comprising t