Working under instructions from the Army, Police officers evacuated the area, whilst a 200m cordon was put in place, forming an exclusion zone around the bomb. This effectively resulted in the immediate closure of the entire Film Studios, affecting all current productions in 15 stages totalling 114,000sq.ft and resident on-site businesses plus 200 production offices.
One of the oldest tenants in 3 Mills Studios, Rigging Se
"The art and practice of system alignment is as varied and expanding as the people, equipment and applications that encompass the field," says Jamie Anderson, company CEO and resident Educator Guy. "Anyone that understands their tools can create new and effective ways to use them, and our goal is to help that process along for the benefit of the measurement community as a w
The announcement that L-Acoustics has signed an Icelandic distributor, Nyherji, is further evidence that this North Atlantic outpost has established itself as a leading player on the international live sound circuit. Many international tours now include Reykjavik in their itineraries, whi
Having recovered from its financial difficulties of the last three years, Cadac was close to putting its new digital console into production to fulfil an anticipated order book of approximately £2m. The directors are hopeful that buyers can be found for Cadac, as not only is the S-Digital console approaching production, but also the sales, service, refurbishment and new production of Cadac's analogue desks (F-type, J-type, R-type and S-type) is an ongoing business.
Managing director Bob Thomas said: "It is heartbreaking to see this
On the fixed installation side, Hrannar B Kristjanssson will focus on installing L-Acoustics systems to venues, club and sports halls.
On the rental side, Gunnar Moller, Nyherji rental manager is very enthusiastic about the dynamism of the rental market and foresees the future as "very promising".
(Jim Evans)
Marc Systems was contracted for the lighting and sound design, which on the sound side included four SpekTrix enclosures, two SpekTrix W, and two SpekTrix subs. The small 350 seat Brazil Telecom theatre's concert hall called for a system that would smoothly cover the wide room, without overpowering its intimate quality.
"The theatre will showcase performances by famous artists, but will also include performances by new regional talent," said Ricardo Knoepfelmacher, president of Brazil Telecom. "We want to guarantee diversity, and allow all people to have access to art and cu
Dion's world tour kicked off in South Africa on Valentine's Day 2008 and is due to run until the end of January 2009. Audio for the tour is being supplied by Canadian PA company Solotech, which has had a long relationship with Celine Dion; in fact, most of the tour's key personnel have worked with Dion for nearly 20 years, including tour manager Denis Savage, front-of-house engineer Frankie Desjardins and monitor engineer Charles Ethier.
Frankie Desjardins took over front-of-house duties last year, replacing Denis Savage who has stepped up to become tour/production manager. Together with Charles Ethier, they began the search for the tour's control systems while Ce
Lighting designer Nich Smith was brought in to design a lighting scheme which would form both an exciting interactive experience for the visitor whilst fulfilling the conservation requirements demanded by the sensitive exhibits.
The result was a series of 'Character Showcases', each of which contain significant props and archive materials pertinent to the individual author. The showcases are left intentionally dim until activated by a visitor using interactive touch screens to fade lights up on the appropriate object. This has the dual effect of restricting light exposure of the manuscripts, and engaging the visitor with the case contents.
The showcase lighting is a mixture of
Introduced last year, the Vodafone TBA gigs started out as small, secret venue gigs in front of an invited audience and with just one artist on stage. However this year the format has been expanded and Vodafone TBA is now taking the form of multi-artist mini festivals, the first of which took place on Sunday in Edinburgh's Princes Street Gardens. This was broadcast on Channel 4 with just a half hour delay.
Three bands took part in the gig - the Sugababes, the Feeling and 'odd-pop' trio, the Hoosiers. They performed live on the Ross Stage in front of an invited audience and also gave exclusive back-stage interviews to presenter and XFM DJ Dave Berry, which were subsequently broadcast as part of Channel 4's coverage.
Red TX was commissioned to han
BAHA Design's Alex Haje explained that the design process for Josephine faced a number of challenges: "The main issue was overcoming the limitations imposed by the height restrictions and the many structural supporting columns and beams in the space. My partner, Mood Bacho, was integral to the project's success with his background in installation, construction, and nightlife venues. He brings years of experience to the table working at clubs and lounges; which contributes greatly during the design and installatio
Dunne wanted find a way to present traditional Irish dance within a contemporary piece and an introduction to Sean Westgate of media server specialist Green Hippo by director Sinead Rushe, was the beginning of an evolutionary creative process which was to do just that.
"It is nearly a year ago since we all first met in London," recalls Dunne, "me not really knowing anything about film technology at this end - and Sean not knowing anything about bloody Irish dance at his end! We were not sure what the Hippotizer was really about and were a bit intim
The central attractions of the prize draw competition was the ultra-compact Dynacord D-Lite 1000 system and a Streamliner BSC-090 bicycle. Around 2,000 visitors vied for the stretch-bike with the longest single-seater frame in the world; exactly 587 of them correctly answered the questions posed regarding the technical details of the new D-Lite1000 system.
Custom-modified, the bike winged its way to Frau Weinfurtner just in time for the summer season.
(Jim Evans)
This centre celebrates sports events with wide media coverage. Bossman, D.A.S. distributor for Russia, was responsible for this project and chose D.A.S. Audio's Aero 38A.powered line array systems. 16 of these units were installed as a central cluster and eight Aero 218 subs as bass reinforcement.
Bossman installed 16 powered Aero 38A systems, divided into three zones. In the first and second zones they installed two clusters with three Aero 38A units each. A third zone includes a cluster of four powered Aero 38A modules. This configuration and the precise aiming provided by the rigging system offers a uniform coverage throu
This annual show is designed to set new standards every year, with an impressive set of scenery and lights. The organizers of MUZ-TV 2008 appointed JSA as main supplier for all staging and rigging equipment, based on their experience from last year and the fact that JSA is recognised as leading professional rental company in Russia.
A team of trained riggers were responsible for the complex installation of over 180 hoists. Prolyft hoists with several loading capacities were used, in combination with Prolyte B100 truss for the main grid.
(Jim Evans)
Based on Trantec's S6000 series, the S5.5 simultaneously operates up to 24 channels in 10 banks within its 35MHz window. Designed for larger projects, it utilises fully interactive PC monitoring, true-diversity reception, credit card size beltpacks, frequency autoscan, and in-built Infra-red data link.
Taylor's production company Taylor Made Broadcasts, has recently commenced a complete refit of one of its OB trucks and he explains, "Taking the Trantec wireless system on board has been a dramatic departure from the previous wired mics. We now have much more flexibility and t
"The impression combines high light output with very low power consumption, which is of great importance on tours with very variable lighting sets," Loose explained. "The lightness of these compact moving heads was of crucial importance on this tour, since all the lighting equipment had to be packed into a single trailer attached to the tour bus; with 24 conventional washlights that would have been unthinkable."
Loose mounted the moving heads in a 6 x 4 matr
Artists on tour have been Snow Patrol, Keane, Human League, Brand New, Jarvis Cocker, Massive Attack, The Klaxons, Lily Allen, and the Super Furry Animals.
This year's shows and events have included supplying lighting for The People's Opening' Extravaganza to launch Liverpool's European Capital of Culture year, ,I>Dream On, the launch of theatre producer Bill Kenwright's new boyband, Roisi
Based in Austin, Texas, High End Systems employs 156 people and is a profitable company with USD 44m sales in 2007. The total value of the transaction is USD 55m, which implies an EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation, amortisation) multiple of around eight on the past 12 months. The impact on 2008 EPS (earnings per share) is estimated to be about neutral due to the required IFRS (International Financial R
"Artistic Licence has a strong footing in the international projects market, and an equally strong presence for its products within mainland Europe," explains Artistic Licence managing director, Wayne Howell. "Within the UK, however, it is viewed primarily as the provider of solutions to a specific set of, mainly DMX orientated, problems.
"Many people do not realise the full extent of our product range, which includes LED fixtures and component parts for OEM, in addition to the well known Art-Net Ethernet products such as Net-Lynx and Data-Lynx. Our intention therefore is to spread the remit of our product range across a wider market, increasing its profile to inc
Ben Jenkins, event manager at KAVE, says: "KAVE Theatre Services has established itself as a key player in the outdoor events environment and the Avolites products we now stock have assisted to ensure we deliver top quality results, with the reliability our customers rightly expect.
"Last year we worked with the band The Feeling and the Avolites products allowed us to achieve great results throughout the show. Customers are already requesting the Art 2000T4 dimmers and the Pearl Expert lighting desk for the Edinburgh Festival which we are delighted to supply. There is no doubt that the Avolites dimmers and desks were a great investment as they have proved to be very popular with customers and our engineers alike."
(Jim Evans)
Video director Jon Shrimpton added his magic into the 15 screen live mix at the concert staged in front of 35,000 excited fans - the largest own-headlining show the band has played to date.
Once again, Shrimpton collaborated closely with lighting designer Richard Larkum on the look and feel of the show, cutting the IMAG from FOH instead of the more conventional side-stage position.This was something they started on the arena tour at the end of 2007, finding it enhanced communication and a creative rapport..
The Elland Road stage was similar in set up to that of the arena tour, with five portrait format screens 'crowning' the action above the front of the stage. At this show, these were constructed from Barco MiTrix - 18 tiles high and five wide - chose
Lab.gruppen's managing director Tomas Lilja says, "At Lab.gruppen we have always taken customer support very seriously, talking and listening to our customers and taking their views on board. Over the last year we have conducted a series of informal research initiatives and the results have influenced the new website design and content."
"Right from the outset we've provided an auto-update feature on the PLMSeries software and firmware installer and we have now extended this initiative to make all updates and informational improvements totally available," says Michael Jarl Christensen, VP sales and marketing. "The new webs
The total production consists of 120 rigging points of which 60 are flown from a main grid.
Confronted with a very tight touring schedule, resulting in short load in and load out times, head rigger Dave Rowe, decided that pre-rigging a part of the total production was the best solution. Together with Fabrice Danvou from Servi Scene, he designed the main grid to facilitate pre-rigging the show.
The main grid, named "the advanced rig", consist entirely of Prolyte S52SV and H30V trussing.Servi Scene has sub hired all the Prolyte materials from AED Belgium.
The production team, a combination of English and Australian technicians, are very impressed with both the easy coupling system and the strength of thes
"The thing that really got me excited was how fast everyone just plain got the new products, and the great ideas they all had for improvements," says president Keny Whitright.
Tom Ferguson, shop foreman and rental operations manager for Hudson Sound and Light, says he appreciates companies asking for input on their products. "If you're going to shove it down somebody's throat, there's going to be some resentment," Ferguson says.
The event previewed some of Wybron's new products as well as changes to its Infogate software, which uses two-way communication protoco
