Business

Details
The Netherlands - The DPA 4017 shotgun microphone has provided an ingenious solution for Broadcast Facilities Nederland (BFN) for the radio broadcast of Olivier Messiaen's opera St François d'Assise at the Muziek Theater Amsterdam.

Soloist Camilla Tilling, in the role of the angel, had to descend from heaven, with her vocals captured clearly by chief broadcast sound engineer Rob Heerschop from BFN - without showing the microphone. Heerschop asked DPA's Dutch distributor Amptec if he could try out the 4017 and found the results to be so good that BFM ordered the shotgun right away.

The 4017 was mounted in two different positions during the production. The first was on a stand in the middle of the orchestra, aimed at the angel 10m above. "The microphone was in the middle of a large woodwind section but this had hardly any effect on the angel's voice, which was open

Details
Germany - The Autostadt is a visitor attraction in the area around the Volkswagen factory in Wolfsburg that features a museum, pavilions for each manufacturer in the Volkswagen Group, a cinema, and a customer centre where customers can pick up their new cars. As a communication platform of the Volkswagen Corporation, the Autostadt is more of a modern adventure park. Since opening of the Autostadt in 2000, more than one million customers have taken delivery of their brand-new Volkswagen there.

The centerpiece is the Car Distribution Centre with its two glass-encased car towers, or silos - the landmark of the Autostadt - each rising 52m into the sky. Used as storage for new Volkswagens, the two towers are connected to the Volkswagen factory by a 700m underground tunnel.

Thomas Wlocka, project manager of Technical Event Management at Autostadt, who was also responsible for the li

Details
USA - When the Disco Fever tour headlined by KC & the Sunshine Band made a recent stop at L.A.'s Greek Theater, thousands of disco fans of all ages turned out. Although the music may have been classic '70s dance tunes, the lighting effects were over-the-edge 21st century, thanks to Acclaim Lighting's X-Panel low-res LED screen system, which put on a high-tech display of colourful graphics on the wall behind the stage.

Lighting design/production company Stage-Tech used 36 X-Panel Frame Systems linked together to create the video display. The X-Panel is a lightweight 8.3" square panel with 25 high-intensity RGB LEDs that can be used in multiples to produce video, graphics, text, animated cartoons, or any combination. Each X-Panel Frame System consists of a 3' x 4' flying frame with 12 X-Panels and an Acclaim X-PD-150 power supply pre-mounted to it.

According to Stage

Details
UK - Theatre Projects and the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA) have always enjoyed a fruitful collaborative relationship, but they have now further cemented this relationship with the renewal of The Robert Stanton - Theatre Projects Bursary Fund for LAMDA students.

Conceived as an acknowledgement of Bob Stanton's founding of the innovative Two Year Stage Management & Technical Theatre course at LAMDA in 1965, the bursary was originally launched as a celebration of Bob's 85th birthday. Stanton was a legendary British stage manager and honorary LAMDA fellow who was instrumental in helping Theatre Projects' founder and chairman emeritus, Richard Pilbrow, to start up his early career and then establish Theatre Projects.

Stanton became a consultant to Theatre Projects and was the original director of the pioneering Two Year Stage Management & Technical Theatre cours

Details
USA - Excitement Technologies Group (ETG) has completed its move to new facilities near Dallas, TX. The laser / special effects group didn't have to travel far from their former location.

Along with more breathing room, their new address (4301A Lindbergh Drive, Addison, TX 75001) offers several notable amenities. According to president Kelly Sticksel: "We're very excited to move into this new building. With dedicated R & D space for our special effects department, we can better push the edge of the envelope - without one technician pushing it into the workspace of another one."

(Jim Evans)

Details
UK - XL Video supplied video equipment and crew to two high profile performances at the 2008 Greenwich & Docklands International festival in London. The event presented a free programme of street and outdoor entertainment throughout the area, including Runand Time Is Like Flowing Water. Technical Manager for both events for the Festival was Richard Williamson.

XL's project manager Paul Wood comments: "This is the first time XL has been involved with this event. It was great to be involved with creative projects such as this, and it's good to see artists incorporating and experimenting with video in inventive ways."

Staged at The Queen's House next to Greenwich Maritime Museum, Runtold the history of running, with the help of dancing, choreography, music and HD video.

XL supplied four Barco FLM HDR18 projectors, two Doremi HD video hard drives a

Details
USA - Known as America's National Park for the Performing Arts the Wolf Trap venue, Vienna (VA), has installed two grandMA full-size in its Filene Center. Wolf Trap's typical season includes performances ranging from pop, country, folk and blues to orchestra, dance, theatre and opera as well as performance art and multimedia presentations. Its larger venue Filene Center is a 7,000-seat indoor/outdoor theatre.

"We had other desks and needed an upgrade so we acquired three grandMAs, one of them a replay unit, and four MA NSPs as our house lighting control system," reports Wolf Trap's head electrician Henry Parks. "Performances here start at the end of May, and we do approximately 100 different shows until mid-September. Basically, we have a large conventional rig with lots of Color Faders and SeaChangers; we have around 1,500 conventional fixtures and about 40 multi

Details
UK - London-based production company Event Concept has boosted its AV capabilities by offering the latest live digital sound, live video and media production services as well as VJ and DJ performances.

Commenting on the company's expansion, managing director Mark Beaver said: "We have excellent relationships with the industry's top sound and video suppliers and we will continue to partner with them on our larger projects. More of our clients are taking their events to full production level, needing a much wider range of services, so it makes sense that we have the skills and equipment under one roof to offer a more efficient, integrated solution where possible."

The AV team is headed by Jamie Corteen, former director of 2 Bit TV, a live video performance and events production company. Corteen is supported by AV production designer Jonny Stewart, formerly Head of Vide

Details
UK - Wembley Stadium played host to the Foo Fighters for two nights, which saw a packed stadium with upward of 80,000 strong crowds and support acts including Supergrass and members of Led Zeppelin as special guests performing with the band.

Having just got back from filming The Champions League in Moscow, Spidercam was brought in by Splinter Films, specialists in music and live events, to cover the massive concerts. Both nights' shows were filmed and the result was ready for cinema release at the end of the month, and will also be available for MSN broadcast and on Blu-ray DVD.

The stage design which included a B-stage that wrapped round the front of house control position was joined to the main open stage by a thrust walkway that ran almost the length of the pitch. This extensive performance area called for a different approach to filming and Spidercam provided full 360 degr

Details
Romania - Bosch's Digital Congress Network (DCN) Next Generation conference system was installed in the Romanian Palace of Parliament building for the 2008 NATO Summit conference. The conference hosted around 3,000 delegates, including 24 Heads of State, 26 Prime Ministers and over 80 officials having ministerial rank. Around 3,500 journalists also attended.

The conference system was installed in five different rooms inside the Palace of Parliament building. The spacious Unirii Hall was used as the main conference room, accommodating 65 delegates, around 200 listeners and 46 interpreters with 24 interpreter booths (each with two or three interpreters).

The main racking system serving the Unirii Hall comprises two DCN Next Generation central control units, two audio expanders to provide recording for different audio channels (for local and European Broadcast Union recording), a

Details
Italy - Agora, the largest rental company in Italy and sound provider of world-renowned artists such as Eros Ramazzoti, Laura Pausini, Luciano Ligabue, Ennio Morricone, Claudio Baglioni, Renato Zero and Zucchero, has recently invested in 54 units of additional L-Acoustics Kudo system, together with L-Acoustics LA8 amplified controllers. This Kudo system completes Agora's large inventory of 600 L-Acoustics Dosc enclosures.

Wolfango De Amicis, director of Agora, says: "With the addition of Kudo - LA8 to our rental inventory, we have now a very flexible system that can be used one day in a concert and the next day at a major outdoor event, in complement to the V-Dosc system or alone. Vittorio De Amicis, my brother, Daniele Tramontani, L-Acoustics CVE, and myself have been pleased by the sound quality that Kudo - LA8 deliver, and impressed by the LA8 presets. The digital amps g

Details
UK - DiGiCo has enlisted the services of Mick Anderson Consulting.

"Part of what we do at Mick Anderson Consulting is to give clarity of vision. Sometimes, when you're deep in the middle of something, it's very difficult to have the time more than anything else to stand back and say 'where are we going?," says Anderson.

"For DiGiCo, this comes under the heading of international business development. These skills are nothing that DiGiCo doesn't already have, but the company is growing very fast, so they're doing exactly the right thing: where they require a little expert help, they're bringing it in from the outside. We have a lot of contacts, we know the markets, we know the product categories well and therefore we can come in fast with help and information."

"It's nice to have someone who knows the industry well, who I've known for a long time and w

Details
France - French lighting and sound company Arpege has recently completed the installation of a Nexo GEO D system at the newly refurbished Casino-Theatre hall in Toulouse, a highly-regarded entertainment complex within its region. The building includes a casino, three restaurants, three bars, conference rooms, and a large theatre of 1200 seats. At the end of 2007, a tender was put forth for a complete audio upgrade within the theatre.

Successful installation and rental company Arpege proposed a solution which they felt would provide a versatility and ease of use that the in-house engineers were seeking. For the Arpege team, this venue of 1200 seats presented many intricacies; with 150 events already announced for the coming year, the theatre required a system that would be versatile enough to handle all the different types of events as well as manage the challenging acoustics of

Details
USA - New Birth South Metropolitan Church, a new build 4,000-seat worship facility in the south metropolitan area of Atlanta, GA, features a digital audio network built around three Innovason digital mixing consoles.

The new premises boasts a technologically sophisticated AV system including three Innovasaon digital consoles on an EtherSound network connected to a PC equipped with an LX4646ES soundcard from Digigram for digital multitrack recording.

According to NBSMC's technical director, David Patrick, the idea from the beginning was to go digital. "For a large multifunction installation like ours, the practical and economic advantages offered by a digital system are too numerous to ignore," he noted.

(Jim Evans)

Details
UK - Projected Image Digital (PID) working closely with lighting design practice Mindseye Lighting has specified, supplied and installed 437 nodes of Element Labs VersaPIXEL, 437 custom polished, lacquered aluminium tubes and control for a dynamic light sculpture in the foyer of the Rotunda in Birmingham.

The distinct cylindrical Grade II Listed 266 ft tall high rise tower was designed by James A Roberts and originally completed in 1965 as a 25 storey office block. Last month, it was re-opened as a high profile residential development featuring 232 luxury apartments and a complete makeover by designers Urban Splash and architects Glen Howels.

London-based Mindseye Lighting was asked to come up with a dynamic eye-catching feature for the entrance to bring life, personality and vitality into the space. They contacted PID following a referral from LED manufacturer Element Labs as

Details
UK - HSL continues its long standing relationship as a lighting supplier to Granada Television Studios in Manchester with a selection of LED fixtures for ITV's new late night interactive Bingo Night Live.

Recorded in Granada's Starlight Theatre space and aired between midnight and 1 a.m. on ITV1, the series features a set designed by Julian Healey, with lighting designed by Neil Yates. It has kicked off with a selection of celebrity presenters including Melinda Messenger, Michael Underwood and Nichola Dixon.

Lighting has been co-ordinated by Taras Kochan who also programmed and is operating the console for the show and HSL's TV project manager, Sean McGlone.

HSL's kit on the show includes 24 JTE PixelPAR 90s and 18 PixelPAR 87s, all of which are used for various set dressing effects, plus 90 ChromaQ dB4 LED modules. These are used for up-lighting 'Bingo Central', a fu

Details
UK - Audient is among the impressive list of manufacturers that have been chosen to kit out ATRiuM, the ultra-stylish £35 million University of Glamorgan campus in the centre of the Welsh capital, which is now into its third term of teaching tomorrow's creative industry professionals.

The newly established Cardiff School of Creative & Cultural Industries brings together the creative disciplines within the University of Glamorgan, including Art & Design, Media & Communication and Drama & Music. The specially-designed building contains cutting edge technology and industry-standard studios. At the heart of the School's eight recording studios sit two Audient consoles: an ASP8024 and the ACS8024.

"Our experience with the first Audient desk purchased in 2003 has been so good that another Audient was the obvious choice for our expanded facilities: this time a 36-channel A

Details
UK - One of Plymouth's newest nightspots, the 45 Degrees Lounge Bar, has opened its doors to reveal a custom-built audio system, all controlled by a single Rane RPM88 Digital Signal Processor.

Located in Union Street, Plymouth's main club district, 45 Degrees is a bar and club with four different zones - a front bar, rear bar, dance floor and VIP room. The responsibility of creating easily controllable audio in all four zones fell to installation company Clockwork Audio.

"Basically we needed to find a good control system for the four different zones," says director Dave Monk from Clockwork Audio. "We needed a high-quality, reliable DSP unit to control it all. They needed a remote control unit as well, so we put an SR4 remote panel behind the bar."

"The owners at 45 Degrees didn't know what type of equipment they wanted," adds Director Zhev Liber

Details
Germany - Although Germany fell at the last hurdle in Euro 2008, the German branch of international staging experts Stageco achieved a strong result at the competition.

Vienna's Fanzone, organised jointly by the city of Vienna and the tournament organisers UEFA, which provided entertainment and screenings of matches on big screens. Stageco was asked to provide the structures for the main stage itself, in Rathausplatz, a large Communications Centre, the Supervision EM 2008 (a public video viewing support) and a huge experiential marketing zone for the public, Meinl's Kaffewelt, welcoming 12,000 visitors per day.

Stageco Germany had no fewer than five project managers working on the Vienna Fanzone, including Stageco Germany's managing director Werner Herbst, who project managed the structure in Rathausplaz. Here, the company provided its Micro Arch stage, which hosted a variety

Details
UK - Waterloo Sunset rehearsal studios in London features a comprehensive Turbosound wedge monitoring system and has recently taken delivery of further Turbosound cabinets.

Owned and managed by equipment rental specialists Music Bank, users of Waterloo Sunset's facilities range from A-ha to Will Young, with Paul McCartney, Kylie, Queen, Muse and Madonna just a few examples of the calibre of artiste who rehearse their live shows there.

In addition to a considerable number of TFM-450 wedges and a range of TMS-3 mid-high cabinets, the facility has recently taken delivery of a pair of TA-500DP digitally powered Aspect Wide cabinets and TSW-218 subs.

"Waterloo Sunset's four (North, South, Blue and Green) rehearsal rooms are all equipped with the very highest standard of equipment and the Turbosound wedge system delivers exactly what artists need - high quality on-stage sound

Details
UK - RG Jones, Synco and Martin Audio, played together to create the solution for the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury Festival.

With mostly dry weather and a fantastically eclectic Glastonbury musical line-up including Kings of Leon, The Fratellis, Amy Winehouse, Jay-Z, Goldfrapp, Leonard Cohen and The Verve, there was plenty for audiences to smile about - including an all-new PA system design that saw RG Jones extend its contribution in 2007 from the stage sound to the main arena PA.

Engaged last year to provide full control systems and stage monitoring, this year the team was brought in by Chris Beale of CBA and Dick Tee, respectively Pyramid Stage sound co-ordinator and production manager, to supply a powerful, pristine, controlled sound solution and a highly experienced crew for both stage and FOH.

In charge of the South London based company's team was FOH engineer Simon Ho

Details
UK - Kylie Minogue has launched a three-month European tour KYLIEX2008 with UK-based Capital Sound supplying a powerful Meyer Sound rig, based around left and right hangs of 14 Milo and two Milo 120 line array loudspeakers each. For some of the larger arenas, such as Manchester's Evening News Arena and London's O2, two additional side arrays of 12 Mica line array loudspeakers augment the system.

Low end is covered by a combination of six flown 600-HP subwoofers per side, along with eight 700-HP subwoofers per side on the ground. "Chris Pyne (FOH engineer) wanted a powerful but present low end, with both power and attack. Therefore we suggested the 600-HP and 700-HP together as an ideal combination to achieve that," explains Paul Timmins, Capital Sound's project manager.

As the massive production utilises the entire stage as a visual backdrop, a centre hang of

Details
UK - The second phase of The All England Lawn Tennis Club's three-year plan to transform the Centre Court at Wimbledon includes the installation of a major public address system featuring Martin Audio loudspeakers and BSS Soundweb London.

After going roofless in 2007, Centre Court has assumed a more traditional look following the installation of the permanent non-moveable new roof. At the same time the seating capacity will increase by 1200 to 15,000, and the East and North stands have been equipped with upgraded leisure facilities.

The dilemma facing Jon Berry from RG Jones Sound Engineering, the All England Club's long-term pro audio contractors, was in finding a system that could be installed on a temporary basis for this year's Championships, knowing that immediately after the event it would need to be removed in preparation for the third phase. A soffit will be added to t

Details
USA - The grandMA hobnobbed with royalty at the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival where it was the console of choice for programmer Demfis Fyssicopulos and lighting designer Garry 'Sport' Waldie who helped headliner Prince light up the stage. The three-day annual Coachella Festival was held in Indio, California. It was founded as the first major independent festival of all-rock, electronica and hip hop and has since grown into a top showcase for indie bands. This year Prince headlined day two of the event.

"Sport brought some elements from the lighting rig we used last year for Prince: 21 Nights in London. I cloned the information from the London show (for which we had several weeks of rehearsals) into what we had at Coachella," says Fyssicopulos. "Once on site, we used an ESP Pre-Visualization system to massage the show and adapt it to the festival. A

  1. Nexxus at The Power Wrap
  2. Strand Lighting appoint Audio Light Systems
  3. Arena seats VIPs at Mandela Concert
  4. PR Lighting goes to SchoolJam
  5. The Week in Lighting & Sound
  6. Yamaha goes global with Riverdance
Page 982 of 1813

Latest Issue. . .