Business

Details
Italy - Cruise line Costa Cruises (Costa Crociere) has launched two new ships - Costa Pacifica and Costa Luminosa - simultaneously at a spectacular ceremony at Molo Doria in Genoa. The double launch, a first of its kind, was lit by LD Fabio Maschera of Switch On of Milan, using Martin MAC III Profile luminaires.

Maschera needed a fixture with the power of the MAC III Profile to handle long throw distances as well as a stage dominated by an LED wall; a high impact light that could cut through the many videos involved in the show.

Reliability was also an important factor. Maschera was especially concerned about the need to project gobos diagonally because of the difficulty in maintaining focus at varying distances and angles.

Enter the MAC III Profile, which had recently been purchased by Italian rental company Musical Box Rent. "It is really quite different

Details
USA - ASET International Services LLC recently added a range of Bosch DCN Next Generation (DCN-NG) wired and wireless conferencing products to their already extensive Bosch inventory.

Established in 1989 and a member of the Bosch Congress Rental Network (CRN) since 1999, ASET is a specialist in digital language translation. ASET provides its integrated services to a large and varied customer base which includes government agencies, international organizations, professional and trade associations, and corporate clients around the world.

With a Bosch DCN-NG equipment list that now includes over 100 discussion units (a mixture of DCN-DISDCS and DCN-CONFF Concentus full-function models), ASET now requires all its technicians to utilize NG software for system control. ASET also has the largest inventory of Bosch Integrus (wireless language distribution system) receivers in the U.S.

Details
UK - The White Light Zone - the area of the PLASA Show occupied by entertainment lighting supplier White Light and the companies it distributes in the UK - saw a raft of new products make their debut during PLASA '09. All of the products - and the White Light Zone as a whole - attracted a great deal of attention throughout the duration of the show, with visitors finding solutions for a wide range of lighting challenges while also enjoying the hospitality of White Light's long established and ever-popular on-stand bar.

Attracting particular attention was Clarity, a new control system from Australian manufacturer LSC. Offering seamless integrated control of lighting equipment of all types, Clarity is a software-based system running on either PC or Mac that offers an interface familiar to users of existing lighting controls, but also a host of new techniques for controlling the com

Details
USA - Following its unveiling and positive industry response at InfoComm 2009, Xantech Corporation is now shipping its new WIC1200 Web Intelligent Controller. The WIC1200 is a stand-alone room controller for networked/web-based control featuring two IR Ports, two Serial Ports, two Contact Closure ports and two Digital I/O ports as well as two Ethernet ports (one with POE) for TCP/IP telnet control with less intrusion into facility IP networks.

On its own, the Web Intelligent Controller is an event-driven component with two RS232 ports (configurable for RS422/485 and RS232 for control via Xantech or third-party units by AMX, Crestron and others) and two IP ports. The Event Manager is capable of timed events, calendar events, telnet and serial events and features a full FTP site, web server and email server.

Used as a room controller for a presentation system, the web-Intelligen

Details
UK - This year's Showman's Show will see A.P. Security making a return to the Newbury Showground.

"It's great to be back at Showman's," says national sales manager, John Phillips who will be one of the team on hand throughout the show. "Crowd management at an event is an extremely important element to ensure both the safety and enjoyment of those attending.

"At A.P., we pride ourselves on looking at each job on an individual basis to ensure the best results. Because of this, we have great relationships with our current clients and we're looking forward to developing some new ones during the show."

(Jim Evans)

Details
Saudi Arabia - The inauguration of the new King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) has taken place in Saudi Arabia. Stage One was invited to join the event's creative team by Simon Ransom, technical director for Filmmaster Events, providing their set building and automation expertise to create a dramatic theatrical experience on a stage over 80m wide.

Stage One was asked to provide six giant tracking front projection screens, each a different shape and size, with the largest 14m high by 10m wide. They also provided two 20m long back wall screens, a further screen that lifted and another that folded down. All of these screens overlapped to form a collectively massive tracking projection surface.

"These were the biggest screens that I have ever seen in over 25 years in the industry and once in place they formed an awesome sight," said Steve Dolan, pr

Details
USA - American Music & Sound and Fostex have announced that Fostex recording products will be distributed in the USA through the AM&S distribution network.

"Fostex has a long history of manufacturing top professional audio products and affordable recording gear for project studios, field recording, and broadcast applications," states Lynn Martin, president of American Music & Sound.

"We couldn't be more excited to be the exclusive distributor for Fostex recording products in the USA. We are looking forward to growing market share and continuing to strengthen the Fostex brand."

(Jim Evans)

Details
Germany - With almost four and a half million visitors, the festival of Cranger Kirmes is one of the biggest and most popular German folk festivals. Every year on the first Friday of August, more than 500 funfair operators bring shooting galleries, beer gardens, carrousels, ghost trains and a variety of innovative, high-tech amusement rides to the 111,000m2 site.

In the festival's Steinmeister pavilion, audio suppliers Schallmeister utilised a DiGiCo SD8 digital mixing console for covers band SE7EN CENT.

Schallmeister purchased its first DiGiCo console from German distributor Atlantic Audio immediately after the launch of the SD8 in 2008 for its rental and dry hire business.

Since then, the console has proved very popular amongst Schallmeister's clients and impressed the organisers in Crange with its outstanding performance. This is why owners Marcus Ugljanin and Tim Jansen

Details
UK / Italy - Outline has successfully launched its Openarray 3D Software. Training seminars were held during PLASA09 on its stand, to train and show system engineers and sound designers the advantage of having a three dimensional software programme that can predict the results expected from either a live performance or an installation of its products.

The intention of releasing an 'alpha' version is to gain the experience of system engineers consistently working in the field. Building on the success of V.I.P. (Vector Implementation Protocol), the idea is to have the engineers contact the company with a "wish list" of additions to the software that would assist them in the future.

Openarray has in its user files at present the three line array products from Outline, namely Butterfly, Mini-COM.P.A.S.S. and Mantas. By the end of this year all the subwoofer products will

Details
Spain - Mamma Mia is in its fifth year of international touring, having been seen by over three million people in Cape Town, Zurich, Dublin, Beijing, Taipei, Berlin, Paris, Lisbon, Pretoria, Dubai, Copenhagen, Tel Aviv, Riga, Shanghai, Helsinki, Bratislava, Prague, Glasgow and Budapest - and is now on tour throughout Spain.

Lighting designer Howard Harrison and associate lighting designer Pia Virolainen used a grandMA full-size, a grandMA light and three MA NSPs (Network Signal Processor) as well as grandMA 3D for pre-visualisation.

Pia Virolainen comments, "The central issue here was to make the show tourable whilst retaining the original look of the show. We reduced the number of conventional units quite considerably and adjusted the moving light rig accordingly. The back cloth is now lit by led battens instead of striplights and ETC pars - this proved to be ver

Details
UK - Audio, video and lighting design and installation specialists, TMC have recently been awarded with the ISO 9001 status.

The decision for the application for ISO 9001 accreditation has been driven by the increased number of large scale projects that TMC has been asked to become involved with. Since TMC's involvement with the Governments' Building Schools for the Future Initiative, requests have been "flooding in" for TMC's expertise to design and install sound systems, architectural lighting and interactive visual effects for numerous construction projects.

Working with some of the leading property development companies and highly respected architects, TMC chose Keighley based BTAL and began the process for the accreditation in March of this year.

Natasha Fishwick of TMC commented: "Achieving the ISO9001 status has been an important development for

Details
UK - MIPRO's new ACT digital wireless radio system has become the system of choice for UK dance act Chicane.

Chicane sound engineer Tim Peeling knows how difficult it can be to provide the best sound in constantly changing environments. He discovered the MIPRO digital system through UK hire company Concert Sound: "I was interested in it because it's digital and 'future-proof' and because of the rejection."

"I was really happy with the sound of it. The lack of compander works really well: I don't have to worry about the dynamic range. Every other condenser microphone I've used has been very wide open. With this, I can set it up with a very low input gain on the microphone so its sphere of collection is very small and I don't have the trouble of a wide open vocal mic on stage. I don't have to savagely EQ the vocal just to get it stable without feedback; I can EQ t

Details
UK - Robe REDWash 3-192 LED wash fixtures are at the hub of a spectacular lighting special effect on Massive Attack's latest UK and European tour. The rig has been designed by Robin Haddow and all lighting equipment is being supplied by Blackburn, UK based HSL.

It also includes 15 Robe ColorSpot 250ATs, which are attached to the bases of 15 custom Barco O-Lite video columns which join together to make a 15m wide by 3m high upstage screen.

It's very much styled as a back-lit show, however there are also eight Robe ColorSpot and ColorWash 700E ATs positioned on stands and flightcases on both sides of the stage. These deliver the front, side and required key lighting.

The REDWashes are attached to eight custom designed trussing sections - fabricated by HSL to ensure that rigging them during the get-in is a fast and efficient operation. The eight vertical truss sections all sit

Details
The Netherlands - The Airborne Museum 'Hartenstein', in Oosterbeek, has reopened after an extensive renovation including Richmond Sound Design's SoundMan-Server Virtual Sound System software. The Commissioner of the Queen and the commanders of the British and Polish paratroopers officially opened the museum on Sunday, 20 September 2009.

The entire museum was renovated and extended with the addition of The Airborne Experience (September 1944). This exhibit, which leads the visitor from the para-landings, through the streets of Holland, to the 'Bridge too Far' at the Battle of Arnhem, is unique in Europe.

Concept designers Tinker Imagineers were asked to bring the battle back to life in the newly constructed 900 square meter basement. Entering this subterranean extension of the museum you are immersed in the war events of September 1944. Historical guns, impressive sets,

Details
France - Robert Juliat reports that it has moved its Greek distribution channel to the professional lighting and electrical company, P. Vassiliou SA.

Based in Athens, P. Vassiliou SA is set to focus its attention heavily on the Greek theatre and architectural markets and to expand Robert Juliat's presence in these markets.

The team from P. Vassiliou recently underwent extensive product and after-sales training at the Robert Juliat headquarters near Paris where they were brought up to speed on what Robert Juliat has to offer.

"We chose P Vassiliou SA as our new dealer because it is a very professional company which focuses closely on the product ranges it choses to represent," says Robert Juliat sales director, Lionel Garraud. "This means that, not only are the sales team well informed on all of the Robert Juliat range, but they are dedicated to providing their

Details
Germany - E/T/C London's Ross Ashton was invited to create a video projection art work on the Germania statue located in the Niederwald Landscape Park, near Rüdesheim am Rhein, Hesse, Germany, as part of the 2009 Rheinpartie Festival of Light.

Ashton's carefully crafted mix of colour and precision lighting transformed the imposing 38m tall monument, built to commemorate the foundation of the German Empire after the Franco Prussian war in 1883, into a symbol of European peace and harmony.

Ashton was first approached at the beginning of the year to contribute a work to the festival by its curator and co-ordinator Helmut M. Bien, who already had Germania in mind as a site. Says Ashton "It was a huge honour to be invited to the Rheinpartie, and even more so to specifically be asked to work on a such a key site with the historic and strategic relevance of Germania.&quo

Details
UK / USA - PLASA (headquartered in the UK) and ESTA (headquartered in North America), two of the leading bodies worldwide for those working in the live events, entertainment and communications industries, have signed a Letter of Intent to merge.

The announcement comes on the back of long-term strategic reviews conducted by both Associations who believe that uniting as one body will lead to a stronger voice for members, the enhancement of existing initiatives and an expansion of the range of benefits and services.

The proposed merger has the full backing of both the ESTA Board of Directors and the PLASA Executive Committee who voted on the proposal this Summer and who will formally recommend the move to their respective memberships, subject to due diligence being completed successfully, during the Spring/Summer of 2010. If both memberships vote to go ahead, the first stage of t

Details
Italy - Over 1.2 kilometres of Milos M290 Trio system trussing was used to construct the support structure for a massive projection screen in Verona Arena for a special gala evening celebrating 40 years since Spanish tenor Placido Domingo's debut in the north Italian town.

The fan-shaped screen was located behind the stage covering the back seating tiers, and reached right up to the full height of the top of the venue. Its total surface area was an impressive 2,160sq.m.

Fondazione Arena di Verona is a Roman amphitheatre dating back to 30 AD. The task of designing, supplying and installing the projection screen into this performance space was trusted to rigging and trussing rental company Decima Italia from Padova.

One of the many challenges they faced was ensuring that the installation had minimal impact on the natural architecture. The screen also had to be positioned milli

Details
Australia - Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons sold 175 million records worldwide - all before they were 30. And now their story is being told in Jersey Boys at Melbourne's Princess Theatre, with the help of lighting designer Howell Binkley and Bytecraft Entertainment. In Australia, Hugh Hamilton is acting as both associate lighting designer and production electrician.

The star of the show, from a lighting point of view, is a giant 'stadium with six lighting towers' made up of 144 ETC Source FourPARs. These hold custom donuts (gel frames that limit the size of the aperture of the light after the lens) fabricated to create an impression of perspective for the luminaires, which were placed upstage, facing the audience.

"The bank of 144 Source FourPARs, along with some strobes, looks amazing and is an epic look in the show. It comes at the end of the first act, as The

Details
UK - London-based LD Peter Mumford used Martin Professional's high-brightness EvenLED RGB LED panels on the new opera Prima Donna at the Manchester International Festival.

Mumford used 111 EvenLED panels to light a large cyclorama for the opera which played at the Palace Theatre. "I particularly wanted to use EvenLED for Prima Donna to achieve a perfectly even cover using a rear projection cyc behind a painted glass wall and have the possibility of numerous colour changes and 'wipes' of color," Mumford commented.

"In the finale aria of the show entitled Feu d'artifice I was able to animate an abstract 'fireworks display' through another huge glass window and the result was very beautiful." Working with Mumford was a team led by production electrician Keith Johnson and programmer Victoria Brennan.

Festival technical director Jack Thom

Details
USA - Rock legends Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood recently reunited to tour North America: Escondido, California-based Sound Image provided the pro audio equipment, including a selection of JBL VerTec line arrays powered by Crown amplifiers, all fed sound by Clapton's long-time live sound engineer Robert Collins at front-of-house.

A sell-out reunion date at New York's Madison Square Garden last year paved the way for the 2009 "Two Legends, One Live Experience" tour, which spanned 14 cities in 20 days, beginning at the Izod Center in East Rutherford, New Jersey and culminating at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. The nightly set list included several songs from the classic 1969 album Blind Faith, which Clapton and Winwood recorded with bandmates Ginger Baker and Rick Grech.

The live sound reinforcement system for the just-completed tour included a total of 84 VerTec

Details
UK - Students at south London's BRIT School's technical theatre course need to learn on a lighting control desk which will be able to handle the most complex, multi media filled rigs, yet simple enough to get to grips with as part of their course. And it needs to be one which they might go on to use when they start working professionally. When Andrew Smith, the school's technical manager, started looking for a replacement desk last September, he settled on an ETC Eos and its smaller sibling, Ion.

For the final assessment show of the year, 18 year old BTEC National students Ben Couch and Chris Burnage directed and programmed the lighting and AV on the Eos and Ion, working on discrete software partitions. Both have used lighting control desks before, but found that the additional functionality which ETC's desks offer has made their projects much easier. Couch explains: "The p

Details
On The World Stage - Robbie Williams' comeback concert for the BBC Electric Proms will be broadcast in cinemas around the world. The concert on 20 October will be beamed live to almost 200 screens across Europe. It will also be shown later in Australia and South Africa. Williams said: "It's very exciting to think that a one-off performance I play in London can be seen simultaneously by people all across the world."

The proms concert will be the singer's first major show in three years. It will also be broadcast on Radio 1. The high definition screening is being billed as the largest live music cinematic event of its kind in Europe, and has been put together by BBC Worldwide. The commercial arm of the corporation recently beamed The Last Night of the Proms into cinemas around the world.

Glastonbury sells out - Tickets for next year's Glastonbury F

Details
UK - A collection of artists used Lumacoustics YrWall digital graffiti wall recently to create individual and detailed collaborative works which in turn were beamed onto an entire building using two state-of-the-art projectors. YrWall allows users to create graffiti digitally using a modified spray can on a three metre wide screen.

Central Presentations Ltd (CPL) supported Lumacoustics by providing the hardware to create "the world's largest graffiti wall". CPL supplied technical support as well as Barco FLMHD20 projectors, Barco DVI matrix switching equipment and fibre optic links to ensure top quality signal paths around the outdoor site on the Harbourside in Bristol.

The project involved firing two projectors side by side to cover a 26m x 10m canvas across the Lloyd's headquarters building. The system primarily was driven by Lumacoustics' custom software YrWall wh

  1. DBN illuminates Band On the Wall
  2. Merlin PA makes magic with iLive
  3. PLASA & ESTA announce intention to merge
  4. Chauvet lighting for One Hanson Place
  5. Dreamlines installed in renovated Ulft theatre
  6. JPS take on Crown MA9000i amplifiers
Page 1100 of 1813

Latest Issue. . .