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Ireland - The new 2,111 capacity Grand Canal Theatre in Dublin's Docklands, which was designed by architect Daniel Libeskind to integrate with the adjoining commercial development, provides an outstanding addition to Ireland's theatre world.

Since it will not only present the best of national and international theatre, but also musicals, opera, ballet, and classical performance, the new £68m development required a high-octane technical infrastructure that would accommodate world class West End and Broadway productions visiting Ireland for the first time.

The technical fit-out was supervised by LSI Projects, who successfully responded to a tender document and specification created by consultants, Arup Venue Consultants.

One of the challenges faced by LSI's project manager Jakub Krzeminski, was creating a site-wide digital network which would incorporate an independent f

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UAE - Sennheiser Middle East continued its partner activities after the successful PALME Show with a Sound Academy Workshop at Dubai's Fairmont Hotel. The event was, in part, to celebrate the first anniversary of the opening of the Middle East office in Dubai and was an opportunity for integrators and end-users to get the benefit of extensive training from two of the manufacturers' most experienced engineers.

Conducting the seminars were Klaus Willemsen, senior projects - wireless engineering and Norbert Hilbich, industry team leader of application engineering, both from the head office of Sennheiser Electronic in Germany.

Willemsen's presentation was on Sennheiser RF Wireless Systems and overviewed the many uses of wireless microphones and in-ear monitoring systems, from professional broadcast, theatre and music applications through to rental company use and corporate AV. It

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USA - Designing a sound system for a motor speedway is not an exercise in subtle nuance. To compete with the roar of these powerful engines, and the cheers of a few thousand of their closest friends, it's all about brute force decibels.

When California Speedway in Fontana became Auto Club Speedway in 2008, the new owners began a long-term project of making improvements to the venue's infrastructure. This year, Bay Area-based Pacific Satellite upgraded the Speedway's sound system, bringing in 104 of Community's R.5HPT three-way loudspeaker systems.

"Previously, the stands were covered by Community M4 loudspeakers mounted on the wheel fence," explains Pacific Satellite's Jerry Coté. "The M4 is still a good speaker, but one of the reasons we chose the R-Series is that it delivers exceptional intelligibility, along with great coverage."

Coté cit

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UK - eMerging, the UK distributor of Merging Technologies' Pyramix DAW and VCube video playback systems, has supplied three 64-track Masscore-enhanced Pyramix DAW systems to TSL, the systems integrator working on MediaCityUK, the Peel Media development on Salford Quays, Manchester's waterfront. The £500 million mixed-use development incorporates a new home for BBC North, a new HD studio complex, apartments, a hotel, office accommodation, retail and catering and an outdoor plaza shaped around a stunning waterfront.

Two of the Pyramix systems are destined for use in Peel Media's new studios at MediaCityUK, while the third will be used in the new orchestral hall designed for the Manchester-based BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, which is scheduled to open at the MediaCityUK complex in 2011. All three Pyramixes are Masscore 128 systems, capable of handling up to 128 tracks of audio

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USA / UK - With Hollywood's finest in the auditorium and a live worldwide audience of millions, AV productions don't come much bigger - or more challenging - than the Oscar Night. The pressure is on to create a high-impact feast for the senses, and that inevitably leads to the technological bar being raised, as production company SenovvA discovered when it found the need to use sophisticated warp-generation from Calibre UK at this year's ceremony.

Tim Brooksbank, chairman, Calibre UK reports, "In the centre of the set for this year's Academy Awards, there was a cylindrical projection screen showing clips of nominated movies. When logos and general graphics were shown, this cylindrical projection screen rotated open to reveal an LED display, the rear surface.

"The challenge is that if you project onto a curved surface, you get a distorted picture. The initial idea was

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Norway - A large Kinesys automation system was specified for the 2010 Eurovision Song contest staged at the Telnor Arena in Oslo. The system, comprising 80 Kinesys motors - a mix of one tonne and half tonnes, and K2 control - was spec'd by lighting gaffer Richard Gorrod and operated by Ian Macdonald.

The equipment was supplied by lighting contractor PRG and the movement was an integral element of LD Al Gurdon's design for the event.

This year's show was a departure from an LED-heavy televisual aesthetic and introduced several different theatrical elements that looked spectacular, both for the TV audience and the 18,000 people watching in the arena. The automation system allowed a completely different and dynamic scene to be created for each of the 39 competing countries.

The Kinesys system was used to raise and lower a 130m wide upstage lighting wall running the entire width

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UK - AC-ET's Rigging division has been appointed as the authorised UK & Ireland reseller for the Kinesys range of motion control hardware and software solutions for the entertainment industry.

Recent high profile acts utilising Kinesys products on their shows include U2, Kings of Leon, Coldplay, Depeche Mode, Snow Patrol, Elton John, Massive Attack, Take That, The Prodigy and the Pussycat Dolls.

Under the agreement, AC-ET will provide full sales service and support for the Kinesys product range, including using its own equipment systems stock to offer demos on-site or at the company's in-house facilities. AC-ET will also provide authorised warranty repairs and servicing in the near future.

AC-ET recently showed the Kinesys Libra loadcell and Elevation 1+ motion control systems at PLASA Focus. The Libra is a fully featured digital loadcell system utilising a load measuring sh

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Denmark - The Black Diamond, a concert hall at the Royal Library in Copenhagen, has started using ETC Source Fours with enhanced definition lens tube (EDLT) to provide backdrops for the stage.

Purchased as part of an ongoing project to equip the venue with ETC equipment, the venue found that they could mount the two new luminaires in front of the backdrop and project a Rosco Fiery Sun gobo for a bright, precise effect.

The Black Diamond technician S°ren Jacobsen says, "I have worked with sound for over 25 years, but it's only in the past three years that I have started working in lighting. Our local ETC dealer, Bico Professionel, has been really useful in helping me select the products I need and assisting with design and set up of the systems. We only needed a couple ETC Source Fours equipped with a 36º EDLT to provide a stunning effect. We projected the light from

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Europe - Alicia Keys' 2010 Freedom Tour of North America and Europe has seen a stunning set design from Baz Halpin, using multiple GLP impressions for the first time.

Running until early summer the tour was designed to promote Keys' 2009 album release, The Element Of Freedom.

Touring much the same production as on the American leg (the prime difference being the scaling down of the nine video screens to five), the show has been programmed by Bryan Barancik (of Luxious Design) who has been with the tour from the beginning, and has been tasked with bringing the best out of Halpin's creative concept.

The set designer was first shown the compact LED washlight by GLP's director of key global players, Mark Ravenhiil, when he was searching for small fixtures to be placed on top of the curved set pieces. "I needed something light and bright - and the impressions f

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Qatar - TechnoPro's fleet of PR Lighting fixtures were out in force for the Qatar Emir Cup 2010 at Khalifa International Stadium last month. Spectators - including His Highness the Emir, Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani and other local dignitaries - saw Al Rayyan defeat Umm Salal 1-0 to claim the title.

The automated lighting was used in two locations. The event at the stadium itself was managed by Q Media Events, an events management company based in Qatar, with TechnoPro (Qatar) providing a multimedia light and laser show at the closing ceremony and installing light, lasers, LED screens, audio and truss structures.

They based their design around 40 fully-featured XL1200 automated Spots with 20 XL1200 Wash providing a colourful backdrop. These conventional moving lights were augmented by 40 XLED 590 moving LED colour wash fixtures (each housing 30 red, 30 green and 30 blue s

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Israel - Over 100 Robe moving lights were utilised for the Israeli Opera's production of Verdi's Nabucco, a site specific work staged in a purpose built open air arena at the foot of Masada Mountain at the Dead Sea in Israel.

Robe also made custom reflectors and special framing gobos for its ColorSpot 2500E AT fixtures, to facilitate the very specific requirements of Israeli lighting designer Avi Yona Bueno (Bambi), who wanted to have a super-tight beam to isolate different areas onstage, whilst retaining the intensity of the light path.

The 84 ColorSpot 2500E ATs, 20 new ColorBeam 2500E ATs and 24 REDWash 3-192s were supplied - together with all the other stage lighting equipment for the event - by UK-based HSL, working for Tel Aviv and Jerusalem based Stage Design, the event's overall technical provider.

It was a seriously tough operating environment for any piece o

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France - First established during the reign of Louis XIV, the Opéra Comique in Paris is one of the oldest theatrical and musical institutions in France. It has had a turbulent history, both as a company and as a building, including being twice destroyed by fire. Rebuilt for the third time in 1898, the theatre (also known as the Salle Favart) is now classed as a listed building. However, whilst the building may be listed, the audio equipment is thoroughly modern, as underlined by the theatre's recent purchase of an Eclipse digital mixing console from Innovason.

Sebastien Arribas, head of AV at the Opera Comique explained that the time had come to move on from their old analogue console as it was simply too limiting in terms of the number of outputs and flexibility of configuration. "It still sounded good, but we had got to the stage where we were asking more of the co

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UK - Working for main contractor, Galliford Try, Hawthorn recently completed the technical installation at Wren Academy in North Finchley. The Academy is a new 11-18 secondary school in the London Borough of Brent specialising in design and the built environment and sponsored by the Church of England.

Hawthorns were responsible for the design and installation of the technical infrastructure for the main hall/theatre, drama studio and recording studio under head of installs, Alan Jackson.

In the main hall/theatre Hawthorns installed a lighting system comprising of Zero 88 dimmers and control, Selecon lanterns and internally wired bars and facility panels manufactured by Doughty Engineering. Along with the lighting system an integrated sound and video system was installed along with an AMX control interface. Martin Audio speakers, an Allen and Heath IDR and an Allen and Heath GL

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USA - Billing itself as a "church for people who don't like church," Real Life Church didn't follow a conventional path when it built its own facility after nearly a decade of holding services in, first, a movie theatre and, most recently, a high school auditorium. Everything about the Valencia, CA church's new 40,000sq.ft building was carefully planned to serve the 'real life' needs of its congregants and the greater community - from a coffeehouse in its basement, to its strategically centralised location for touring concerts, to the environmentally-friendly design of the structure itself, which sits largely underground to reduce energy requirements for heating and cooling.

At the hub of the building is Real Life Church's main sanctuary, an amphitheatre-style auditorium that seats 1,200. In addition to accommodating worship services, the room was required to function

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USA - Showcasing all that Miami has to offer-from accommodations and dining to attractions, shopping, and a vibrant nightlife, South Beach has it all, including the new Pinkroom. With its unparalleled luxury, attention to fashionable detail, and a keen focus on the sound and light experience, Pinkroom is one of the region's hottest nightclub destinations and now features a D.A.S. Audio sound system.

Miami-based Paradise Production Services was contracted to handle Pinkroom's sound system design and installation. Carlos Henao, the firm's owner, was tasked with all aspects of the sound reinforcement system project.

"Pinkroom is brand new," states Henao, "and the sound system's ability to blend inconspicuously with the room's décor was every bit as important as its ability to deliver superior audio quality. The main nightclub area measures roughly 50ft long

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USA - In the continuing goal of being one of the industry's green leaders, Bandit Lites reports a number of achievements.

All Bandit Lites offices' computer equipment and components are recycled though Scotts Recycling in Knoxville, TN. They accept complete and partial computers, phone systems, TV's, household electronics, cables, UPS Systems, printers, cameras, VCRs & copy machines. They also accept a wide range of metals, utility equipment, subassemblies, scrap wire and system components. Parts that can be re-used are sold and everything else is separated and recycled.

Office printers and copiers have been replaced to allow for energy efficient units and toner savings. Duplex printing, toner saver modes, and standby modes have been adjusted to allow for the efficient use of supplies and power when not in use. All office computer monitors have been set to turn off when idle a

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Wight is Green - Sir Paul McCartney has lent his support to reducing the carbon footprint of this year's Isle of Wight Festival, where he is the headline act. The ninth festival to take place on the island since its return from its 1970 heyday gets under way on Thursday. Organisers want to make the event as "green" as possible after winning the Greener Festival Award last year.

Generators will partly run on bio-diesel, solar power will be used, while rangers have set up a wildlife and bee haven near the site using funds from festival-goers. The Let It Be campaign is named after one of Sir Paul's Beatles songs and aims to help dwindling bee populations.

Sir Paul said: "I'm glad that winning the Greener Festival Award last year has helped to encourage them to take further action in 2010. It is fantastic for artists like myself to see festival

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UK - OneBigStar and EV distributor Shuttlesound saw Europe's largest festival for tribute bands and new acts turn into a veritable showcase for Electro-Voice PA systems. Now in its sixth year, Glastonbudget has become a serious fixture on the festival circuit, and sold out nearly 7,000 tickets over its three-day weekend.

With four stages on site, OneBigStar was able to draw on the full range of Electro-Voice's line array and point-source reinforcement options, using EV speaker processing with every system.

For the main stage, which hosted the headlining tribute acts, the system used XLC cabinets, flown 12 a side, with X-Subs, and powered by EV Tour Grade amplifiers. Under the big top tent which housed the second stage, mainly used by new acts, the system featured a combination of EV's XLE line array with QRX cabinets, powered by EV's CP amplifiers.

Two smaller stages

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UAE - Sennheiser Middle East, which exhibits at PALME with the assistance of local distributor Venuetech, made fundamental changes to its stand at PALME 2010 and picked up an award in the 'Best Pro Audio Technology Of The Year' category for Neumann Digital Microphones.

This year's PALME saw quite a difference in the stand set up, with almost all products as active displays, which meant that visitors to the stand could take the opportunity to use the new 2000 series products via the Wireless Systems Manager software. Also on show was an interactive guidePORT display, allowing visitors to use the new Porsche designed receivers to listen to live streaming audio from a video that explained how the system operates and to listen to the audio files stored within the device.

Neumann also had a significant presence on the stand, with an active display for the new digital range of micro

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UK - Blackburn-based HSL continues an active 2010, supplying lighting and crew to the current UK and European tour by Australian drum 'n' bass rockers Pendulum, whose distinctive hi-energy sound and performance is storming around the world with their third album Immersion.

The show, a fusion of video and lighting, is designed by Mark Calvert of Immersive (formally known as Pixel Addicts), together with his colleagues John Munroe and Dave Green. It features a striking set architecture constructed from special dollies containing Barco MiStrip LED screen, which has its own set lighting system some parameters of which are controlled, along with the video content, by Immersive's Addict show control system. Additional lighting onstage is controlled through a 'traditional' lighting console operated by lighting designer Simon Barrington.

Mike Oates is project managing for HSL.

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Germany - The Civic Centre (Stadthalle) in Singen, not far from the Swiss/German border, has been a stronghold of cultural life in southwest Germany for several years now. It is known for the broad variety of its entertainment programme, from drama to musical theatre, from comedy to rock concerts.

As the productions in the Stadthalle have become more and more technically demanding, a new sound reinforcement system was installed. The Main PA consists of sixteen HK Audio Cohedra Compact CDR 108 C line array mid/high units on each side of the stage. A central subwoofer cluster of six CDR 210 C is flown above the centre of the stage.

Whenever the musical productions demand more bass, 16 additional CDR 210 units are available for ground-stacking in front of the stage. Six ConTour Series CT 108 8"/1" cabinets serve as near-fills for the first rows of the audience, with ano

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UK - The temperatures soared for the BBC's One Big Weekend in Vaynol Park, Bangor, North Wales, which officially kicked off the UK 2010 Festival season, with Adlib supplying sound for five areas and lighting for two.

Liverpool-based Adlib has been involved in the event for many years, initially starting with the audio supply for one stage and their role has steadily grown. Adlib account handler Phil Kielty says, "It's always a great pleasure to be involved in this event, which has its own special vibe. One minute you can see an act play an unplugged set in the Live Lounge, an hour later you can see them headline the main stage - it really is a very special event."

The Adlib crew of 14 was chiefed by Richy Nicholson, who also worked on the In New Music We Trust stage, the second largest of the event, headlined by Faithless on Saturday and Vampire Weekend on Sun

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USA / UK - J. R. Clancy is supporting the International Theatre Engineering and Architecture Conference (ITEAC), 13-15 June in London, as a Silver Sponsor.

J. R. Clancy joins Niscon Inc, and Verlinde SA in Best of All Worlds, a distribution and partnership agreement formed by theatrical technology dealer Hoist UK. Clancy has been involved in all of the ITEAC conferences since the first one in 2002, and is the only US manufacturer to participate in all of the ITEAC events.

As part of their sponsorship, representatives from the companies will join panel discussions at ITEAC on rigging issues.

Technical representatives from the Best of All Worlds will be available throughout ITEAC and the ABTT Theatre Show immediately following ITEAC, to discuss specific project requirements at a quieter stand in Lawrence Hall.

"We at J. R. Clancy recognise the vital learni

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UK - The team from Roland Systems Group presented its Silent Stage concept at this year's Glastonbudget. Previously deployed to great effect at Glastonbury, the quiet stage infrastructure uses RSS M-48 personal monitor mixers and RSS control equipment to create an all-Roland digital stage environment where musicians can play and/or practice.....without making a sound!

Using the Roland V-Drums, V-Pianos, new GAIA synth and other instruments provided, festival performers were able to rehearse and warm-up, hearing their own output through the M-48 system and headphones while other guests in the VIP marquee enjoyed the hospitality undisturbed. Visitors to the Roland stage included Britpop specialists Blurb and Oasish.

"Many performers find that the M-48 Live Personal Mixer is a breath of fresh air for live performers," says RSG marketing manager Martin Thomas. &qu

  1. Projection Studio in Indian first
  2. Metropolitan Opera upgrades to digital with SSL
  3. Barix Announces OEM partnership with Aiphone
  4. Biamp Systems joins AVnu Alliance
  5. GLP impressions on Jonathan Ross show
  6. PLASA International Rigging Conference speakers confirmed
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