Business

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UK - This year, Oran Burns and Steve Jones from d&b audiotechnik's Education and Application Support team will present two one hour seminars at the Technologies for Worship Pavilion, Stand 2-M10, Earls Court 2.

Oran Burns will present Can you hear me at the back? on Monday 12 September at 3pm. How do you get the sound you've lovingly nurtured through the console to every member of the congregation? He will take a look at the acoustic signal path from loudspeaker to the listener's ear, considering what part the room plays and how to minimize its potentially detrimental effect .

Steve Jones will present Theatre sound source, a virtual shoot out on Tuesday 13 September at 11am. As a theatre sound professional, what do you want your audience to perceive and what characteristics does your sound system need to achieve that goal? By taking a close look at the anatomy of

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UK / Italy - ALD, STLD and Clay Paky have announced the nominations for the fourth Knights of Illumination Lighting Design Awards. The awards will be held on the evening of Sunday 11 September 2011 at the Ibis Hotel London Earls Court.

The awards will provide public recognition for outstanding achievements in lighting design by UK based lighting designers, in a number of professional areas. At the same time, these awards will forge closer ties between the world of lighting design and the lighting industry as a whole.

The awards for The Knight of the Illumination are nominated and judged by a panel of professional reviewers working in the specific categories, selected and coordinated entirely by STLD and ALD.

Nominations:

Television

Entertainment

Tonight's The Night - Roger Williams

Top Gear - Chris Kempton

The Chase - Tom Kinane

Eve

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USA - Effective 1 August 2011, the Wenger Corporation,based in Owatonna, MN signed an agreement to acquire J.R. Clancy, Inc. based inSyracuse, NY.

A joint statement says, "This is exciting news for employees and business partners of both companies. The Wenger Corporation and J.R. Clancy are long standing privately owned businesses with shared values, dedicated and loyal employees, great brands, strong heritages, and great reputations in the marketplace.

Founded in 1946 and headquartered in Owatonna, Minnesota, Wenger designs and manufactures specialised equipment and solutions for music education, performing arts, and related markets for both domestic and international clientele. Wenger offers acoustical products, chairs, classroom products, conductor's equipment, staging and risers, stands, storage products, fixed audience seating and orchestra pit fillers.

Wenger offe

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UK - Arena Seating has completed the installation of its permanent stadium BOX Seat system into Warwickshire County Cricket Club.

The installation of just under 1,800 BOX Seats was completed in July and comprised of 1,270 TBS903 Seats for the club's members bar and upper terrace and 523 of Arena's padded TBS908 Seats to VIP areas and member's lounge. This high-end range of permanent seating products for the sporting market has become the next phase in the redevelopment of the Edgbaston International Stadium.

Phil MacDonald, operations & development director for Warwickshire CCC comments, "It was clear to our development team that the BOX Seat from Arena would satisfy our stringent requirements where we needed the best for our premium customers. I know our main contractors have been very pleased with the speed and efficiency with which this seating has been installed."

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Germany - Martin LC Series LED panels were used to visually present tweets as part of an innovative multi-media installation at TEDxHamburg in late May.

The event, part of the popular TED non-profit organization's Ideas Worth Spreading public speaking programme, took place at Curio House in Hamburg under the theme Realities Rebuilt. Some 22m2 of LC Series LED panels were installed in the ceiling of the conference space and used to display live data from the global Twitter network related to TEDxHambug.

Also involved were Martin MAC 301 Wash LED moving heads used for backdrop illumination, and Martin MAC 350 Entour LED moving heads used to illuminate TEDxHamburg logos at key locations throughout the conference area.

The TWEETx installation, created by anOtherArchitect Berlin in collaboration with Kollision and Martin Professional, visualized tweets containing sp

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UK - Lighting designer Andy Mahaffey specified a Jands Vista T2 console, running the next generation Vista v2 software, to control nearly 100 moving lights plus a large generic rig for the 2011 Pepper Live event, a week of performances staged at the Centenary Theatre, Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire.

This high profile annual event, which is always sold out, raises money for the Pepper Foundation, a charity that funds the Pepper Children's Nurses managed by the Iain Rennie Hospice at Home Service. They provide professional home care round-the-clock on a call-out basis for seriously ill children throughout the counties of Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire.

This year the theme was a 'rock 'n' roll tribute' show. The cast - which included two bands, dance troupes, singers and an assortment of backing and guest vocalists - stormed their way through a two hour extravaganza.

In h

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UK - The Backstage Academy's new fast-track foundation degree in Live Events Production, set to be delivered at its training facility in Wakefield, has been formally validated by the University of Bolton.

The 15 month foundation degree, which is the only one of its kind, focuses on the artistic, creative and practical use of technology for live events and will be delivered in partnership with the University of Bolton.

According to Creative & Cultural Skills, the Sector Skills Council for creative and cultural industries, by 2017 there will be a need for 30,000 skilled backstage and offstage technical theatre staff to support live events. The Backstage Academy is aiming to train students who can help meet this demand.

Students will gain hands-on experience at the Backstage Academy thanks to its base at the LS-Live Studios in South Kirkby, Wakefield. The course, which begins i

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Slovakia - Sport and entertainment are the themes of a major audio upgrade which has recently been completed at the Steel Arena in Slovakia. The ice hockey venue presented considerable acoustic challenges, but the installation of a Funktion One / XTA system has made all the difference.

Located in Košice, the 8400 capacity Steel Arena is the second largest ice hockey venue in the country. As well as ice-based sports it hosts equestrian events, motor sport, basketball, football, exhibitions, dance, theatrical spectaculars and live music. It will also be a venue for the 2011 Ice Hockey World Championship

Specified and installed by Humenné-based Citylight, the project entailed removing the existing audio installation and installing a new sound system. This was complemented by adding acoustic treatment to the walls and ceiling.

"I've worked in the arena as an front o

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USA - The Styx/Yes 2011 summer tour features a wall of creative content displayed on a new high resolution LED video screen supplied by Pete's Big TVs.

"It is a nice lighting rig, but the LED screen is visually the whole show," said Pete's Big TVs President Peter Daniel.

The 22-city Progressive U.S. Tour features a 12.5ft high by 48ft wide LED screen made up of 230 Elation EPV15 flex LED panels. Daniel was instrumental in the manufacturing of the 15mm flex panels. Seeking higher resolution, Daniel approached Elation about cutting the size of the 19mm flex panels to just under half a square metre. Thus, the EPV15 flex was born with 1024 pixels. Pete's Big TVs has purchased 600 panels to add to its rental inventory.

"It was a smart purchase," Daniel said. "Everyone on the tour is happy with them."

At 15 lbs. each, compared to 105 lbs. for

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UK - The regional office of property management company CB Richard Ellis has recently purchased a PlasmaRiser 42, manufactured by Birmingham based Audio Visual company DARE Professional Audio.

PlasmaRiser is a portable audio visual presentation system, that fully encloses the screen until a simple button is pressed and the screen rises from the housing.

The PlasmaRiser is to be utilised within a newly refurbished suite of offices at the regional HQ of CBRE. It will be used for meetings, customer and project presentations and video conferencing. PlasmaRiser is a simple plug and play solution to presentation requirements.

Paul Muldoon project manager at CBRE said, "The PlasmaRiser gives us great flexibility within our facility, it is a unique solution that represents great value for money we had not seen any like it."

(Jim Evans)

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World - DiGiCo consoles feature on a range of outdoor shows this summer, including Jessie J, the LED Festival, Judas Priest, the Killers andTake That. But with Coldplay headlining no less than 15 festivals around the world, Front of House engineer Daniel Green's SD7 is probably the most travelled DiGiCo desk of all.

Coldplay's busy summer includes headline appearances at Rock am Ring / Rock im Park (Germany), Jammin' (Italy), Pinkpop (Netherlands), Glastonbury and T In The Park (UK), Where The Action Is (Sweden), Open'er (Poland), Rock Werchter (Belgium), Main Square (France), Optimus Alive (Portugal), BBK Live (Spain), Oxegen (Ireland), Fuji Rock (Japan) and Rock In Rio (Brazil).

Daniel worked closely with Wigwam Acoustics to put together a new, bespoke rig for the festival tour, designed around a DiGiCo SD7 console.

"We have a really good relationship with Dan and Ton

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UK - The joint fortieth celebrations of Northern Light and White Light are to continue, with the two companies meeting up at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe to raise a glass or two to four decades of success.

Following on from getting the beers in during this year's ABTT Theatre Show in London, Northern Light and White Light are inviting customers to join them on Friday 19 August at the Blue Blazer pub in Edinburgh from 6 pm onwards.

Bryan Raven, managing director at White Light, says,"The last party was in London on our turf, so it seems only fair to continue the celebrations on Northern Light's patch."

Colin Cuthbert, Northern Light's managing director, adds, "Since neither Bryan nor I will see the age of 40 again personally, we might as well make the most of our companies reaching this milestone."

The Blue Blazer is situated on Spittal Street in a prim

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UK - Saville Audio Visual provided a spectacular Ganges backdrop for an Indian wedding in Whites Hotel at the Reebok Stadium in Bolton. The projected skyline image - over 105ft wide - was delivered by a single 18,000 lumen Christie Roadster projector. A second projector flown from the lighting truss produced an interactive fish pool effect on the dance floor.

The event was designed by Dianne Lynn from The Event Co in Mobberley, Cheshire with Saville providing the stage sets, lighting design and audio technology, including a full d&b line array. The backdrop image was created in-house using Cinema 4D software and projected onto a seamless white cyclorama cloth, 36m wide x 9m high.

Other equipment included six 8ft x 6ft projection screens to create a window effect, using 15/30 Source Four Profiles and gobo masks, plus 150 staging units to create the raised areas. The lighting al

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UK - A.C. Entertainment Technologies' audio division has supplied a Shure ULX wireless microphone system to the busy multi-purpose Princes Hall Theatre venue in Aldershot, Hampshire, UK.

Princes Hall's technical manager, Kevin Andrew, sought a new Channel 38 compliant wireless mic solution for the busy receiving house, and chose a Shure ULX system from AC-ET after comparing three leading brands.

The 600 capacity (seated format) Princes Hall is active for most days of the year, hosting approximately 50 professional shows and at least 40 performances of their sold-out annual pantomime, as well as numerous local community shows, dance and drama productions for schools and am-dram organisations.

The purchase from AC-ET consisted of 13 Shure ULX1 bodypack transmitters and 13 Shure diversity ULXP4 receivers, plus sixteen Shure cardiod condenser lapel mics, a set of headset mic cap

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USA - One of three convention facilities in the busy Boston area, John B. Hynes Veterans Memorial Convention Centre is an integral part of the city's historic centre. Boasting more than 190,000sq.ft of all-weather exhibit space, the 23 year old venue is presently several years into an on-going, multi-phase renovation project.

Currently the centre is completing an upgrade to its audio systems, courtesy of Boston-based Adtech Systems. As Adtech's Charles Crane explains, the project incorporates acoustical treatment and sound system upgrades to bring the exhibit halls up to NFPA72 code standards for voice evacuation and speech intelligibility.

"There are four exhibition halls on two floors," Crane notes. "Halls A and B are on one floor and can be combined; Halls C and D are on another floor and they can also be combined." Occasionally, Crane adds, the entire f

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Poland - Gdynia Municipal Football stadium is the home to Poland's Arka Gdynia football club. With a seating capacity of roughly 15,139 spectators, the new facility recently received a large, networked audio-driven sound reinforcement system. To ensure even coverage across the stadium's multiple zones, loudspeakers from the catalogue of D.A.S. Audio were placed into service.

Sopot, Poland-based Mega Music's audio-visual installation division was contracted to handle the stadium's new sound system. Mega Music's Piotr Nowi?ski managed the project and discussed the challenges of the job, which involved the deployment of D.A.S. Audio's DR-12 2-way, full-range loudspeakers, the BiDriver Plus, which is a two-way, mid-high unit designed for long throw applications, and the company's CL-6T ceiling speakers.

"The D.A.S. DR-12's were our loudspeakers of choice to cover the audience

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UK - Le Mark Group, based at Houghton Hill Industries, has been shortlisted for a 2011 East of England International Trade Award. These International Trade Awards, sponsored by Santander Corporate Banking are the only UK wide business awards to exclusively recognize the success of exporters, importers and those trading overseas.

Despite the challenges posed by current global economic conditions, UK companies like Le Mark are still very much 'out there' competing on the International stage and the 2011 International Trade awards celebrate these ventures & successes.

The 12 regional finalists will be invited to the UK final at a prestigious Gala Luncheon and Awards presentation at the House of Lords where three national award categories winners will be announced. Le Mark were selected for the SME category, as a company who shown outstanding International Trade achievement with a

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UK - Rental company HSL has just taken delivery of 150 square metres of Martin Professional's latest lightweight EC20 20 mm pitch LED screen plus 48 panels of their LC2140 40 mm pitch surface in a major investment with the Danish manufacturer that also included substantial quantities of MAC moving lights, in total, worth close to £3m.

Most of HSL's new screen went straight into action at the 2011 Global Gathering dance festival, staged last weekend at long Marston Airfield, near Stratford on Avon. HSL supplied screen surfaces to the main stage and the Wax:On/hospitality arena, together with lighting for the main stage and five tented arenas plus the Terrace, once again working with lighting and video designers, Electric Fly.

HSL's Mike Oates explains that they have invested in the screen to satisfy the increasing demands of lighting designers who often now include scenic

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UK - Flightcase and speaker solutions specialist Penn Elcom has acquired CLD Distribution, experts in cables, connectors, lamps and LED lightsources, and has completed a successful integration of CLD - which will continue with its own operation, identity and trading contacts - under the Penn-Elcom umbrella.

CLD Distribution was founded in 1984 as a wholesale business dedicated to lamps, lighting, audio and colour components and consumables for the professional lighting and sound industry, and is a leading supplier to installation and service companies. It is still headed by founder Nigel Howes and Sandra Connolly.

Starting in Loxwood, West Sussex, UK, the operation moved to the Penn Fabrication site in Hastings in 2000, when more space was required.

Penn-Elcom has been trading in both directions with CLD Distribution for about 20 years, in a healthy crossover relationship wh

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UK - The team behind the UK's National Student Drama Festival are seeking entries and support for the first ever International Student Drama Festival, which will take place next year from the 22-30 June in the UK.

The NSDF12 - ISDF - being presented in conjunction with Sheffield Theatres, RSC, LIFT, The Old Vic Tunnels and Menier Chocolate Factory - will feature a nine-day celebration of young people's theatre featuring the best of British work alongside exceptional student productions from across the world.

The Festival is an opportunity for young people to come together and present their work on the world's stage to an international audience of theatregoers, industry experts and peers. Participants don't have to be studying drama to be a part of it - they just have to enjoy it and want to watch it and make it.

NSDF12 - ISDF will feature over 100 performances of 20 internat

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Live Statistics - Box office takings for pop and rock concerts in the UK fell for the first time in more than a decade in 2010, according to a music industry report. PRS For Music said fans spent 12% less on face value tickets than in 2009. Part of the drop was blamed on the fact that acts including The Rolling Stones and Take That did not tour last year. And some major artists, such as Kings of Leon and Rod Stewart, opted to play in arenas instead of stadia as a result of the economic downturn, PRS said.

But the organisation, which collects royalties on behalf of songwriters, said this year's revenues were likely to bounce back thanks to Take That's record-breaking stadium shows and tours by Rihanna, Westlife and Justin Bieber. The report says, "It would be very tempting to look at these numbers and jump towards a knee jerk reaction that the live music bubble has burst. We

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USA - Harrah's currently boasts 17 casino complexes across the United States, from New Orleans to Philadelphia, from Atlantic City to San Diego. In North Carolina it is Harrah's Cherokee Casino and Hotel that invites you to 'Come Out and Play'. Originally designed in 1997 with a 1,500 seat pavilion, the complex opened its new Event Centre in 2010. The primary function of this multipurpose venue is for touring acts. It can host an audience of up to 3,900.

The much larger auditorium required a reappraisal of Cherokee Casino's existing concert technology, particularly audio; their production supervisor, Ryan Hargis explains the rationale behind Harrah's decision to install a d&b audiotechnik J-Series loudspeaker system.

"The Event Centre is designed for concerts but will also host banquets and sporting events. Since the bulk of the events are concerts,we wanted to go with a

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Iceland - The Harpa Concert Hall and Conference Centre in Reykjavik is a mammoth feat of architecture and acoustic design, housing a world-class music venue and meeting-presentation facilities inside a striking, asymmetrical glass facade. Keeping people informed and safe is important in any building but particularly for one the size of the Harpa, so an Ateis public address-voice alarm system is playing a crucial background role in the installation.

Work began on the Harpa in January 2007 but the project's future looked uncertain when Iceland's financial crisis began to bite. The Icelandic government stepped in to fund the building work, which was completed in time for the opening concerts on 4 and 5 May by the Icelandic Symphony Orchestra, which, with Icelandic Opera, is resident at the venue.

The Harpa Concert Hall and Conference Centre occupy a total of 28,000sq.m of space.

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Germany - Rental company satis&fy Werne has rolled out its L-Acoustics K1/Kudo WST line source system for several open-air festivals this summer. According to the company, this flagship rig has again demonstrated its festival-approved capabilities.

In early June, satis&fy rocked not only the Ring, but also the Park during the simultaneous German festivals. The company provided 24 K1s, eight K1-SB subs, 12 Kudos, 16 Kivas, and 40 SB28 subs for Rock am Ring, with a delay system of 64 V-DOSC cabs serving up a sweet sonic experience for the audience at the back of the festival grounds.

At the Rock im Park festival, satis&fy deployed 24 K1s and eight K1-SB subs, as well as 24 Kudos in side-hang clusters and 12 KIVAs for near-fill, with 40 SB28 subs enhancing the main PA's low-end performance. Here, the delay towers were equipped with V-DOSC, dV-DOSC and Kudo enclosures.

satis&fy

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