Events

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UK - Lighting company Blinding Light supplied all design, effects and ambient lighting for production company Sledge at Microsoft's recent spectacular 'After Hours' party. The event was staged in the grounds of Stratfield Saye house - a rambling 17th century pile, home to the Dukes of Wellington since 1817 - in a huge De Boers 'Star Show' circus tent measuring 68m by 44m. Catering was housed in an additional 45m by 20m 'A' frame marquee next door. "The client wanted a special location with a great ambience to accommodate up to 2,000 people" explains production manager Matt Phillips.

After Hours featured live performances by Basement Jaxx and Madness, and the show closed to a rousing set by DJ Norman Jay. Matt Phillips came onboard to oversee the complete production management needed to support the event along with Grant Mitchell looking after the finer technical detail

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UK - Live brand experience company MMM recently conceived and produced a new model launch and dealer training event for Jaguar UK, based on the hands-on demonstration of the company's new XJ Diesel and X-TYPE 2.2 models, pitted directly against their competitors' vehicles. As well as coming up with the event concept and format, MMM's technical production crew supplied all necessary sound, lighting, video and AV.

An active car mechanics workshop at Bruntingthorpe Proving Ground, Leicestershire was transformed into a high-tech auditorium and presentational space for the three-week event. The environment created also included break-out learning centres, and a series of lit walk-throughs with industrial sculptures made from Jaguar engine parts. The primary objective was to highlight Jaguar's new diesel and aluminium technology, perceived as being central to the future of the brand.<

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UK - For the 60th Anniversary of the end of World War II the Ministry of Defence engaged Unusual Services to provide production services for a weeklong programme of events.

The main focus of the week was on Sunday 10 July with an event staged on Horse Guards Parade for 11,000 veterans. Edwin Shirley Staging built a 40m x 25m stage with sound supplied by Wigwam, lighting provided by PRG Europe and a 160m scenic wall from Centrestage. Other key suppliers included Search, Power Logistics, Arena Seating, Unusual Rigging, Screenco, Show & Event, Dobson Sound, Delta Sound, Thorns and National Radio Bank.

During the week leading up to the celebrations, images of previously unseen World War II photographs were projected onto the façade of Buckingham Palace. In addition an 85m x 30m tented Veterans Centre was installed in St. James's Park along with a Living Museum, Press Centre, a BB

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A variety of theatre products from manufacturers SGM, LDR, LightProcessor and Wireless Solutions were shown by Lightfactor Sales. From SGM, the Palco LED colour-changer (IP65), the Ribalta - a batten style LED fixture (also IP-rated) and the Giotto 400 CYM - a new moving head projector. Italian theatrical lighting manufacturer LDR launched several new products at the show including its new line of Xpress Scrollers. LightProcessor's new Dimension 3000 19" rack-mounted dimmer was seen at ABTT for the first time. Finally, also on show was Swedish company Wireless Solutions' award-winning W-DMX, a wireless DMX transceiver system, broadly based on GSM (mobile phone) technology.

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The ABTT Theatre Show returned to London's Horticultural Halls in June, and was a great success by all accounts, with more exhibitors than before and a healthy visitor count of around 2,400 over the two days. The show also maintained its characteristic sociable buzz.

The ABTT Awards were presented at the show's dinner bash on 15 June, and the winners of the chromium-plated Hook Clamps were as follows: Lighting Product of the Year was won by Telectra for its Ice*Lighting Super-batten; Sound & Communications Product of the Year went to Orbital, for the HME DMX 200 digital communications system; Rigging Product of the Year was won by Triple E for its 3Way extruded aluminium track system; and the Widget Product of the Year went to Rope Assemblies for FROG, which enables one-handed connection of safety lines to secure points. The Stand of the Year Award went to The Revolving Stage Company,

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PCM was showcasing its extensive range of electric and manual winches as well as the industry standard CM Lodestar hoists, Böcker Alp personnel lifts and the award-winning Unibar system. The focus, however, was on the GIS range of electric chain hoists, boasting a number of innovative features designed to make use and maintenance even easier. The company reports increased growth and profits across all areas of the business since summer 2004.

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Germany - Showlight, the quadrennial conference about lighting design in all its manifestations, took place in Munich in May. Under the guiding hand of chairman John Watt, the Showlight committee brought together designers, business-people, technicians, educators and students to talk about lighting. There was no grand theme; the constant clash of ideas was, in fact, the point. Thanks to the stimulating topics, the good companions, and the excellent German beer, a good time was had by all.

Sunday, 22 May opened with Mark White, regional manager or ETC UK and Eire, chairing the opening sessions. First, Australian lighting designer Nick Schlieper presented 'Four Years on Wagner's Cycle', his epic tale of how the smallest opera company in Australia (official staff number: five) took on the first locally-created staging of Wagner's Ring Cycle. The result, a strikingly sleek, modernis

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Allen & Heath was showing its latest GL Series models - the GL2400, GL2800, GL3800 and GL4800 live sound consoles. The dual-function desks include features such as ambient matrix recording, fast IEM mixing, aux-fed sub, and engineer's wedge monitor. Other features include a responsive 'musically-tailored' EQ, extended preamp gain range of 74dB with input on XLR or jack, and a new ultra-quiet mix head amp design for optimum dynamic range.

Frame sizes vary from 16 to 56 channels, in all-metal space saving frames that feature individual card and nutted pot construction; the GL3800 and GL4800 are also available in different combinations of mono and stereo channels. All models now include dual power supply capability, multi-function mic/line stereo channels, and an option for the Sys-Link V2 expander system. Allen & Heath reports that it has sold 40,000 GL mixers since the Series was launch

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Hall Stage hosted Visual Act, the Swedish creator of the Advanced Wagon system, which allows for cable-free horizontal movement of any type of stage element. The wagons use a laser locational system to position loads of up to 600kg - to millimetre accuracy - without any tracks or guides on the stage.

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Strand Lighting introduced two products - the EC21 dimmers and the OneLight range of daylight luminaires - both of which were recognized in the awards. The EC21 dimmer racks offers up to 96 Sinewave dimmers in a single rack. Users can mix and match both Sinewave and conventional dimmers, say Strand. The OneLight range includes a 575W Par and Fresnel with an integrated head and ballast design, allowing users to rig a single piece luminaire rather than a separate head and ballast. The fixtures offer remote start at power on, or control from any DMX console using the optional plug-in DMX control module.

Also perched on the Strand stand was FocusTrack - a new database system for tracking and documenting the use of moving lights for theatrical productions, developed by Rob Halliday - a leading moving light programmer and, of course, a contributor to L&SI. For more, see our Technical Focus f

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Track systems specialist Triple E, exhibiting at ABTT for the 21st time, announced the successful launch of its 3Way curtain track system. The product scooped the coveted Engineering and Rigging Product of the Year award at the annual gala dinner - its fourth ABTT award to date. Also on display was a Harley Davidson to promote the charity ride across the USA that David Edelstein recently participated in to raise funds for the Broadway Cares/Equity Fights Aids charity. "ABTT this year was the best yet," said MD David Edelstein. "The quality of the attendees was a league above previous years, which underlines the growing value of ABTT as a vital showcase for our industry." Triple E also used the show to make the announcement of J&C Joel's appointment as the principal UK distributor of its product line.

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Stage Electrics showed new products from Prolyte, Apollo and Teclumen, plus its own brand, Encore. The company reported a good response to Prolyte's trussing, staging and chain hoist ranges after its appointment as distributor earlier this year. Apollo's colour scrollers are also a new product to Stage LX, as is the wingnut spanner, which incorporates a handy bottle opener and is new to its own Encore range. It's designed to be used on 10, 12, 17, and 19mm wingnuts.

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A European first at ABTT was the Vortek rigging system - a theatrical system designed and manufactured by Hoffend in the USA and represented in the UK by Slingco. The hub of every Vortek system is a patented brake, designed specifically for theatre applications. This continuously applied, variable-load, back-up brake is claimed to eliminate overspeed brake and 'shock-load' problems and operates independently of any electrical or drive-train system. It also features overload and underload protection, and is capable of operating multiple battens, controlling up to 250 Vortek units as a system.

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UK - The technical production for this year's Download Festival included the services of SSE Hire for the audio systems, Neg Earth for the lighting, XL Video for the screens and Star Events Group, builders of the main stage. But rather than looking at these aspects, L&SI takes a look at how the event's safety procedures managed an influx of 50,000 energetic fans of heavy rock for a weekend . . .

Ian Baker, (normally assistant director of leisure safety at Capita Symonds) was employed as the acting licensing officer for the local authority for the festival. He said that with 35,000 people camping, it was good planning by ClearChannel to open the campsites two days before the festival started. ClearChannel also encouraged people to collect rubbish by offering them beer tokens on delivery of a black bin bag full of rubbish - which proved a good motivator.

"Noise is a thorny

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Having recently opened its own WYSIWYG design studio, Hawthorn took exhibition space for the first time this year to raise awareness of its Hire, Sales and Installation teams and to give staff the opportunity to meet the people they talk to on the phone. Hawthorn was started nearly 20 years ago by MD Martin Hawthorn, hiring equipment out of his garage, and has now grown into an international company with over 85,000sq.ft of warehouse space in Old Dalby, near to Melton Mowbray.The company has also announced further Hawthorn@Home open day dates - including on 2 September Generic Lighting, featuring product representation from Selecon, ETC, Thomas, ADB and Strand, and on 7 October Flash, Bang and Feedback - a demonstration of pyro by Le Maitre plus radio mics from Sennheiser, Sony and Trantec. More details from the website.

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AVW Controls was highlighting the latest software upgrade for its Impressario stage automation control system, currently in use with Billy Elliot: The Musical at the Victoria Palace Theatre and The Far Pavilions at the Shaftesbury Theatre. The latest version of the Impressario offers control of up to 255 pieces of scenery and rigging simultaneously.

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Maltbury was promoting the recent sales of its Metrodeck staging systems to 'physical theatre' group DV8, and to Lancing College in Sussex. The company offers a wide range of portable, modular staging systems, as well as seating, trussing and crowd control barriers.

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On the show floor, A.C. Lighting showed the latest additions to the Jands Vista and Chroma-Q Color Block product ranges. Color Block accessories now include new Pixel Cap and 30-way power supply - making the flexible LED fixture suitable for an even wider range of effects lighting applications, say A.C. Designed for Color Block applications under studio lighting conditions, where lens flare can appear on the TV camera image, Pixel Cap will fit over individual RGB LED cells on the front of Color Block units to eliminate camera lens flare. The new 30-way PSU offers a more cost-effective solution for controlling large Color Block systems - providing power and effects for up to six times as many units as the standard PSU. With built-in programming features, it's also ideal as a stand-alone unit. It comes with nine pre-programmed looks and users can store up to 42 custom looks on board. 64 ti

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Ever present at ABTT, Avolites showed a variety of products including its most popular performance and live entertainment consoles. It also demo'd the ART 2000i installation dimmer and its eDMX wireless control system, plus the Azure Shadow 2000 console - a variation on the Azure 2000 which, for theatre users, incorporates a new suite of theatrical programming and playback functions.

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XL Video was promoting its increasingly active role in scenic projection for theatre, including recent productions such as The Woman In White (see L&SI November 2004). Malcolm Mellows drew attention to the company's involvement with the forthcoming stage adaptation of Lord of the Rings. The US$22m musical production will preview in February 2006 at Toronto's Princess of Wales Theatre; the London debut is set for autumn 2006. Thomas Gray and Yuri Tanaka of the Gray Circle, whose previous work includes His Dark Materials at the National Theatre (see L&SI February 2004), will design and direct the moving imagery. Music is by Bombay Dreams composer, A.R. Rahman.

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British Harlequin highlighted recent projects including the new Copenhagen Opera House, the French National Dance Centre (CND) in Paris and Jazz at the Lincoln Center in New York. Harlequin manufactures a range of floorings for the performing arts from portable, rollout floors to cushioned, heavy duty permanent floors, plus permanent and touring sprung floor systems.

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DiGiCo's dedicated theatre console, the D5T, formed a major part of LSI Projects' stand. As a supplier and system integrator of sound, lighting, audio-visual and suspension equipment for a diverse range of markets, LSI Projects has recognized the need for a high-end digital mixing console for the theatre market, and believes that DiGiCo's D5T has provided an ideal solution for them.

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High End Systems was showing the Wholehog 3 lighting control system, which now offers direct Ethernet connectivity to the ESP Vison lighting design visualizer, developed by ESP Studios in Las Vegas. Among its features, the software emulates some very effective moving smoke effects, and can cope with up to 16 universes of DMX. Optimized for the Hog 3, this version of ESP Vision includes exclusive features such as direct access to raw DMX data, remote focus, autopatching and blind preview - which allows the allows the user to look ahead to the next cue. Also on show was Hog iPC - a mid-range controller which uses the Hog 3 OS, but is also backwards compatible with the Hog 2 OS for maximum flexibility. The iPC includes an integrated PC motherboard running Windows XP Embedded.

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Digidesign chose the ABTT Show to announce the appointment of two exhibitors - Orbital and Marquee Audio - as joint exclusive UK distributors for its Venue live mixing platform.

Designed for live sound reinforcement and broadcast applications, the Venue is a modular live sound mixing and production environment comprising the D-Show mixing console, front-of-house mix engine, Stage Rack I/O unit with recallable, remote-controlled preamps, and a multi-channel digital snake.

As a modular base system, it is infinitely configurable, say the company, supporting up to 96 mic inputs and 27 busses. The powerful mix engine provides EQ and dynamic processing on every input channel along with assignable graphic EQ's and full support for Pro Tools plug-ins.

Digidesign's European live sound sales manager Mike Case said: "Both Marquee and Orbital possess as much digital technology experience

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