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UK - Allen & Heath will be unveiling a new analogue console at the forthcoming PLASA show in London, 10 - 13 September 2006. The new GL2800M desk is a dedicated live sound monitor mixer, which includes a built-in mic splitter, can provide up to 16 mixes, and has a comprehensive dual output engineer's wedge/IEM monitoring system.

"The monitor application has grown dramatically in recent times with the evolution of multiple wedge and stereo in-ear systems, which can quickly exceed the mix capability of all but the most expensive consoles," explains Allen & Heath's head of design, Carey Davies. "The GL2800M adds a fully-featured yet affordable dedicated monitor console to the popular GL Series live sound range. It is compact, easy to use, offers the best of analogue reliability and sound, and has a capability that rivals that of much bigger and more expensive console

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UK - Wednesday 14 June 2006 saw the Association of Lighting Designers (ALD) hold its AGM during the ABTT trade show - and as with the show, the meeting saw record attendance. Richard Pilbrow addressed the meeting highlighting the changes both to the organisation and the industry since the Association was begun. Pilbrow recalled: "The Association began as a lunch club to meet and talk over a few bottles of wine." Pilbrow is member No. 1 and now there are over 700 members.

The Association wishes Geoff Spain every success as he stands down as administrator after seven years' dedicated service. Spain takes the position of technical co-ordinator at Snape Maltings/Aldeburgh Productions. Ian Saunders will combine the day-to-day office business with his role as treasurer.

The Association continues to be very active with its Student and Professional membership, arranging many

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UK - The third meeting of PLASA's Manufacturers Forum takes place next week on the afternoon of Tuesday 18 July at the DTI Conference Centre in central London. First established 12 months ago, the Forum has proved a catalyst in bringing the concerns of manufacturers to the fore and is open to any member of PLASA who wishes to attend. Companies interested in joining the Association are also invited to attend as observers.

The guest speaker at next week's meeting is Steve Andrews from the DTI's Office of Science & Innovation who will update members on the RoHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substances Regulations) Directive which passed into UK law on Saturday 1 July. The agenda will also address PLASA's recent lobbying activities and its appointment of a political & parliamentary consultancy, which led directly to the tabling of parliamentary questions on RoHS. Energy Minister

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UK - Lighting director Martyn Rourke used over 30 Robe moving lights in the main arena at the 2006 International Musical Eisteddfod in Llangollen. These and a large generic lighting rig were supplied by Blackburn based HSL and it was the first time moving light technology has featured at the Eisteddfod.

The opening ceremony included rousing performances by Welsh bass-baritone opera star Bryn Terfel and impresario pianist Llyr Williams, and was enjoyed by an audience of 6,500 and broadcast live on Welsh TV channel S4C, with highlights shown on BBC Wales. It was the second year that Rourke has been in the lighting hot seat. He worked closely with director Hefin Owen to a brief from independent producers Opus TV.

With this also being the 60th anniversary of the Eisteddfod, Rourke decided that the lighting production values needed upping, and this was the perf

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USA - Loud Technologies has announced that Mackie is using the NAMM show to introduce a new flagship Active subwoofer into its growing family of Active sound reinforcement speakers. The Mackie SWA2801z combines dual 18" drivers, a built-in 800W FR Series power amplifier. Designed to outperform traditional 2 x 18" systems, the Mackie SWA2801z benefits from Mackie's award-winning Active electronics, which provide much greater integration of all components in the system than tradition 'powered' loudspeakers, say the company. Mackie Active electronics are customized for each driver/cabinet/amplifier combination and provide complete, real-time control over critical functions such as crossover filters, equalization, as well as protection for both transducer and electronics. Active electronics also allow for integration with full-range loudspeakers, which can be stacked or pole

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UK - As the longest running supplier to the Henley Festival, RG Jones was privileged to be offered the The Belle Epoque Bar at the acclaimed Henley Festival Music and the Arts to celebrate reaching 80 years of trading. Henley Festival's caterers, Letherby and Christopher provided an extraordinary spectacle of food from their Water for Fish menu which was devoured whilst guests relaxed on a private floating bar relaxing in the warm evening sun.

Jon Lord from Deep Purple performed on the main floating stage that night amongst many other extraordinary artists such as the Transe Express in Maudits Sonnants, the jaw dropping flying French phenomenon. Suspended by a telescopic crane, this turning musical chandelier leads the movements of the suspended musicians. Using a lighting system integrated into the structure, the visual variations orchestrated by the music enforces the sonar at

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Italy - In the impressive framing of the Circo Massimo, the first stadium in the world, built by the Roman Emperors and used by them for the horse racing, the World Football Champions received the warmest greetings of their life.

The event broadcast by RAI and Sky Sport, was realised also thanks to the rental company Di & Di Lighting of Rome.

30 Coemar iWash Halo were used and the quality of light and colour perfectly suited to the TV application, says the company: the green, white and red colour created the Italian Flag, while the optical system of the projector together with the TXO Halogen lamp offered an extremely bright light output. The emission spectrum of the TXO lamp enables the user to obtain saturated colours.

(Chris Henry)

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UK / Germany / India - PLASA, the Professional Lighting and Sound Association in the UK, and Germany's professional lighting and sound association, VPLT, have both announced their support for PALA India.

PALA India is the first international exhibition of its kind to be held on the sub-continent, incorporating all of the vertical markets within professional AV and entertainment technology, and the only show for audio installation and AV integration in the region.

PLASA is promoting the show to its membership, and assisting IIR, the organisers, in marketing PALA India to the professional lighting and sound industry in the UK. PLASA managing director Matthew Griffiths confirms the organisation's support for what he sees as an opportunity for its members, he says: "It's good to support an industry trade show in an emerging overseas market. The fact that it is organised by II

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UK - One summer's evening each year sees the beautiful surroundings of Bristol's Clifton College play host to Prom on The Close. So on 8 July, 6,000 concert-goers were treated to a selection of well-loved classics from opera diva Leslie Garrett, accompanied by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the Clifton Choir. Sound rental company, WE Audio supplied the audio requirements for the event, which featured a Turbosound Aspect loudspeaker system.

The system comprised nine per side (three wide by three deep) TA-890H mid/high cabinets flown left and right of the stage on a Serious Stages' Lunar Boom, with a further six TA-890L 15" bass cabinets and two TSW-218 18 inch horn-loaded bass cabinets ground stacked left and right. An additional two TA-890H cabinets per side were also ground stacked, with another pair in the centre to produce the correct sound image and with ei

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UK - For the past ten years, Hyde Park has been a second home during the summer months for Star Events Group whilst the company provide staging requirements for the park's live music events.

This year saw Tez Sheals-Barrett make her debut as Star Events Group project manager for the event. The first show in the series featured the Foo Fighters, who played to an 85,000-strong crowd on 17June. "We arrived in Hyde Park on 10 June to start the main stage build, allowing just five days in advance of production arriving on site!" says Sheals-Barrett.

"We had a lot of involvement with the band's production team due to the specific nature of the numerous structures they required. These included a specially designed thrust to allow Dave Grohl to run from the stage to the front of house towers and we had crew on hand throughout to make sure they got exactly what they want

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UK - Now in its 15th year, the Rhythms of the World Festival takes place over two days in the beautiful old town centre of Hitchin in Herts.

Promoted by Bob Mardon, the event has grown so quickly that 160 performances now take place over 10 stages, making it the largest free festival of world music in the UK. Last year it was estimated that more than 40,000 people thronged into the town. All of which puts increasing pressure on local PA/rental company Rossco (and their Martin Audio PA fleet), who have been involved with the event for the past six years.

Run by Ross Sharples and Mark Donovan, Rossco were again responsible for equipping the six main stages with no fewer than 72 Martin Audio enclosures - including the premier stages in the Town Square and Portmill Lane. These witnessed classic performances by Osibisa and the huge kodo drums of Dulsori, a dynamic traditiona

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UK - Sound Division Group report that demand for plasma displays was stretched to the limits during the recent FIFA World Cup. While all their existing hire stock of media displays was out on duty the company also made some notable sales to high profile venues.

"It proved to be a breathtaking three weeks," reports managing director, David Graham, "so much so that we immediately augmented our existing stock with a further 12 NEC 42in and 50in models."

Among the notable London venues that either hired or purchased displays were Charles and Adam Breeden's All Star Lanes and The Lonsdale. While the former ordered a 50in display, three 42in plasma screens were distributed around the exclusive Notting Hill bar restaurant.

1 Lombard Street brasserie in the City purchased three 42in plasmas, while the upmarket restaurants Beach Blanket Babylon and Nozomi also lai

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UK - The British Bridal Exhibition, which takes place in the picturesque spa town of Harrogate, has since 1987 grown into the world's largest trade bridal exhibition, attracting key bridal buyers from the UK and overseas.

Rick Lawson of Funtime AV was the LD for the show and his brief was to design a series of distinctly different lighting states to enhance a catwalk show by a number of different designers. He explains: "We used a combination of Mac 250 Kryptons, Mac 250 Washes and Mac 550s. Among the benefits were high light output, sharpness of image and the speed and quietness of the motors. Also due to an extremely low ceiling all the units have to be situated on the floor, so the fact that all the units were part of the same range, gave a visual uniformity when it was rigged, which looked a lot tidier than using several manufacturers."

He added: "I chose th

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USA - Buford Jones, Meyer Sound's tour liaison manager, has added his illustrious credentials to the company's education program with a new seminar offering that focuses exclusively on all aspects - artistic, technological and psychological - of FOH mixing. Entitled The Mixing Workshop, the full-day presentation draws extensively on Jones' three decades of top-level FOH touring experience with the elite of rock and country acts: Pink Floyd, Eric Clapton, George Harrison, James Taylor, Faith Hill, Counting Crows and Clint Black, among many others. The most recent workshop was held on June 7 at Full Sail, a private media and entertainment school in Winter Park, Florida, following the seminar's debut on April 6 in Studio C of the Soundcheck rehearsal facility in Nashville. Meyer Sound maintains an office at Soundcheck and has installed loudspeaker systems in the facility's fou

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UK - Hawthorn Theatrical recently provided major sound reinforcement for two high-profile events which took place simultaneously - requiring the collective use of around 130 Martin Audio Mini line array enclosures.

The larger of these was the Playtex Moonwalk 2006 event in London's Hyde Park, in which an audience of 15,000 packed into a 60m (wide) by 150m (long) marquee.

Hawthorn fielded eight hangs of W8LM Mini Line Array, ten deep in the front, supported by two hangs of eight enclosures at the rear.

Bands playing through this system included The Fabulous Dough Boys and Marcus Malone's Motown Party Band - in addition to aerobics instructors who warmed up the participants before their sponsored walk for breast cancer research.

According to Hawthorn's head of sound, Iain Reinhold, the brief from the organisers was for an even level of sound to be distributed througho

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Italy - Outline's Butterfly line-array was used on 10 July at Rome's Circus Maximus at the celebrations which welcomed back the members of the Italian soccer team, after their victory in the 2006 World Cup in Germany.

During the long night of celebrations, an estimated crowd of one million supporters arrived from all over Italy to pay tribute to their sports heroes. The sound system included 28 Butterfly Hi-Pack CDH 483 and 12 Victor Live subwoofers, powered by Outline's Series T power amplifiers and controlled by Genius 26 processors, also manufactured by Outline.

Mounted on four strategically-positioned scaffold towers, the Italian company's compact systems seemed almost 'invisible' amid such a huge crowd, but reinforced the speech with their usual high level of naturalness and intelligibility, say the company.

The audio rental firm responsible for the operation (commissio

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UK - Finsbury Park in London became a wash with colour and sound for The Rise Festival, brainchild of London's Mayor Ken Livingston. The free music festival was designed to celebrate London's multi cultural diversity and opposing racism.

The event featuring four live music stages with acts including, The Wailers, Buzzcocks, Graham Coxon (former guitarist with Blur) and a host of other musicians, who provided music for all walks of life from jazz to hip-hop, indie to reggae and everything in between

The audio side was under the control of Willpower who sub-hired systems in from various other rental companies. Reading based Sabre International was one of these and they supplied equipment for two stages, the Big Cuba Fiesta and Mela stage. David Hawkes of Sabre decided to give the powerful RCF 4Pro 7001-A system the job of the Big Cuba Fiesta stage. Hawk's explained: "

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Singapore - IIR and Unusual Productions have announce a merger of their respective international professional sound and lighting exhibitions for the South East Asian region. Under the agreement, Unusual Productions becomes an Associate Partner of PALA Asia and will no longer stage its annual IPALS exhibition. Instead, IIR and Unusual Productions will be jointly associated with PALA Asia, which will be held in Singapore in 2007 at Sing Expo.

Commenting for IIR, group exhibition director Darren Brechin states: "The merger of IPALS and PALA Asia is great news for the region and for the industry, providing for one definitive professional audio, lighting and entertainment technology exhibition. This is something that will greatly benefit the regional market and overseas exhibitors, providing a bigger, better show in a bigger, better location.

"The move to Singapore's Sing

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UK - The Professional Lighting and Sound Association (PLASA) was one of the main bodies representing the architectural, creative and live events sectors at the recent Olympics Business Summit, held in Leeds on Wednesday 19 July.

During the course of the Summit, the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) - the body responsible for delivering the new venues and infrastructure for the Games, launched a draft version of its Procurement Policy - which outlines how it will manage the whole procurement process, including its selection and award criteria.

With the UK Government spending £3bn on the physical infrastructure for the Games, PLASA is keen to profile the creative and technical expertise of its membership and is preparing a guidance note for members to help them maximise their chances of winning key contracts. It will also be working with them to ensure they are fully aware

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Thailand - Klark Teknik signal processing equipment was key to ensuring consistent sound quality on what must surely be the biggest dancefloor that Thailand has ever seen - a 1.5km stretch of road in the northern city of Khon Kaen.

Thai PA rental company Benz Sound Systems purchased five of Klark Teknik's new Square One Graphics and two Dynamics units, plus a DN370 graphic equalizer, to control all eight DJ and live performance stages at the Songkran Festival, which celebrates the Thai New Year with rituals that include throwing water and coloured powder at passers by. The KT equipment was purchased from EVI Audio Thailand.

"We converted the 1.5km Kaw-neaw Road into an enormous dancefloor and relayed the live shows from the main stage to another seven stages along the street," explains company owner Benz. "Around 100,000 people took to the street to watch the co

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UK - DiGiCo's marketing director David Webster's brainchild, the Prize Stage at the PLASA'06 After Show Bar, is making a welcome return to Earls Court this year (10-13 September). The bar will once again be sponsored by nine of the industry's major players, each of whom will be giving away fantastic gifts, along with a joint prize of a £1,000, in a free prize draw to be held there between 6.30 and 8pm on 10th and 12th September in the prime position of the show's Central Bar area.

The draw is open to show attendees who have obtained an entry form from the companies involved and comply with the necessary criteria. To win the £1000, participants must have visited each company and had their "Prize Passport" (available from each of the sponsoring exhibitors) fully stamped.

"We're all really pleased that the Prize Stage is happening again," says Webs

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AVW Controls' award-winning Pegasus range of power flying hoists are intended primarily for lifting scenery, lighting bars and curtain tracks, and are designed to offer clients a range of options to fit any requirement. Control is via AVW's own Impressario computerised motion control system (winner of an ABTT award in 2002 and currently in use on Billy Elliot and the London production of Blue Man Group, among many West End shows).

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Stage automation specialist Stage Technologies' latest news includes an interesting installation at the new Leicester Performing Arts Centre, in which the stage and backstage areas are visible to the street outside. The company provided complete automated power flying, including BigTow winches and a MaxisID control system operated by Nomad control consoles.

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Hidden away down in the basement of Lindley Hall was a multitude of smaller stands, and a perhaps surprising amount of passing trade, given the location. At a reduced rate, this area allows smaller companies the chance to have a presence at the show - and by all accounts it was proving very worthwhile.

RWCMD (Royal Welsh College of Music and drama) had taken a stand, and gone even further by sponsoring the purple lanyards that adorned the necks of show visitors. Stage managment lecturer Antonia Collins said: "This downstairs area has really grown. It's great because it means we can be part of the show and let people know about the different courses we have on offer. It is definately worth us exhibiting and we hope to get more of the students involved next year in the stand, but they are always so busy!"

  1. Triple E
  2. Rope Assemblies
  3. Orbital
  4. Fuzion
  5. HSL
  6. Turbosound
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