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UK - The Theatres Trust, the national advisory public body for theatres, has announced a renewed commitment to the protection of theatres with a new strategy and visual identity and the launch of our Theatres Trust 40 programme of events.

Says the Trust, "As the voice for theatres we use our knowledge of policy and practice to promote the value and benefits of theatres in use. We want live theatre to have a place in everyone's lives.

"We are committed to delivering a more powerful campaigning voice. Our expert advice will be more visible and more influential in the planning system and within the theatre industry. We will create new opportunities to discover more about theatres, and we will increase the levels of capital grants and funding we provide."

Chair of the Theatres Trust, Tim Eyles, says, "Our new strategy and visual identity mark the start of an exciting next

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UK - The Theatres Trust celebrates its 40th anniversary in 2016 with a new strategy and visual identity that sets us on a new chapter - championing the past, present and future of live theatre by protecting the buildings and what goes on inside.

At PLASA Focus Leeds, the organisation will be holding a seminar Theatres Trust 40 on 11 May at 2.15pm, where show visitors are invited to join discuss "what we need to be doing today to protect theatres for live theatre tomorrow". The Trust explains, "Throughout PLASA you will also be able to find out how we can help you with advice on planning and development, resources to make theatres sustainable, and financial assistance through grants, and hear about our latest work with theatres at risk."

The discussion and debate from Theatres Trust 40 will be developed at Conference 16: Protecting Theatres on the 21 June at the New London

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Belgium - Due to renovations, the Royal Munt Theatre in Brussels needed temporary accommodation elsewhere at short notice. Veldeman provided a quick, qualitative solution and built the Munt Palace on the site of Tour & Taxi's, an opera house which was made to measure with a capacity of welcoming up to 1,100 people. An imposing TFS (Tension Fabric Structure) tent of 3,200sq.m will accommodate the opera productions until at least the end of 2016.

A storey tent of 25m by 40m serves as an entrance hall and VIP room. A true eye-catcher is the facade which has been personalised in a beautiful way, referring to the Munt's pediment in the heart of Brussels. The entrance and covered terrace were luxuriously decorated with wooden walls, wooden ceiling and a beautiful new bankirai floor. This highly qualitative decoration was maintained on the inside as well. The cloakroom was walled by

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UK - The Theatres Trust has announced that booking is now open for its tenth annual conference: Conference 16: Protecting Theatres, to be staged at the New London Theatre.

Says the Trust, "In this milestone year in the history of the Trust we will examine the state of our nation's theatres and discuss their future. We will consider the past and present influences on theatre architecture and design; the provision of existing and new theatres in response to city and government devolution; changing demographics; housing delivery and community and audience demand.

"We will then look to the future, and the potential for the next 40 years, and ask: What kinds of theatres will we need to build, and how will we find the resources to do so? How should we be asking existing buildings to adapt and change? What impact will the popularity of digital distribution of live theatre have? H

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UK - The Shaftesbury Theatre in London prides itself on being the largest independent theatre in the West End. For over a century it has played host to many high quality, large scale productions, and in order to ensure its long term ability to do this, the theatre recently extended its fly tower, increasing both the height and loading capacity.

This valuable addition to the Grade II listed theatre has made the venue more capable than ever of accommodating large scale productions, particularly musicals, and indeed earlier this month opened Motown The Musical to critical and audience acclaim. The theatre now also provides additional dressing room accommodation and increased on-site office space. To help facilitate the refurbishment, Unusual Rigging was engaged on each of the three phases of the construction process, the last of which was completed in February 2016.

Ja

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UK - The Theatres Trust has announced the recipients of the Theatres Protection Fund's Small Grants Scheme. Successful theatres in this round are: the Theatre Royal Winchester; Friargate Theatre in York; Tron Theatre in Glasgow; Bridgwater Arts Centre and the Marine Theatre in Lyme Regis.

In Round Eight, the Theatres Trust has awarded the following projects:

Theatre Royal Winchester receives £5,000 towards its 'Tower Street elevation - urgent fabric and structural repairs' project, to restore the weather-damaged Tower Street fa

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UK - In a special event for PLASA members to be held on 24 May, the RSC will be providing an immersive backstage tour covering the transformation of Elizabeth Scott's iconic 1932 cinema-style Royal Shakespeare Theatre into a definitive new environment for performing the works of Shakespeare.

This was a major construction programme and Stage Electrics were involved on-site in the realisation of this transformation for over four years working to the design brief created by Charcoalblue (theatre consultants), Buro Happold (engineers) and Bennetts Associates (architects).

This project was a huge collaborative effort with a number of different contributors all handpicked by the RSC. More recently, Stage Electrics have been engaged by RSC in a technical refit of The Other Place, a space created to house the company while their main theatre was being transformed. The RSC technica

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Norway - Norway is the first European country with permanent installations of the compact Meyer Sound Leopard linear sound reinforcement system.

Leopard's remarkable flexibility and versatility made it the choice for two very different venues. The 1,200-seat Grand Hall at Studentersamfundet (Student Society) in Trondheim uses Leopard to support community events such as theatrical performances and conferences, while the Leopard system at Oslo's 650-capacity Vulkan Arena primarily powers hard rock shows.

"When we first saw Leopard we were amazed by its size," reports Torgeir Aadland, project consultant for audio renovations at the Grand Hall. "It was easily one of the smallest in its class, and we had some concern about it performing to our standards. But Leopard has provided excellent sound quality even at the highest levels, and gives us even horizontal coverage - it's eve

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UK - Sadler's Wells is a leading dance house, committed to producing, commissioning and presenting new works and to bringing the best international and UK dance to London and worldwide audiences.

When the company was granted lottery funding for a technical refit, Graham Cutting, senior lighting technician at Sadler's Wells was keen to install new follow spots based on a system of tracked suspension mounts and brought Doughty Engineering on board to help turn the concept into reality.

Graham said, "I'd started looking into the idea previously, but at the time we simply didn't have the funds to make it happen. Following the Arts Council grant, I realised that we could look at this new system which would allow us to address two issues that the existing system was causing.

"Firstly, being on a lighting bridge, we often had the need to remove or relocate one or all of the 4

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The Netherlands - The Koninklijke Schouwburg, or Royal Theatre, in The Hague has recently taken stock of a large number of Robert Juliat 614SX 1200W tungsten profile lanterns, supplied by Robert Juliat's project partner for the Netherlands, Controllux, in a major refreshment of its lighting inventory.

Built at the end of the eighteenth century as a palace for Prince Charles of Nassau-Weilburg, the beautiful building of the Koninklijke Schouwburg was transformed into a theatre in 1804 and is now one of the oldest theatres in The Netherlands. It hosts a programme of international theatre productions, musicals, cabaret and dance, in addition to a season from the award-winning Amsterdam Baroque Opera, and plays from its own national theatre company, Het Nationale Toneel.

Having undergone extensive refurbishment from 1997-1999 to modernize the venue, it was apparent that, 15 ye

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USA - Although it's been open for a mere four years in the northern suburbs of Atlanta, Georgia, The Velvet Note has attracted national attention. Its intimate room seats only 40 and was carefully designed by George Seldon to support music with stunning, well-balanced acoustics.

"We take a lot of pride in the sound of our room," said Tamara Fuller, The Velvet Note's owner and nightly head-of-ceremonies. "We call it 'the acoustic living room,' and we've done everything we can to make it the very best way to experience live music."

"Until recently, the only thing that wasn't five stars about The Velvet Note was the PA system," explained Bob Bakert, an Atlanta-based guitarist, vocalist, composer, and pro-audio veteran who regularly graces the venue's stage. "I had heard Danley Sound Labs systems before, and I knew Danley's fantastic phase-coherence and fidelity could elevate

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USA - Christ Community Church technical director Michael Montanari has specified SSL L500 consoles for both front-of-house and monitor positions at its St Charles campus in Chicago. The consoles were purchased from SSL Live partner TC Furlong.

The 2000-capacity St Charles Campus auditorium has a regular Saturday afternoon service and two Sunday morning services, as well as a number of larger events throughout the year, including special worship nights and visiting touring acts. The Sunday services are streamed live over a dedicated fibre network live to the church's other three regional campuses. "We put a high value on production," says Montanari. "Concert-style audio, but probably not at quite as high an SPL!"

As most production crew and artists at the church are volunteers, the challenge for Montanari was finding technology that could deliver a big step up in quality, a

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Italy - The recently upgraded Sala Energia auditorium at the Arcadia Melzo multiplex in suburban Milan, Italy is the first cinema anywhere to power all of its screen channels with Meyer Sound Leopard line array loudspeakers. The 630-seat Sala Energia now contains the most powerful permanent Meyer Sound cinema system in the world, as well as one of Europe's largest Dolby Atmos systems.

"When I first heard the Leopard-based system in our Sala Energia, I was so excited and enthusiastic that I was moved to tears," recalls Piero Fumagalli, owner of Arcadia Cinemas. "I sensed immediately that the clarity, dynamics, and musicality of the Leopard arrays represented a major improvement over the previous system.

"This new Meyer Sound system is our investment in the future," continues Fumagalli. "Audiences are now willing to pay more to experience a film in the Sala Energia. We have

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UK - Global flightcase hardware and 19" racking manufacturer Penn Elcom is launching three new climate control products for 19" racking systems.

The CRC02-DTC, the FT-DTC and the FT01-Q-DTC - are all thermostatically controlled for optimised heat management in 19" racking installations.

Digital control gives refined and super accurate heat management via continuous temperature minoring and 'set-and-forget' fan control. All the products are optimised for quiet running, have over-temperature alarms and benefit from running off a universal power supply.

The units are engineered to the robust and reliable specifications common to all Penn Elcom products

The CRC02 thermo exhaust blower is a completely new 2U virtually silent (22.5 dBA) fan exhaust unit designed especially for use with 19" equipment rack units, to expel air from the front of the rack unit.

It can be

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USA - The University of Arkansas Razorbacks basketball team recently benefited from a new EAW sound reinforcement system installed for 2015-16 season. The existing system at the 19,200-seat venue was more than 20 years old and in need of replacement. After deciding to upgrade the audio, the university tapped Wrightson, Johnson, Haddon and Williams (WJHW) to design the new system, which was installed by Clair Solutions.

"The previous system was no longer adequate for the events held in the arena," explains Scott Bray, WJHW consultant. "The administration wanted sound reinforcement that was musical and would bring the game day experience up to fan's expectations. They also installed a new scoreboard during the upgrade for similar reasons."

One of the design goals was for the PA to fit above the new scoreboard, keeping sightlines clear. To this end, Bray specified six EAW lin

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India - Christ University is a UGC-recognised private university in Bangalore, Karnataka. Founded in 1969, it is managed by the priests of Carmelites of Mary Immaculate (CMI), the first indigenous Syrian Catholic religious congregation in India.

With over 16,000 students and more than 1000 faculty members, it is one of the top ranked universities in the country. It has a foreign student community of over 2500 and It was rated an A+ institution by the NAAC.

The Christ University Auditorium with a seating capacity of 2000 and cutting edge facilities is utilized by many prominent multinational corporations for their events including Accenture, Infosys, Honeywell, Fidelity, Dell, 3M to name a few. The Auditorium has also played host to prominent personalities including the Dalai Lama, the Chief Justice of India, the Chief minister of Karnataka, and hosted concerts by Richard C

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UK - The Theatres Trust has announced that booking is now open for its tenth annual conference: Conference 16: Protecting Theatres (21 June 2016, New London Theatre), a leading event in the Trust's 40th anniversary year.

In this milestone year in the history of the Trust, the conference will examine the state of our nation's theatres and discuss their future. The event will consider the past and present influences on theatre architecture and design; the provision of existing and new theatres in response to city and government devolution; changing demographics; housing delivery and community and audience demand.

The Trust will then look to the future, and the potential for the next 40 years, and ask: What kinds of theatres will we need to build, and how will we find the resources to do so? How should we be asking existing buildings to adapt and change? What impact wi

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UK - PLASA members enjoyed an informative backstage tour of the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon on the 24th of May. Elizabeth Scott's iconic 1932 cinema-style Royal Shakespeare Theatre has been transformed in recent years and, with the intimacy offered by a thrust stage auditorium, is now the perfect environment for performing the works of Shakespeare to audiences of today. Following a welcome to the venue by RSC deputy technical director, Peter Bailey, members were invited to tour with Jeremy Dunn, head of RSC sound or Vince Herbert, head of lighting and inventor of the RSC Lightlock. A demonstration on the day showed why this product won the first ever Gold Innovation Award at the 2008 PLASA Show. The team from the RSC were joined by representatives from PLASA members, Stage Electrics (systems integrator) and Charcoal Blue (theatre consultants), who had in-depth

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Singapore / UK - The following global locations all have something in common and when the list is considered it is safe to say it's not the weather. The Esplanade, Singapore and The Everyman Theatre in Liverpool both offer their fair share of cultural enrichment but those in attendance in south-east Asia are unlikely to have battled their way through anything like a cold, damp Merseyside night before taking their seat. York's Theatre Royal and Salford University are white and red rose rivals respectively and certainly would recognise thick fog and drizzle but Istanbul's Zorlu Centre is used to an altogether different climate. The world famous Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London might enjoy a mad-dog English summer or two but that doesn't compare to the heat at The Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts...

Rather than a climatic connection, what is common to every one of thes

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Japan - Tokyo's New National Theatre (NNTT) has recently installed a 32-channel TiMax2 SoundHub-S32 and TiMax Tracker system with six TT Sensors and 32 TT Tags, for adaptable provision of automated vocal localisation and audio showcontrol in both the main Playhouse auditorium and also the smaller 'Pit' theatre.

The multi-tasking system was specified by Kunio Watanabe, manager of the NNTT's audio division, who contacted SCA Sound Solutions in search of effective and natural vocal tracking and immersive audio spatialisation.

Watanabe commented, "We now have a very natural and smooth sound imaging for the actors' voices, without the feeling of it being a sound 'effect', by which I mean, the audience could feel the individual voice at the exact position of the individual singer, not from left, right and centre speakers. This may sound obvious, but other systems do not give thi

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UK - More than 70 of Martin Audio's new CDD installation loudspeakers, featuring patented Coaxial Differential Dispersion driver technology, have been installed by Middlesex Sound & Light (MSL) in a London based leisure hospitality venue, called Swingers. Built around two nine-hole crazy golf courses, Swingers also features a dining area with street food, a two-tier clubhouse and five bars.

Run by the Institute of Competitive Socialising (ICS), it not only hosts corporate crazy golf sessions for the business world - bringing the outside indoors - but then transforms the 16,000sq.ft of space into a more upbeat vibe after dark, with nightly DJs. It is described as an environment of "competitive socialising".

MSL are just one of a number of integrators who have made the CDD their 'go to' solution since its launch in Frankfurt 15 months ago. Director Darrel Olivier says that a

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UK - The Lighterman, a new pub, dining room and bar on Granary Square in London's Kings Cross offers relaxed all day dining and drinking, with views over the square as well as Regent's Canal. To capture the mood of the day and to create a vibrant evening atmosphere, the venue has installed a high quality Bose sound system, with discreet Bose FreeSpace 3 cube speakers offering music over all three floors.

With music being a key factor in the overall customer experience, the system was installed by Bose pro partner Tateside to offer managers on each of the floors overall control of the source music and volume. There are four iPads, each loaded with the Bose ControlSpace Remote app, which is designed specifically to give intuitive wireless control across multiple devices to end users wherever networked Bose system electronics are installed.

At The Lighterman, a Bose ControlSp

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UK - Bringing a wide range of global experts together to share their insight and experience, the renowned programme of seminars will again be a feature of the 2016 PLASA Show, which takes place from 18-20 September at London's Olympia. The first tranche of seminar sessions has just been announced, featuring a diverse array of fascinating and thought-provoking subjects.

PLASA Show's first year at Olympia sees the show showcasing the latest technology in Olympia's National Hall and the Gallery floor above, with the two seminar theatres, product demos and interactive showcases also situated on the Gallery floor.

As always, every session at the PLASA 2016 Seminar Programme is free-to-attend, with subjects including audio, lighting, AV, staging and business skills being covered. The first 15 have been confirmed and include the return of LSI journalist Phil Ward's popular panel

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UK - Built on the site of a Benedictine monastery founded in 792AD, St Mary's Church in Hitchin dates back to the 14th century in its current form. But despite its long history, the building's sound system is required to perform to modern standards, and a recent improvement program (carried out by church audio specialists DM Music) saw an array of Audio-Technica microphones and an Allen & Heath Qu-Pac digital mixer installed in place of an outdated radio mic set-up.

From the outset, the clergy at St Mary's requested a solution that moved towards more fixed, hard-wired microphones for ease of use, with six Audio-Technica ES195S cardioid condenser gooseneck microphones and a pair of U891RX cardioid condenser boundary mics employed to enable the clergy to conduct services from a number of different locations, with each microphone having a simple, illuminated on/off switch.

Wi

  1. New auditorium for Glasgow's Royal Concert Hall
  2. American School opens new auditorium
  3. Straightpoint Load Cells make debut at Rose Theatre Kingston
  4. Theatreplan continues to reinforce expansion
  5. Seoul church installs dLive
  6. Chauvet and Iluminarc on Fort Walden Beach
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