Installation

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Canary Islands - Gravesend Sound & Light have carried out a large-scale nightclub installation on the holiday island of Lanzarote, majoring on Martin Audio components. Having already carried out work for British ex-pat Martin Lyons at nearby Cesar's, the company's Simon Middleton was delighted to return - this time to fit out the 1,300-capacity Dreams in central Puerto del Carmen.

Gravesend Sound & Light totally relpaced the sound system using multiples of Martin Audio Blackline F15s around the dancefloor, underpinned with S218 subs. Said Middleton: "We had originally planned to fly the F15s in pairs, but the roof wasn't structurally substantial enough, so instead we created two ground stacks either side of the stage, inverting the F15s on the S218s to produce a horn-coupled solution. It provided a much crisper, punchier sound with a vibrant top end."

Gravesend had r

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UK - West Sussex-based beyerdynamic has recently supplied Altered Images with a number of Cue control systems (for which beyerdynamic is the UK distributor) for installation into four lecture halls and a classroom lecture hall at Brunel University. This represents the first phase of a five-year modernization programme that will include a further 18 lecture halls fitted to similar facilities.

All of the theatres have identical ceiling-mounted projectors and the classrooms will use an interactive whiteboard with media management via Cue control systems. One of the first rooms to be transformed - lecture theatre E, a listed 1970s structure - was used as a location for Stanley Kubrick's controversial film A Clockwork Orange, shot in the early 1970s. The equipment installed provides a highly flexible presentation system, which will be employed for university lectures as well a

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UK - Turbosound is making a major impact on Belfast's new nightspot, Skye, with 49 Turbosound loudspeakers installed as part of a highly specified sound system. The Turbosound line-up at Skye includes 16 Impact 80 enclosures, as well as various QLight models. Designed and installed by RG Design Light & Sound (Omagh, County Tyrone), Skye's sound system joins the growing ranks of clubs around the world that have taken advantage of the Qlight's attributes.

Colum O'Neill, RG Design's technical director, outlined the project: "Skye's entertainment manager, Eamon Beagon, came to see us with a requirement for a top-quality system, to tie in with the club's high-end image. He was interested in using a Turbosound-based system, as he had heard a number of our Turbosound installations in other clubs and had been impressed with the results. Due to space constraints, the design called f

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Australia - Perth, Australia-based PIVoD Technologies has teamed with ARX Systems to create new ground-breaking audio streaming technology. ARX's ZA Series multi-channel amplifiers have been installed by PIVoD Technologies into the Victorian Arts Centre, the hub of performing arts in Southern Australia, comprising the Melbourne Concert Hall, Victorian State Theatre and many other performance venues and spaces.

The ARX ZA400, ZA600 and ZA800 amplifiers have been fitted by PIVoD with their new audio streaming technology, VIPA (Venue Internet Protocol Audio). With VIPA, each ARX ZA amplifier features an Internet Protocol (IP) interface that allows the amplifier to be monitored for the operating and control status of each stereo channel pair and the AC power control 'on/off' of each amplifier. The amplifiers are then controlled and monitored with the PIVoD Technologies Show Control

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UK - The newly-opened Lonsdale House in Notting Hill is destined to make its mark very quickly as one of London's most glamorous new high profile nightspots. When it came to supplying the audio, owner Charles Breedan was equally clear about what he wanted. "I'm a huge fan of the restaurant Momo," he stated. "I love everything about it. Indeed, I chose the architects partly on the basis of the work they had done there, and the same goes for the audio-visual contractor. The Sound Division Group was responsible for the installation at Momo, which I greatly admire, so they seemed to be the natural choice to supply the audio for Lonsdale House."

The specification was for a sophisticated audio system capable of delivering high quality background music throughout the venue with the ability to zone to specific areas. The system also needed to be powerful enough to ma

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USA - The layout of Level 3, the latest addition to downtown Atlanta's vibrant dance club scene, might have presented a challenge to many sound contractors, but Dewayne Walters knew exactly where to turn for performance gear. Having already installed powerful Turbosound systems in the city's top clubs, including the Velvet Room, Nomenclature, Lava Lounge, Karma and Globe Theatre, Walters carefully selected a variety of the company's loudspeakers to deliver targeted SPLs to several different areas throughout Level 3. The loudspeaker systems were supplied via Turbosound's US distributor, Sennheiser Electronic Corporation.

Level 3, which occupies over 2000sq.m in a former Planet Hollywood on Peachtree Street in downtown Atlanta, sprawls across three floors and features a large dance floor, a VIP area and balcony seating. The club offers patrons five bars, two downstairs, two upstai

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UK - CP Sound has designed, specified and installed a discreet, powerful audio system at The Zinc Bar & Grill in Fulham, London, for Conran Restaurants. This follows hot on the heels of their other successful sound reinforcement projects at Zinc sites in Birmingham, Manchester and Edinburgh.

This latest Zinc occupies a prime location amidst the bustle of Fulham Broadway, one of the liveliest parts of London. Although a smaller space than the other restaurants, the same aesthetic and sonic requirements were applied to this venue. Sound equipment had to be invisible, to offer comfortable and almost imperceptible background levels and dispersion, yet also be capable of pumping up the volume in the venue when needed. Zinc's bar area is designed for multi-purpose use, and can be converted into DJ/dancing mode. It was also important that sound in the two adjacent areas - restaurant an

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UK - Fifteen months in the job, and already the Fairfield Hall's new technical co-ordinator Ian Locke is beginning to make his presence felt; not least in the realms of safety. "Before I took the appointment I could already see this was a very, very busy venue; sometimes three performances a day, so I knew safe working practices would be paramount."

Consequently there have been "huge changes", not least the recent installation of a new rigging grid above the famous Fairfield stage. "The existing grid was well past its sell-by date, so in September of 2001 I visited PLASA to see what was available. At the time I didn't even know Total Fabrications' T2 system existed (hardly surprising as it was barely a year since launch) so when I stopped by their stand I was more than impressed with the system."

Being a prudent shopper, Locke looked around all th

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UK - Marquee Audio has assisted in the upgrade of Dust Bar Café on London's trendy Clerkenwell Road. The independent bar had been running as a ground-floor DJ bar on a 2am licence for the past five years - but recently decided to expand the operation onto the first floor. According to project director, Alan Burrows, the sound system upgrade coincided with a new interior design (by owner and co-director, Raymond Brown) and the launch of a new restaurant and cocktail list.

"Dust has developed a reputation on the back of breaking out new DJ talent, and so with the addition of a second floor, good sound reinforcement became a top priority," he said. He had been referred to Marquee by another satisfied client from a Shoreditch bar/restaurant, but the decision to use Marquee was only made after a competitive tender. "We found the company to have the necessary tec

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UK - Lively south coast nightspot TJ's in Eastbourne is the first UK venue to receive JBL's powerful, new, low-profile AE series installation speakers. Arbiter Pro Audio, JBL's UK distributor, supplied the speakers to installers Accord Audio, based in Horam, East Sussex, who fitted out the system as part of the club's latest technical upgrade.

The dancefloor in TJ's main room now features four JBL AM6212/95 bi-amped speakers, complete with high-powered ASB6128 subs. The AM6212 is the most powerful of three types of speakers in the AE range. A major feature, and one of the enclosure's many innovative points, is its very low profile - a slim and elegant physical shape and size which make it an ideal solution for fitting into small spaces unobtrusively.

The sizing has been made possible because the enclosures have rotatable waveguides, enabling them to be just as easily be mounte

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India - With bases in Hong Kong and India, Light Sound Image Ltd has developed a wide portfolio of high profile pan-Asia contracts. The company is the largest international AV consultancy group in India, which creates a hectic schedule for its audio-visual consultant Ian D Harris.

However, his life has been made easier with the discovery of the BSS 9088 Soundweb networked digital matrix system, which he used for the first time recently on installations for the ITC Sheraton Hotel Group in India. LSI won a competitive tender to provide an AV solution for two Irish pubs, situated within the Sheratons in Delhi and Kolkata (Calcutta). With Irish theming, these act essentially as fun pubs, but with a dancefloor and potent sound systems.

Ian Harris was asked to support LSI's Delhi-based Systems Integration Division and programme Soundweb for the two installations. "Although I ha

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UK - Leading sound, lighting and AV designer and installer Metropolis AV and FX has completed the design, supply and install of an entire lighting, sound and AV system at the new Sports Café in Manchester.

The £1.2 million project sees the conversion of a utilitarian 1960's office block in Quay Street, central Manchester, into an 1600-capacity sports-themed environment on two levels. Facilities include bar/dining areas with a large dancefloor, a mezzanine chill-out/games area with 16 pool tables, a Team Room used for private functions and, behind a laminated glass wall but clearly visible from the street, a basketball practice area - for those wanting a bit of physical exertion mixed with their energy drinks.

The Sports Café's technical infrastructure was designed by Metropolis's Simon Harris, working directly for Sports Café. The client specifically

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UK - AV8 is a remarkable new venue situated adjacent to the mile-long runway at Kemble Airfield in Cirencester. Owner Ronan Harvey has just celebrated quite a month, having successfully negotiated for the classic Gnat jet, owned by Pink Floyd's Dave Gilmour, achieved a CAA licence, enabling him to operate as a commercial airfield, and successfully converted the former fire station into his new luxury bar/restaurant.

Harvey contacted an old interior design friend, Simon Radclyffe of Radclyffe Associates, to combine an Indonesian theme with an Airfix kit leitmotif - using the fabric and large ribs to soften the vibrancy of the wonderful terracotta, yellow and dark blues, hand-painted by local artist/sculptress Joanne Walker.

Manic Street Preachers' LD, Ollie Metcalfe, provided clever theatrical dichroic trackspot lighting, controlled by Hans Beier's CAV (who also provided the Ma

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UK - Last February, A.C. Lighting Projects Divison were awarded the contract to design, supply, and install state-of-the-art production facilities into a major new educational venue. The ultra-modern facilities include a 300-seat theatre, main hall, lecture theatre, sound studio, media centre and dance studio, fitted out with industry standard products.

The entire installation involved more than 200 product lines from industry leading manufacturers, including ETC, Strand, Aldo Ianiro, Manfrotto, Audio-Technica, Sennheiser, Soundcraft, Allen & Heath, Denon and Martin. The company provided not only the complete lighting, audio and AV systems but also bespoke solutions, by the design and installation of three multimedia control lecterns, tailored for each facility's specific requirements.

Each lectern has an integrated LCD touch-screen, offering the user access to a comprehensive

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UK - The Blue Room is a brand new web discussion forum, set up by two keen, dedicated industry professionals, where advice may be sought and offered by anybody working in, entering or just plain interested in any aspect of life behind the scenes in the Entertainments Industry. All are welcome to visit and browse, and register as members should they wish to take part in discussions and debates about industry issues.

Forums have been created for all major industry disciplines, as well as for students, health & safety and useful outside sources of information, all alongside a place to just chat with other like-minded people. There is also a private messaging facility, where members may communicate with each other personally. Up-to-date security measures, together with sensitive, responsive moderation of the forums, help to maintain a relaxed and friendly atmosphere in which people

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UK - A Cerwin-Vega Intense! rig has been installed into landmark Birmingham nightclub, The Dome. First Leisure's former award-winning 3,000-capacity club is now under the private ownership of Dome Leisure Ltd, and when contracts and design manager Tim Matthews approached local retailer/installers, Matthews Electronics, they recommended the Cerwin rig - distributed in the UK by Lamba plc - as part of a complete sound and lighting solution.

The company re-used the serviceable equipment (redeploying some of the existing speakers as fills) and specified a powerful amplifier rack to drive the 21k Intense T250/T36 rig, which drives the main dancefloor system. The system is based around a QSC PL9.0 - to drive the four ground-stacked Cerwin Vega T36s and four S218 subs - and Powersoft DIGAM 7000 and DIGAM 5000 amps to run the T250 mid/highs (these are flown, using Matthews' own bespoke

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USA - The Entertainment Services and Technology Association (ESTA) has appointed David Taylor, director of project management at Theatre Projects Consultants, to its Board of Directors. A recent vacancy in the position of Affiliate Director allowed ESTA President Mike Wood to appoint David to the Board to fill the remaining two years of the vacated term.

Commenting on his appointment Taylor told us: "Theatre Projects are privileged to specify a huge amount of performance equipment for the US and world markets and we value our close relationships with manufacturers, suppliers and contractors - I look forward to contributing to the ESTA Board and supporting the mission of the diverse ESTA members to create a better, safer and more efficient entertainment market."

Taylor joined Theatre Projects in the UK in 1985, became a project leader in 1989, and a senior consultant

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UK - To mark the start of the New Year, Navigator Systems has released a free upgrade to its best-selling rental management software HireTrack Eclipse.

The upgrade - which consists of more than 70 new features - comes in response to customer feedback, and demand for the new version has already been high, with the system now a regular feature of many company's business plans. One such client, Saville Audio Visual, winners of the AV Rental Company of the Year at the AV Awards 2002, has grown its rental turnover by 26% - an achievement "based around the use of HireTrack Eclipse", which is now installed in all 14 outlets. Navigator will be showing the new release at this year's Frankfurt Pro Light+Sound/MusikMesse in March.

(Ruth Rossington)

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UK - The penetration of Martin Audio Blackline systems into the UK's dance venues continues. The latest company to turn to the high-powered, low-cost solution is Gravesend Sound & Light, with two new installations in their native Kent for Luminar Leisure. "Blackline is a great product, and we can't seem to go wrong with it," said Gravesend installation manager Simon Middleton. "It just doesn't produce that harshness of sound we have experienced with other systems."

Club Indigo/The Beach has been a popular venue on the Folkestone coastline since its original incarnation as La Parisienne. When the sound system began to repeatedly break down the Gravesend company recommended a system comprising eight Martin Blackline F15s, flown in pairs and angled around the dancefloor.

The foundations of the sound are a block stack of S218 subs, forming a single point source

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UK - Heaven, described as the most famous gay nightclub in the world, has taken delivery of a new high-powered 4-way sound system. Inspired by its new owners, David Inches (who has been involved with the club since its beginning), Jeremy Millins and Paul Savory - who recently bought out Virgin Clubs' interest in the venue - the contract was entrusted to experienced installation contractors, Blue Box Company.

Headed by Mark Metcalf - who has a long association with Millins - Blue Box specified a QSC PowerLight system to drive the component parts of a carefully thought-out Funktion One system design. Resident production manager, Rob Barton said that the venue, situated under vaulted arches at London's Charing Cross, had recently benefited from £50,000 of sound screening and acoustic treatment, which had prevented sound leakage and enabled Heaven to raise the power rating fro

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UK - The Professional Lighting and Sound Association (PLASA) has warned its members in the past about scams in which companies are approached by organizations claiming to be 'collectors' for Data Protection Act registration. The approaches are often in the form of a letter, and carry demands for a registration fee (often £95 +VAT) along with erroneous 'reminders' that failure to register could result in a fine of up to £5,000. Other 'collectors' have even visited companies in person, and displayed convincing-looking ID tags.

It seems that the practice is still continuing, with up to 18 bogus agencies known to be engaged in the scam - for a full list, visit the web address below. Anyone being approached with a similar request is asked not to make any payments, and to contact their local police.

(Lee Baldock)

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UK - Marquee Audio has designed and supplied a new stage monitor system to be piloted by the McKenzie Group in their Carling Academy in Bristol. According to MKG's managing director, John Northcote, the move is not only in line with the company's policy of maintaining a solid audio infrastructure for visiting bands, but also reflects the expanding secondary usage of Academy venues for smaller up-and-coming groups.

If successful, the move could lead to a standardization throughout the McKenzie Group's live venue portfolio. Explaining the rationale, John Northcote told us: "We look at Academy venues from three viewpoints: for full-on shows, for club nights and now for small 400-500 capacity gigs where up-and-coming bands can plug into an existing set-up."

In addition to the new stage set-up in Bristol Marquee Audio has provided FOH augmentation with the first of Soundc

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France - Since 2000, the French theme park Puy du Fou has used L-Acoustics sound systems. In 2001, the park enlarged its equipment inventory for the Gallo-Roman Stadium show, delivering a high quality and invisible sound experience for the audience.

Won over by the quality of the dV-Dosc system used on the Gallo-Roman Stadium show, the Puy du Fou decided in 2002 to bring the same audio signature to the Cinescenie, one of the biggest permanent stages in the world (3 acres, 14,000 capacity audience per show) and asked its technical team to chose an L-Acoustics system that could be adapted to the geography (an outdoor show arena with a lake in the middle, several different stage locations, night shows, totally exposed to the elements, etc) and to the audio requirements (high intelligibility and predictable directivity, off-site noise pollution, etc). The sound engineers eventually

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UK - Le Mark has developed a new fire retardant gaffer tape. Manufactured from high quality, waterproof, vinyl-coated cloth tape, with a natural rubber based adhesive, it has a special flame retardant coating. Offering high tensile strength, it conforms to Ford specifications - ESB-M3G71-B and S95GG14K024CA.

On a separate note, Le Mark's custom printing division had an incredibly busy start to 2003. January saw the production, for the first time, of a uniquely complicated multi-text identification label system for the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra. Le Mark adapted its heavy-duty PAL Label identification system to meet the Philharmonic's requirement that every single piece of flight-cased equipment be uniquely named and identified with a reusable label. This required a total of 73 individual stencils to be produced and then screen printed.

(Ruth Rossington)

  1. Marquee Audio wins Glasgow Academy contract
  2. Sydney Opera House Opens Forecourt
  3. FX Technical at Butlers Wharf
  4. First Aussie install for MC2 Audio
  5. Nexo GEO scores hat-trick in Finland
  6. Film classifiers use Martin’s Screen 2s to assist with ratings
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