Installation

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USA - Designer John Lyons has specified Crown XTi Series for his new Martini Park chain of concept cocktail lounges offering live bands and DJs six nights a week. The first Martini Park, co-partnered by Lyons and Chris Barish, opened recently in Plano, Texas, close to the Dallas/Fort Worth metropolitan area, with other locations scheduled to come online in Chicago and Houston during the summer.

The Avalon Sound division of the Las Vegas-based entrepreneurs' design/build firm, John Lyons Systems, is responsible for the custom PA and lighting systems being used at the new Martini Park venues. Lyons also owns Avalon clubs in Boston and New York, as well as Avalon and Spider Club in Los Angeles, and was co-developer of the Avalon Series professional loudspeakers. "My extensive experience in the entertainment industry enables me to provide visionary design concepts combined with

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UK - Ko Ko's in Leamington Spa, which boasts a large music bar, restaurant, nightclub and a roof terrace bar, has invested heavily in both décor and entertainment, appointing PSL to handle the entertainment lighting and sound design and installation throughout.

Peter Smith of PSL reports, "The management not only started with high ideals, but as opportunities were realised, these expanded the specification and flexibility required as the project developed. This made for an interesting installation and we had to be fast to react as requirements increased with tight deadlines. This in turn placed high demands on my suppliers so I was pleased I had chosen Community for the core loudspeaker systems; their range could meet any requirement and their distributor, CUK Audio, were well up to meeting our needs."

The main bar on the ground floor changed from its original

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France - The operators of Paris concert club Le Nouveau Casino recently determined that they would need to improve their outdated sound system. The existing system had served them well over the years, but it was much too harsh and lacked distinction and coherence. A shootout between five leading audio companies was arranged. Audiolite based in Landernau, best know for doing sound production for the massive yearly Les Vieilles Charrues music festival, went to the shootout bringing in Adamson's SpekTrix True Line Source Technology.

Audiolite won the shootout and the final contract. The system for the venue was designed by DV2's Julien Poirot using Adamson's Shooter software. The main arrays are comprised of one SpekTrix 5-degree enclosure and three SpekTrix Wave 15-degree enclosures per side, providing coverage for the length of the club, which sits at about 18m (59ft), wit

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UK - Registration to attend the 29th ABTT Theatre Show (13-14 June, Royal Horticultural Halls, London) is now available via www.abtt.org.uk/theatreshow.

Already sold out, this years show will play host over 100 exhibiting companies filling all three halls to capacity. With several new exhibitors, including ChamSys Consoles, Sunbaba Fabrics and Northern Stage Services, the event presents a comprehensive range of products and services for professionals and non technical users involved with equipping, refurbishing or up-grading their drama studio, theatre, auditorium or multi-purpose performance space.

One of the show's aims is to illustrate all aspects of performance technology and offer practical advice from leading suppliers about the enormous value that can be added by investing in technology.

Also illustrating the Show's commitment to education, drama schools from around t

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South Korea - Avix Tech, a Seoul-based distribution and sound reinforcement company recently installed systems in two different South Korean projects - the newly refurbished Hannuri Art Hall in Suwon City's Jangan Ju community centre, and the Chuncheon Art Hall located in the recently renovated Chuncheon Culture and Arts Centre in the province of Gangwon. Despite dramatic differences in shape, profile, and capacity of the two halls, Avix Tech determined that the needs of their diverse calendars of musical theatre, live music, and dance programs would be met ideally by loudspeaker systems from Meyer Sound.

Eric Han, manager of Avix Tech's system design and technical support department, cites the self-powered nature of the Meyer Sound systems as key in making them the best solution. "The speakers and onboard amplifiers are perfectly matched, eliminating any loss of quality fr

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UK - Baldwin Boxall Communications will be launching its latest Emergency Voice Communication system - VIGIL OmniCare at International Fire Expo. This latest development allows users to have disabled refuge remotes, fire telephones remotes and disabled toilet alarms all on the same system. A considerable saving can now be made as only one system is required. Prior to this product three separate systems would have been necessary, says the company.

The system works in the same way as Baldwin Boxall's market leading 'CARE' products. Remote units are wired in a loop configuration and it is possible to have a number of disabled refuge remotes, fire telephones or toilet alarms all on the same loop. Also in the range, Baldwin Boxall has developed a combined disabled refuge and fire telephone remote. Like all of Baldwin Boxall's 'CARE' products the system is compliant with BS5839 part 9

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USA - Democracy Now!, an award-winning national, daily independent news programme that airs on over 500 radio and TV stations in North America, has recently taken delivery of an InnovaSON Sy48 digital mixing console and a remote Stage Box to handle a live news broadcast five days per week. Pioneering the largest public media collaboration in the US, Democracy Now! is broadcast on Pacifica, community and National Public Radio stations; on public access cable television stations and satellite television; as a podcast and on the internet.

Democracy Now! chief broadcast engineer, Nick Marcilio, explains why he opted for an InnovaSON console over anything else. "There were a number of reasons," he remarked. "I'd seen the board side by side with a number of other digital console brands at a recent AES show, and was struck by the versatility of the d

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New Zealand - Processing devices from BSS Audio have helped bring a new aviation heritage centre, majoring on World War 1 aircraft, to life. The highly anticipated Omaka Aviation Heritage Centre is an exciting new concept specialising in aviation history. Located just outside Blenheim in the Marlborough region of the South Island of New Zealand the centre's first exhibition, Knights of the Sky, occupies 3,000sq.m of purpose-built display area. The collection is managed by the 14-18 Aviation Heritage Trust, chaired by the New Zealand film Director Peter Jackson and comprises one of the world's largest collections of World War 1 aircraft and memorabilia; this has been brought to life with a number of dramatically staged static displays along with functional planes.

From the AV perspective the entire project was managed by Grant Collie of technical solutions company LDPS, Ne

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Denmark - Architects Dissing + Weitling have created a combination of form and function in Bryggebro, a 190m long, 7m wide bicycle and pedestrian bridge that forms part of Copenhagen's growing network of pedestrian and cycling paths. Inaugurated in September 2006, Bryggebroen is a swing bridge for the passage of large ships, and the first bridge built over the city's harbour in 50 years.

Besides saving Copenhageners several minutes on their commutes, not to mention providing a safe and beautiful alternative to the noise and trafficked roads, visually Bryggebro connects two sides of Copenhagen - Islands Brygge with Havneholmen - while defining the space of the harbour.

At night the bridge stands as a lighted ribbon over the water thanks to built-in linear luminaires designed by Dissing + Weitling in collaboration with Martin Professional. The bridge's central spine, which divid

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Japan - Two major QSC system installations in Japan have been reported by distributors, Tokyo-based ComodoMattina.

At Iruma Municipal Hall, QSC Installation Line Array (ILA) and Modular Design (MD) components were specified for the refurbishment of this 1,100-seat auditorium, located in the Saitama Prefecture. Whereas the pre-existing system had been installed inside the proscenium arch, this time the main sound reinforcement system has been designed in front of the arch in order to generate a higher SPL and better coverage, with improved clarity.

While this acoustical solution would generally be favoured it is seldom permitted in general civic halls as it interferes with the architectural aesthetic. That the ILA system was permitted to adopt such a position outside the pros arch in this instance was completely unprecedented, believes ComodoMattina's Takafumi Asahina.

The ma

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UK - Sunderland-based High Fidelity Studios has just completed the building of a fully-equipped pre-touring rehearsal suite, installing Allen & Heath's new dedicated monitor console, the GL2800M, to complement the studio's existing GL2400 FOH desk.

"The aim of the new studio is to provide a facility for up-and-coming musicians to take their music to the next level," explains High Fidelity Studios MD, David Dorn. "The suite offers bands the experience of a full blown gig, providing quality equipment they would find at a top line event. The space is set up like a venue with a fully furnished stage including drum rises, a valve back line, and top quality 32 channel monitor and FOH desks."

"We are very familiar with A&H mixers as we have GL2200's and GL2400's in our hire stock, and we come across them in most of the venues we engineer," continues dire

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UK - Christie has introduced Christie ACT, a new theatre automation controller purpose-built to interface with the latest generation Digital Cinema technology. The system makes it easy to automate presentations by translating cues from connected devices to control most theatre equipment including lighting, curtains, sound, masking and projectors, says the company. The system offers a solution, enabling customisable control to suit the needs of a single screen, a multiplex facility or an entire theatre chain.

Manageable through a web interface, Christie ACT allows the user control and flexibility. It can be accessed from any web browser on a networked computer making it accessible from a portable handheld computer or laptop.

With an intuitive graphical user interface, even the novice can easily customise tasks and events to suit specific needs, says the company. Featuring pre-d

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Switzerland - Soundweb London digital signal processing from BSS Audio was recently specified in the fourth biggest ice hockey stadium in the country, with a capacity of 8,000. Built in 1995 the Resega Ice Arena in Lugano is home to the Hockey Club Lugano HCL, which has won the Swiss National Hockey Championship seven times within the last 20 years.

As a result, their home games are packed, with all matches accompanied by a continuous cacophony of crowd noise. This, coupled with a critical reverberation, explains why two different installed sound systems have both been replaced within the last ten years after being deemed unsatisfactory.

In spring last year, the town of Lugano issued a tender for a new sound system which needed to fulfil the sound reinforcement requirements of a wide range of events and also meet the EN 60849 regulation for evacuation purposes.

The concept o

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Singapore - Singapore's growing infrastructure - requiring the need for ever more professional staging services - is already having a positive effect on this year's Event 360º show, which makes its debut under the wing of the umbrella PALME Asia expo in July.

Some 1,000sq.m, a quarter of the overall capacity at Singapore Expo, will be set aside for Event 360º Asia. Heartened by the initial response, Davin Er, who is responsible for developing this sector, believes that interest has not only been stimulated by the support from the Singapore Tourism Board, but the building of the S$3.85bn Marina Bay Sands complex, housing casino, hotel and convention centre.

Event 360º Asia will also be working closely alongside Singapore-based UnUsUal Productions, who are among an increasing number of local companies that have the capability of offering world-renowned ev

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USA - Los Angeles night club, the Temple Bar in Santa Monica, has installed Allen & Heath's iLive Digital Console, now providing mixing duties for the club's nightly live music schedule.

Based in LA's fashionable Santa Monica area, the Temple Bar is a unique music venue hosting local, national and international artists performing a spectrum of music covering the genres of jazz, electronica, indie, hip hop, soul, latin, reggae, and world music. There is also a house DJ performing between acts, and the venue regularly organises film screenings and poetry nights.

The Temple Bar's music director and chief mixing engineer, Swan, commented, "The sound of the console is magnificent, I've been mixing at the Temple Bar for five years, I have never hear the room sound like this before. It brought our sound system alive! Its compact footprint fit perfectly in our sound booth, and ou

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UK - Summit Steel supplied four SmarTmasts to Britannia Row which were utilised to emulate a concert style set up for sound tests in the new Wembley Stadium. Two SmarTmast 4s were used to suspend speaker arrays that mimicked the height and positioning of PA wing hangs on a typical concert stage set up in the end-on position. The masts were picked for their 15m height, quick buildability and neat footprint.

The main object of the exercise was to integrate a show PA system with Wembley's house PA to provide full audio coverage throughout the stadium. They also took the opportunity to ensure that Emergency announcements could be heard in all locations around the venue.

Summit's Jon Bray was contacted by Brit Row's Bryan Grant to supply the necessary support structures for the tests. Bray and a team of three riggers erected a total of five masts, which stayed up for a two-day peri

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UK - Located in Plaistow, east London, Glory House is a family-based, multi-racial and multi-cultural church where audio and visual technologies have been embraced to broadcast the church's message in the most effective way possible.Music is an integral part of Glory House: up to a 100-strong Gospel choir and musical director being complemented by an in-house technical sound team.

The venue now has a new sound system supplied and installed by South London-based Subfrantic Production Services. The Turbosound system comprises four TA-500 Aspect Wide mid-highs, four TSB-118 subs and six TXD-15M wedge monitors, all controlled by two LMS-D24s. Subfrantic also supplied amplifiers, mixing consoles, outboard equipment, microphones, a custom-designed multicore and an ASL communications system.

"The main factor dictating the specification was to get the best sound we could on a rea

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USA - Two public institutions in the USA have recently been the recipient of new Merging digital audio workstations. The Washington-based Library of Congress has recently acquired several Pyramix DAWs, each built around a Merging Mykerinos MB5 card with an AES-EBU digital output daughterboard.

The DAWs are being installed in the Library's new facilities at the National Audio Visual Conservation Centre in Culpeper, Virginia, where staff will be using them primarily to digitise the Library's audio collections, creating high-quality preservation files. The Pyramix systems were assembled by Merging Technologies' US distributor Independent Audio and supplied to the Library of Congress by Massachusetts dealer Parsons Audio.

In a separate sale, Washington's National Gallery of Art has also installed a Pyramix for use by the Gallery's audio-visual staff.

(Jim Evans)

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Spain / Portugal - Quercus Equity has invested 60 million euros in the acquisition of the Spanish group Stonex and the Portuguese audio-visual group Alfasom - owner of the Spanish companies Aysav and Congress Rental Ibérica - creating the largest audio-visual group in the Iberian Peninsular.

The Stonex group, founded in Madrid in 1980, specializes in engineering and turnkey stage equipment projects for theatres, auditoriums, congress centres, casinos and theme parks, encompassing stage engineering, show lighting, architectural lighting and audio-visual installations. The company has offices in Madrid and La Coruña, and boasts more than 300 reference projects in the Iberian market, such as WB Madrid theme park, Pamplona Auditorium and congress centre (Baluarte), Colon Theatre in La Coruña, Campoamor Theatre in Oviedo, Expo 98's Lisboa Camoens Theatre and Gran Casino de A

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UK - The Association of British Theatre Technicians (ABTT), is sponsoring Performing Theatres, part of The Theatres' Trust Conference 07. Performing Theatres follows on from the successful 2006 ABTT Theatre, Architecture and Engineering Conference and develops the need for there to be a stronger profile for users in setting out requirements for building and refurbishing theatres.

Raising issues about how best to maximise theatre design in the 21st Century, the Performing Theatres Conference is chaired by Ian Brown, artistic director, West Yorkshire Playhouse, Genista McIntosh and Venu Dhupa, director of creative innovation, Southbank Centre. The one day event promises to offer a lively and wide-ranging debate on how the design of theatres will meet our needs in the 21st Century.

Complementing ABTT's annual Theatre Show, which highlights technological innovation a

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UK - The concrete is dry, the first crowds have walked the terraces, and just after Easter it was time to test the sound. "When we were approached to test the house sound facilities at the new Wembley Stadium in conjunction with a concert system set-up, we were of course delighted," said Mike Lowe of Britannia Row Productions Ltd. "We expect to be servicing many shows here over the coming months and years, so the opportunity to be the first to get a real feel for the building was not to be missed."

Over three days (11-13 April) Britannia Row crews rigged the stadium for 'end on' and 'side on' concert configurations. "We rigged an EV Xline system off 15 metre SmarTmasts from Summit Steel as for a main stage system, and then added Outline Butterfly delays off 11 metre masts out in the field. The system was then linked into the house EAW installed system an

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UK - Sitting quietly in Bristol harbour, one of the UK's most quirky - and in some ways historic - venues has recently had a sound and lighting makeover, including the installation of a major Turbosound loudspeaker system.

Owned by DHP, the Motor Vessel (MV) Thekla gained notoriety in the 1980s as The Old Profanity Showboat, run by well-known eccentric and former Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band main man Vivian Stanshall.

The makeover includes a complete new lighting and sound rig, supplied by Stage Electrics. The hold is still the main performance area, which sees six Turbosound QLight TQ-445 full range enclosures, four TQ-425 bass units and two TSB-118 subs installed, controlled by two LMS-D24 digital controllers and driven by Turbosound-badged MC amplifiers.

On stage six Turbosound TXD-15M wedges are used for foldback, while the bar area in the main room also sports four QLight TQ-

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UK - Leisuretec Distribution and Global Design Solutions (GDS) are coming together at ABTT to showcase the Blues System.

GDS will also be showcasing its new i Stage Managers Desk which was manufactured for the Royal Welsh College of Music Drama and Art in 2006, since then the company has supplied three more desks for major UK venues and are working closely with both the British and Irish Stage Managers Association for both consultation and advice.

(Jim Evans)

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UK - Christie's working relationship with the Harrods brand has been extended with the installation of an LX66A 6500 ANSI lumen digital projector in the Harrods Estates office in Mayfair.

The system integrators were London-based Handy AV, who in just five years have built up an extensive portfolio of clients in their specialist areas of providing a complete systems approach to corporate and retail. Their product supply ranges from their specialist own-branded HandySCREEN and interactive HandyTOUCH displays (such as those showcased at the Hayward Gallery on London's South Bank) as well as mainstream A/V utilities.

Christie's long association with Harrods extends back to the Peter Pan window display during Christmas 2003, which was followed up with the permanent installation of two Christie S+16K 16,0000 lumen DLP projectors, firing onto a vast 4.7 x 3.5m portrait canvas

  1. Neve & Clearmountain at Sonic launch
  2. Glasgow's Byblos in Flashlite debut
  3. ICONYX installed in Amsterdam's Theater Fabriek
  4. Brighton's out post sound launches
  5. CEDIA supports Install Middle East
  6. Blitz breaks the news
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