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PLASA 2001, the Professional Lighting and Sound Association’s annual entertainment technology showcase, held at Earls Court from 9-12 September, received an overwhelming thumbs up from exhibitors and visitors alike.

Understandably, the horrific events in New York and Washington cast a shadow over the Show, not least because of the large number of American exhibitors and visitors who always support the event. The shock of the news was felt widely across the show floor, but it quickly turned to a resolve to keep the Show open and a determination that business should go ahead as usual.

Attendance figures were boosted 4.5% on last year’s event as 13,373 visitors (subject to ABC audit) attended the spectacular four-day show to witness the unveiling of the industry’s latest innovations. Of these visitors, an amazing 25% were international. Results of an exit survey showed

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Tannoy Professional has presented its ‘Best New Distributor’ Award to Avix Tech, based in Seoul, South Korea. Sean Martin, Tannoy's international sales manager, explained: "Avix's business this last fiscal year has been nothing short of outstanding for a new distributor. We usually allow a couple of years for distributors to settle in, but Avix hit the ground running and has achieved tremendous results in the last 18 months, which is why they have been awarded this accolade. I can only put their success down to Avix's excellent staff training, attention to detail, confidence in the brand, and their sheer enthusiasm to win business. These factors have enabled them to achieve almost 200% of their target, which naturally we are extremely happy about and long may it continue."

Jin Doo Lee from Avix commented: "Just a year doing business with Tannoy has resulted i

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Community's CPL family of loudspeakers has grown by two this year, with the new CPL26 and CPL28 having made their industry debuts this month. Featuring IntelliSense driver protection, the duo is built to meet the aesthetic and performance demands of fixed installations ranging from restaurants and nightclubs to auditoriums and houses of worship. The compact, powerful enclosures perform with highly controlled directivity and sensitivity rated at 95dB at one watt/one metre.

Outfitted with a pair of 8" low frequency drivers, the CPL28, like the CPL26 (which houses dual 6.5" woofers), employs a two-way design using Community's UC-1 compression driver coupled with a newly-developed, 120° x 60° high frequency horn which can be rotated 90° to facilitate either vertical or horizontal mounting. While the frequency response of the CPL28 extends from 60 to 18,000Hz, the CPL26 ranges

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Marquee Audio has carried out a major installation at the Watersmeet Theatre in Rickmansworth. The company was awarded the contract by Three Rivers District Council after successfully tendering for the audio refit. The 481-capacity venue, which was built in the Hertfordshire town 25 years ago, stages a wide range of events, from spoken word, classical, jazz and pantomimes - as well as dinner dances, conferences and films.

The venue’s technical manager David Mead says that the new facilities at the venue, where the floor has a natural rake, will create more entertainment options. "In the past we have always had to sub-hire in equipment for any band requiring a PA."

Mead confirmed that while the old PA system, which had served the venue for 15 years, had been ripped out in favour of a Nexo PS15/LS1200, the existing Soundcraft Spirit Live 16/2 has been retained.

The N

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Tannoy has appointed Graham Hendry to the position of Engineering Director for Professional Products, where he will head the R&D department at Tannoy's main plant in Coatbridge, Scotland. Graham returns to Tannoy after two years with Northern Light where he was technical manager, responsible for project managing a range of installations. Explaining his reasons for returning to Tannoy, Hendry commented: "Working with Northern Light was a great experience. I had a chance to work on some prestigious projects including The Birmingham Rep, London Coliseum and The Broadway in Peterborough, which was gratifying for me personally. Working in the installation market allowed me to see the industry from a different perspective, something I couldn't experience working solely in manufacturing. To truly understand a customer's needs I believe you have to be one, and my time at Northern Light has

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After the first hectic day of this year's PLASA show, the cream of the DJ technology world gathered in the suitably stylish environs of London's AKA restaurant for the annual DJmag T-Scan awards ceremony. The awards recognize the true popularity of the latest DJ products amongst end users, voted exclusively by readers of DJ magazine. The 14 awards covered all aspects of the DJ world, with Mackie collecting the prize for Studio Monitor with their HR824. On hand to receive the award was Rick Bos, Mackie Designs product/marketing manager and Tony Williams, director of sales from Mackie UK. Rick Bos commented: "I am very pleased to pick up this award on behalf of the Mackie team who created this monitor, we feel that it really is the best in its field and so do the people that matter, the readers of Djmag."

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JBL’s VerTec line array system added power and style to the Miss Moneypenny’s area of the VIP tent at the Ministry of Sound’s mega dance festival - Knebworth 01. The VerTec system was specified by Ministry of Sound production manager Dave Bradshaw and the 12 cabinets were supplied by Liverpool-based Ad Lib Audio.

DJs performing at Moneypenny’s on the night included Jim Shaft Ryan, Anton Debiage, Steve Coogan, Steve Miller and Nic Gillet - joined by thousands of enthusiastic clubbers. Ad Lib also used a dbx Drive Rack speaker management system to control the VerTec rig at Knebworth: they are currently the largest stockist of Drive Rack in the UK. Additionally, there were also two bars in the VIP enclosure, one of which was sponsored by The Blue Zone and also featured a JBL sound system. JBL and The Ministry go back nearly a decade as technical partners. The famo

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The Belgian coastal town of Zeebrugge recently hosted the annual Sand Sculpture Festival, attracting around 45,000 visitors. Every year a special theme is selected to capture the imagination of the 65 artists who design and create the scenes. The team went totally overboard this year and recreated a pre-historic environment with a touch of fun about it on the beach. The whole area is about a 1000sq.m in size, and visitors are free to walk between the dinosaurs.

Deltarent won the contract to provide the sound for the opening, attended by 8,000 people, including all national TV stations, and spec’d the Martin Audio W8 system which they purchased earlier in the year. Inside the exhibition they used the specially-weatherproofed Martin Audio Blackline F12.

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A complete loudspeaker and audio test system is now available from Stephen Court - creator of Sound Check - one of the world's best selling test CDs. In the form of plug-in hardware, a CD-ROM for Windows and calibrated measurement mic, Speaker Check uses CLIO MLS technology which allows accurate measurements in ordinary room acoustics. The system converts a PC into a Pen Recorder and printer, Real Time Spectrum Analyser, Dual Channel oscilloscope and millivolt meter. It allows the measurement of frequency response, impedance curves, distortion v frequency, impulse response, phase response and a host of other useful speaker and audio system measurements.

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Eamonn McGonagle has been promoted to professional systems sales manager (UK) at Celestion. In his 18 months with the company, Eamonn has developed his territory in north-east England from a predominantly MI-based marketplace to include some of the UK’s leading sound installation companies and consultants. He will be building on that success with Celestion’s professional systems products throughout the UK. New marketing Eexecutive Jo Barker has transferred to marketing from Celestion’s sales department, where she has been for the last two years. In her new role working with Richard Vivian, she will be coordinating Celestion’s presence at trade shows and events, as well as the company’s product literature and press advertising.

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The LDI Show will go ahead as planned from November 2-4 in Orlando. In response to a number of enquiries following the events in New York and Washington, the organizers are keen to reassure people, through a statement posted on their website, that the exhibition will go ahead as usual. "We at LDI would like to express our deepest sympathy to all who are affected by the tragic events of September 11, 2001. Our thoughts are with you. We cannot let terrorists bring world business to a halt and we at LDI and Primedia Business Exhibitions feel it is very important that all businesses show their resilience. At this time, we do not foresee major disruptions for a smooth and successful show floor opening on Friday, November 2, at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida. LDInstitute is still scheduled to open on Monday, October 29."

If any exhibitors or visitors have a

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Marquee Audio has announced two new directorships within the company. The company’s popular and long serving Andy Huffer (pictured) has been promoted to the role of sales director. The move takes into account the broader sales platform that he has helped stimulate since starting at Marquee in 1995, notably increasing the Shepperton company’s penetration into the theatre, studio and AV conference markets.

A new arrival at the Shepperton-based company will be Glen Smith, who joins Marquee Audio as marketing director, with effect from October 1. With 26 years’ experience in the pro audio industry - including stints with Britannia Row, Tasco and TFA - for the past eight years Glen has been running secondhand audio sales company, ISE. At Marquee, he will be targeting the company’s Concert Division. Focusing on sound reinforcement companies, he will be devising a pa

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PLASA saw the launch of the Messenger XL - a new fully digital sidelobe-free speaker array by Hacousto International of Holland. Featuring the latest technology based on a patented algorithmic technique, the Messenger XL is ideal for background music and high quality speech applications, especially in reverberant acoustic environments where it is difficult to meet contractual speech intelligibility requirements.

The Messenger XL is completely software controlled allowing the lobe to be easily fine-tuned for specific types of application. Its tightly controlled beam can be shaped to meet application and environment requirements offering a precisely controlled listening field and high intelligibility with a minimum S/N ratio. Featuring a Q factor of 36, (140 by 1400) it compares very favourably with good horn loudspeakers, which are renowned for high Q factors of around 32 and noted for

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Crest Audio’s X-Matrix is a 12 x 2 matrix mixer, whose primary application is to add additional matrix mixes to the X-VCA console. It can also be used as a stand-alone matrix mixer. As a companion piece to the X-VCA console, it provides the facilities to create additional mixes from the eight sub groups and the Left, Right and Mono mix buses. In both applications, multiple units can be daisy-chained, offering almost unlimited expansion capabilities. Each X-Matrix can accept 12 line inputs (via multi-pin connector) from the X-VCA or from 1/4in TRS line input jacks, and generates two outputs which include insets, level adjustment and muting capabilities. The outputs appear on balanced XLR's mounted on the rear panel.

Expansion, applications and quality X-Matrix may be expanded both horizontally and vertically, turning X-Matrix on its own into a very versatile mixing system for spec

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Grand Central Recording Studios has recently purchased an Audient ASP510 surround sound management system to augment the post production facility based in Soho, London. Clients of this well-known studio consist of major advertising agencies and television production companies. The ASP510 interfaces with a Digidesign Protools and Procontrol system in Studio 3a, the music production suite catering for both stereo and 5.1.

Technical and financial director Ivor Taylor comments: "The ASP510 offers a solution for the problem of surround monitoring for a mixed stereo, surround and 5.1 set up. It is straightforward, easy to understand and well engineered with good back-up from the manufacturer."

Installing the ASP510 into this prestigious studio was also hassle free. "It came straight out of the box and it was all there, no hunting for any other parts or interfaces," Tay

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Specialists in the concert and corporate event markets, sound production company WE Audio, has broken into the theatre world with a new touring soul musical production, headlining Ruby Turner. Called Hold On, the show was written by Kwame Kwei-Armah, directed by Andy Hay and is promoted by Paddy Wilson’s Hold On UK. The sound system has been designed by WE Audio’s Wayne Barker, who has extended his inventory of Turbosound equipment with a major purchase from Shepperton-based Marquee Audio.

Barker, who has systematically built up his Floodlight stock from Marquee, realized that a different approach was needed to crack the intricacies of raucous ensemble sound, which requires speech intelligibility and even coverage, delayed into the rear stalls and upper balcony, with under-balcony infills. And so after deliberation, he invested heavily in Turbosound’s QLight series. H

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A former DMC winner and now DJ with Moby, ‘RJ’ visited the PLASA Show to stop by Lamba plc who provide him with his Stanton SK2F mixer and 650L cartridges. During a break from touring RJ, who has been working with Stanton products for the last year or so, explained how he received the phone call from Moby - who had heard a number of RJ’s remixes - and asked him to leave the studio world for a life on the road. "He had another DJ at the time, Spinbad; but he had other commitments and I went straight out to play in front of 70,000 people at Glastonbury, with no soundcheck, before embarking on a world tour."

Three months before everything was confirmed he started putting his rig together. "Equipment wise I had been looking for a pair of turntables with the straight tonearm philosophy since I won the DMC competition back in 1985, while for the mixer I chose

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Maplin Electronics has launched a new premium range of disco and PA equipment, designed to appeal to DJs, venue managers, event organizers and managers of small theatres looking for value for money equipment. The new ProSound range includes speakers, lighting effects, fog and bubble machines and a wide selection of mixers. The new range of speaker cabinets and monitors has been designed and manufactured in the UK specifically for ProSound, and includes the ‘ProSound Blue’ speaker cabinets which feature Celestion drive units. The range of ProSound equipment will be expanded over the next few months to include everything from decks and audio leads to piezo tweeters and amplifiers.

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The Arts & Entertainment Technical Training Initiative (AETTI) has announced that 12 more candidates undertook the AETTI - Loughborough College Intermediate BTEC Award (General Theatre Technician) during the recent PLASA Exhibition at Earls Court (9-12 September).

Thanks are owed to PLASA for making the space available and to White Light, Blackout-Triple E and Rope Assemblies Ltd for providing teaching materials. Many other companies supplied useful product information for the candidates to take back to their theatres. The course held at PLASA followed previous courses and was one of several in the pipeline at various locations. The General Theatre Technician course, which is divided into three modules, was held across the first three days of the PLASA Show. Attendees could either choose to complete all three modules at the Show, or begin with one or two modules and complete the course

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Hacousto International has expanded its Accent on Audio Solutions Range with the introduction a new 200W amplifier, the ACE2.200. The ACE2.200 features two powerful and highly efficient Class-T independent audio amplifiers, housed in a compact and lightweight 2U 19" rack mountable unit. The power efficient design and switched mode power supply offer Hacousto’s customers an addition to the Accent 8x8 digital mixer-router system launched at PLASA last year.

Suitable for 50, 70 or 100 volt line distribution systems, the ACE2.200 amplifier offers two individual channels with a 200W RMS output capability. Powered by either 115/230V AC mains or 24VDC supplies, the ACE2.200 is ideally suited for voice supported evacuation systems. Each amplifier channel features two individual inputs with switchable sensitivity and priority functions. Standard features include an extensive overloa

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Marquee Audio has been appointed a dealer by Crestron UK, manufacturers of touch-screen automation and e-control networking systems. Already a market leader in the corporate boardroom, video-conferencing and home automation markets, where their processors form the hub of sophisticated networking systems, they see the move into entertainment as a logical progression - and Marquee Audio as the ideal company to partner with.Marquee’s sales director Andy Huffer, told us: "Increasingly, we have been asked to integrate DSP matrix systems such as BSS Soundweb into overall control systems - whether in boardroom, theatre or conference facilities - so Crestron seemed to be the natural choice."

Crestron UK’s technical sales manager, Andy Butler, said: "Each component that forms part of a modern audio system comes complete with its own control facility. Whilst relatively

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Designed for demanding applications, the XR-20 is the first in a line of professional Crest Audio X series rack mount mixers which address a wide range of applications. The XR-20 meets the varying needs of project studios, houses of worship, broadcasters, musicians and all facets of live sound reinforcement where it can be used as the primary mixer or as a highly flexible submixer.

AES-suggested grounding procedures are followed, resulting in excellent rejection of RF interference and ground-related noise. X-Rack mixers exhibit less than ±30° of input-to-output phase shift. XLR connectors are used on all primary inputs and outputs, while 1/4in TRS connectors are used for inserts, making it easy to interface with most professional audio gear. As with all of Crest Audio's mixing consoles, top quality components and advanced manufacturing techniques are used throughout, and the product

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West London-based Ampekko, the sole UK distributor for German loudspeaker manufacturer WHD, has signed an exclusive arrangement with Uckfield-based installers Blucat at the recent PLASA show, Earls Court, 9-12 September. Blucat, a specialist in supplying and installing independent breweries, leisure and retail units with sophisticated 47-channel satellite music systems, has ordered an initial consignment of WHD MX40s and WHD MX50s, along with specialist amplification from Commax. The company has plans for their imminent use across a variety of integrated systems designs this Autumn.

As Jennifer Linstead, Blucat’s sales director explained: "We are tremendously impressed with the range from WHD. It offers huge potential, particularly as its standard build quality and clarity are well represented in the MX 40 and MX 50. They both offer value through high performance, they&rsquo

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The mighty Embrace launched their third album earlier this month with a special acoustic set for 600 fans at HMV's flagship store on Oxford Street in London. The show kicked off at 11pm to finish in time for the midnight launch of the new album, If You've Never Been. In a continuation of the company's long-standing relationship with the band, Dobson Sound provided all of the audio requirements for the exclusive gig.

Dobson's Bill Woods explained that the system was "nice and straightforward" with a d&b C4 stage system and the customary d&b MAX monitors. Dave ‘Milky’ Millward on FOH used a Yamaha PM3500 while Basil Ferneley on monitors went for a Midas Heritage 3000. "Everything ran like clockwork," said Woods. "The only fly in the ointment, if indeed it could be called that, was the lack of sleep for the crew! The band were due to play another live

  1. Navigator’s RentalDesk Enjoys PLASA Debut
  2. Ad Lib: First for JBL’s VerTec
  3. Martin’s MA Series Expands
  4. PSS Arrives in UK Through Lamba
  5. Micron 700 Series Expanded at IBC
  6. New Voice for Rental Companies
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