Sound

Details
For the second year running Capital Sound Hire dug deep into their inventory of Martin Audio Wavefront 8C enclosures to provide sound reinforcement for the Ministry of Sound’s massive 14-hour New Year’s Eve Dance Party at the Millennium Dome. Unlike last year, this time the celebrations took place under the Dome itself.

Due to simultaneous W8 commitments in St Georges Square, Glasgow - and the necessity to match each mid/high box with a low-end enclosure at the Dome - Cap Sound were required to sub-hire an additional 14 WSX subwoofers from the new Martin Wavefront inventory of London-based FX Music to fulfil their remit to the Ministry of Sound. Four separate arenas - ‘Smoove’, ‘World Dance’, ‘Rulin’ and ‘Ministry Of Sound’ - were set up, and among the world-class DJs involved were Judge Jules, Dave Pearce, Alex P and Brandon

Details
Louis Teo has left Singapore-based distributor Del Salado Entertainment Pte Ltd to start his own company, Lighting & Sound Distribution. The new company will also operate from Singapore and will import and export lighting and sound goods including special effects such as fiber optics, foam machines, CO2 Jets, as well as distributing brands such as Logic System Pro Audio, Starway, MBN, DiscoTech, Supervision and Dare Pro Audio in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia.

(Lee Baldock)

Details
Three BSS 9088ii Soundwebs have been specified to handle the networking at the important new Media Centre which opened recently in Shanghai. The Centre is based around a single fan-shaped room, measuring 6.4m high and 36m in length. The shortest width is 22m and the longest, 44m. Owned by the Shanghai Oriental Pearl Company, the contract to fit out this new-build site was won by ACE Shanghai.

The company wrote an audio specification to include mixing consoles (Amek/Soundcraft), amplification (Crown), loudspeakers (JBL Vs Series), control components (including dbx equalization), various sound sources, patch facilities and other ancillaries. They recommended to the owners that Soundweb be employed to route the signal sources generated from CD player, cassette recorder, hard disk recorder and microphone - with a local 9010 Jellyfish remote panel. According to ACE Shanghai’s Zhou Ji

Details
Devon-based rock trio Muse appeared at a wide variety of UK and European venues at the tail end of 2001; Mike Mann saw them in the cavernous London Docklands Arena.

Lighting designer Oli Metcalf has seen his system squeezed into small clubs and stretched to fill a full arena stage - and has managed to keep the CAV-supplied rig intact along the way. Metcalf is using CAV for the first time, a decision, prompted by their stock of up-to-date High End product. "I’m using 16 Studio Color washlights and the same number of Studio Spot CMYs," he revealed. There are also 14 AF1000 strobes in his design and a quartet of modified Cyberlight Turbos - their rear cable entries have been removed to allow them to stand vertically under four fabric cones which form an important part of the set. "CAV seemed to have all the new High End kit I needed, and they had no problem with me wa

Details
Phil Ward identifies some of the key product launches at the December AES Show in New York

New York at the beginning of December is a sentimental place. Horse-drawn carriages trot fur-coated shoppers along 59th Street at Central Park South. Sesame Street’s Big Bird switches on the Christmas tree lights outside the Lincoln Centre. Tourists flock to Ground Zero. And AES delegates - at least the Americans - exhibit, buy, sell and discuss in detail ‘classic’ audio technology.

One whole section of this show was dedicated to ‘When Vinyl Ruled’, and offered tear-jerking insights into valve and lathe technology. Even away from this grotto, microphone and signal processor designs from the 1950s were on display, re-issued and repackaged with loving attention to detail.

Les Paul himself, who pioneered multitrack recording in the 1950s, figured in Gibson La

Details
The Royal Festival Hall production team gave blood, sweat and tears to stage the 2001 festive ballet season, featuring the renowned Moscow Stanislavky Ballet.

The team, led by head of production Nigel March, and in collaboration with the venue’s riggers Vertigo Rigging, transformed the concert hall into a proscenium arch theatre, with all the expected rigging and flying facilities, ready to stage The Snow Maiden and Swan Lake.

This was the most ambitious set and lighting design ever staged at the South Bank, as well as one of the tightest timeframes. The initial task of the Vertigo team, headed by Paddy Burnside, was to install an 18 x 12 metre mother grid in the roof of the Hall. Below this was hung a trussing sub-grid to hold all the lighting and scenery bars and tab tracks. Because the changeover between shows was so tight, scenery and cloths for both had to be rigged at the

Details
This lot definitely break the convention: a dance band with a stage presence - and not before time. Faithless are almost a rock combo, a robust and rhythmical form of Steve Hillage, morphing and vibing, rather than worrying about melody and structure. It sounds great, though personally it’s not my cup of tea.

Sequencing apart, this is a very analogue sounding band, real guitars, keys, drums and percussion, yet on the outside their show embraces some of the very latest technology.

Lighting

These are never easy shows to light, the style demanding that you not so much light the artist, as the room. Juan Morandi has strong things to say about the subject: "The fact is you can’t tour a music production at this level with anything original unless you have a lot of money. This is a front and back truss situation with extremely boring moving lights." Sorry? &q

Details
The new H.A.R.D. 212 monitors from Italian manufacturere Outline have been used for the very first time at the Christmas Concert in The Vatican, a high profile event held in the Paul VI hall, presented by Cristina Parodi and broadcast across Italy at Christmas by Canale 5. Since the first edition in 1993, this show has brought together hundreds of foreign and Italian artists, who accept the invitation of the Church of Rome. Different cultures, origins, races, ages and colours, but united to perform in the name of a very meaningful cause.

Once again this year some of the world’s top artists participated, including Cranberries’ vocalist Dolores O’Riordan, Terence Trent D'Arby, Sasha, Josè Feliciano, Russell Watson, Massimo Ranieri, Edoardo Bennato, Elisa, Tiziano Ferro, the Schola Cantorum Cantate Domino treble voice choir from Belgium, the New Millennium Voices Gospel

Details
PLASA members Central Theatre Supplies, in conjunction with Solihull Arts Complex, is holding a Lighting & Sound Workshop on 2 February 2002 at Solihull Arts Complex, Homer Road, Solihull. This training day is open to schools and amateur theatres, providing an insight into stage lighting and sound, including demonstrations and advice on how to achieve certain effects. The cost for the day is £5, and tickets can be ordered from the Box Office at the Arts Complex, telephone 0121 704 6962.

Following the morning session there will be an exhibition where those attending will be encouraged to meet the manufacturers and view the latest products and equipment. People who do not wish to attend the workshops are welcome to attend the exhibition between 12.30 - 2.00pm. Manufacturers attending will include Zero 88, Selecon, HW International (UK distributor for Shure, QSC Audio and Phonic), Dought

Details
The Music Company has technical installation landmark at The Works on Birmingham’s Broad Street - a new flagship venue for the First Leisure Corporation, which incorporated the 500th Denon DJ unit the Music Company has installed. The audio brief was to provide a higher impact audio system than those found at other recent First Leisure sites. The 2,300 capacity venue contains three rooms, each with its own DJ booth, and each embracing a different music policy.

Music Co specified two Denon DN-2100F twin-CD players for The Works’ main room and the mezzanine level second room, plus a DN-1800F twin-CD deck for the third and VIP room, Top View, which is high in the rafters of the building, overlooking the main room. The main room also features a DN-M2300R twin mini-disc player, and all the Denon devices were supplied to Music Co by Hayden Laboratories. The Works’ Saturday a

Details
The UK sound equipment market is set to grow at a healthy 3.0% in 2002, according to a just published analysis from Plimsoll. This will only be good news for some though as growth will not be seen across the entire industry. Studying the latest figures from the largest 244 companies in the sound equipment industry, market analysts Plimsoll revealed that over a third of the industry may not see growth at all and could lose 16.6% of sales on average this year.

Adding to their distress, three quarters of these companies saw profits fall in 2001 and almost 62% are currently loss-making. Despite these factors, very few reduced staff and only 52% made attempts to reduce their asset base.

So who is set to keep grabbing market share in 2002? Plimsoll's First Edition names 68 companies that notched up an amazing 19.8% growth last year. Within this group, 17 companies individually increased sa

Details
Philips CSI has launched the Praesideo public address and emergency sound system. The company believe it to be the world’s first fully digital PA system of its kind: it meets virtually all today’s public address and emergency sound system needs and is fully compliant with the latest Evac standards for emergency sound systems.

By handling all audio processing, communication and control functions entirely digitally, Praesideo achieves hihg levels of flexibility and ease of installation. Initial system configuration is carried out quickly and easily from a PC with user-friendly configuration software, eliminating the need for programming at the equipment end or complex, time-consuming changes in the system cabling when upgrading or expanding. The configuration software uses web-based technology, and allows authorized users to access and monitor the system from any location. A

Details
The newly-built Chelsea Club - an exclusive leisure facility recently opened behind the Chelsea FC stadium in Chelsea Village - has invested in an array of Turbosound equipment, serving various locations throughout the health complex.

Installed by the official supplier, Atmospheric, the Turbosound system is part of a complete audio-visual installation, which includes plasma screens and a control system that routes numerous audio sources through to six different zones. Four specially prepared Impact 50 speakers - with waterproof coating applied to the cones - have been installed in the impressive pool and Jacuzzi area. A further eight have been mounted in the gym, where 16 channels of ‘personal audio’ are routed to all workout stations. Four further Turbosound TCS-35 enclosures have been fitted in two aerobics studios.

Atmospheric’s broadcast services manager, Dave G

Details
Following the news of the death on 9 January of Bob Salt, managing director of RW Salt Communications, details of arrangements for a memorial service have been released. The service will follow a private funeral and will be held at 3pm on Friday 25 January 2002 at St Elizabeth’s Church, Ashley, Cheshire. Bob’s family would like to extend an invitation to all his suppliers, customers and friends from within the audio industry to join them at the church and afterwards at the Greyhound in Ashley.

The family has also requested that those who wish to send flowers instead make a donation to a charity close to Bob’s heart - The Restoration of Appearance and Function Trust (RAFT), and send them to the company address:

RW Salt Communications
140 Princess Road
Moss Side
Manchester
M16 7BY.

Tel: 0161 226 6696

(Lee Baldock)

Details
Flying in the face of recessionary horror stories, the FX Group has started 2002 on a buoyant note by announcing the appointment of four key new members of staff. This brings the total number of recent appointments to 10 and the total number of staff across the burgeoning group to 45.

The new faces have joined FX from Dreamhire and include business development manager Martin Anscombe, Martin ‘Budgie’ Burden - who joins the rental bookings department - and Copyroom engineers Richard Whittaker and Brian Cunningham. FX Group chairman Roger Evan commented: "These appointments reflect our confidence in the future and our determination to deliver a high level of service to our customers. We are pleased to welcome staff from Dreamhire who bring considerable expertise with them."

FX has also marked the New Year by opening a dedicated Pro Tools transfer suite as part of

Details
Sennheiser UK - exclusive distributor for Rycote microphone windshields and suspension systems - has introduced two new microphone mounts and a useful directory from the company. The Utility Mount is a rugged, lightweight, machined aluminium mount with an integral cable clamping system, purpose-built bands positioned at four staggered points and a bracket with pistol-grip handle. The mount can be stand- or pole-mounted via the 3/8" female thread in the base of the handle. Designed to complement the Rycote microphone suspension range, the Utility Mount is positioned between the company’s Softie Mount and its high performance Modular Suspension. The Utility Mount can be used alone or alternatively can slide into a Rycote Windshield for exterior use. The design of the bands supports a broad range of microphones and allows for quick and easy changes.

The Multi-Mount is a modifie

Details
Kelsey Acoustics has recently manufactured and supplied a substantial number of custom-built multicore systems with Litton Veam connectors to Surrey-based rental company Peter Maciuk Installations Ltd (PMI).

PMI specializes in the hire of sound systems to event companies who design and manage large corporate events all over the world. "It’s an exceedingly demanding and competitive environment," explained PMI's Peter Maciuk, "and as events get more and more complex, so the requirement for more diverse multicore systems increases. What we now have is a fully modular multicore system which ranges from 50m 8-pair up to 100m 48-pair with 16-pair return and monitor break-outs. We can also offer a complete stage satellite system comprising three 25m 16-pair dual sex stage boxes to a 48-way dual sex patch panel. In simple terms it gives us the flexibility and the ability t

Details
Sennheiser UK held the national finals of its ‘Best Unsigned Artist Contest’ in December, with a live event at the Wardrobe Club in Leeds. Devised as an integral element of Sennheiser UK’s greater focus on the live music market, the Unsigned Artist Contest was launched last year in conjunction with a number of equipment manufacturers.

Sennheiser’s John Steven described the initiative: "This is a means of establishing closer contact with potential up and coming performing artists. It’s also a way of genuinely trying to help bands and artists who don’t fall into the category of ‘manufactured pop idol’ currently so favoured by the major recording industry."

Winners of heats covering pop, rock, dance, hip-hop, R&B and jazz musical categories from across the country performed live in front of the panel of judges drawn from artists,

Details
Stuart Thomson, formerly of Avalon Communications, has joined MEDC Ltd as the UK northern area sales manager for the Next Two range of loudspeakers. Thomson has had more than 20 years of experience in the communications industry with companies as diverse as Millbank Electronics, Planned Equipment Ltd and Avalon Communications as a proposals manager.

With involvement in major projects such as The Millenium Dome, Paddington Railway Station, London Underground, Newcastle United Stadium and a variety of other commercial installations from shopping centres to office blocks, Thomson brings a wealth of experience to the team. Thomson will assist Next Two customers through advising on loudspeaker layouts and working with third party VA/PA rack manufacturers to ensure a successful installation.

(Lee Baldock)

Details
Autograph Sales Ltd, the UK distributors for Meyer Sound Laboratories, have begun the year with the launch of the latest Meyer Sound product - the MM4. Unlike Meyer Sound's more recent larger developments, the MM4 is a compact, wide-range loudspeaker, measuring only 102mm square.

This particular loudspeaker product is ideal when a high quality distributed sound system is required - in delay and fill applications in theatre-style venues, for example. The product has already found a home in France, on the much-talked about and newly-built Lyon Tramway. This latter is a sound art installation and the 88 MM4s can be found distributed along the 18 stations of the Tramway, transmitting ambient sounds and announcements when required.

Back in the UK, the product is being taken very seriously by several sound design consultants and installation companies and has been specified for a number of

Details
At Celestion’s HQ in Ipswich, Richard Vivian has been promoted to the position of marketing manager, Professional Product Division. Vivian joined Celestion from the R&D department of Turbosound three years ago. As Celestion’s product manager for Professional Systems, he has been instrumental in the development and promotion of a number of key products, including the CXi range of sound reinforcement loudspeaker systems, which has been successful in opening up new opportunities and markets for the Celestion brand.

With his detailed knowledge and experience of the professional audio and music industries, Vivian will now be taking on marketing responsibility for the entire Professional Division, which includes the growing range of Professional Component (raw-frame) loudspeakers. "Since I joined Celestion, I’ve been closely involved in the ongoing initiative to design

Details
The exclusive Turnberry Hotel in Ayrshire has selected a Bose sound system as part of an upgrade of music systems throughout the hotel, spa and golf club house. The decision to go with Bose followed Jim Wilson’s (the Turnberry’s technical services manager), consultation with RA Communications of Stirling, to find a system that would deliver a full, rich sound, yet remain discreet.

A Bose Freespace 3 system, consisting of eight satellite cube speakers and two bass units, has been installed in the Turnberry Restaurant - a large room with traditional high ceilings. Freespace 3 systems are also employed in the Spa Terrace and Ailsa Lounge. The Turnberry has also chosen Bose for its new development of 12 luxury lodges and nine cottages, located in the grounds of the hotel. Bose Wave Radio/CDs have been spec’d in each of the lounges.

(Ruth Rossington)

Details
At the close of last year, TC Group, the Danish parent company of TC Electronic, TCWorks and TC-Helicon, tabled a proposal to the shareholders of TGI plc to purchase their holdings in the company. That offer has now been formally accepted by the shareholders.

"I am very happy that the offer has been accepted," says Anders Fauerskov, CEO at TC Group. "The timing is perfect for a co-operation in technology like this, as the market of today clearly shows a need for an innovative fusion of technologies. Within the new TC Group, we now have the acoustics knowledge, driver technology, digital signal processing know-how, and amplification and power supply skills to make a major impact in the future market for integrated solutions."

TGI plc is a holding-company which covers four companies in the speaker market - Tannoy, Martin Audio, Lab Gruppen and GLL.

TC Group repr

Details
Creative sound design and installation specialists CP Sound has completed its latest project in an on-going series of Zinc Bar & Grill venues for Conran Restaurants. Zinc Birmingham was a great challenge, as the background music system had to sound natural and all sound equipment had to be concealed without a wire in sight, blending seamlessly with the clean interior of the building. Thirdly, the downstairs DJ area - for parties, late bar nights and special occasions - had to avoid noise spillage into the main dining area above.

CP Sound’s Colin Pattenden reveals that they excelled themselves in the invisibility department. By the time the CP Sound team had finished the install, the only visible evidence of any sound was four neat volume controls by the downstairs bar. CP Sound utilised JBL speakers throughout, as they have in other Conran establishments, using speakers from the

  1. FX Music Makes Major Wavefront Order
  2. Soundcraft launches 328XD Digital Console
  3. Sony makes major new additions to wireless range
  4. Autograph at UKC Hero Awards
  5. New distributor announcements from ARX
  6. OHM announces plans for new PA range
Page 544 of 1372

Latest Issue. . .