Sound

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UAE - The Middle East's sound and lighting industry is expected to be worth $1 billion a year in three-to five years time, according to Matthew Griffiths, CEO of the Professional Lighting and Sound Association (PLASA), the leading international association for the industry. He was speaking in Dubai at the first Pro Audio Light Middle East (PALME) trade show, an event officially endorsed by the organisation.

PLASA's own research into the global market indicates that the sound and lighting sector generates $20 billion a year worldwide. "With so much construction and so many major events in the Middle East, we anticipate that the Middle East will grow to be worth $1 billion a year. The sector is already worth that a year in the UK and the Middle East can certainly match this given the level of activity here.

"This is a dynamic part of the world. It isn't afraid to be lo

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UK - Since Fuzion took on the Australian Monitor brand some 18 months ago, the partnership has exceeded all expectations. Specialising in public address equipment exclusively for the contracting market, the brand has more than lived up to its promise of delivering useful, reliable, well-built product at prices that are almost too good to be true. Indeed, the last twelve months have seen a staggering 1500% growth in sales for Fuzion with the trend set to continue.

Sales director Paul Ward is understandably pleased. "Obviously going from a standing start, any sales are going to be represented as fairly substantial percentage increases on paper, but the growth we've achieved since we started with Australian Monitor has been truly phenomenal. Our product specialist, Linton Smeeton, has been doing a great job, and we have excellent support from Australian Monitor themselves. But

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USA - For the third year running, TiMax audio imaging and surround sound animation systems have featured on multiple car launches, press conferences, and charity events at the landmark NAIAS show in Detroit's Cobo Centre.

NAIAS and TiMax veterans On Stage Audio deployed TiMax ImageMaker16s in both the Jeep and Chrysler booth arenas to provide speech image localization for the several 'edu-tainment' presenters delivering rapid-fire market messages from various locations around the booth to a wide-spread audience. In addition, each brand utilized TiMax for mood-enhancing surround sound effects and playback in their respective spaces. Sound designers were OSA's Jim Risgin and Kelly Epperson, with on-site programming support by Robin Whittaker from UK-based TiMax developers, Out Board.

On the Ford booth, New York's Rock City Sound supplied a 16x32 TiMax Rack System specified by UK

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USA - QSC's revamped website is now making its online debut with new, easy-to-navigate pages sporting sleek graphics and a number of other enhancements. A useful and entertaining tool for everyone from seasoned touring pros and contractors to consultants and even garage bands on their way up, the site has been completely overhauled with refinements including an ability to conduct searches for any product from any page using either the navigation bar, search engine, or drop-down menus.

Products are listed by market category, and all relevant information on each of those products ranging from detailed specs to user manuals can be viewed from a single location. One of the most other noticeable elements within the site's broadened scope is its expanded image base. In relevant cases, product photos reveal front and rear panel views on the same page at the simple movement of the curso

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UK - 1 and Dolby Laboratories have announced a collaboration to study 1's proprietary Digital Sound Projector technology for the commercial cinema market. Digital Sound Projector technology creates highly controllable sound beams. From a single panel, which comprises an array of transducers, sound beams are formed which can be focused and dynamically steered to create exciting new audio effects.

David Lewis, 1's sales and marketing director told us: "Our technology could offer a new level of realism to cinema audiences. For example, we can align the movement of a sound beam with an aeroplane as its sweeps across the screen, or position a beam above the audience to accurately locate the noise of a helicopter landing."

The collaboration opens up a new market for 1's technology within the commercial cinema and film industry. This agreement with Dolby Laboratories follow

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UK - Eddie Hirad, the former engineering manager at Lighting Technology, has set up a new company - Vipco Lighting & Sound - to service the lighting and sound industries.

Based in West London, the company will specialize in the manufacture and distribution of connectors and extension cables, details of which feature on the company's recently-launched website, which previews the full range of products and services on offer. Hirad is a well-known industry figure, and his company is fast becoming known for working weekends and through the night, to deliver those all too common, industry rush jobs.

(Ruth Rossington)

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UK - Shuttlesound, the UK distribution subsidiary of Telex EVI, has announced the promotion of its sales manager Sean Maxwell to the position of director of sales. Maxwell, who joined the company as a sales rep five years ago, will now assume a key role in Shuttlesound's strategic planning and corporate development. He told us: "One of my main responsibilities will be the positioning of Shuttlesound, both in the marketplace we currently operate in but also in terms of exploring new market opportunities which can offer us fresh potential."

His remit will also include further streamlining of the Shuttlesound sales operation, ensuring greater coordination between the sales office in south London and its team of representatives on the road.

(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)

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UK - Sennheiser UK's guidePORT Health & Fitness Partner, TrackTones Ltd, has won the Barclays Bank Award for Commercial Innovation 2003. The award was presented at the recent seventh annual London Innovation Awards ceremony at the British Library, to TrackTones inventor and managing director, Steve Parkin, by Minister of State for E-Commerce and Competitiveness, Stephen Timms MP, and Huw Evans, Barclays Bank Corporate Director of Technology, Media & Telecomms.

The invention, which earned Steve Parkin's company accreditation as Sennheiser's first guidePORT Health & Fitness Partner, incorporates the new Sennheiser guidePORT intelligent, wireless personal audio guide system in a product designed to enhance music delivery and improve performance benefits in health and fitness facilities.

TrackTones can provide up to 16 simultaneous high quality audio channels via the digital RF gu

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UK - Stephen Hall has been appointed as managing director of UK rental and installations company RG Jones as part of a major management restructure of its operations in Wimbledon. Hire department manager John Carroll and financial adviser Max Cohen have also joined the board of directors.

Owner and chairman Robin Jones says: "In this industry it's important that companies continually evolve. This restructure passes the running of the company over to the hands of a young, dynamic and very experienced team. Stephen is the ideal person to lead the team and take the company forward. I wish him and the team every success."

Stephen Hall commented: "It's very exciting to be given the opportunity to further develop one of the longest established sound companies in the industry. Having been in the industry for over 25 years and having an association with RG Jones for nea

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UK - Ignoring Arctic temperatures and driving blizzards, to say nothing of London Underground grinding to a halt, crowds packed out Leicester Square recently to catch a glimpse of the perfect couple of the moment, Hugh Grant and Sandra Bullock at the premiere of their slick romantic comedy, Two Weeks Notice. The couple, along with co-stars David Haig, and Alicia Witt, attended the glittering after-premiere party for 450 guests held at the Asia de Cuba restaurant in St Martins Lane hotel. The Sound Division Group's hire department provided the sound system and DJ services for the event.

The main system comprised two JBL SRX 4702 mid/top loudspeakers, two JBL SRX 4718 subs and a C-Audio Pulse amplifier rack, with a further four EV Sx300 loudspeakers as room fills. DJ Control was courtesy of two SL1210 turntables MkIII, an Allen & Heath mixer, a Denon 1800 CD player and a JB

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Finland - Genelec has launched a giant active subwoofer - ideal for large surround sound or stereo installations. Known as the 7073A, it features four 305mm (12") drivers, fast-acting, low distortion amplifiers, an incredible 124dB sound pressure output, 19Hz lower cut-off frequency, plus a full 6.1-capable bass management system - so it can easily handle the most demanding high SPL applications. Essentially the 7073A has twice the sound pressure output of Genelec's previous largest sub-woofer, the 7071A.

All the new subwoofer's electronics are fully integrated into the cabinet, including the active crossover filters, driver overload protection circuits and power amplifiers. The integrated bass management system with its six inputs and outputs (L/C/R front and L/C/R rear), plus LFE input and summed signal output connectors is very flexible. The dedicated LFE input (which ca

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UK - Entec Sound & Light supplied production co-ordination services and lighting and sound equipment for the UK and Irish leg of John Squire's hugely successful 'Time Changes Everything' tour. The tour has received much critical acclaim, and is the first time since Stone Roses' demise, that a former band member has performed much of the group's music publicly.

Despite the fact that many venues offered house sound and lighting systems, Steve Adj, John Squire's co-manager, and tour manager Martin Herbert, persuaded fellow manager Simon Moran to increase the budget, so that a consistent level of production could be ensured by means of a touring package. Entec won the contract and supplied Herbert with equipment and crew. The latter even included some Stone Roses stalwarts like Grub and Mouse from caterers Cat'n'Mouse, Stardes trucking and the unflappable Trapper as stage manager an

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UK - Glasgow is the latest location for the development of McKenzie Group's Academy venue roll-out. Having taken over the 1920's art deco New Bedford Cinema just outside the city centre, they immediately committed £3 million to a conversion, which will see it fully operational by 26 March 2003 for the opening night with Deacon Blue.

To supply and implement the audio infrastructure, MKG's managing director, John Northcote, has again enlisted Shepperton Studios-based Marquee Audio, who first worked with the company on the conversion of Birmingham's Hummingbird to the Academy in Britain's second city two and a half years ago. The 2,500-capacity venue in Glasgow - purchased from Edinburgh-based development company EDI - will operate in three formats: as a full concert venue, a short hall arrangement and a full-on night club.

Marquee project managers, Spencer Brooks and Scott

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Australia - Sydney Opera House recently celebrated the opening of its sixth venue, the Forecourt - one of the city's most spectacular outdoor venues, situated on and around the Opera House steps. Throughout the summer, the Forecourt will host a diverse range of free and ticketed events - from the Sydney Symphony, jazz and rock concerts, folk and country music to unique large-scale participatory performances, all set against Sydney's impressive harbourside backdrop.

As the Forecourt will stage a diversity of productions, each with differing requirements, it was decided to initially hire the staging, starting with a domed stage supplied by Edwin Shirley Staging.

When it came to the lighting and audio equipment, the choice of equipment was driven by the fact that a versatile and modular production package could easily be utilized in other venues within the Opera House. "It's

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UK - SSE Audio Group has taken delivery of the first production Nexi GEO T Tangent Array Systems - a total of 96 full-range Tangent Array cabinets and 24 CD-18 Controlled Directivity sub-bass units.

The order is a reflection of SSE's close involvement with the Nexo GEO Technology project, from the conceptualisation of the first tangent array devices, the GEO S Series launched in 2001, to the realisation of the GEO T Series and, in particular, its remarkable flying system, designed by Chris Beale, SSE's Group hire director. SSE has been field-testing GEO T full-range and sub-bass units since the summer of 2002, with the complete system fulfilling its potential most recently at the larger venues on Tori Amos' European tour. At Le Zenith in Paris, before a 7000-strong crowd, the SSE/Melpomen team flew single arrays of 17 T4805s on each side of the stage, with four CD18 sub-bass uni

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UK - Capital Radio's Capital Christmas Live event returned to Earls Court at the close of last year. All of the artists perform a live 20-minute set, rather than relying on playback, which requires some pretty nifty footwork from the production team.

John Probyn headed up the ClearChannel Entertainments team, working alongside Emma Hodgetts, who managed the event on behalf of Capital Radio. The two assembled a team of trusted suppliers with production manager Mark Ward and Kahren Williams at its vanguard.

Mark Ward explained: "There was a major transformation to this year's show, because for the first time it was televised on Christmas Eve. This brought changes to several aspects of the production, and meant that lighting became a major priority. We also added a second satellite stage to allow the presenters to be filmed whilst the stage was being set for the next act, re

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UK - Reading-based rental company Skan PA Hire has reported the recent theft of two Avalon VT-737SP units. The serial numbers of the units are 22755 and 22756, Skan #07 and #08. If you have any information about the whereabouts of these products, or are offered them for sale, please contact Chris Fitch at Skan PA Hire, Tel: +44 (0)118 975 5088, or at the e-mail address below:

(Lee Baldock)

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UK - Arbiter Pro Audio, the exclusive distributor of JBL, dbx and Powersoft in the UK, hosted a successful two-day seminar at Birmingham Hippodrome theatre, allowing people to get hands-on with the latest products from the three companies.

Audio hardware for the event (and lighting) was supplied by top UK rental company Adlib Audio from Liverpool, a major JBL Vertec, Powersoft and dbx user. Over 85 people - representing all areas of the pro audio rental, installation and sales markets, and also including Arbiter dealers and agents - attended on both days, jumping at the chance to experience the latest sound technology in situ. Presenters included David Scheirman and Andrew Rutkin from JBL Professional in Northridge, California, and Geoff Lissaman from dbx Pro in Salt Lake City. Max Lindsay-Johnson, David Budge, David Karlsen and Dan Eades formed the Arbiter side of the presentat

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Denmark - David Jackson has joined MTi Audio of Denmark as sales manager. The new position is in line with key changes at MTi, who, over the coming year, will introduce new pro audio products to the world market. Jackson has spent the last three years successfully reorganizing worldwide distribution channels for Celestion. MTi Audio will exhibit at ProLight+Sound - Hall 9.1 G39.

(Ruth Rossington)

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UK - Cadac has just supplied a 52-input R-Type Lightweight Touring Console to theatrical sound design specialist Autograph Sound Recording for the brand new UK tour of Cats, which opened on 15 February at the Theatre Royal Plymouth. This is the first R-Type to be purchased by Autograph, complementing its extensive stock of Cadac J-Types, E-Types and A-Types deployed on high profile productions around Europe.

Sound design for the UK national tour of Cats is by Terry Jardine and Simon Baker, with Greg Pink as production sound engineer. The tour is scheduled to run for the next few years visiting Manchester, Wolverhampton, Sunderland, Edinburgh and Belfast. Jardine, Autograph's managing director, commented on the choice of the R-Type for this project: "We are pleased to add the R-Type to our expansive Cadac inventory, we needed a desk with a smaller footprint, bu

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UK - With effect from 1 March, one of the UK's largest independent hire companies, Hawthorn Theatrical, is re-naming and re-organizing its business to better meet the needs of its customers. Hawthorn, as it will now be known, is creating three divisions to offer specialist support and service to clients. The divisions will be Hire & Sales, Production Solutions and Permanent Installations.

General manager Simon Wood comments: "The difficulty has been that our services and hire stock have expanded so massively and we have struggled to keep all our customers up-to-date with the changes. The new structure, with direct access phone numbers and named team members, whose contact details will be posted on the website, should ensure that customers get the support and advice they need from the right person for them." The new website will be updated monthly with news and photogra

  1. Soundcraft E6s debut on Kings Road
  2. Chilterns' new recording studios
  3. PAS supplies Ark Royal
  4. FX Technical at Butlers Wharf
  5. Mackie promotes Frank Loyko
  6. First Aussie install for MC2 Audio
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