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UK - Now in its 15th year, the Rhythms of the World Festival takes place over two days in the beautiful old town centre of Hitchin in Herts.

Promoted by Bob Mardon, the event has grown so quickly that 160 performances now take place over 10 stages, making it the largest free festival of world music in the UK. Last year it was estimated that more than 40,000 people thronged into the town. All of which puts increasing pressure on local PA/rental company Rossco (and their Martin Audio PA fleet), who have been involved with the event for the past six years.

Run by Ross Sharples and Mark Donovan, Rossco were again responsible for equipping the six main stages with no fewer than 72 Martin Audio enclosures - including the premier stages in the Town Square and Portmill Lane. These witnessed classic performances by Osibisa and the huge kodo drums of Dulsori, a dynamic traditiona

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USA - HME have announced the appointment of AVA Audio Video Associates, Inc., of St. Louis, Missouri; and First Choice Marketing, of Seattle, Washington to represent HME's DX Series and PRO850 wireless intercom systems.

AVA Audio is the latest manufacturing representative for the mid-west region; including Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Iowa and Southern Illinois. First Choice Marketing will represent Washington, Oregon, Alaska, Northern Idaho and Western Montana.

AVA Audio Video Associates, Inc., offers large corporate and hotel customers "state of the art" equipment and responsive technical support, says the company. AVA Audio Video is a full service, audio visual provider, and has been an independent manufacturer's representative agency since 1988.

First Choice Marketing continually demonstrates excellence with its contract A/V integration, broadcast, touring/renta

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UK - Over the years sound design and post production company Art4Noise have found the Marantz PMD670 an indispensable component in their inventory. The solid state recorder features non-stop record with seven hours of battery life, a menu-driven remote operation, and an EDL marking system for creating new files on-the-fly during the recording for easy file selection during playback.

"The PMD 671 has proven itself as an invaluable tool to us, especially for immediate recordings. It's very useful, we could be FX editing one minute then down a tube station the next shooting trains, as on Creep where we used the PMD670 to record a lot of additonal train FX including doors, engines etc."

Art4Noise have used the PMD671 alongside their other studio gear to record in-house Foley spots - kettle boils, pot noodle slurps, plastic scrapes, door knocks and so on.

Sound e

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USA - In the past several months, Minneapolis has added two state-of-the-art dance clubs with incredible sound systems powered by amplifiers: the MC2 Audio E25 and E45 power amps. The sound systems for both the new Karma and Visage clubs were designed and installed by Minneapolis-based Light N Trax, and the MC2 amplifier sale was made by John Bormann of Bormann Marketing.

Karma enjoyed a warm reception to its opening in the heart of Minneapolis's club district. There, a sound system based on the EAW Avalon speaker system is propelled by 55,000 Watts from a combination of MC2 E25 and E45 amplifiers powering the mains, subs and fills. The two-story club features a separate VIP suite and several private cabana areas.

Visage, which opened in April, has a fashion theme - a video display behind the bar presents the French fashion channel FTV and non-stop runway action, while every F

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USA - First established in 1892 as a supplier of rugged clothing, Abercrombie & Fitch's (A&F) name has come a long way in its century-plus of existence. Today, A&F's line of casual clothing for men and women and its hundreds of retail stores make it one of the most recognised brands in retail.

Now A&F has taken retail environments even further with its new, 36,000sq.ft flagship store on Manhattan's highly competitive Fifth Avenue, enticing shoppers with a uniquely rich sound experience powered by Meyer Sound UPM-1P ultra-compact wide coverage and MM-4 miniature wide-range loudspeakers, supported by UMS-1P ultra-compact subwoofers. With the store's four high-ceilinged sales floors and stylish lighting, the precision of the sound system is critical to setting the store's club-like feel.

"Abercrombie & Fitch expects every aspect of their stores to be stimulating. They don't

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UK - At the start of the new millennium universities were starting to realise that in order to compete with the town centre nightclubs they had to radically improve their own campus facilities. The Union at Leeds University was quick out of the blocks, establishing the then quite radical Stylus nightclub, with technology company Green-I providing a powerful Martin Audio Blackline dance surround system.

Meanwhile, the adjacent Harvey Milk Bar (named after San Francisco's first openly gay city supervisor) was slowly falling into dilapidation, and closed entirely back in 2001.

Five years on, the derelict building has reopened as the 450-capacity Mine, offering an all-day restaurant within a brand new infrastructure, which has seen the old staircase removed and replaced with a DJ booth - thanks to interior designers Studio BAAD and Green-I.

Assistant events manager Tom Salmon sa

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Iceland - QSC signal transport system has been specified in the regenerated multi-room Eldborg Conference Centre, on the site of a famous geothermal spa in Iceland.

Situated just outside Reykjavik, The Blue Lagoon, one of Iceland's most popular choices for international visitors, is in the midst of a major redesign and expansion programme, set to complete by the spring of 2007. This will include the bathing, shower and lagoon facilities, but also a greater choice of restaurants - including a 250-cover diner built into a lava cliff - and the sophisticated Conference Centre. With three separate rooms and an entrance hall, it can accommodate up to 400 people (220 theatre style) in the largest of its reconfigurable facilities.

The new system is part of a turnkey AV upgrade of an existing system in which the ceiling speakers, amplifiers and video projectors have been retained.

Th

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UK - Just Oriental boasts one of the most glamorous locations in London in the heart of Piccadilly. Offering clients a beautifully furnished club-like lounge bar and brasserie with comfortable booth seating and mellow music, diners can choose from an extensive cocktail list and authentic oriental cuisine. A magnificent sweeping staircase connects Just Oriental to sister restaurant Just St James at ground level and a contrasting, quintessentially English atmosphere. When the time came to update the background sound system for Just Oriental, the company turned to installation experts Sound Division.

According to Sound Division's, David Graham, Just Oriental's needs were straightforward. "The whole system needed refreshing and updating. Some equipment was completely replaced, some was refurbished, and we also added several new elements to the system in order to give Just Orien

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UK - 5 Star Cases will celebrate its 25th anniversary at PLASA 06, where it will show its diverse range of cases - and also have some fun. Marking the quarter century, 5 Star is holding the 'Speed Challenge' - where visitors can experience an exciting flight-cased racing simulation game - with prizes to be won.

The simulation includes high quality graphics and sound and the entire system is housed in a custom built 'Super Tour' flight case with racing seat, steering wheel and pedals. The 'Speed Challenge' will take the lap times from each hour of the show, and the visitor with the quickest time walks away with a 5 Star 25th anniversary, limited edition briefcase. More than that, the overall quickest time over the four days will receive a £2,500 voucher to spend at 5 Star Cases.

5 Star will also show a selection of cases from its various ranges, including the recently upd

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UK - Salisbury-based Stagecraft Theatre Services (STS) is celebrating the completion of new sound installations worth in excess of £120,000 at two schools and a live events venue. STS, which is a leading staging, lighting and sound company has been responsible for the complete design and installation of the new systems, which include new QSC modular loudspeakers and Yamaha digital mixing desks.

"It has been exceptionally busy for the sound department this year and so far we have completed over 30 installations," explains Stagecraft's Martin Palmer. "Each project has varied dramatically, from the installation of simple microphone and speaker systems in a school hall, to complex mixing desks and modular loudspeakers at a live events venue."

The main installations for the company this year have included work at Sherborne Boys School, Guildford School for

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USA - Buford Jones, Meyer Sound's tour liaison manager, has added his illustrious credentials to the company's education program with a new seminar offering that focuses exclusively on all aspects - artistic, technological and psychological - of FOH mixing. Entitled The Mixing Workshop, the full-day presentation draws extensively on Jones' three decades of top-level FOH touring experience with the elite of rock and country acts: Pink Floyd, Eric Clapton, George Harrison, James Taylor, Faith Hill, Counting Crows and Clint Black, among many others. The most recent workshop was held on June 7 at Full Sail, a private media and entertainment school in Winter Park, Florida, following the seminar's debut on April 6 in Studio C of the Soundcheck rehearsal facility in Nashville. Meyer Sound maintains an office at Soundcheck and has installed loudspeaker systems in the facility's fou

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UK - Hawthorn Theatrical recently provided major sound reinforcement for two high-profile events which took place simultaneously - requiring the collective use of around 130 Martin Audio Mini line array enclosures.

The larger of these was the Playtex Moonwalk 2006 event in London's Hyde Park, in which an audience of 15,000 packed into a 60m (wide) by 150m (long) marquee.

Hawthorn fielded eight hangs of W8LM Mini Line Array, ten deep in the front, supported by two hangs of eight enclosures at the rear.

Bands playing through this system included The Fabulous Dough Boys and Marcus Malone's Motown Party Band - in addition to aerobics instructors who warmed up the participants before their sponsored walk for breast cancer research.

According to Hawthorn's head of sound, Iain Reinhold, the brief from the organisers was for an even level of sound to be distributed througho

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Italy - Outline's Butterfly line-array was used on 10 July at Rome's Circus Maximus at the celebrations which welcomed back the members of the Italian soccer team, after their victory in the 2006 World Cup in Germany.

During the long night of celebrations, an estimated crowd of one million supporters arrived from all over Italy to pay tribute to their sports heroes. The sound system included 28 Butterfly Hi-Pack CDH 483 and 12 Victor Live subwoofers, powered by Outline's Series T power amplifiers and controlled by Genius 26 processors, also manufactured by Outline.

Mounted on four strategically-positioned scaffold towers, the Italian company's compact systems seemed almost 'invisible' amid such a huge crowd, but reinforced the speech with their usual high level of naturalness and intelligibility, say the company.

The audio rental firm responsible for the operation (commissio

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UK - Finsbury Park in London became a wash with colour and sound for The Rise Festival, brainchild of London's Mayor Ken Livingston. The free music festival was designed to celebrate London's multi cultural diversity and opposing racism.

The event featuring four live music stages with acts including, The Wailers, Buzzcocks, Graham Coxon (former guitarist with Blur) and a host of other musicians, who provided music for all walks of life from jazz to hip-hop, indie to reggae and everything in between

The audio side was under the control of Willpower who sub-hired systems in from various other rental companies. Reading based Sabre International was one of these and they supplied equipment for two stages, the Big Cuba Fiesta and Mela stage. David Hawkes of Sabre decided to give the powerful RCF 4Pro 7001-A system the job of the Big Cuba Fiesta stage. Hawk's explained: "

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Singapore - IIR and Unusual Productions have announce a merger of their respective international professional sound and lighting exhibitions for the South East Asian region. Under the agreement, Unusual Productions becomes an Associate Partner of PALA Asia and will no longer stage its annual IPALS exhibition. Instead, IIR and Unusual Productions will be jointly associated with PALA Asia, which will be held in Singapore in 2007 at Sing Expo.

Commenting for IIR, group exhibition director Darren Brechin states: "The merger of IPALS and PALA Asia is great news for the region and for the industry, providing for one definitive professional audio, lighting and entertainment technology exhibition. This is something that will greatly benefit the regional market and overseas exhibitors, providing a bigger, better show in a bigger, better location.

"The move to Singapore's Sing

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Benelux - In a pan-European collaboration, sister companies Flashlight Rental of Holland and Flashlight-APR of Belgium provided the complete audio, lighting, rigging and trucking production for the recent European tour by Frank Zappa's son Dweezil.

The arrangement was a development of the relationship between LD Bryan Hartley and Flashlight that began on last year's successful tour with Lenny Kravitz. "I was delighted with Flashlight's service," says Hartley, "so I recommended them for the Zappa gig."

The tour - entitled Zappa Plays Zappa, Tour de Frank - included a sold-out night at London's Royal Albert Hall on 2 June in which the venue's refurbished organ was pressed into service for one number, Louie Louie, just as it had been when Zappa Snr. played the venerable hall.

Tour manager Maryjo Spillane and production manager Glynn Wood headed the crew. Woo

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UK - The Professional Lighting and Sound Association (PLASA) was one of the main bodies representing the architectural, creative and live events sectors at the recent Olympics Business Summit, held in Leeds on Wednesday 19 July.

During the course of the Summit, the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) - the body responsible for delivering the new venues and infrastructure for the Games, launched a draft version of its Procurement Policy - which outlines how it will manage the whole procurement process, including its selection and award criteria.

With the UK Government spending £3bn on the physical infrastructure for the Games, PLASA is keen to profile the creative and technical expertise of its membership and is preparing a guidance note for members to help them maximise their chances of winning key contracts. It will also be working with them to ensure they are fully aware

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Indonesia - The grand opening of new 304-seat theatre at the Jaya Ancol Resort in Jakarta, marks the largest installation to date of the innovative "4D" entertainment systems designed and installed by Kraftwerk Living Technologies (Wels, Austria). Housed in a structure resembling a pre-Columbian Peruvian pyramid, the theatre's cutting-edge networked digital systems create a synchronised, multisensory experience that bridges the gap between cinema and a full-blown theme park ride.

On screen, dual Christie HD video projectors create superimposed, colour-encoded screen images that, when viewed through the provided special glasses, result in three-dimensional visuals of startling depth and detail. At appropriate moments in the film's story line, the seats jolt, shake, and emit wafts of cool air or sprays of moisture. Finally, to complete the sensation of total immersion, t

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Thailand - Klark Teknik signal processing equipment was key to ensuring consistent sound quality on what must surely be the biggest dancefloor that Thailand has ever seen - a 1.5km stretch of road in the northern city of Khon Kaen.

Thai PA rental company Benz Sound Systems purchased five of Klark Teknik's new Square One Graphics and two Dynamics units, plus a DN370 graphic equalizer, to control all eight DJ and live performance stages at the Songkran Festival, which celebrates the Thai New Year with rituals that include throwing water and coloured powder at passers by. The KT equipment was purchased from EVI Audio Thailand.

"We converted the 1.5km Kaw-neaw Road into an enormous dancefloor and relayed the live shows from the main stage to another seven stages along the street," explains company owner Benz. "Around 100,000 people took to the street to watch the co

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Taiwan / Middle East - Mipro has appointed a new international distributor in Middle East - Thomsun Group, one of the UAE's premier distributors. Thomsun is a multi-faceted business enterprise, and was established in the UAE in 1976 by founding directors K.V. Thomas, P. Shrinivas, and V.T. John.

The company expects the new appointment to significantly expand distribution of Mipro's wireless systems to all market sectors including live sound reinforcement, houses of worship, clubs, conferences centres, stadiums, schools and professional musicians.

Other leading brands in Thomsun's audio portfolio include Yamaha, Tannoy, Genelec, Beyerdynamic, Apart, Digigram, Laney, RME, LP, K&M, Proel and Tasker.

Thomsuns' area manager, Lazar Kanikaraj, says: "We have been looking for a high quality, specialist wireless microphone and portable wireless PA systems brand to add to our por

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USA - Production Resource Group (PRG) has named Scott Hansen as its chief financial officer, to be absed at the company's office in New Windsor, New York. Since joining PRG in 1997 from Ernst & Young, Hansen has held a series of key positions that have given him hands-on knowledge of the company's diverse locations and areas of operations, says the company.

As, successively, PRG's assistant corporate controller, controller of the lighting division, and corporate controller and vice-president of finance, he traveled extensively to PRG's offices throughout the country and in Europe, helping the company's operations executives refine their asset management and operating procedures. In early 2003, he was promoted to general manager of PRG Audio, based in Mount Vernon, New York and PRG Lighting, based in North Bergen, New Jersey. In 2005, Hansen also became the GM of PRG Video in Mou

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USA / Canada - Canadian Music Hall-of-Famers, The Tragically Hip, showed why they have become Canadian rock legends at four consecutive sold-out dates on their latest North American tour, putting Adamson true line source arrays to use for the gigs. Complete production was provided by Towers Productions based in Toronto, Canada. The shows took place between 17-24 June. Artpark in Lewiston, New York, played host to the first show, GRCA (Grand River Conservation Authority) in Guelph for the second, and the last two were held at Historic Fort York in Toronto.

Steve Towers from Towers Productions, together with Adamson Systems' Technical support Jesse Adamson and Ben Cabot collaborated in designing the system for all for shows using Adamson Shooter. For the first and smallest show held in Artpark, they chose 12 Y-10s flown and six T-21s ground stacked per side. For the GRCA show, the

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Europe - The Concert for Europe, an outdoor musical celebration with an artistic reflection of the values that have made Europe great, created an unforgettable experience to mark the completion of the Austrian European Union Presidency. The President and the Chancellor of the Republic, as well as prime movers of national and international policy, economy, media, arts and science were there without exception.

Staged in front of the glorious Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna, this truly spectacular summer event featured the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Plácido Domingo performing a mixed program of classical favourites by Mozart, Shostakovich, and Schumann. Special guest, Juan Diego Flórez's, sonorous tenor delighted the audience with an equally varied selection, culminating with a crowd-pleasing rendition of "La donna è mobile" by Giuseppe Verdi.

Estimates

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Germany - Axxent has introduced a new intercommunications belt pack BP100V with vibration alarm, in addition to the usual light signal. Many users in the event industry - be it sound or light technicians - complained about intercom alarm signals going unnoticed. Axxent reacted to these complains with the new vibration alarm that will be "felt" immediately, whereas the light signal might be overlooked.

The vibrator module sits in a small box with dimensions of 50 x 40 x 20mm and features an 80cm cable with a 3.5mm mini phone plug that can be connected into the front side of the belt pack when required. Axxent products are manufactured by Pro Audio-Technik in Gelnhausen, Germany.

(Lee Baldock)

  1. Pioneer DJ decks at Berlin Loveparade 2006
  2. Stage Sound Services with D1 Live
  3. New HK Audio distribution partner in Turkey
  4. RCF for Fashion Bar, Macau
  5. Outline Butterfly at Athens' MOV
  6. Pioneer launches DVJ-1000
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