At PLASA Focus: Leeds 2012, Theatre Consultants Charcoalblue have brought together some of the key players to reveal how this £4.9 million project came to fruition. Charcoalblue Project Manager Jon Woodley, along with Peter Hall of Sansome Hall Architects, David Wilmore representing Theatresearch and Mark Priestley from Unusual Rigging will all be presenting their perspectives on how the collaborative restoration of the Newcastle Theatre Royal was achieved.
The Theatre has been part of the fabric of Newcastle city centre since 1837. A Grade 1 Listed Building, it features what is generally regarded as the finest theatre façade in the UK combined with a fine 1901 auditorium designed by one of the great theatre architects, Frank Matcham, after the original interior had been des
Germany - Lake is using Prolight+Sound 2012 as the preferred stage to unveil the new release of its Lake Controller software - version 6 - marking "a critical leap forward in the development of the ubiquitous live sound processing environment".
In addition to general enhancements, including optimization for Windows 7 and improved performance for large system networks, Version 6 will include support for the forthcoming Yamaha MY8-LAKE card, bringing Lake Processing to Yamaha's extensive line of digital audio mixing desks.
Perhaps more significantly for Lake's existing user base however, is the advent of new integration potential with real-time acoustical spectrum analysis software; with Version 6 supporting full integration with both Smaart 7 and WaveCapture's Live-Capture.
USA - When The Life of Galileo opened in the newly revamped, 500-seat Allen Theatre at Playhouse Square in Cleveland, Aviom's AllFrame Multi-Modular I/O System, part of the theatre's Pro64 Audio Network, was waiting in the wings, ready to make its debut during the inaugural season at the new theatre of the Cleveland Play House (CPH).
"Due to the historic nature of the Allen Theatre, the recent transformation entailed building a shell inside the existing building, while still maintaining the original architecture," says Raymond Kent, CTS LEED AP director of the Innovative Technology Design Group at Westlake Reed Leskosky (WRL), an associate principal with WRL and the lead audiovisual systems designer for the project.
Home to CPH, America's first regional theatre company and Cleveland State University's Department of Theatre and Dance, Playhouse Square is second
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LD Systems ICOA PRO series – high-performance coaxial PA speakers for professional demands
The popular ICOA PA systems have been further developed to include two active full-range coaxial speakers – ICOA PRO 12 A and ICOA PRO 15 A – as well as the active 21″ bass-reflex PA subwoofer ICOA PRO SUB 21 A. With its professional features and high output power, the ICOA PRO series is aimed at ambitious bands, musicians and DJs as well as hire companies and commercial customers looking for a compact, robust and powerful PA sound system. The ICOA PRO series is rounded off with modern connection and control options via Bluetooth 5.1 and the specially developed ICOA PRO app, for use on smartphones and tablets.
South Africa - Paul van Dyk opened up his Johannesburg set of his Gatecrasher world tour at Truth Nightclub in Midrand on 3 February 2012.
XGX Productions, commissioned by Vic Vaid and Lee Govender, were the technical suppliers of sound, lighting, audio visual, structure and special effects.
The lighting design was by XGX's Gert Smit, who had free rein to create something special for the up-beat young audience. Colleague Martin Vermeulen took care of the programming on their Avolites Tiger Touch console.
XGX had recently purchased Robin 300s, and were pleased with the fixtures. "It was very nice to work with the Robin 300s," commented Gert Smit. "They worked perfectly as both a colourwash and made great eye-candy for the massive crowd. To round off the sensational event we added four CO2 Canons, four green lasers and one colour laser."
(Jim Evans
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ETC Halcyon Silent
High End Systems Halcyon Silent builds on ETC’s legacy of fanless automated fixtures by incorporating features from the highly sought-after Halcyon family. Halcyon Silent perfectly balances silent operation with brilliant output of 18,400 lumens and high-impact features.
South Africa - Dream Sets provided the full technical supply and sets for the successful Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Joburg, presented by African Fashion International (AFI) at Hyde Park Shopping Centre's roof top, where a 120m marquee was raised, held from 7 - 10 March 2012. The Philips Selecon SPXs did a sterling job.
For the fifth consecutive year, Mauritz Jacobs from Dream Sets oversaw the project and was also the lighting designer of this spectacular event which included 20 fashion shows, over 25 designers and elaborate set changes on two fashion ramps.
"This is probably one of the hardest weeks of the year," commented Jacobs. "There are set changes between every show and these are major changes! The one show will be white and an hour later the ramp will be red." The shows are about 20minutes long and there's a show every hour.
Germany - Alcons Audio, which marks its 10th anniversary of exhibiting at ProLight+Sound in 2012, is showing a number of new products and updates to existing models on Stand G60, Hall 8.0.
The highlight of the company's presence at the show is a completely new product group, the R-Series, which takes Alcons' pro-ribbon cylindrical projection and coupling behaviour in new and different directions and brings the benefits of this technology to applications not previously served.
Another innovation is the Q-series QR24 model. A completely new pro-ribbon transducer platform has been developed specifically for this system, which will bring the modular line-source column concept to acoustically challenging rooms in a new form.
The production version of the BC332 self-contained cardioid subwoofer system is on show, which features newly designed woofers - direct-radiating 18" fr
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Create new traditions – Cameo P6 - High Output Full-Spectrum Ellipsoidal
Cameo's P6 is a future-proof LED profiler with a powerful 600 W RGBACL engine and 16,000 lumens. It’s an energy-efficient replacement for 2.5 kW halogen profile lights in theatres and venues. With excellent light quality and natural colour rendering, it fits perfectly in theatres, musicals, TV studios, congresses, and live events.
With an LED life of 50,000 hours and low power use, the P6 cuts energy costs and supports the EU’s ‘Green Deal’ goals for climate neutrality by 2050. It also meets updated eco-design rules for lighting.
UK - The Institute of Contemporary Music Performance has announced the launch of its 2012 careers event, to be held on Tuesday 17 April at north London's Tricycle Theatre, close to the Institute's facilities in Kilburn.
This interactive event, part of the Institute's comprehensive career's support service provided to all students, will provide a major opportunity for students to explore all manner of career development and showcasing opportunities both during and after their time at the Institute.
In attendance will be a comprehensive set of guests and speakers, from a wide spectrum of the music industry including artist management, music publishers, A&Rs, events promoters, music solicitors and Industry representatives
Confirmed participants include: Angus Blue, Riverman artist management (Placebo); Ed Poston, BMI; Kwame Kwaten, ATC Management; Jonny Dawson, ATC Management;
Germany - Steinberg Media Technologies has announced that from 1 April 2012, the pan-European distribution of their Nuendo product range will move to Yamaha Music Europe.
By moving the Nuendo family of products to Yamaha's sales and distribution network, Steinberg and Yamaha are now able to offer a broader range of hardware and software system solutions to the commercial audio segment than ever before. This in turn achieves a clearer focus on precisely meeting the end customer's needs.
"We at Steinberg are happy that the continuing collaboration with Yamaha now also brings the well-established Nuendo range to further fruition," said Andreas Stelling, Steinberg's managing director. "Steinberg takes this opportunity to thank its customers for their support of Nuendo and is confident that the new partnership with Yamaha will help grow the business even further.&quo
Australia - Gladstone Entertainment Centre, the city's premier live entertainment venue showcasing local, national and international artists, has taken delivery of six Vari*Lite VL3500 Spot luminaires from Philips Vari*Lite to keep their existing VL500 Washes company.
"We have been very happy with our VL500 fixtures which have proven to be rock-solid," commented Troy Everett, manager performing arts at GEC. "I love the colour that you can only get out of a tungsten unit and the unique VL500 colour system. However when deciding on the new fixtures I had a look at a wide variety of lighting fixtures but the VL3500 Spot was the clear winner for me.
"I love that all Vari*Lite fixtures seem to deliver beautiful colours and that the gobos are always sharp and crisp," he added. "In fact the colour mixing in Vari*Lite fixtures is so good there really is n
Germany - 25 years after introducing its first digital mixing console, Yamaha has unveiled its latest generation of digital consoles with the launch of the three-model CL series at ProLight+Sound in Frankfurt on Wednesday.
Retaining essential features and functionality that have become standards over the past quarter of a century, Yamaha's new CL Series of digital mixing consoles offers "an evolved experience in accessible mixing", the company says. "Combined with sonic purity and advanced sound shaping capabilities, the CL Series gives the most imaginative artists and engineers unprecedented creative freedom".
Three models were launched - the CL1, CL3 and CL5, ranging in scale from 48 to 72 mono + eight stereo inputs. All feature 16 DCAs and 24 mix / eight matrix output busses.
Founded on the proven Centralogic interface, the advanced CL Series incorpora
UK - A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET) has been appointed as the exclusive UK and Ireland distributor for the full range of lighting products manufactured by US-based High End Systems, a Barco company.
This new partnership was announced on the High End Systems stand at the Prolight+Sound exhibition in Frankfurt, which debuted the new TechnoArc fully featured, soft edged, competitively priced moving light, amongst several recent innovations from the manufacturer.
Says Brad Schiller, High End Systems' product marketing manager, "High End Systems is very excited to be partnering with A.C. Entertainment Technologies to provide UK and Irish customers with a local distributor. Their excellence in customer support, combined with an impressive sales force, will offer High End Systems products to a broad range of customers. With new products like the DLV, trackspot Bolt, Tec
Germany - Robe lighting enjoyed its "busiest and best Prolight+Sound" exhibition to date in Frankfurt last week, with a record number of deals closed, plus "a phenomenal interest in its progressive, forward thinking Robin product range" - as well the launch of five new fixtures at the show.
The stand took on a very distinctive appearance. No-one could miss the giant set of Newton Balls suspended above the reception area. Nathan Wan's vibrant and lively lighting design for the booth utilised nearly 300 of the latest Robe fixtures and featured a 'wall of death' effect, with some serious metalwork in the roof and serious impact on anyone walking Hall 11 - who could not fail to catch the action. Over 60 Robe representatives were present on the stand from all over the world.
The five new LED-based innovations in the Robin series all received serious interest, sa
Antarctica - Rain, snow, ice and heat are no match for the ETC Desire XT LED fixtures - or so the marketing says. Paul Slater, director of Channel 7's popular breakfast show, Sunrise, decided to put this to the ultimate test by taking one with him to Antarctica. "It was the first time an Australian television programme had done a live, broadcast quality transmission from Antarctica," explained Slater.
Fortunately the lighting team at Channel 7 had an ETC Desire XT LED fixture on order to replace a broken HMI fixture and they took delivery of it the day before departing for Antarctica.
"It's an all-encompassing, weather-proof light that enables us to dial in different colour temperatures, whether it's daylight or tungsten lighting," remarked Slater. "You also have full dim control; to have all those features in a light without the need for a ball
UK - Elstree Light & Power has recently invested in a significant number of Clay Paky Alpha Spot HPE 1500s, supplemented by a healthy order of Sharpys. The Alpha Spot HPE 1500s were immediately specified on some high profile live and broadcast events.
Working closely with lighting designer Nigel Catmur, ELP took delivery of 26 of the Alpha Spot HPE 1500s which Catmur specified first on S4C's Rhydian shows and the Only Men Allowed TV special. He subsequently featured them on the lighting rig for the Royal Variety Performance.
"Having first seen the impact of the Alpha Spot HPE 1500 on Eurovision last year, I knew it was a light I wanted to work with," says Catmur. "Simultaneously ELP had the same idea and so we collaborated and made it happen on the projects we were working on together at the time."
Germany - Jands gave their new flagship Vista L5 media and lighting control console its first European tradeshow outing at Prolight+Sound in Frankfurt.
Jands CEO, Paul Mulholland, unveiled the Vista L5 while reflecting on the 10 year journey the company have taken with their Vista range. Explaining that while the original Vista concept was very well received, their work over the past few years has been to refine that concept to deliver a second generation software that is "the perfect integration of Jands's original concept and the industry's demands for it," encouraging those who may have dismissed it in the past to take another look, now it has truly reached its potential.
With the Vista L5 offering "the definitive work surface" for the Vista v2 software, he concluded that, just like outside of our industry, embracing new technologies and interfaces deliv
UK - Chauvet Europe will present the new Chauvet Professional luminaires to the European market at PLASA Focus 2012. Among the latest products on show will be the MVP 12 modular video panels, Legend 412 pixel-mapping moving yoke, Q-Wash 560Z-LED moving yoke, COLORado 2 Zoom Tour and COLORado 1-Quad Tour wash fixtures.
The MVP 12 is a lightweight, tri-colour SMD LED modular video panel suitable for high-resolution graphics and live action video. Featuring a semi-transparent design, MVP 12 allows lighting and elements to pass through while maintaining high resolution and clarity. MVP 12 video panels easily interlock for dramatic displays.
Legend 412 is an innovative, pixel-mapping moving yoke wash fixture featuring 12 quad-coloured RGBW LEDs controllable in quadrants. Nimble and ultra-compact, this multi-purpose unit is capable of an excellent wash and mesmerizing dynamic chases
Germany - At Prolight+Sound 2012, for the first time Neumann presented the capsule heads KK 204 (cardioid) and KK 205 (supercardioid) for the Sennheiser 2000 Series wireless system.
Wolfgang Fraissinet, president of Neumann, explains, "Neumann capsules have already been used in combination with the Sennheiser SKM 5200 handheld transmitter for the past 10 years on some of the largest stages of the world, where the highest demands are placed on a high-resolution sound and transmission reliability.
"With the development of the KK 204 and KK 205 capsule heads, the Neumann sound is now also available for the Sennheiser 2000 Series. The synergies between the key areas of expertise of Sennheiser handheld transmitters and Neumann capsule sound permit us to offer our customers a wireless system of absolutely uncompromisingly quality, even for the most demanding live applicati
Germany - At proLight+Sound last week, Solid State Logic introduced its Live-Recorder system.
The Live-Recorder system provides "an ultra-reliable, high-quality, low-cost solution for high-channel-count live, location or broadcast recording". Live-Recorder is designed for live music recording from FOH console systems, location film sound recording, TV broadcast production studios and broadcast production trucks.
The system connects via standard optical MADI, so it can connect directly to MADI-equipped digital mixing consoles, venue audio distribution infrastructure (Riedel, Optocore, etc.) or broadcast routers. The system presents significant cost-saving opportunities when compared to hard disk recorders or other DAW recorder systems, says the company. Each Live-Recorder system can record up to 128Ch@24bit/48kHz or 64Ch@24bit/96kHz.
UK - Ian Webster, a sales professional with extensive experience in the digital technology field, has been named sales manager for the United Kingdom, northern region, by the ADJ Group. In this capacity, Webster will be responsible for sales and customer development for American DJ Lighting and American Audio products in his territory.
Prior to coming to the ADJ Group, Webster was a technical sales specialist with Motorola United Kingdom for seven years. He worked on the British Broadcasting Corporation's switch from analogue to all-digital (DTV) broadcasting and reception in the United Kingdom.
"We are very pleased to welcome Ian on board," said Dirk Kast, general manager of ADJ Europe. "He not only brings a wealth of technical knowledge to this position, but also valuable experience helping customers understand and utilise technological driven products to thei
USA - Belgium-based architectural lighting manufacturer Kreon has appointed Darin Fowler as general manager of North American operations, headquartered in New York City. In his new role, Fowler will oversee all sales, customer service and marketing in the US and Canada. Since his start in January of this year, Fowler has set up the office and is hiring staff, with warehouse space and a showroom to be announced in the near future.
Fowler was most recently regional sales manager at entertainment lighting manufacturer High End Systems in Austin, TX, where he concentrated on lighting for fixed installations.
Before that, he worked as senior designer/project manager for New York-based architectural lighting design firms Schwinghammer Lighting and Johnson Light Studio.
UK - A new onslaught of Saturday evening reality television shows has begun with both sides vying for the best viewing figures for the family audience. This year, the BBC is launching a new singing competition, one that has already had remarkable success in the Netherlands, Germany and the USA, to compete with the sixth series of ITVs Britain's Got Talent. The Voice, a new concept in reality TV talent shows focuses on nothing but the voice.
Creative Technology (CT) has been involved in setting the scene for the striking backdrop to the show. Alongside the creative talent of Julian Healy, the production designer on the series, CT had a set and light period of only three days, in which time over 150sq.m of LED screens as backdrops and floor covering were rigged.
With the main set screen comprising of 30sq.m of Chromatek Black Faced 6mm LED screen, the fragmented Fl