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If you’re interested in how control systems and computers are used in the live entertainment arena, then John Huntington’s latest book will not disappoint.

Control Systems for Live Entertainment has become something of a bible for those who seek a better understanding of control systems. In this updated and revised version, Huntington has revised his original work in answer to the changes of the past six years. He covers the new technologies that now operate in the field, although perhaps the most important change has come not in the technology itself, but the level to which it is now being used. Huntingdon addresses the challenge of how to adapt these technologies to purposes for which they were never designed. Covering control for lighting, lasers, sound, video, film projection, stage machinery, animatronics, special effects and pyrotechnics for theatre, concerts, theme

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It would appear that the world of opera is trying to take over the world of the musical: London in early autumn saw two directors best known for their operatic work in action in the West End. Robert Carsen created The Beautiful Game at the Cambridge Theatre, while up the road at the Shaftesbury multiple-Olivier award winning director Francesca Zambello was pulling together Napoleon, an epic new musical charting the love of Napoleon Boneparte for Josephine through troubled times in France.

To help her, Zambello turned to regular collaborators, notably set designer Michael Yeargan and lighting designer Rick Fisher, who won the 1998 lighting Olivier for his work on Zambello’s Lady in the Dark at the National Theatre.To stage the show, which covers a huge range of locations and times, Yeargan designed a spectacular floor capable of rising, falling, twisting and tilting to provide lan

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Following two years of concentrated improvements to its company training programme and the development of individual employees, Star Hire (Event Services) Ltd has just received recognition as an Investor In People. The Investors In People award signifies that Star Hire know where they are going as a company, have imparted this focus to all their staff, and have trained them to move forward in line with that vision. Maddy Sheals, responsible for steering the company towards the standard said: "In the feedback session at the end of the two days, the assessor said how much he was impressed with the calibre of people he interviewed - their honesty, commitment, and individual skills, plus an awareness of what Star Hire is trying to do." Maddy hopes to build on this achievement through a programme of continuous innovation and improvement in the training and development of all Star Hi

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The UK Events industry has received an important accolade on a world-wide scale, with four companies from the ISES (International Special Event Society) UK Chapter nominated for awards at the ‘Special Event’ to be held this January. Nominees include The Moving Venue (Best Off-Premise Catered Event), The Special Event Company (Best Multi-Day Event), Vok Dams Gruppe (Best Achievement in Technical Support), and The Full Effect has received nominations in an impressive three categories (Best Corporate Picnic, Best Entertainment Concept over $50k, and Best Theatrical Production). The final judging takes place in New Orleans during the Special Event Show, with the Awards and Gala Dinner being held on 13th January. "It’s a tremendous achievement for the Brits to get so many nominations from the 375 entries submitted," said ISES UK Chapter president, Sally Webb. "

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Adlib Audio has completed a successful UK Theatre Tour with Joan Armatrading, covering venues ranging from 330-capacity up to the 1800-seat Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, which provided the biggest test for Adlib’s Martin Audio Wavefront System and the rigging capabilities of their crew. With Alan ‘Nobby’ Hopkinson mixing FOH on a Soundcraft Series 4 and the Astoria’s Erik Sanderson-Evans on monitors (doubling as production manager), Armatrading played acoustic guitar exclusively across a wide range of styles. Adlib’s Andy Dockerty said: "Nobby put this tour out to tender, but knew that our equipment was quite new, and given the type of show that it was, that the Wavefronts would be smooth enough to handle the wide range of styles." There were 16 W8Cs at Adlib’s disposal, "but we only ever put three subs each side of the stage," says

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Nexo has won the sound installation contract for Finland’s ‘coolest’ new venue, Hullu Poro, (The Crazy Reindeer). Possibly the most northerly entertainment venue in Europe, Hullu Poro is a large multipurpose centre being built in the busy skiing resort of Levi. When it opens next spring, the two-level, 1800-cpacity venue will host concerts by all the top Finnish artists and many international names. Nexo’s distributor in Finland, Oy Hedcom, is overseeing the installation of a Nexo Alpha E system, featuring six Alpha E-M, four B1-18s and two S2 sub-bass for the main PA, with six Nexo PS8 compact cabinets for fills around the venue.

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Turbosound reports that Spanish production company Fluge, headed by Luis Berlanga, has increased its hire inventory of Turbosound Flashlight by 24 TFL-780 low-frequency cabinets and 24 Flashlight TFS-780 mid/highs. The company now boasts 72 complete stacks of the Flashlight fully-integrated long-throw sound reinforcement system and 48 stacks of Floodlight, comprised of the TFL-760H mid/high enclosures and the TSW-721 sub-bass unit. The new hire stock will be used for various tours and events around Spain, but made its debut at the 30,000-capacity Benicasim Festival, providing PA for artists such as Richard Ashcroft, Primal Scream and Oasis.

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Commissioned by ARTTS International (Advanced Residential Theatre & Television Skillcentre located at Bubwith, south of York), Lighting Technology has recently completed the installation of lighting and track equipment into a new studio build at the organisation's television training centre. A grid composed of five 10m plain scaffold tubes and six 10m internally-wired bars is fixed at a height of four metres and wired to a patch rack unit. An 18-way Pulsar dimmer rack with control outlets has been installed, along with an 18-way Pulsar twin-preset lighting desk. Lighting equipment supplied included five Strand Studio 1kW lanterns and two pantographs. The perimeter track is a Foyal 300 system," explained Lighting Technology’s Terry Reeves. "A subsequent order followed and this involved the installation of a new Harkness Hall T60 track system in the main theatre. We were th

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Glastonbury Festival organiser Michael Eavis has cancelled this year's event because of fears about crowd safety. The festival, which was first staged in 1970, had been under fire from his local authority after thousands of fans sneaked into last year’s Festival. The 2000 event has left Eavis facing prosecution over alleged breaches of the festival licence, and he says he hopes his decision will send out a message that organisers are taking the issue seriously. In a statement he said: "After much deliberation and consultation I have now decided not to run the festival this year." He added, however, that he has every intention running the Festival in 2002. Eavis’s decision follows the deaths of nine crowd members at the Roskilde Festival in Denmark last year. Eavis has commented that the Roskilde tragedy has made organisers and authorities more concerned about crowd

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AV specialist company Black Box AV has been busy helping Virgin Entertainment Group transform the Our Price stores into the new V.Shop music retail outlets – with 100 stores completed before the third week in November. A major part of the new-look stores is the inclusion of interactive AV technology, and Paradigm AV has supplied Black Box with rear projection screens manufactured by dnp Denmark, which will appear as front-window points of sale in all the re-profiled stores. The complete package for every store includes a BGM system capable of barring music tracks containing bad language, and listening posts where customers can access any CD in the shop via touch-screen technology. Finally, a video-server solution delivers two channels of MPEG video via in-store plasma panels and the front-line dnp rear projection screens.

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The Institute of Acoustics (IoA) held its 16th conference on Reproduced Sound in November - and much of the varied content was relevant to the theatre and live music industries.

Multi-channel sound reinforcement was a topic that generated a large amount of interest, with presentations from David Malham (University of York), Fred Ample (Technology Visions), Robin Whittaker (Out Board Electronics) and Steve Ellison (Level Control Systems). It was clear that the demand for higher-quality audio environments is growing rapidly.

Robin Whittaker explained the theory of source-oriented reinforcement and illustrated its applications from the wealth of theatre, industrial and music productions that Out Board has undertaken. Whittaker concluded by stating that the concept of source-oriented reinforcement has several key benefits; namely, the minimisation of room effects, even distribution of SP

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Their publicity talks about ‘a multi-disciplinary approach to create a visceral experience’ to teaching fire safety. But it’s the big red fire truck inside the window that gets people in to the new Fire Zone exhibit at the Rockefeller Center in New York!

It’s a good start to getting across a message which is important, but too easy to make it over-preachy or just plain dull. That was the problem the New York Fire Department had. The new approach came about after Tishman Speyer Properties, who manage the property of the Rockefeller Center, offered the Fire Department space in the building for a token rent. The Fire Department accepted, and turned to BKS/K Architects to create the Fire Zone.

Once the fire-truck has lured people in, it acts as the first stage of the themed show: an alarm, a fire-fighter and a video-projection showing a fire truck’s journey

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The recent Illuminated Video Workshop, fronted by Screenco and designed to show the versatility of LED screen configurations, paid immediate dividends when the senior producer of BBC Television’s Sports Personality of the Year decided to transport the concept to BBC Television Centre.

On December 10, a TV audience of around 10 million - as well as an invited studio audience of 560 sports personalities - assembled in TC1 studio in Wood Lane to see 60 of Screenco’s 15mm modules, with help from Vertigo and Stage One, perform some gymnastics of their own. Assembled in a block, the matrix formed the entire scenic video backdrop for the production - but the show’s senior producer Paul Davies saw possibilities way beyond that.

He decided that the matrix could also be configured as a walk-on entrance for the personalities. "We wanted to integrate an over-the-top screen

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Christmas week was Cereco International’s busiest week since the launch in September of its web-based lighting and audio equipment auction. Cereco’s John Lethbridge reports that in the period between 27 December and New Year’s Eve, over £7,000 worth of product was snapped up by several individual first-time buyers. There was a last-minute battle between five bidders for 42 ETC Source 4 Pars that started at £50.00 each and closed at £65.00 each. John Lethbridge puts this success down to the fact that people had plenty of time to be on-line over the holiday period. Also, most of the bidders are now subscribing to Cereco's free weekly e-mail newsletter that keeps them informed of the latest deals and action on the website. The site specialises in new and ex-demo equipment supplied by leading manufacturers and distributors, rather than ex-rental equipment, although some

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Stage Electrics has provided a large percentage of the lighting and special effects for major pantomimes around the UK. The company supplied the lighting, including Martin Professional’s MAC 2000s and a large number of generics, for 15 of the Quodos (formerly known as E&B) shows, as well as for four of Jim Davidson’s Effective Productions. The pantomimes are all over the country from Plymouth to Edinburgh and include Dick Whittington at the Hammersmith Apollo. Stage Electrics’ lighting has also been used on many other productions throughout the festive season including the classic Christmas production, The Snowman in London and Holland; the Classical Spectacular at the Royal Albert Hall, the Olympia International Show Jumping Championships and numerous West End shows.

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Guests at the Annual Lighting Designer’s Christmas Luncheon, held at the Royal National Theatre in December, were able to meet three more future leading lights in the profession, as White Light once again presented its Lighting Design Bursaries during the event. Now in its third year, the competition was opened up this year to allow entries from anyone studying lighting design in the UK, rather than just from students at Rose Bruford College as in previous years. As before, students had to produce a proposal detailing how they would light a scene from a play, a piece of music, an item of architecture or a live event - all within a theoretical budget! - as well as a live ‘pitch’ for that proposal. Despite the newly-expanded field of entries, the overall winner of the competition was once again a student at Rose Bruford: Kristina Hjelm, with a production entitled The Peep

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Electrosonic was responsible for the audio-visual design, systems engineering and installation for an exhibition to promote the launch of the Millennium Seedbank. One of the largest conservation projects ever undertaken, and spearheaded by the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, the Millennium aims to safeguard over 24,000 plant species worldwide from extinction. Seedbank. Located in the new Wellcome Trust Millennium Building at Wakehurst, Sussex, and designed by Land Design Studio, the Seed Bank exhibition shows visitors why the project is necessary, and how the teams of experts will store millions of seeds from around the world in vast underground vaults. The AV presentation includes a video shown on a plasma display screen and run from an Electrosonic MPEG2 vido server with ESLINX show control. The ESLINX control system is also used to control a number of other elements in the display, such

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The Weakest Link, BBC Television’s most talked-about quiz show, is the latest assignment for the TardiS - Total Audio Solutions’ radical new digital audio mobile. The task of providing technical facilities for the popular series, which is recorded at Magic Eye Studios near Wimbledon, was given to Picture Canning, who turned to Total Audio for the audio provision. At the heart of the TardiS mobile is a Sony DMX-R100 digital mixing console - the first in the UK to be installed in a mobile facility. This is equipped with a combination of local and remote mic preamps to offer a total of 48 microphone lines, enabling it to cover every eventuality. The TArdiS is also equipped with a 32 track 24-bit/48kHz Tascam DA78HR recoder, as well as a pair of Sony 4-head PCM-700 DAT machines. Monitoring is by PMC, while effects are courtesy of a Sony DRE-S777 sampling reverb processor and DPS-

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Pulsar has launched its 2001 light Jockey Contest. The competition is open to all, from experienced Light Jockeys and operators, to lighting enthusiasts with no previous experience. Free training at all levels will be provided covering a variety of topics, from basic programming to creative lightshow design. Preliminary heats, especially designed for new-comers, will take place at Pulsar’s headquarters in Cambridge, whilst the prestigious Ministry of Sound will play host to the main heats. Deadline for entry is February 28. If you are interested in taking part or would like to find out more contact Sabrina at Pulsar Light of Cambridge on +44 (0)1223 366798.

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Universal Concept Inc, the company behind ProSoundWeb.com and related websites Live-Audio.com and ProLightingWeb.com, which were launched in autumn 1999, is preparing for its first on-line Celebrity Chat session, featuring Craig Janssen, principal consultant of Acoustic Dimensions - a US-based specialist in architectural acoustics, sound and communications systems, video systems, sound isolation, noise and vibration control and performance lighting designs. The on-line session will be held at 9:30pm EDT tonight, Wednesday 10 January (1.30am GMT, Thursday 11January).

Ken Berger, well known from his time with EAW, is one of the people behind Universal Concept. He told PLASA Media: "Live chat sessions featuring industry leaders will be a staple of Pro Sound Web, with a schedule of upcoming sessions to be announced soon." Ken also tells us: "In addition to UCI, I have also b

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Halifax plc, one of the UK’s most established providers of financial services, has appointed Sarner International to install a state-of-the-art media presentation system in the boardroom of its Edinburgh offices. Based around a rear-projected Media Presentation Wall with a wide range of audio and visual capabilities, the Wall is capable of generating presentations via almost any format, including DVD and satellite television inputs.

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Dobson Sound Productions provided the live sound for the opening of the final London Millennium Commission building project - the Queen Elizabeth II Great Court at The British Museum, in December. Dobson Sound had previously looked after the live sound requirements for the opening of other London Millennium Commission projects, such as the Wallace Collection covered courtyard, the Dulwich Picture Galleries, National Portrait Gallery, Tate Modern, the Millennium Bridge, the Royal Opera House, the Science Museum Wellcome Wing and the Natural History Museum’s Earth Galleries, all of which were opened by Her Majesty the Queen.

At the British Museum, Dobson Sound were working for production company Fisher Productions, who took on the production of all the events involved in the six-week build-up to the main opening. As was the case with all the above-mentioned projects, a number of ev

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Show Presentation Services (SPS), the audio-visual equipment rental and technical staging specialist, has announced the launch of its new e-commerce website, along with a brand new on-line ‘Budget Estimator’. Robin Coles, SPS managing director, says: "A UK event manager for a multi-national brand with a requirement to take a product road-show to six European cities, should provide the Budget Estimator with details such as audience size, type of event/presentation and location, and they will be provided with immediate on-line staging information specific to their requirements with accompanying pricing."

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Color Kinetics Incorporated (CKI) has been awarded a second US patent covering the company’s Chromacore technology, which uses microprocessor-controlled multi-coloured LEDs to generate a variety of color-changing lighting effects. The patent (6,150,774) broadens the scope of the company’s initial patent for Chromacore (6,016,038, issued in January 2000) and extends the range of applications covered in Color Kinetics’ intellectual property portfolio. Color Kinetics say this now positions them to bring the colour and effect-generating capabilities of its award-winning professional lighting products to the general consumer market.

CKI says this latest patent further expands its intellectual portfolio to include specific networkable methods of intelligent LED control, as well as applications that utilize networkable control of a single LED. Such applications include the a

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