Creative Technology has furthered its equipment rental and service standards within the exhibition sector, by building on its existing BECA accreditation through gaining membership to the Association of Exhibition Organisers (aeo).

The aeo is one of the leading voices of the exhibition industry, primarily representing exhibition organizers, but also working with companies in related industries. aeo members are committed to making exhibitions work harder for both exhibitors and visitors and to maintaining the highest standards of professional service.

CT London’s exhibition sales manager Matthew Hunter said: "As a company CT has always strived to make its brand synonymous with quality for technical expertise and service. Joining the aeo sees the natural development of our strategy for working within the exhibition industry and we are delighted to have been accepted by

The charity event ‘Reaching out for Africa’, a gospel spectacular which took place at London's Royal Albert Hall on Sunday March 10, was literally ‘A day in the life of ‘ for the production and rental companies involved. Organized by Patti Boulaye to raise money for Support for Africa, a charity she founded to inform people of the terrible effect that AIDS and malaria are having in Sub-Saharan Africa, this one-off event had just a 24 hour schedule, from load-in to get-out.

Produced by Sir Michael Parker, the event was almost a rehearsal for The Queen's Golden Jubilee celebrations, with which he will also be involved. The 3,000 strong choir, drawn from schools, churches and choirs across the UK, Europe and Africa, will go on to form part of the 5,000-strong Golden Jubilee Gospel Choir which will sing at Buckingham Palace in June.

Lighting the show on behalf of

Audio production company Britannia Row recently supplied the sound system for the after-show party at the premiere of Disney Monsters Inc in London. Commissioned by event design and production company AD Design, the event was hosted at Planet 2000 - a venue featuring disused railway arches and sidings - and attended by 1200 people.

Utilizing a selection of its extensive Turbosound stock, Britannia Row distributed the sound system throughout six arches, as well as the main area and the foyer. All the equipment was linked via BSS Sound Web, using the ducking system for announcements from Capital Radio DJs. Two each of Turbosound’s TQ-440 enclosures were flown in two arches, four in two others, whilst two Floodlight systems, and four QLight TQ-425SP units were distributed in the ‘Monster’s Headquarters’, along with two flown TQ-440SPs which were used for delay.

B

Atomic Kitten’s monitor engineer Ben Booker has specified the new dbx IEM in-ear monitoring processors for the band’s current sold-out UK tour. Booker’s decision came after submitting a demo model to rigorous testing. Sound supplier for the tour is Liverpool-based AdLib Audio, who’ve purchased the processors from dbx’s UK distributors Arbiter Pro Audio.

A major reason Booker chose the dbx was to save lots of rack space. The product features include Lexicon reverb settings, 4-band stereo limiter/compressor, 5-band parametric EQ, 4-band crossover, MIDI control, updateable software and many more - all of which devices would normally occupy three or four spaces in an external processing rack.

The processors are inserted into the monitor desk desk, and used to reduce the bottom end on the girls’ vocals. The dbx’s reverb is utilised to add ambience

Pop music icon Neil Diamond is back out on tour again with Maryland Sound Industries – this time with a sound reinforcement system boasting the world’s first all-digital signal path between its microphones and loudspeakers. One of the key components in achieving this distinction was the use of Crown’s new IQ-PIP USP2/CN CobraNet module.

Each of the 70 Crown Macro-Tech 5000/5002VZ house amplifiers on the tour is equipped with its own USP2/CN card. This allows digital audio signals sent from the Yamaha PM1D front-of-house console through a CobraNet converter and BSS ProSys PS-8810C to be fed directly into the amplifiers on Cat 5 Ethernet lines and switches. All of the processing for the production’s JBL VerTec line-array loudspeakers - including crossover, delay and EQ - is performed via the Crown modules.

Using a laptop, the PS-8810C DSP system is wirelessly ca

Yves Pepin, president and creative director of ECA2, and his team, are working on a night-time cultural visit of the archaeological site El Tajin, in the jungle of Veracruz state, eastern Mexico. Sound and light shows will be featured every night from 16 to 23 March 2002, with commentary in Spanish, English, French and Totonac. The total number of shows will be 14. El Tajin is recognised as the cultural birthplace of the Totonac people, the first American Indians encountered by the Spanish conquistador Cortés, in 1519. The site is vast and archaeologically rich, with most of its structures dating from 600-700 AD.

Spectators will be guided, over two hours, in a circular movement over the site, stopping at places to witness various aspects of Totonac culture. A notable feature of the visit will be its personal nature: according to rules set by Mexico’s National Institute of Anthro

The famous Paris site where the legendary Jim Morrison said farewell to the world has been converted into a discotheque by Sir Terence Conran. The former Whisky-A-Go-Go, underneath his celebrated restaurant Alcazar, had been empty for some time, and when it was excavated for the refit, artworks from the legendary Doors frontman were found. The site has now reopened as the Wagg - with the sound and lighting specified and administered by fabric of London, and featuring exclusively Martin Audio sound reinforcement and amplification.

Technical consultant, Dave Parry of Most Technical, who last year turned famous London club fabric (where he is resident) over to Martin Audio sound reinforcement, with the use of Blackline and Wavefront components, this time opted for the EM architectural range. Sound over the main basement dancefloor - a long tri-domed corridor - is delivered through a distr

Trussing manufacturer Slick, part of the Outback Group, has launched a new website at www.trussing.com - featuring full details of the company’s recently-increased product lines. To aid customer service, the new website also includes a ringback facility, which enables customers to receive a telephone call from a member of the Slick team while they browse the site online.

Slick has also recently introduced a brand new catalogue, in which the updated product ranges are divided for the first time into Architectural and Professional ranges - the former for architectural, retail and display applications and the latter for touring and heavier duty exhibition applications.

(Lee Baldock)

The Griven Kaleido MSD 575 lamped CYM colour changer has found itself an unusual use, internally lighting a two metre giant sphere which is one of the highlights at conceptual artist Keith Tyson’s solo show - Supercollider - which recently opened at the South London Gallery.

DMX control electronics designed and programmed by Chris Newman of Brighton-based Sensatech change the colour according to the temperature of internal heating and cooling elements (simulating the inner core of our evolving earth). The sphere and support came from South London based one-off specialist manufacturer Michael J Smith, also responsible for other exhibits at the show.

Commenting on the installation, Tony Kingsley of Griven’s UK distributor Ambient Lighting, told L&SI: "The opal perspex reflects the light to give an even coverage, helped of course by the wide angle output of the Kaleido.

PCM is planning to host the first Advanced CM Lodestar Motor Course. This will run on 29 and 30 May at PCM’s HQ in Prenton, Wirral. The Advanced course will be preceded by a standard Motor School, run on 27 and 28 May.

PCM’s John Jones explained the background to the decision: "Whilst everyone benefits from the standard school, some clients who work on motors as their main job, need extra information and guidance in repair procedures and the more advanced principles." The Advanced school is open to anyone who has attended a standard PCM Motor School, and is free of charge. However, for practical reasons, it is restricted to 15 participants to give each individual the chance to work on their own hoists.

This course will be the first advanced Motor School held anywhere in the world. It’s specially designed to offer more comprehensive instruction and experie

Yamaha Commercial Audio and UK dealer Marquee Audio, have confirmed sales of a pair of Yamaha PM1D digital consoles to leading pro-rental production company, Britannia Row. The London-based company placed the order on the eve of the Frankfurt Musikmesse, while for the Yamaha dealers it represents their ninth and tenth sales of the premium desk.

Brit Row director Bryan Grant told us: "We first ran these consoles in anger with The Manics last autumn, followed by the MTV EMA Awards and then the BRITS. Our engineers were impressed by them and visiting technicians also gave them a very positive response. In fact, everyone who tried them was surprised at how quickly they could get up to speed mixing on them - and I have to say how damn good they sounded" Grant also implied an ongoing commitment to the PM1D, remarking: "We think they are the future and I think this initial orde

Eskimo Noise, set up by Neil Johannessen in 1987, achieved a reputation as a leading sound company in the dance music industry, not only for audio hire, but also for production design and installation. The company’s clients included Radio 1, Nike, Budweiser, London Mardi Gras and Marco Pierre White, to name but a few.

In the meantime Systems Etc, founded by Bernard Mani in 1996, was busy working in the London’s burgeoning club/bar scene, providing this new market with state-of-the-art fully integrated audio-visual systems. Systems Etc has also more recently been supporting live events for artists including: Ed Harcourt, Starsailor and the Honeyz, at venues such as Alexandra Palace, Hanover Grand and numerous other funky showcases across the uk.

In late November 2001 Eskimo Noise was forced into voluntary liquidation "due to an unforeseen accountancy error" - and

As part of a recently completed refurbishment of its flagship Oxford Street Megastore, Virgin has commissioned an unusual giant video screen system on the store’s ground floor that is all but invisible until in operation. In the centre of the main stairwell, flat 'blades' rotate and lock into position like an enormous Venetian blind to reveal the five metre wide screen. Flanking the screen are a pair of Mackie Fussion 3000 active speakers and two pairs of 1800SA/1800S active sub bass combos.

PAI and AV designer Vincent Rice carried out the design and installation, as PAI’s managing director Paul Adams explains: "Following a referral from PPM (Perspective Project Management), who we’ve worked with previously, we were approached by Richard Greenleaf of the design company Red Jacket, and Vince Rice and I had a meeting with him to discuss the project." Adams con

The Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead, north London, is the proud owner of a brand new sound and lighting system for its in-house theatre, installed by Live Business International. The massive teaching hospital has a 330-seat theatre deep within its bowels, which has been used over the years for student lectures, as well as plays and Student Union performances. The hospital’s Trustees wanted to make much more use of the theatre, but the ancient sound and lighting system, with no component less than 25 years old, was a major stumbling block.

Live Business won the tender for the contract to design and install a completely new sound and lighting system for the theatre in time for a pantomime run. Live Business International director Roland Hemming designed the installation, which besides being high quality, required a great deal of flexibility to cope with the very different types of

CT London has utilized an extensive selection of its equipment and resources to provide the entire AV and IT element for Imagination at a Ford Dealer Training Event in Marbella, Spain. The event, which began in early February and runs for six weeks, will be attended by over 17,000 Ford Dealers from across Europe.

The event, masterminded by Imagination, will launch Ford’s new range of small cars including Ford Fiesta and Ford Fusion to dealers. It features a 400-seat auditorium acting as the central business meeting location, plus five interactive workshops on the consumer benefits of the new range, along with training on Five Fiesta Facts. CT London supplied, installed and maintained the equipment, with a full team of support engineers and technicians. The company provided a wide array of desktop and laptop PCs running Powerpoint with Mpeg playback and various displays including

Hand Held Audio, specialists in wireless and in-ear technology for over a decade, are to launch a new website which goes live on 1st May. www.handheldaudio.co.uk is designed to bring wireless technology to a broader market with all of the benefits of the experience accumulated by Hand Held Audio at the high end of the market.

Founder member and director of Hand Held Audio, Mick Shepherd, is pleased with the new development. "We've been specialists in the high end touring and, more recently, corporate markets right from the very beginning and will continue to be so," he said, "but we hope that the website will enable us to reach a new sector of the market where we have never before had a presence, and yet for whom wireless and in-ear technology is becoming increasingly available. We'd like to pass on the benefits of our experience, our buying power and our considerable te

Jamiroquai ended their world tour at Wembley Arena at the beginning of March: the huge energy of Jay Kay was equally matched in ability by an impressive Funktion-One sound system with XTA digital processing at its core.

Funktion One’s John Newsham explains the set-up: "We used a main left and right system which was 15 self-powered F218 bass per side and five wide by three deep Resolution 5s per side, with downfills. The system used the new self-powered Res 5s, with each powered box running an unpowered slave." The side hangs for the bleacher areas alongside the stage were covered by four Res 4s and two Res 18s per side, conventionally powered. Front fills and out fills consisted of Resolution 2s. Flown delays were six Res 5s per side and ground delays six F218 powered bins in the middle behind the mix risers and two Res 2 skeletal high packs.

Control for the entire sy

Sonohouse has been appointed as the new distributor for Celestion products in France. Founded in 1973 by Jean-Louis Beart, Sonohouse is located in Ivry sur Seine, in Paris. Currently handling distribution of products like GEM Sound, Boost and BST, Sonohouse has its main strength in the club market. Its appointment as Celestion's representative in France is a reflection of the company's new drive into professional audio.

"Although Sonohouse's current strength is in the DJ and club sector, I can see a huge amount of potential for our relationship," explains David Jackson, Celestion's export manager. "Sonohouse has an excellent sales team and nationwide network, and have impressed us with their connections and level of support from the industry."

One such contact is Gerald Kaas, whose consultancy Akoustik is providing marketing advice and support. "The big poten

The A22 into London came to a standstill on the evening of 12 March when Ann Summers celebrated the opening of its brand new headquarters. RGA Production and Design produced the launch party and worked with Fourth Phase to light up the surrounding sky with stunning effects, searchlights, fireworks and projection.

As local dignitaries and celebrities arrived at the two-acre site, they were greeted by 40-feet high projected images of models from the latest Ann Summers lingerie catalogue. Added to this the whole building was floodlit in the company’s corporate colours. Fourth Phase supplied two Pani BP6 Gold projectors with PIGI digital slide changers for the images and Studio Duo City Colors up-lit the exterior walls. These were complemented by Martin Mac 500s projecting corporate logos whilst Mac 600s were used to colour the interior of the reception area.

Aside from Ann Summers

Celestion's CXi range has won praise for its role in 'Evita' at the Theatre Royal Glasgow, one of its first excursions into mainstream theatre. The production, in February, was the Scottish amateur premiere, staged by the Orpheus Club, one of Scotland's oldest amateur operatic societies.

Audio was specified and provided by Glasgow sound rental company, BSF. "The Theatre Royal has been hiring Celestion from us on a trial basis with a view to purchasing the system," explained Alan Beatty of BSF. "For 'Evita', they asked us to provide a system of the highest quality which would be invisible to the audience." This provided a challenge for the BSF team. The Theatre Royal has listed building status, which prevents any alterations to its interior: the sound engineers were not allowed to hang or fly equipment, or even to touch the walls, the PA system had to fit in with the

It’s been water, water everywhere recently for D J Willrich Ltd (DJW), as the Hampshire-based AV and multi-media specialists have recently completed work on the saltwater Bournemouth Oceanarium in Dorset and the freshwater Lakeside Aquarium at Newby Bridge on the shores of Lake Windermere.

Working within a deadline of just three weeks, DJW installed in the Bournemouth Oceanarium three Sony plasma displays, three touch screen quiz-based interactives and, with the help of strobe lighting and Bose speakers, the sound of a rainforest thunderstorm that automatically comes to life every 20 minutes.

Visitors to the Lake District are obviously used to it raining more frequently there since DJW’s thunderstorm sound simulation at the Lakeside Aquarium proved to be so popular that it now runs every three minutes! In addition to this, DJW has also installed two Sony plasma displays,

Back in 2000, funding proposals for a £10.4m all-seater stadium at Bournemouth AFC’s Dean Court HQ were drawn up as part of a 15-year business plan. With help from Bournemouth Borough Council, supplemented by a record £3m package from the Football Stadia Improvement Fund, the Club were well on their way to reaching the scaled-down first phase of the targeted £5.5m-£6.5m. The shortfall of around £2m was made up by Cherries supporters and thus the first phase of the new Fitness First Stadium, with the construction of three new stands - and rotation through 90° of the playing surface - was unveiled earlier this season.

With Barr Construction undertaking the building construction, it was left to turnstile and gate specialists, Swift Tate Security Technology Ltd, to offer a turnkey solution by specifying a fully-featured public address/voice alarm system. And with 23 years&rsquo

Peterborough-based Pearce Hire has invested in a new L-Acoustics speaker system, Camco amplifiers and a range of processing equipment, to increase the quality and flexibility of its PA package for clients.

The first outing for the system came in February at the Corn Exchange, Cambridge, where a conventional stereo configuration PA was installed by Pearce Hire’s crew for a Courtney Pine concert. This was followed by the New College Nottingham annual awards ceremony hosted at the Royal Concert Hall, Nottingham, where the L-Acoustics system was flown for the first time. Pearce Hire supplied the full sound and lighting spec for the awards, and liaised closely with set designers and video screen suppliers, Hawk AV.

MD Shaun Pearce said: "The new system has superb acoustic reproduction that belies its physical size. This awards show has highlighted its ability to handle speech

In less than six months since acquiring Italian lighting giants, Coemar SpA, Florida-based Coemar USA (formerly Tracoman) has radically streamlined production, marketing and distribution to make the company more competitive and efficient in its traditional markets.

Chief executive Gerard Cohen confirmed that while expansion of Coemar’s production facilities in Belarus will enable the company to bring commercial luminaires to market faster and more cost-competitively, the handover of administrative responsibility will provide more creative freedom for the company’s inventor, Bruno Dedoro, as head of Coemar’s R&D and production operations. "Over the past two decades, Coemar has designed groundbreaking products such as the Robot, NAT and CF series of luminaires, and this will continue. At the same time we are looking at ways of improving the global distribution netw

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