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UK - The McKenzie Group Ltd (MKG) announced yesterday the acquisition of its seventh live concert venue, and third site in London. The Group has successfully concluded negotiations and agreed terms with Administrators BDO Stoy Haywood and landlords Delancey on the North London venue, formerly trading as the Marquee Club in the N1 Centre, Islington, for an undisclosed sum.

MKG currently owns and operates London's award-winning Shepherd's Bush Empire and five other Carling Academy live music/club venues in Brixton (London), Birmingham, Bristol, Glasgow and Liverpool. The group also owns Bar Academy in Birmingham City Centre.

Commenting on the purchase, MKG managing director John Northcote told PLASA Media: "The first venue I opened was The Borderline back in 1988 and it's great to be opening a small venue again. The Empire has a capacity of 2,000 and Brixton's is 4,700; s

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UK - July 2003 sees the opening of Laser Quest, Trafford Centre, Manchester. Destined to be one of the world's best Laser Quest centres, the venue boasts many new interactive features and a Wharfedale EVPS sound system. The new Laser Quest attraction will be operated by an independent company, Blue Maze. Keith Finnegan, company director, has been overseeing the build and theming process, including the installation of the sound reinforcement system.

"Although the venue is fairly well sound-proofed," he explains, "we do have to give consideration to the neighbouring units in the Centre, one of which is the multiplex cinema. Although we wanted a quality sound system, with a decent output level, we needed loudspeakers with fairly tight focus and dispersion so that our soundtrack didn't spill over into other venues."

Blue Maze sought advice at Sound Control in M

Doughty - Banner - ABTT (27 May - 5 June)

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Russia - When Sir Paul McCartney gave his memorable concert in Moscow's Red Square on 24 May, ESS were right there with him, providing the staging, roof and towers. "It took seven days to rig the stage and peripherals, but only two to de-rig," said John Hetherton, ESS crew chief. "As well as our own team, we worked with a large local crew who operated cranes and fork lifts," continued Hetherton, "and we had a team of five interpreters, although many of the Russian crew spoke English."

Besides the stage and roof, ESS built two towers joined together, each with eight crow's nests, and two 25m high delay towers, 60m distance from the stage. Working in Russia was no more difficult than working in other countries, says Hetherton: "I've worked there before and there's no doubt it's getting better." The heat was the crew's biggest problem. "

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Canada - Matt Stoody has joined Fourth Phase, PRG's Toronto subsidiary, as account executive. Working out of PRG's Fourth Phase Toronto location, Stoody will sell and manage all Group services - including lighting, audio, projection and scenery - to new and existing accounts throughout the Northeast United States and Eastern Canada.

Prior to joining PRG, Stoody played key sales and operations roles in projects as diverse as last year's Papal visit to Toronto (World Youth Day 2002), Disney's The Lion King and concert tours by Alabama and Styx.

Jere Harris, chairman and CEO of PRG, commented: "Matt's background and experience with a broad range of clients and markets will help PRG and its affiliates to further expand their presence in vitally important markets such as automotive shows, corporate events and trade shows."

(Ruth Rossington)

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UK - Baldwin Boxall, the manufacturer of voice alarm, voice evacuation, public address and emergency communication systems, has introduced a system maintenance service to provide maintenance in accordance to BS5839 part 8 for its account holders. Account customers can apply for a quotation for a maintenance contract for each Baldwin Boxall system they have installed. Any end user requiring maintenance on their Baldwin Boxall system should contact the original installer/supplier of the system, who will then be able to offer a suitable maintenance service.

The maintenance service is available on annual contract basis and includes quarterly visits to site by a qualified Baldwin Boxall engineer. The first three visits in the year include a thorough inspection of the system, including batteries, microphones, message intelligibility, fire panel interface connections and a check on the

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UK - Pro Technical UK recently won the Theme magazine national award for the 'Best use of technology' for their JBL installation at Susumi in Derby. The Theme awards were held at Mezzo's in London on 3 June. Pro Technical designed, installed and commissioned the sound, light and video project using the latest technology, fulfilling the design brief provided by the owner of Susumi, Russell Davidson.

Davidson needed the sound system to have high fidelity reproduction but didn't want it to be so loud that people would have to shout to be heard; the lighting also needed to be unobtrusive. Company director and designer Richard Anderson, who managed the project, says: "For the sound system we chose JBL. The new Control 29AV is a compact unit that can deliver clarity even at high volume."

The main bar area downstairs has a concrete floor so Anderson decided to mount the eig

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UK - Rental company NiteLites has added JBL line array system to its stock inventory. Since its foundation in 1983, the company has grown from a modest hire company to a full-service business, handling a wide range of services covering power distribution through to lighting and sound reinforcement.

When selecting a new speaker system versatile enough to match their diverse client base, NiteLites looked closely at what various manufacturers had to offer. The company was looking for a high-fidelity system which was easy to rig, but above all was flexible enough to meet the varied demands of its busy schedule.

NiteLites selected JBL's VT4889 full-size line array elements, and the new system was set to work immediately at the Fish Quay Family Festival at North Shields. The system design for this event comprised compact arrays of four VT4889 per side, each flown from Thomas ground

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UK - Canegreen Commercial supplied the sound system for the Deutche Bank 'High Yield' conference party this June in the glorious setting of London's Hyde Park. Following the serious business of the conference, the 500 delegates enjoyed the Corrs 'unplugged-style' set, with Canegreen Commercial's managing director Andrew Frengley designing a system that drew heavily on the group's experience in the music industry. "Our approach was to install a PA more akin to a concert system than a corporate sound system, to suit the show," Frengley explained. "From a design aspect that was easier for me, as we relied on Meyer stereo stacks flanking the stage.

Sister company Canegreen has worked with the Corrs for several years, and their engineer's familiarity with the team and the system meant they were very comfortable. The acoustic format for this show, which included bringin

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UK - Northern Ireland-based installer David Dalzell, of DL Electronics, Lisburn, has recently completed the audio refit in St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Cathedral in Armagh.

"We've done several cathedral and church refits now around Northern Ireland, and we always use AKG microphones," he commented.

Three floor-standing GN155SETs, coupled with top-of-the-range CK47 capsules were situated at the Bishop's chair, and at two additional floor points. In addition, two GN30E goosenecks with CK47 capsules were mounted on the ambo along with two further C747s. Dalzell explains: "The C747s and CK47 capsules provide us with greater gain before feedback in this highly reverberant environment and with the architects insisting that the microphones are discreet, then the C747s proved ideal for the altar. With all microphones being fitted with CK47 capsules we had a system, whic

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Denmark - Seelite has supplied lighting, project management and design for The Roskilde Festival's two largest stages - Orange and Arena - for many years, and will return again this year. Metallica, Björk and Iron Maiden will all perform on the Orange stage, for which Seelite will supply the lighting and truss systems, plus two large PA support wings.

The company is also supplying lighting and roofing installations to include more than 35 moving lights and 230 generic lights for The Midtfyns Festival 2003. Among this year's artists are REM, Moloko, Badly Drawn Boy and Swan Lee.

In another recent project, John Svendsen of A/S Corporate Events chose Seelite to provide production design for SimCorp's event, held at Odense Congress Centre in June. The assignment was to plan, decorate and light the hall for a conference followed by a gala dinner party, live bands and a huge theatr

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UK - Pro audio equipment manufacturer Formula Sound has updated its website in response to the increasing levels of attention being paid to noise control and the entertainment licensing laws. The site now includes a brand new noise control feature outlining legislation covering the subject. It also provides details of how various items of Formula Sound equipment can be used to help venues meet their noise control responsibilities.

With over 30 years' experience in the pro audio world, Formula Sound is well placed to advise on noise control, whether in entertainment venues or industrial locations. In addition to the new noise control content, the company's revised website also contains both general information and detailed specification data on Formula Sound's extensive range of products.

These include a variety of noise control units, rack-mount, standby, zoner and fixed forma

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UK - DHA has picked up a design award from the International Association of Lighting Designers (IALD) for its work on the Magna Centre in Rotherham - the redundant steel works which was transformed into a visitor attraction devoted to science. The company created the acclaimed Electric Arc Furnace feature, as well as designing the architectural lighting for the Great Hall at the Centre. Co-director David Robertson accepted the award at the IALD ceremony in New York with joint winner Jonathan Speirs of Speirs & Major.

(Ruth Rossington)

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UK - One of the more interesting developments to come out of this year's Glastonbury Festival was the launch of a UK trade union for road and backstage crew. The formation of the Roadcrew Provident Syndicate (already short-handed to the Roadies Provy) was announced at a special session at Glastonbury on the Left Field Stage on Friday 27 June.

The union will be a branch of the GMB, one of the UK's biggest trade unions, and will provide financial advice and support to its members, as well the usual union benefits. You can read a full report on this in the July issue of Lighting&Sound International - out next week.

(Ruth Rossington)

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Germany - Acoustic Design Ahnert (ADA) of Germany, creator of the EASE Acoustical Analysis software package, has announced the establishment of the ADA Foundation. Its first aim is to make EASE more readily available to the educational world.

Based in Berlin, Germany, the ADA Foundation was officially founded earlier this year by Dr. Wolfgang Ahnert, Dr. Rainer Feistel and Stefan Feistel. The main purpose of the Foundation is to initiate and support education in room acoustics, electro acoustics, sound reinforcement, acoustic simulation and the development of scientific software for these areas. As such, the Foundation actively supports universities, colleges and other educational establishments by supplying software for the simulation of acoustics.

Dr. Ahnert explains: "Many young architects, acousticians and audio system designers finish their degree courses and enter t

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UK - Liverpool-based Adlib Audio emptied their warehouse of people and kit last weekend, servicing no less than four major events around the North West.

The Coral played to a packed and excited 5,000 capacity marquee on The Front at New Brighton, the Wirral. Their regular engineers, Adlib's Dave Kay at FOH and Paul Roberts on monitors, were in action using a JBL Vertec line array system supplied by Adlib. This came complete with a Soundcraft Series 5 console front of house, and a Midas XL3 onstage, plus another pair of consoles to deal with the support bands.

Adlib's Andy Dockerty and Nick Bellis also engineered the Southport Jazz Festival, staged at Southport Theatre. For this they used Midas Heritage 3000 consoles at both ends of the multicore and another Vertec line array system. The two-day event featured a number of international acts, including Snake Davis, Heather Small

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UK - With German pro audio concern HK Audio having made huge inroads into the UK & Eire pro audio market in recent years, the JHS Event 2003 was the ideal opportunity for HK Audio to demonstrate the versatility and power of its range.

For the first time in its six-year run, Event had live bands on the main stage, with 12 boxes of HK's stadium-friendly R Series on a separate stage this time. Elsewhere on the JHS site, the dedicated HK Audio demo theatre featured many pro audio systems and components from the HK catalogue, including the highly successful LUCAS, ELIAS and ACTOR self-powered active PAs.

Also included were recent additions to the HK Audio line-up - the passive Linear 3, the respected Installation Line, HK's portable active monitor, DART, and the compact, but powerful, LUCAS XT.HK Audio's Installation Line in particular, has made a real mark in a number of recent hi

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UK - Turbosound monitor loudspeakers have been installed in two new rehearsal rooms at Music Bank - one of London's main rehearsal facilities. The choice of TFM-450 floor monitors for the project (together with a pair of THL-2 systems as side-fills), reflects the product's growing popularity in the live sound market, with a total of eight systems being installed by UK specialist Crystal Pro Audio.

Music Bank's new facilities - the East and West rooms - offer over 3,500sq.ft of rehearsal space, and are part of a major expansion programme at Music Bank. Nunu Whiting, director and manager of Music Bank, commented: "After an extremely successful install with TMS-3s in our original studios, it seemed logical to contact Turbosound again when it came to fitting outthe new rehearsal studios and programming suites. Crystal Pro Audio and Bryan Grant (Britannia Row) both recommended t

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UK - ARB beamed live skateboard and BMX action across London's Millennium Dome throughout the Snickers 'Game On' festival this June. Over 25,000 people flocked to the two-day weekend event, billed as "the largest SK8, BMX, Rock and Hip Hop party in Europe".

Presented by Kerrang!, the event featured some of the most influential names in extreme sport and music, with over 30 bands playing across the two stages, including Cypress Hill, The Vandals, Electric Six and Kellie Osbourne.

A giant bowl was constructed to accommodate the skate and BMX competition. Competing skaters and BMX riders, surrounded by grandstand seating for 1,500 fans, included Shaun White, Matt Hoffman, and Jake Brown, fighting to win the £30,000 prize fund.

ARB supplied two of its Barco 7 D-Lite LED screens, allowing those attendees who couldn't get a seat in the arena to watch from outside. ARB'

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Sweden - Swedish sound rental company Lagom & Gött has installed a Nexo GEO T Tangent Array System in the famous Kungsträdgården in central Stockholm, which hosts free concerts throughout the summer months.

The Kungsträdgården, or Kings Garden, is a well-established outdoor venue in one of the city's parks. There has been a permanent stage at the venue for 50 years, and, for the last 5 years, Lagom & Gött has provided a sound system for the summer events. As many as 20,000 people will turn up for a show, although the audience size is usually around 1,500.

The varying attendance provided one of the reasons why Lagom & Gött specified GEO T for the installation at the venue. "GEO T offers the same level of output to someone 5 metres from the stage, as to someone 50 metres from the stage," says engineer LG Larsson. "It's small but it has a big capacity, allo

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UK - A few years ago The Cabinet War Rooms (CWR) in London were opened to the public. These are the rooms, in a former government storage basement, from which Churchill and his ministers continued the work of government during the bombing raids of World War II.

A team of specialists, including the Imperial War Museum (of which CWR is a part), architects HOK and managing contractors Bovis Lend Lease, recently opened up additional areas that have been hidden since the war - a move which also paved the way for an extension of the education facilities and the creation of a new conference and meeting area.

Electrosonic worked with the team to provide AV facilities for the new spaces. The principal space is a flexible room that can seat up to 140 people in auditorium-style. When used as an auditorium the room is set out 'sideways' which brings the presenter nearer the audience and e

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UK - Innovations set to have a major impact throughout the building and construction industry will be given pride of place at Interbuild 2004. New Product Zones are being introduced in four dedicated areas of the exhibition (which takes place at the Birmingham NEC from April 25-29), and each of the items featured will be automatically entered for a new product award. There will be seven categories - Best Lighting and Electrical Product, Best Interior Product, Best Exterior Product, Best On-Site Product, Energy Efficiency Award, Disability Access Award and Best Overall Product.

Steve Webb, event director for Interbuild said: "Interbuild has always been regarded within the industry as the perfect place to introduce new ideas, and we feel it is only right to give them a greater profile. That's why we have devised a scheme to promote the new products before and during the event

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UK - XL Video is supplying the Royal Court's acclaimed production of Hitchcock Blonde, written and directed by Terry Johnson, with video equipment to realize a series of projected sets, backdrops and special effects.

The show has now transferred to The Lyric Theatre, Shaftsbury Avenue, for a West End run. XL was approached by Dick Straker of Mesmer, a theatre video specialist, who co-ordinated and produced the show's video for designers Bill Dudley and Terry Johnson. Dudley is a pioneer in the use pf computer generated images and projection to create integrated and dramatic onstage locations or scenic effects.

The fascinating Hitchcock Blonde plot's dark intricacies unfold around a university professor and one of his students, ensconced in a villa on a Greek Island, restoring what they believe is a rare unseen reel of Hitchcock film. Both front and rear projectio

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USA - Corvette celebrated half a century of being one of America's most recognized Sports Car on June 30, 2003. All eyes were on Nashville, Tennessee, for the celebrations where Bandit Lites provided the lighting for several events, including the concert by ZZ Top on Saturday June 28th. The company was also responsible for transforming the Nashville Coliseum's parking lot into an indoor showroom, highlighting Corvette's from past and present.

(Sarah Rushton-Read)

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UK - HW International, the leading UK pro audio distributor, has announced that it will commence trading as Shure Distribution UK, after recently being acquired by USA-based manufacturer Shure Incorporated.

As a Shure subsidiary, Shure Distribution UK will continue to carry Shure, Phonic, PreSonus and QSC Audio brands, plus the latest addition to its portfolio, Aviom. The name change will not affect customers' day-to-day dealings with the company, as the staff and structure of the company will remain unchanged. At the forthcoming PLASA Show on stand F50, Shure Distribution UK will officially unveil the company's new identity including new website and product catalogue.

(Ruth Rossington)

  1. DHA fibre optics shine for Jerry Springer
  2. Japan leads the way with Solid State Logic's first C200 order
  3. Joseph gets new lease of life with Autograph Sound Recording
  4. Audace secures Australian distribution
  5. Lighting Technology Projects take on fibre optic range
  6. ETC at home of Swiss jazz festival
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