Robe - LEADERBOARD - Feb 2025
Doughty - Banner - ABTT (27 May - 5 June)

Business

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France - Delta Sound recently provided all sound reinforcement for the prestigious Microsoft Xbox X03 games festival in the South of France, attended by some 400 guests, among them members of the international games press, developers, publishers and programmers.

Microsoft is a long-term client of Delta, and this was the third year running that the London-based PA company has worked on one of the annual Xbox events. It followed the unveiling of the first console, the X01, at Pierre Cardin's 'bubble' villa, also in the South of France, and a second event on a lake in Seville last year. This year saw a return to the Côte d'Azur and the exclusive resort of Juan Les Pins, where the festival was held at the newly opened Les Pecheurs beach club followed by an all-day conference at the town's Palais des Congrès.

The proceedings kicked off with presentations by Microsoft dignitaries

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UK - Earls Court Ltd and Unusual Rigging Ltd have been fined a total of £100,000 at the Old Bailey following a Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecution into the death of 26-year-old David Mott at Earls Court, London. The prosecution follows an HSE investigation into the incident in which Mr Mott fell 35m to his death at Earls Court Exhibition Hall 1, on 23 June 2000. Six months prior to the death of Mr Mott, another worker had also been killed in a similar incident. Earls Court Ltd was subsequently fined £70,000 in a prosecution taken by the London Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.

Mr Mott, from Brentwood, Essex, fell through fragile, false ceiling tiles while dismantling mobile platforms as part of a refurbishment project. He was taken to Charing Cross hospital but was pronounced dead on arrival from multiple injuries.

Earls Court Ltd pleaded guilty to breaching sect

Renkus-Heinz - Banner - May 2025

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UK - West London's trendy Ladbroke Grove has seen the reawakening of the acclaimed Subterania club, which was closed earlier this year. The new venue, christened 'Neighbourhood', is owned by Ben Watt and Alan Grant, partners in the famed Cherry Jam club. UK AV designers Blue Box created the club's sound system, featuring a mix of four QSC PowerLight PL 2.0 and four PL 4.0 amplifiers driving a four way Funktion One system with six F218 bass boxes and six Res4 mid-high enclosures. The club also uses several QSC PL230 amps to drive the Funktion One F88 cabinets in the ante area and on the mezzanine.

The spacious DJ booth, designed by Ben Watt, is centered on a Rane MP44 mixer. The booth is also equipped for live sound mixing, with a Midas Venice 32-channel board. Effects and dynamics are courtesy of Yamaha, BSS and Drawmer. QSC PL236 amplifiers drive monitors in the booth and on st

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Austria - Having received numerous TEC Awards over the years in recognition of its achievements in microphone technology, Vienna-based AKG received the prestigious award again this year for its K 271 Studio headphones.

The award was presented at a ceremony at the New York Marriott Marquis on October 11. Presenters of the awards included music and recording legend Les Paul, Grammy awarded producer Bob Ludwig, bassists Will Lee and T. M. Stevens and famous recording engineers including Al Schmitt and Chuck Ainlay.

The K 271 Studio headphones have been internationally acclaimed and accepted by audio professionals due to their sonic quality, user comfort offered, product styling, and manufacturing excellence. Dr. Richard Barnert from the Vienna AKG headphone team and Mike Torlone, market development manager of studio products and headphones, from AKG Nashville, accepted the TEC A

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Singapore - Richard Lim from ARX's Singapore distributor Bell & Order Engineering Pte Ltd has recently completed two major installation contracts involving ARX products. The new sound reinforcement system Bell & Order has installed throughout the four-storey New Assayfaah Mosque located in Sembawang Road, Singapore caters for the reproduction of both prayers and speech, and includes two EQ60 graphic equalizers, five EQ 15 graphic equalizers, eight ZR 350C constant voltage power amplifiers, one ZR 550 power amplifier and 16 of the company's new Climate weather-resistant loudspeakers.

Bell & Order has also completed the installation of audio-visual systems at the new DSTA (Defence Science Technology Agency) Building, located at Singapore's Science Park #3 complex. The six-storey facility now includes four ZR550 power amplifiers, two ZA400 multi-channel power amplifiers and six ZR3

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Australia / Malaysia - Tryka L.E.D. has announced the appointment of Total Concept Projects (TCP) as its distributor for Australia and Malaysia. TCP have developed a professional approach to customer needs and have grown to become one of Australia's leading lighting and sound solution providers. Tryka's managing director Chris Rolph says: "Thanks to their versatility and experience in several sectors, TCP are well positioned to distribute our products across the many markets our range is suitable for."

Tony Musico, managing director of TCP, adds: "We believe that LEDs are the way of the future. After extensive research, Tryka have come up trumps. Their range of fixtures, quality of build and sheer brightness make them ideal for the Australasian environment.

(Lee Baldock)

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USA - Broadway's newest musical Wicked opens this month at The Gershwin Theatre, combining a 19th century tale of wizards with a high impact rock sound from sound designer Tony Meola. Wicked concerns the untold tale of the witches of Oz, and comes to Broadway after a successful debut in San Francisco.

Directed by Joe Mantello, the show features a cast of 34 performers, with a 24-piece band, plus a new 101-slot Cadac J-Type Live Production Console, supplied by ProMix-Electrotec. The console is specified with a combination of 35 programmable stereo and mono dual-input modules, 48 standard dual-input modules, 67 motor faders and 14 groups, housed in two frames and controlled with Cadac's Sound Automation Manager (SAM) software.

Meola's hallmark is subtlety, aiming to ensure that the sound appears to come from the performer on stage rather than visible loudspeaker st

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USA - Power Plus Sound & Lighting provided audio reinforcement for the San Diego Symphony recently. Searching for a specialized microphone for Ilmar Gavilan - the Cuban-born violinist in Doc Severinsen's Latin Band - audio engineer David Leyton auditioned several mics before choosing the DPA 4061. He characterizes the reaction musicians had to the miniature condenser in a typically straightforward way: "They play for a few seconds, look up and say, 'we want to use that one'."

Leyton explains: "We need a very high quality mic to use on the strings to get more gain with pop and rock acts, and because of the high SPL this microphone can handle, it can be used in virtually any application. What's beautiful about the string mounting system is its non-invasive rubber mount that hooks onto the strings behind the bridge. A lot of violinists are hesitant to hook anything r

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Canada - The international announcement of the premier of the World Stage Design 2005 received a positive response at the 2003 Prague Quadrennial, which was held in June. So far nearly 200 designers from 33 countries have indicated plans to have their work shown at the exhibition, which is to be held in Toronto during March 2005. The organizers hope to have many more designers exhibiting by the entry deadline of 30 June 2004.

Designers can complete the entry process on the WSD2005 website, where they will find information and details of the exhibition, entry documents, they can also obtain a unique ID number and upload digital images.

The WSD2005 is a joint project of the United States Institute for Theatre Technology (USITT), the Canadian Institute for Theatre Technology (CITT), and the International Organization of Scenographers, Technicians and Architects of Theatre (OISTAT

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UK - The London fashion world turned out in force at the end of last month for the launch of Matches' eighth store in the capital, this time in trendy Notting Hill. Top models and fashion designers including Alexander McQueen rubbed shoulders with 200 guests and fashion celebrities at the event, while Matches turned to entertainment specialist Sound Division to provide the necessary DJ control equipment and audio services, including a radio link to deliver the audio across three separate stores.

Sound Division's Chris Baxter, who was responsible for designing and specifying the system, commented: "As with all of these events, providing the control equipment was the easy bit. We supplied a pair of SL1210 MK III turntables, a Pioneer DJM500 mixer, and a Denon 1800 CD player with a JBL Eon10 powered monitor. The tricky bit was cabling around the store in a discreet and tidy ma

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UK - The ISCE (Institute of Sound & Communications Engineers) enjoyed another successful Institute Day recently. The event, held in Watford 17 October, included the 2003 Warren-Barnett Memorial Lecture, given by Dr. Paul Darlington on AFILS (Audio Frequency Induction Loop Systems). Later, the Institute held its AGM and Annual Dinner, during which Lifetime Achievement Awards were presented to Leon Pieters of Ampetronic and E. A. H. W. 'Bill' Preedy - considered to be the Father of Voice Alarm.

(Lee Baldock)

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UK - Elections for the Professional Lighting and Sound Association (PLASA) executive committee are set to take place during November. Employees of Full UK member companies are currently being invited to put themselves forward to play a key role in the future direction of the Association.

This is a pivotal time for PLASA as it reviews its long-term goals, and with issues such as safety, training and legislation high on the agenda, those who stand will be able to directly influence the way these aims are met, and the way in which PLASA moves forward.

Letters have been sent to all eligible members, inviting representatives to stand for the three places available, which have arisen as a result of the stepping down of long-serving members Mick Hannaford (LightProcessor), Sammy de Havilland (Deco Leisure) and Neil Darracott (Total Fabrications). If you feel you can make a positive

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UK - Architectural lighting specialist i-Vision has developed a new LED solution to meet a challenging brief for the Coffee Bar at Topshop, one of the larger retail outlets in the high profile £540m new Bullring shopping centre in Birmingham. LED strip lighting was specified by Christopher Rowell to light a series of polyester fabric sails, designed and installed by tensile fabric specialists Architen Landrell. i-Vision's Luke Dodd worked in close collaboration with Rowell to achieve the desired result. Architen's client was Cube Music, concept designers of the Coffee Bar area - a chill out space where shoppers can re-energise or just have some space away from the fray for relaxation and socialising.

The brief was for the sails to be tinted red. The problem was that nothing could hang down below a very shallow series of rafts (housing cabling and control equipment) suspended in

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Colombia - Colombian artist Juanes, currently enjoying enormous popularity, recently staged two large concerts in the cities of Neiva and Villavicencio in his home country, prior to beginning a tour of Spain. His latest album 'Un Día Normal' (A Normal Day), has sold more than a million copies around the world and he has won three Latin Grammy Awards, including the recognition as Best New Artist of the year.

Sound for the events was provided by People Sound directed by Samuel Puentes. The FOH system consisted of 32 D.A.S. Audio ST-2000 systems and 20 ST-2000 systems for the delay towers. All speakers were powered by Crest amplifiers and processed by a Dynacord digital signal processor, while a Midas Legend console was sued to mix front-of-house, while an Allen & Heath ML5000 handled monitors.

At the Neiva concert, the main PA was complemented by a front-fill system comprised o

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Russia - Moscow's world famous Bolshoi Theatre has recently installed a number of Clay Paky Stage Zoom 1200 and CP Color 400 projectors, adding to its existing conventional lighting system. The theatre's lighting designer, Damir Ismagilov, explains how the new fixtures were integrated into the existing rig: "The Stage Zoom 1200s are often used with other theatre lights, in performances or scenes requiring up to 1,000 lights per scene. However, they are even more characteristic on their own, when creating contrasting lighting effects, for instance. These new professional moving body projectors offer a designer so much more creative freedom - I can change the direction of light far more quickly and precisely during a performance, but the most important thing is that Stage Zoom 1200 is also extremely powerful! For example, in the 'Patibolo' scene from the opera Khovanshchina<

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UK - Newmarket Nights - Friday evening meetings with live concerts featuring popular bands and entertainers - have become a leadin attaraction of the summer season at the UK's world-renowned racecourse, Newmarket. The concerts, which draw in sizeable audiences, are organized and managed by Liz Hobbs Events Management, which looks after entertainment events at racecourses up and down the country.

For this year's Newmarket Nights, Liz Hobbs approached LiteStructures to provide the stage, lighting and sound. Having taken LiteStructures on board to build a set for Status Quo's performance at Newmarket last year, Hobbs decided that it would be able to provide exactly the type of permanent stage she required for the five-week duration. Martin Featherstone, LiteStructures' sales executive for the Midlands explains: "Liz Hobbs came to us with the brief of providing her with a stage

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Brazil - One of Brazil's most successful bands, Chiclete com Banana (literally 'chewing gum and banana'), has recently a Midas Heritage 1000 mixing console as part of its powerful mobile PA set-up. The 'Trio Eletrico' in which the console is installed is a development unique to Brazil and a concept that Chiclete com Banana helped to formulate.

Midas's Brazilian distributor, Henry Spong of Libor (honoured with a lifetime achievement award from Klark Teknik at the recent distributor conference in Italy), explained: "Chiclete com Banana are legends in the Brazilian music scene. They've been going since 1980 and, many gold and platinum discs later, are just as popular now. The band were keen to find a way to bring their music to the people and so ended up being key elements in the development of the modern 'Trio Eletrico' which is essentially a large truck with a stage mounted

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UK - Entec Sound & Light has launched a visual/video division with the purchase of a RADlite digital media server from Projected Image Digital. This will go into immediate use on the forthcoming Jools Holland tour, specified by LD Simon Honnor.

Entec's Noreen O'Riordan says that apart from its immediate use on the Jools tour, they also picked RADlite to add another element to their expanding range of LED fixtures - which includes the - James Thomas Pixelline - as it runs their Pixeldrive control software. "All those associated with RADlite - David March at Projected Image Digital and Simon Carter and Emma Long from IRAD - were incredibly helpful, and took time answering all our questions at PLASA," she said.

At PLASA, LD Dave Byars (Blur) gave an impressive hands-on demo of Pixeldrive in action on the James Thomas Stand, and talked over his own show experiences of us

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UK - The Mirror Mirror Ball is one of the annual fund-raising events underwritten and primarily sponsored by high street retailer Next. This year's event was in aid of The Healing Foundation, and was held, as usual, at the Grosvenor House in London. Rick Bailey of RMPA was responsible for the Electro-Voice XLC PA system which carried the performances of Bryan Ferry, Liberty X and Robbie Williams' Swing Band to the furthest corners of the Great Room, and the 1000-plus dinner guests.

The event was notable for its comprehensive use of the latest Electro-Voice RE-1 microphones. FOH engineer Rick Bailey said: "We used the EV mics exclusively, the 767 heads are brilliant, offering far more separation and definition than other well-known models, also the RE-1s are very easy to set up; even with 20 channels of RF in the room, including eight IEM systems, the ClearScan softwa

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UK - Large format projection specialist E//T//C UK supplied two different corporate events at London's Billingsgate old fish market with widescreen projections. Both events, which were staged on concurrent evenings, were produced by GSP. The first, titled the Emerging Markets Ball featured a Brazilian theme, and the second, the Swaps Ball, was a fantasy theme involving Billingsgate, fish and 17th century London life. Scrolling artwork for both was created by E//T//C UK's Ross Ashton and Paul Chatfield.

The two PIGI 6kW projectors were positioned on 'the Bridge' of the venue, which partially separates the main hall into two halves. They were beaming onto a 25m wide by 7m high screen and soft-edged down the middle. Two video windows were incorporated in the artwork to allow logos and video images to be dropped into the panoramic montage.

Artwork for both shows was loaded into bo

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UK - Leading pro lighting and audio sales specialist Stagetec UK and its sister distribution company have moved into new, larger premises in Bracknell, Berkshire. The companies' new address and contact details are: Stagetec UK Ltd, 9 Bilton Industrial Estate, Lovelace Road, Bracknell, Berkshire RG12 8YT, UK. Tel: +44 (0)870 224 7808, fax: +44 (0)870 224 7818. E-mail and web details are given below.

The move addresses the need for more space and the recent expansion of the team. The purpose-built unit is being customized for Stagetec to meet the growing demands of its business and workflow. The site includes a large, open prep area for equipment to be tested and set-up before being dispatched for installation or sale, and dedicated areas for both the audio and lighting elements of Stagetec's business, plus large demonstration and training areas. The offices are also designed and

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UK - The Cross Keys in Yarm, Cleveland, recently under new ownership, has emerged from a comprehensive refurbishment as one of the most stylish and contemporary pub/club venues in the north-east. The Grade II-listed public house has been given its technical make-over by Music Marketing Services, which has installed new lighting and Martin Audio sound systems throughout.

Pete Varey of Music Marketing Services, who installed a Martin Audio Blackline PA system upstairs in the Cross Keys' nightclub, explained: "It was entirely the client's choice; they'd heard a system at a club in Middlesborough and wanted one for themselves." Four F15 high-performance compact two-way cabinets are flown above the new flashing dancefloor, with two S218 sub-bass bins built into the walls below the mid/high cabinets. Eight ultra-compact EM26 boxes provide infill.

Downstairs in the Keys Bar

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Germany - The 'Deutsche Oper am Rhein' in Düsseldorf has modernized its lighting equipment with transtechnik Lichtsysteme. Düsseldorf Opera House used their summer break this year to realize phase two of their modernization process and expand the lighting control system in both the stage and front of house. With moving lights, colour changers and dry-ice machines now an established part of theatre life - no longer confined to the traditional realm of rock concerts - Düsseldorf's goal was to have as much flexibility as possible in their Ethernet/DMX control network. At the heart of the new lighting control system lie two transtechnik Lichtsysteme Prisma NT consoles and the intuitive Libra operating system controlling the moving lights and colour changers. The new solution also features a 24.3" TFT channel monitor and a Digiplus digital auxiliary console for the programmable

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UK - Major rental company Knight International has added Coemar Pro series 575 yokes to its hire fleet, as well as a batch of Hungaroflash strobes and Antari X series effects machines, all supplied by Kent-based distributor Coemar UK.

The Chelmsford-based company has a heavy and varied workload, with a busy wet hire programme and a burgeoning cross-hire arrangement with another Coemar-based house, Terry Tew Sound & Light. Aside from servicing a number of one-off spectaculars, Knight International is also prominent in the Asian market.

Proprietor Phil Knight told us: "Coemar are a good investment for us because of their competitive pricing and good optics. Scanning mirror technology has had its day and there are certain things we need out of moving yoke systems, mainly price and reliability. I have known the people at Coemar UK for many years, and once we had evaluated the

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Astera - June 2025
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