UK - Marquee Audio has returned to Shoreditch's club/live music hybrid, Cargo, three years after carrying out the original fit-out, to reinforce the sound system. Matt Smith, technical manager of the Cantaloupe Group's venue, said that Marquee was called in when it was felt that certain areas of the venue needed boosting. "In particular, we needed to upgrade the bass amps and add front-loaded 15" bass bins, to achieve a faster, tighter bass response from the system. We knew this would allow the existing speakers to concentrate on a narrower bandwidth, thus giving more clarity across the full audio spectrum."
Cargo also wanted to add more power to the existing set-up in the main room. To fulfil these requirements Marquee recommended QSC PowerLight PL4.0 (2 x 1400W) amplifiers to power the bass, which now consists of a pair of Turbosound TQ-425 (2 x 15"), with
USA - Color Kinetics Inc, the LED lighting effects innovator, has announced the completion of a preferred stock financing round totaling $13 million. The round was led by Needham Capital Partners, with participation by new investors, such as ThinkEquity Investment Partners, and existing investors, such as SAC Capital Advisors.
The company says it intends to use the net proceeds from the financing for continuing technology and product development efforts, an expansion of its sales force, growth in its diverse markets and channels, and the continued support of its intellectual property portfolio. "This additional funding will strengthen the company's balance sheet and support our efforts to continue improving our technology, market and intellectual property position in intelligent LED illumination," said George Mueller, chairman and CEO. "We're committed to growing
UK / USA - Bandit Lites is supplying full lighting production to US cult heavy rock band Dream Theater's 'Train Of Thought' world tour. This has just completed the first of three 2004 European legs - all serviced from Bandit's European base in Bedford.
Lighting and video designer Benoit Richard used Bandit on Dream Theater's last tour in 2002, and was keen to continue his working relationship with the UK office. Tennessee Bandit Lites Inc will be looking after the tour in other territories. With 55 potential songs to choose from - 'Change of Season' currently being the longest at 23 minutes - and a different three-and-a-half hour set list each night, it was important for Richards and video design associate Robert Baldwin, to have a fluid, organic and flexible show at their fingertips.
Three LED video screens define the upstage area, Richards has designed the lighting rig to co
UK - An innovative exhibition, sponsored by Shell, has been in place on the Thames riverside in the heart of London for the last few months - an outdoor sound and light installation, powered by wind energy, intended to celebrate the natural forces of the planet. The exhibit stretches for some 600m along London's South Bank. At its heart is a full-size wind turbine, which generates the power to operate lighting, sound and effects units. Nexo PS8 compact loudspeakers are hidden in more than 40 trees, playing original music co-ordinated with the light and mist effects.
Sound design for the Shell Electric Storm was developed by Robin Whittaker of Out Board, and the system features Out Board's TIMAX system, a large number of digital processors to provide network capability, and an Apple Macintosh computer to respond to the atmospheric sensors and change the remixes according to the w
USA - French manufacturer InnovaSON reports increased success for its digital mixing consoles in the US houses of worship market, with Shadow Mountain Ministries of El Cajon, California and the Christ United Methodist Church in Sugar Land, Texas among those grasping InnovaSON technology.
Shadow Mountain recently upgraded its 2,500 seat main worship centre with a new InnovaSON Sy80 digital mixing console, taking care of both FOH and monitor duties for a full band, a 35-piece orchestra, 160-voice choir, praise team and numerous soloist, groups, speakers and guests. The worship centre is the focus of the Shadow Mountain campus which with up to 40 events each week, has a worldwide potential audience of millions, broadcasting services and sermons to over a thousand TV and several thousand radio stations around the globe.
Technical director Timothy Hunten admits he has his hands ful
France - Digigram, the innovator in digital audio network solutions, has sold its 40% share in Audemat-Aztec, manufacturer of measurement and monitoring equipment for broadcast applications, to the remaining shareholders of Audemat-Aztec.
"This move will help us to concentrate on what we do best: providing high quality digital audio solutions for the broadcast and public address markets." said Digigram's managing director Philippe Delacroix. "We have many exciting product developments in the pipeline that demand all our attention and energy. Although Audemat-Aztec will continue to develop products using Digigram technology, the commercial and technological overlap with the Audemat-Aztec's product portfolio isn't big enough to justify our continued minority involvement."
The sale of the Audemat-Aztec shares further strengthens Digigram's financial position,
UK - To coincide with Brilliant, the V&A's first contemporary lighting exhibition, Lighten Up will be an evening of debate and demonstrations exploring lighting design, to be held on Friday 27 Feb from 6.30 - 10.30pm. Featuring lighting in jewellery and clothing and a duvet that gradually gets brighter in the morning to wake you up, amongst other innovative designs, Lighten Up promises to be an evening of invention that shows the potential of contemporary lighting as one of the most diverse and experimental areas of design today.
Demonstrations will explore the possibilities of light technologies and materials with inventive designers Ulrike Oberlack (jewellery) and Rachel Wingfield (textiles). Experiment with fabrics and forms to create your own lights assisted by Big William (design students and graduates from Buckinghamshire Chilterns University).
China - Billed as "the largest and most comprehensive light and sound event" in China, Calm Expo 2004 is set to be 30% bigger than the previous year, according to the organizers, IIR. Occupying a total indoor exhibit area of 55,000sq.m and building additional halls outdoor, the show has grown rapidly with many exhibitors returning for bigger exhibit space, say IIR.
The event will see over 800 exhibitors from more than 30 countries, giving visitors a chance to view the latest offerings in the professional audio, lighting, AV and music industries from the industry's top companies. Calm Expo 2004 is expecting to attract over 55,000 visitors over a span of four days. The last event attracted 50,000 visitors from all over China. Calm Expo is featuring a new show segment - Audio Visual Systems Integration (AVSI). AVSI presents one single market access point featuring the lat
UK - Canegreen Commercial supplied the PA system for the 2004 NME Awards, held in London's Hammersmith Palais recently, where Radiohead achieved a double swoop of awards for Best Video and Best Album, as did Kings of Leon for Best New Band and Best International Band, with other winners including Arthur Lee for Living Legend and Ozzy Osbourne for Godlike Genius.
Canegreen Commercial was tasked with ensuring speech and music could be heard by a room full of loud (and possibly drunk!) rock 'n' roll stars. Andrew Frengley, MD of Canegreen Commercial, designed and co-ordinated the system set up for the show's event director Paul Corrick of production company, Reality, the pair having worked together on numerous projects in the past, including last year's NME Awards. Corrick commented: "Andrews' ability to solve problems made Canegreen Commercial the obvious choice to ensure we
UK - Lighting&Sound International magazine's latest L&SI Network event - a backstage tour of Cirque du Soleil's Dralion at the Royal Albert Hall - took place last week and was a huge success. Places on the tour, limited to just 30, were snapped up quickly, with attendees coming from all across the UK, including Northern Ireland and Scotland, to take part. Following the tour, the attendees stayed on to see the matinée performance of the show.
The tour included a behind-the-scenes look at the lighting, sound and set elements of this highly complex production, but by far the most fascinating element was the rigging, by Summit Steel, which has allowed Dralion to move seamlessly from its familiar big top environment to the RAH. To get an idea of the complexity of the rigging set-up and view the forest of flying points required, L&SI's visitors were taken right up into
UK - The A.C. Lighting North Tradeshow returns to the Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds on 11-12 May this year, following another hugely successful event in 2003. The show is an important exhibition in the industry calendar for buyers in the Midlands and the North of England, providing the regions with a definitive showcase of today's entertainment technology market under one roof.
Following last year's highly popular format and the increasing level of interest shown in the event, visitors to this year's show can expect an even bigger list of exhibitors attending from A.C. Lighting's stock-holding of leading lighting, audio and associated equipment manufacturers. As well as the chance to catch up on the latest product innovations from these brands, visitors will also have the opportunity to receive hands-on demonstrations and gain expert advice face-to-face.
UK - Cadac has released the latest version of its Sound Automation Manager (SAM) software (v1.07), incorporating new multi-console control capabilities, support for multi-lingual versions, and enhanced MIDI facilities. The new release also includes additional tracking and remote control features.
Over 20 man-years' of development time has gone into SAM software, say Cadac, with the latest release providing integrated support for all Cadac consoles and products, as well as cross-console compatibility and conversion facilities for seamless show portability. SAM is freely available to any interested user, via the Cadac website.
SAM's ability to support multi-lingual operation was a priority for Cadac's Philip Jones, explaining: "In order to get the best out of any system, you need to be able to use iteasily and intuitively in your own language. This requirement set us thinki
UK - PCM's Projects team has been embracing education again - this time around in an interesting installation at the City of Norwich School, where the company designed and specified a bespoke trussing flying system for the school's assembly hall, which dates back to 1910. PCM's project team of Tony Griffiths and Tony Dickson - along with Pfaff Silberblau's Pete Ashford - worked closely with locally based lighting and sound installers Embee Lighting, led by Mark Bailey. As a specialist supplier, Embee was asked by the School's buildings contractor Environ Ltd (formally ABB), to tender for the supply and install of new lighting and sound equipment for the hall. The idea was to transform the limited-use hall into a multi-purpose venue.
The hall's voluminous roof void was an obvious 'dead' space to try and utilize in the name of technical production. However, the roof had no weight
UK - Cerwin-Vega Professional's ProStax Series, first previewed at last September's PLASA Show in London, is now in full production, and shipping through UK distributor, Lamba plc. The range, featuring five all-new systems with heightened levels of performance, is tailored to the needs of live sound, DJ and music playback professionals.
The ProStax Series is comprised of three, three-way, full-range trapezoidal enclosures as well as a floor monitor and bandpass subwoofer. Members of the line include the PSX-123, a single 12" three-way system, the PSX-153, a single 15" three-way system and the PSX-253, a dual 15" three-way system. The line is rounded out by the PSX-122, a single 12" coaxial which doubles as a floor monitor/ two-way stage system with pole mount and the PSX-115 15" bandpass subwoofer.
UK - Hoxton Square Bar & Kitchen is a trendy eatery and late night lounge bar in north London's Hoxton Square. Having taken over what was the Lux cinema next door to their original bar, Barworks (the holding company) has converted the front half of the building into a trendy restaurant, and the back half into a multi-purpose bar/music room whilst retaining the original bar at the side. Barworks turned to audio and lighting specialists Sound Division to design, supply and install the venue's audio system.
Sound Division already has plenty of experience in Hoxton Square, having installed Shish last year and continuing to look after regular clients Traffik and 333 Club. The brief for Hoxton Square Bar & Kitchen was to supply a high quality background audio system for the restaurant while the music room at the back required a system that would deliver high quality background music f
USA - AMPTP - The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, has accepted a permanent seat on Entertainment Services and Technology Association's (ESTA) new Certification Council. The AMPTP is the primary trade association with respect to labor issues in the motion picture and television industry. AMPTP negotiates 80 industry-wide collective bargaining agreements that cover actors, craftpersons, directors, musicians, technicians, and writers - virtually all of the people who work on theatrical motion pictures and television programs. The Certification Council is the governing body, which is managing the development and implementation of a new industry-wide certification program for entertainment technology technicians.
AMPTP has appointed Dennis King, AMPTP vice-president, as their representative to the Council. King is the Chair of the Motion Picture Industry-Wide L
USA - In preparation for the upcoming NSCA show in Las Vegas, the newly formed EAW Commercial group has unveiled a complete line of high performance commercial audio products as well as a new website.
The announcement comes just three months after parent company Loud Technologies announced intentions to address the commercial audio market under the EAW brand name. The complete EAW Commercial line includes DSP matrix mixers, amplifiers, ceiling speakers, and a full range of loudspeakers - all backed by the manufacturing and engineering talents at EAW, Mackie, SIA Software and Acuma Labs.
"When we announced our plans to address this market under the EAW brand last December, the EAW and Mackie product development teams had already begun working on a revitalized family of products for the commercial sound market," commented Ken Berger, senior vice president of marketing
Czech Republic - Prague's underground network, named the 'Metro' after its Parisian model, has been open since 1974. Comprising three lines and over 50km of tunnels, it is already carrying around half a billion passengers per year - and the trend is rising. In 2004, another three stations are due to be opened, bringing the total to 54.
The company responsible for the sound systems in the underground stations is Audio Zeman of Prague. Commissioned by the project management, Metroprojekt, the company's engineers conducted exhaustive simulations, with the result that they were given the go-ahead to install the first 100 DL-94 ceiling loudspeakers from Dynacord. The results were so impressive that in 2001, Audio Zeman was asked to do the same in other stations, in some of which the intelligibility of the existing systems, despite the multitude of ceiling speakers installed, was, acc
UK - Lightfactor Sales recently announced a new distributorship deal with Swiss company VXCO, for their DMXCreator PC-based range of lighting controllers. DMXCreator has three user interfaces in the range - the DMXCreator512Basic (USB-port), the DMXCreator512MK2 (LPT-port) and the DMXCreator1024 (USB-port), all of which use the same software architecture, and are designed to run on Windows OSs from 95 upwards.
The DMXCreator software controls any DMX512 fixture (up to 32 DMX channels). The DMXCreator512Basic is the world's first direct USB to DMX512 cable, complete with all necessary electronics built into the XLR plug. It offers 512 output channels via a 3-pin XLR, and connects to the USB plug-and-play port of the computer, without needing an external power supply. The DMXCreator512Basic package includes the DMX512-Interface cable and the DMXCreator software/panels on CDR.
USA - Mackie will use this year's NSCA show as a platform to introduce the commercial audio market to a range of new products, including the new TT24 digital live console the Onyx series of FireWire-capable analogue mixers. The TT24 digital live console is a powerful 24-mic input digital mixer developed specifically for live sound applications such as clubs, theatres, houses of worship, rental companies, sound production companies and regional touring acts.
Architecturally, TT24 is a 56 x 45, 24-bit, 96kHz capable digital live console with 100mm touch-sensitive faders, on-board analogue and digital I/O, full channel metering, digital recall, EQ, dynamics, and effects. A unique control section combines a 5" touch screen, eight function buttons, and 12-parameter rotary encoders that work together to provide quick and easy access to key live functions such as Fat channel overv
UK - Richard Nowell Sound Services (RNSS) has installed the UK's very first Midas Verona bearing serial number 001 into London's Royal Festival Hall. RNSS invested in the Verona without even seeing it - just a quick glance at the spec sheet and a telephone conversation with Midas and Klark Teknik's Richard Ferriday were enough to convince Nowell that the Verona was exactly what they he was looking for.
RNSS is responsible for the in-house sound systems throughout the South Bank Centre, from voice alarm and evacuation systems through to PA. The PA systems in particular have evolved over many years, so the company is currently involved in upgrading and rationalizing the equipment throughout. Having replaced the loudspeaker system in the Queen Elizabeth Hall, it became imperative to replace the console.
Nowell recounts: "When we first took over the contract for the South Ban
Australia - Fresh from its successes in being specified for high profile musical productions in Spain and the Netherlands, Formula Sound's recently-launched QUE-18 foldback mixer is also now being used in a leading production of the Queen musical, We Will Rock You in Melbourne, Australia.
Officially launched at last year's PLASA Show, the QUE-18 builds on Formula Sound's existing QUE-8 and QUE-10 foldback mixers by adding valuable extra channels and new features to what has proved to be a very popular and thoroughly proven design. It has been created to satisfy demands from sound design professionals for a product that provides new levels of foldback flexibility, especially in theatre applications, and has received an enthusiastic response from users such as Bobby Aitken of Bobby Aitken Sound Designs, who specified the QUE-18 for the Queen musical.
USA - For the 19th consecutive year, the International Ballroom at Merv Griffin's Beverly Hilton Hotel was outfitted with Apogee loudspeakers and power amplifiers for the Golden Globe Awards. The Awards are presented by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association to honour achievements in film and television during the calendar year. The show, broadcast live on NBC on 25 January and shown in 125 countries, attracted a worldwide television audience of 250 million viewers.
Veteran sound engineer Bruce Burns of Innovative Audio Technologies, Inc of Sun Valley, California, has selected Apogee loudspeakers for the Golden Globes since Apogee technology was available in 1985. In 2000, The Beverly Hilton, impressed by the quality and reliability of Apogee's performance, purchased from Thomas Gregor Audio Associates a permanent Apogee system for the International Ballroom, which also hosts
Japan - The World Lighting Fair 2004 takes place from the 24- 26 June at the Pacifico Yokohama Exhibition Hall in Japan. A showcase for state-of-the-art products, technology, and information about lighting for the entertainment industry, the exhibition presents the best of lighting technology for use in a broad range of applications, including the stage, television, motion pictures, theme parks and cultural presentations, as well as retail and trade show environments.
The 2002 event saw 73 exhibitors attending, including 52 from Japan and 21 from overseas. Twenty-one of the participants displayed their products and services at WLF 2002 for the first time because they knew that this exhibition is the best forum to reach the both the Japanese and growing Asian market. In just three days, WLF 2002 drew more than 20,000 visitors.
WLF 2004 will also host a variety of seminars and w