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

Business

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UK - Sunday 10 July saw the culmination of a week of events marking the 60th Anniversary of the end of World War II, including a Commemoration Event of Reflection and Reminiscence, held in Horse Guards Parade in the presence of The Queen and members of the royal family and an invited audience of 10,000 WWII veterans and their families.

With a speech by Her Majesty, the event was hosted by Simon Callow and featured readings, humour and music from World War II, with a choir of 150, an 80 piece orchestra and a host of celebrities including Bruce Forsyth, Petula Clark, Claire Sweeney, Laura Michelle Kelly and a special - and surprise - appearance by Dame Vera Lynn. Beginning at 3pm, the event was broadcast live on BBC1 and displayed on large LED screens to the crowds lining The Mall. Working for Unusual Services to supply the lighting was PRG Europe, with Alan Thomson and Loz Wilkin

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UK - Following the success of the last PixelRange Workshop initiated by James Thomas Engineering a few months ago, another event is planned this week - again hosted by the STLD in conjunction with Stagetec. The event, to be held backstage at the National Theatre on Friday 22 July, is designed for LDs, programmers, artists, set designers and anyone else involved in lighting and the visual arts, who will get an opportunity to explore and learn more about LED lighting - the equipment, its uses, applications and control.

Featured sections will include the use of LEDS in 'lighting a cyc' with the new PixelLine 110ec batten, controlled by PixelDrive and Compulite's Vector desk. In addition, VideoDrive, the latest software from Radical Lighting, will be on demonstration as will the new PixelBrick, the PixelLine Mini Batten and the new PixelPups from James Thomas Engineering.

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

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UK/USA - Audio-Technica microphones were used extensively at Live 8 concerts around the world. In particular at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, in the US, and at Live 8 Africa Calling at the Eden Centre, in Cornwall.

The Philadelphia event in front of the Museum of Art, hosted by Will Smith and attended by more than half a million people, featured performances by leading artists such as Jay-Z, A-T endorsee Linkin Park, and the legendary Def Leppard, all using Audio-Technica's Artist Elite 5000 Series UHF Wireless Systems. The Tokyo Live 8 concert featured A-T endorser Good Charlotte, with Joel Madden performing on the Audio-Technica Artist Elite 5000 Series UHF Wireless System, and Benji Madden on the Artist Elite AE6100 dynamic vocal microphone.

At Live 8 Africa Calling, Senegalese Griot musician Modou Diouf and his family (O Fogum), the internationally famous ensemble of Sab

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USA - Cadac reports the Broadway debut of its acclaimed M16 remote-controlled microphone amplifier, opening last month with the musical Sweet Charity, which features sound design by Peter Hylenski (Little Women, Brooklyn, Ragtime (West End) Olivier Award nomination). Staged at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre, the show is based on Neil Simon's book of the same name, with a classic score that includes hits such as Hey, Big Spender and If My Friends Could See Me Now. Directed by Walter Bobbie and choreographed by Wayne Cilento, the show stars Christina Applegate, Denis O'Hare and Paul Shoeffler. Sound equipment is supplied by PRG.

Peter Hylenski's sound design focuses on creating a warm vintage sound that reflects the show's 1960s roots, as Peter explains: "I wanted to make the music and the sound fit the piece, achieving a warm analogue sound as opposed to thinking di

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UK - The Edwardian-built Methodist Central Hall in Westminster boasts elegant marble foyers and sweeping stairways that lead to an extensive complex of halls. It was in the largest of these, the Great Hall - against the backdrop of a pipe organ - that Marquee Audio installed a central cluster of Meyer M1D self-powered loudspeakers. The venue's managing director, Michael Sharp, said that in deference to the building's splendour: "When we were ready to retire the old system we realized we would need something of high pedigree to replace it."

Another contractor had recommended marquee Audio to the project. "In addition, we had heard good reports about the company from a number of other sources, including representatives from the award-winning installation at Cheltenham Racecourse's Centaur conference centre," stated Sharp.

In designing the system, Marquee Audi

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UK - For the sixth year, the industry's annual cricket cup challenge returns to the picturesque village of Littlewick Green as the Clarion Events XI (led by Nathan Waugh) sets out to defend its title against the Sound & Lighting Industry XI. Again sponsored by D&M Professional, this popular event is an excellent way to catch up with industry colleagues in the run-up to the PLASA Show (11-14 September).

Taking place on Thursday, 18 August, the 30 overs-per-side match will be followed by a BBQ (and further socializing) in the evening. The ground itself is conveniently located near Maidenhead - and a short drive from both the M4 and M40.

To register your interest in joining the Industry XI, please contact David Atkinson at D&M Professional at the e-mail address below. Alternatively come and lend your support - plenty of Pimms moments are guaranteed!

(Lee Baldock)

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Canary Islands - In 2004, Sonilanza of Lanzarote was the first company in the Canary Islands to purchase an HK Audio Cohedra system, and HK now reports that they appear to have started a trend: Rental company Sound Black, already a long-time HK Audio T-Series user, recently invested in a '2 x 8' Cohedra system, consisting of 16 CDR 208 S/T mid/high units, 16 CDR 210 subwoofers, PR 16 amp racks to power them, LSM speaker multi-pair cables and flying hardware. Owner and president of Sound Black Juan Pedro Barrios Glez, says: "Cohedra is the perfect system for us. It is extremely flexible - due to its small size and low weight we can easily fly it as part of a ground support system, yet in spite of its size we can handle fairly large gigs with a relatively small array of only eight mid/high units per side - a decisive factor as an investment for a rapidly growing company like ou

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UK - Summit Steel kicked off a hectic end of June and early July with SmarTmast mayhem on a huge variety of events and festivals.

SmarTmasts, a Summit designed and constructed product, have become hugely popular with PA companies, production and site managers for their rugged load bearing capacities, easy construction, elegant aesthetics and small footprint.

In Portsmouth for Mice International at the Trafalgar 200 event, Summit supplied eight SmarTmasts used as PA towers for Capital Sound. These were dotted all over the Portsmouth Royal Naval Dockyard site at various performance stages and screen sites.

For the Leeds Castle Summer Concerts in June and July and for Clear Channel 's Summer Nights in July at the same venue, Summit supplied two SmarTmast2s and four SmarTmast1s, for PA companies RG Jones and Major Tom. Summit is also providing Major Tom with a single dela

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Switzerland - When this year's 16-day Montreux Jazz Festival kicked off on Lake Geneva, visiting sound engineers to the 2,000-capacity Miles Davis Hall were delighted to see the new Digidesign Venue placed at their disposal.

They were given the opportunity to test drive the system's modular, dual-redundant architecture - which includes the D-Show mixing console, Mix Engine and Stage Rack I/O unit (with recallable, remote-controlled preamps) - firstly in the production area, under the supervision of experienced Digidesign engineers such as Bernard Natier (from Paris's Studio Garage) and Ian Nelson. Here they were able to tour the surface's topology and familiarize themselves with the main desk/sidecar arrangement prior to the real thing.

The company responsible for getting the 96-input desk, with full support for industry-stand Pro Tools plug-ins, onto the Montreux rider were S

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UK - Adlib Audio supplied a JBL VerTec line array system, full sound production and crew to high profile boy band Blue's UK arena tour. Adlib worked with leading show producers Production North for the first time on the tour, which was production managed by Iain Whitehead. Rob Coles was the FOH engineer, Marc Peers mixed monitors and Tony Szabo was ADLIB's systems engineer.

For FOH engineer Rob Coles, VerTec was an obvious choice for Blue - they needed a rich, powerful and full sound capable of dealing with the band's dynamic and energy charged shows. Coles has mixed this type of band before and is familiar with the specific nuances and requirements.

Coles first used a VerTec system when mixing the Dandy Warhols, opening for David Bowie's 2003/04 Reality tour, for which Adlib was also the audio contractor. "The system sounded great, Tony is one of the best VerTec t

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Norway - One of Norway's largest PA companies, PA Compagniet, has increased its substantial Midas inventory with the addition of four of the company's recently-launched Siena consoles, purchased from local distributor AVAB-CAC. With locations in five Norwegian cities, PA Compagniet handles major tours and festivals. The decision behind the multiple Siena order stemmed from the success of the Midas Veronas the company purchased last year to work front-of-house at the Quart Festival, one of Norway's leading summer events.

"We hope the Sienas will recreate this success in the monitor world," explains Mike Moen, MD of PA Compagniet. "We purchased them mainly because we needed monitor consoles that weren't large or heavy, but were capable of meeting the riders for the outdoors festival season, and at the same time would be suitable for indoor use in Norwegian clubs dur

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Switzerland - Circus Nock is one of the largest touring Circus Companies in Switzerland. Founded in 1860, the circus has been in the Nock family for seven generations and includes over 100 vehicles, 7km of cable and over 4,500 light bulbs. When looking for a replacement lighting console, the company opted for Zero 88: LD Stefan Ionut had been using a Zero 88 Sirius 250 for the last six years and was delighted with the reliability of the console. "The circus environment is very harsh, with a lot of dirt, a lot of dust and demanding touring schedule. The Sirius 250 never let us down," he explained.

However, with the addition of a number of Claky Paky Alpha Spots to the rig and an increasing number of high-risk attractions, Ionut needed a console that could handle moving lights and offer a full back up system - which led him to Zero 88's Frog range. Roberto Campana from Z

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The Netherlands - Flashlight Rental, one of Europe's fastest growing entertainment lighting rental specialists, has become the first company in the world to add the new Syncrolite SXB-5/2 Xenon Skylight (also known as 'the B52') to its rental stock. Their first assignment is to provide some of the big looks for the current world tour by Coldplay for designers Bryan Leitch and Nick Whitehouse.

The latest addition to Syncrolite's Architectural and Theatrical Xenon Series, the SXB-5/2 is the most versatile, compact, powerful and lightweight Xenon fixture in the world, say the company. This fully automated/moving dual scroller architectural and theatrical fixture delivers 5000W of Xenon power for use as a long-throw wash or skybeam/spot. It allows a wide range of mounting options for flown and ground mount, and is ideal for concert, event, and architectural use. The unit is powered

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USA - Country music celebrated its annual CMA Music Fest in Nashville, Tennessee with the largest lighting package ever assembled for this event. Headed by Ted Wells and Mark Carver from Full Flood, Bandit Lites was once again selected as the vendor for what is billed as 'Country Music's biggest party'. Bandit worked hand in hand with Carver, Wells and Production Manager Chuck Young on what was deemed the most successful show to date with America's premier country talents performing to record crowds.

Bandit's Vice President Mike Golden said "Working with the event production staff is a sincere pleasure and makes this event a yearly favorite for all at Bandit".

Four Semi's of Bandit equipment were delivered to this project and a partial list of the equipment provided includes 84 Mac 2K Wash fixtures, 80 Mac 2K Profiles, 72 Mac 600s, 40 Mac 300s, six eight-Lamp bars, s

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UK - XL Video supplied cinematographer and visual designer Jon Driscoll with digital projection, Catalyst digital media servers and DL1 moving head projection for the musical, Ha'penny Bridge, which played a six week run at Dublin's The Point.

Kassan Productions originally produced the Irish/English love story and five years on and it returned to Cork Opera House for a technical preview period before moving to the larger venue in Dublin.

With a miniscule amount of rear projection depth, the original production made inventive use of projection for the main scenic and location elements, dispensing with the need for excessive amounts of backcloths and scenery. Back then Driscoll used Pani large format projectors and slide changers combined with an arsenal of traditional VSFX projectors and luminaires with animation effects.

This time he decided on a combination of high p

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UK - When System Sound were contracted to provide the house PA system at the London Coliseum for the recent ENO and O2 Voice Season, they looked at the versatility of the programme - ranging from chart-topping R&B artist Lauryn Hill to the cool Brazilian vibe of Gilberto Gil - and chose the W8LC compact line array from Martin Audio to reinforce the programme. Having worked the famous venue before, Simon Biddulph's company was well aware of the hazards confronting them since the Coliseum is not only the largest space auditorium in the UK, but it is designed with three 'letterbox' balcony tiers into which the sound needs to be accurately projected, with little spillage. "Everything had to be carefully measured and the sound cut to length," Biddulph explained.

Based on their experience, Biddulph provided identical W8LC hangs on either side of the pros arch, grouped

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UK - Marquee Audio rushed the latest version of Digidesign's Venue operating software to Brixton Academy in time for Nine Inch Nails monitor engineer Mike Prowda to install it in his new modular mixing system. The new software expands the console's capabilities from 16 - 24 auxes, and offers full 96 channels of hard disk recording (and 128 channels playback) with full Ethernet support.

This was one of a pair of 48-input D-Show consoles in the venue for the NIN shows; while Prowda was multitrack recording the opening show at Brixton the experienced Jim Warren was providing the house mix - as he has since first being exposed to the Venue back in March. He was also using the desk's FireWire capability at FOH, providing a multitrack back-up in the event of HD multitrack failure at the stage.

Warren is best known for his work behind the mixing board for Radiohead, and he believes t

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The Netherlands - Dutch AV company, SLR Productions & Sales, has purchased an Allen & Heath ML4000 live sound VCA console to add to its hire stock. The mixer has already been used at various events, including corporate seminars, pop concerts, and festivals. SLR already has several Allen & Heath consoles in its event portfolio, including a PA12 portable stereo live mixer, a GL2200 multi-purpose live sound mixer, and an ML3000 VCA console. The company made the decision to invest in a new ML4000 to cater for bigger projects requiring greater capacity. "We have been using Allen & Heath products for several years, so we were assured of the ML4000's sonic quality, flexibility and reliability," says SLR's MD, Robert van Hees.

(Lee Baldock)

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UK - Large format projection specialists E//T//C UK - fresh from its dramatic projections onto Buckingham Palace last week for the 60th and final MOD Commemorations of World War 2 - also beamed giant images onto Portsmouth Guildhall for Portsmouth Remembers - a one-off evening of images, words and song staged in Guildhall Square to commemorate the ending of hostilities in 1945.

The Portsmouth Guildhall, home to Portsmouth City Council, was opened in 1890. It was bombed to a shell in 1941, and reopened after extensive rebuilding in 1959. Measuring approximately 60m wide by 40m tall, E/T/C UK's projections stretched across the entire front fascia of the white stone structure.

E//T//C UK was approached by Heather Todd from the Council's Arts Services Department, who was aware of their work on Buckingham Palace. She thought that projection would be the ideal medium to produ

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UK - Production company Flux Events have promoted and production managed a dramatic evening of music and film at London's Royal Albert Hall using a 13.2m x 10m Harkness Hall screen. Staged as part of the VE Day 60th Anniversary celebrations, a performance of Shostakovitch's Leningrad Symphony written in 1942 at the beginning of Nazi siege of the city, was performed by the St Petersburg Academic Symphony Orchestra conducted by the composer's son, Maxim.

A seventy two minute film by Russian director Georgy Paradzhanov which was inspired by author-designer Sergai Davitiaya and the official Russian information agency, Novosti, cleverly used newsreel and contemporary images to mirror the haunting themes of the music. Projection was by two Barco projectors running overlaid images.

Another Harkness Hall screen, measuring 14.8m by 9.5m featured in an earlier Flux Events open air produ

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UK - Bandit Lites supplied production lighting and crew for the recent G4 theatre tour, once again working with Production North. Matt Jensen was the LD, Sarah Hollis the production manager and Bandit's Lester Cobrin co-ordinating.

Cobrin said: "After a very successful TV series and UK tour with X-Factor it was no wonder that the bands debut album shot straight to the top of the charts earlier this year. Their voices are so powerful and dynamic which appeals to a very wide audience. G4 are a completely different act to what is out there at the moment. I'm not in the least surprised this tour sold out."

Choreographer Gary Lloyd and G4's producer Ashley Tabor had initially come up with an asymmetrical stage view, which was then developed into a more industrial scaffolding based set by Production North's Steve Levitt. Jensen used the set as the starting point for his li

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UK - TMC Ltd has devised a tricky design solution for the 900-seat auditorium at the Birmingham Christian Centre - an Elim Pentecostal church in the city centre - with the help of architectural effects provided by Lighting Effects Distribution.

Commissioned during the late 1980's the building's ceiling is split into awkward asymmetric segments within a polygon-shaped building. But the infrastructure had become tired, the sound element needed upgrading and a visual dynamic introduced.

TMC's hire department had enjoyed a long relationship with the church's events department over the years. The contract sales team were consequently introduced to the project, and invited to work with the client to develop the scheme.

It was evident that the existing low pressure sodium lighting, with its familiar yellow hue, was inadequate and TMC were asked to design a concept in which the mood

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UK - 10 July saw the culmination of a week of events marking the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II, when the Queen was joined by the prime minister and 12,000 others at Horseguards Parade for the World War II 60th Anniversary Festival of Commemoration and address to the nation.

With a speech by Her Majesty, Simon Callow hosted the event which featured readings, humour and music from World War II. The cast included a choir of 184, a 157-piece orchestra and a host of celebrities including TV host Bruce Forsyth, singer Petula Clark and actors Jane Horrocks, Robert Hardy and Clare Sweeney. There was also a special appearance by Dame Vera Lynn, while in a symbolic gesture; veterans' groups handed over their standards to the younger generation.

Working for Unusual Services to a sound system design by Imagination's John Del Nero, Wigwam Hire provided four Martin Audi

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USA - Adding to Clay Paky's reputation for excellence on the Las Vegas Strip is the new spectacular, created by Franco Dragone - Le Rêve, at the new Wynn Las Vegas hotel and casino. This show features an array of automated fixtures from the Italian manufacturer and brings to more than 10 the number of permanent show installations that currently use Clay Paky equipment.

The custom-built 2,087 seat Wynn Theatre, which houses Le Rêve, features a one million gallon pool in its centre and a domed roof 80ft overhead. Lighting designer Koert Vermeulen uses 32 Clay Paky Stage Profile Plus SV fixtures, along with 13 Stage Scan moving mirror fixtures and nine CP Color 150E colour changing fixtures. "I'm an LD who designs a lot with gobos," said Vermeulen, "and Franco loves gobos on his shows. The Stage Profile was the only fixture that gave me two gobo wheels and s

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