France - As of 15 September 2005, Martin Professional France has been appointed distributor of the entire range of Alu Soudure Diffusion's (A.S.D.) lifting support and metal frame products. Lifting supports and frame products distributed by Martin Professional France are now under the A.S.D. brand and are stocked at the Martin France facility.

The announcement says that the trade agreement will maximize the skills and competencies of both companies: Martin Professional France will make the most of its wide experience in the distribution of frames in order to strongly develop the A.S.D. brand. A.S.D. will now concentrate its resources on manufacturing, as well as on research and development of new products.

Thierry Chenot, A.S.D's sales director, stated: "This agreement is a real opportunity for our companies. A.S.D. will now be able to devote itself fully to the developme

USA - High End Systems and ESP Vision are joining forces to host two Open House events in December to demonstrate new and debuting products in an intimate atmosphere. As an added bonus, HES says it is is offering free ESP Vision visualization software with all new Wholehog 3 console purchases made between now and 31 December 2005.

The first Open House is Dec. 7-8, from 11am-6pm at the HES Los Angeles office at 8200 Haskell Avenue, Van Nuys, CA 91406, and the second event takes place at ESP Vision's studio on Dec. 15 (1-6pm) and Dec. 16 (11 am-4pm) at 365 Pilot Rd., Suite C, Las Vegas, NV 89119.

Attendees will be able to see High End Systems' Studio Command, Catalyst v4, DL2, DL1 and Hog iPC. ESP Vision will show its lighting simulation through direct integration with the Wholehog 3 line of products as well as real-time integration to Catalyst. ESP Vision provides real-time lig

UK - In October 2005, the Theatre Royal Bath opened the 'egg' - an innovative and unique theatre facility for children, young people and their families that has at its heart a 120-seat egg-shaped auditorium. The opening night was packed with local dignitaries. Supporters of the egg also include James Dyson, Midge Ure, Peter Gabriel and Bel Mooney.

Martin Professional has contributed to the worthy cause by supplying the latest fixtures free of charge, including MAC250s and MAC300s, DMX cabliing and a controller, while Stage Electrics will be supplying full technical support.

David Caulfield, managing director of Martin Professional attended the opening night. David commented: "Martin's are delighted to be linked with the egg. We provide equipment for some of the biggest theatres and concert venues in Europe but when we heard about the egg we wanted to give young people the

UK - The UK's National Theatre is using the new IES Matrix II dimming system from ETC for its nationwide tour of Alan Bennett's The History Boys, prior to the play's planned world-wide showing. The order was placed by Michael Atkinson, the National Theatre's senior project manager, ahead of the official launch at London's PLASA Show in September.

Michael Atkinson had already planned a new touring dimmer system for the forthcoming tour of the National Theatre's production of The History Boys with Matrix being one option, as it is at the core of the dimming installations in both the National's Cottesloe and Lyttelton theatres. Atkinson's response to a preview of the latest Matrix II version - scheduled to enter full production in 2006 - was an immediate order, providing that the dimmers could be manufactured and delivered in time for the tour at the beginning of Octo

Australia / Philippines - Forerunner Technologies Inc has been appointed the exclusive distributor for Australian lighting control manufacturer LSC Lighting Systems in the Philippines. Forerunner Technologies will be responsible for the importation, distribution network and technical support of LSC's lighting control desks, DMX network products and the complete range of portable and installation dimming systems.

Based in Manila, Forerunner Technologies has significant experience in lighting sales, installation and production. CEO Mario Benipayo has been looking to represent a supplier of lighting control systems that covered not only desks, but dimmers and associated control items. In LSC he saw a reliable supplier of 25 years.

"We chose LSC mainly because of the company's business philosophy," explained Mario. "When I met Ian Pope at the PALA 2005 Expo he remin

UK - PixelPars, supplied by Manchester-based Flashlight, have been installed in the prestigious ITN building in London. Designed by Sir Norman Foster and completed in 1990, the impressive building is known to millions as the main broadcasting facility for ITN - the UK's largest independent news producer.

Nine luminaires have been installed, replacing the existing 100W narrow spot par 36 fixtures. Mounted under the floor and at the foot of each column around the atrium - they both highlight and emphasize the depth of the atrium which is in shot behind the Channel 4 news presenters. The PixelPars offer a creative and energy efficient solution providing alternative looks for the news broadcasts on the different channels.

ITN's Hugh French explains: "Our new More4 News show needed a different look which involved a colour change with more light output but without generating ex

UK - Stage Electrics reports a few remaining places on its popular Pyrotechnics Safety Awareness Course which will be held at the New Theatre in Cardiff on 7 December. Presented in partnership with Just FX, the course provides formal instruction on the principles and practices for safe use and handling of pyrotechnics and includes a practical assessment. On successfully completing the course candidates will be eligible for free membership of the ASP (Association of Stage Pyrotechnicians).

The company aim to raise standards in Health & Safety across our industry and have worked closely with many other agencies to establish a recognised series of training courses, suitable for technicians and managers alike held at partner venues across the UK.

On 8 December a Safe and Practical Rigging course is also being held at the New Theatre, places are very limited and more courses are cu

UK - Wigwam Hire has made its first investment in Digidesign's new Venue digital mixing environment. The expandable system - comprising D-Show mixing console, FOH mix engine, stage rack I/O unit and multi-channel digital snake - has gone straight out on the Prodigy's UK tour at the request of the band's monitor engineer Joe Campbell.

Although Wigwam were an early adopter of digital desks, hire director Chris Hill said there were plenty of reasons for investing further: "Joe decided he wanted to use the Venue on Prodigy and another couple of projects we are working on have also expressed an interest," he said.

But he expected it to really come of age on the Spring 2006 tour of Westlife, who have expressed an interest in recording all their shows. Chris Hill confirmed that Steve Levitt of Production North (the band's production company) had been a major influence in th

UK - Audio Design Services Ltd, has signed a distributor agreement with Auditel Limited - a British manufacturer of high quality conference, voting, interpretation/translation equipment and a revolutionary digital recording system - for the marketing or its comprehensive range of equipment.

Gary Sheppard, Chairman of Auditel, said that his company had built up a worldwide reputation providing bespoke systems for such venues as the Olympic Games and Greece, the Irish Parliament in Dublin, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and the United Nations African Conference in Addis Ababa. Gary went on to say that he had been looking for a quality company in the UK to increase market share. Having short listed ADSworldwide as a possible distributor, it was the professionalism on their display stand at the 2005 PLASA Exhibition that convinced Gary of his final choice. As ADSworldwide h

Ireland - Midas and Klark Teknik's Irish distributor Sound Communications has supplied a 32-channel Midas Legend console, a Midas Venice 240 console and assorted Klark Teknik processing to Radio City, a new music venue in Dublin. The Legend is the 25th large format console that Sound Communications has sold in the two years it has distributed Midas.

"This venue has been in the pipeline for two years, and Midas products were specified from the outset," says Alan Murphy of Sound Communications. "The initial order was for the Venice, and then as the project grew to encompass two venues they also ordered the Legend."

The Legend has been installed into the venue's main 500-capacity room while the Venice keeps engineers and crowds happy in a smaller acoustic room. "I'd already been using Midas on various projects and tours, and it was the obvious choice for

UK - At the Café de Paris in London, Telectra's ice*lighting supported Mastercard's recent One Pricless Evening. The 2005 MasterCard Priceless Evening once again brought together an exclusive line up of new and established artists performing a selection of current hits and classic songs. The acts included Texas, Ray LaMontagne, K T Tunstall, Athlete, the Corrs and James Blunt.

Forming the back of the set, ice*lighting helped PRG lighting designer, Ben Cracknell, create a warm and intimate atmosphere for this stylish setting. "I was very impressed with the battens and the ability to get high visibility from a wide range of viewing angles on camera. Getting high contrast textures and video effects controlled by DMX was quite unique. I'm keen to use them on future projects and work on new media to put through them."

Mastercard's "One Pricless Evening&

UK - Quadrant Solutions, the Midlands-based visual communications company with five regional offices throughout the UK, has taken delivery of a 40-way Sennheiser Conference System. The SDC 3000 controls large conferences, with software that enables the configuration and control of the entire system via PC.

Quadrant Hire and Events director, David Carter, says: "Conference equipment hire is an expanding market for us and over the last 12 months we have seen a significant growth in this area. We have also noticed that the demands from our clients have become increasingly sophisticated, so it was time to replenish stocks. Since receiving this system we have already enjoyed success with large corporations and educational establishments where emphasis has always been on quality and reliability. Sennheiser fits right in with how we do things."

The SDC 3000 has an extensive

UK - A stunning new multi-level restaurant and nightclub has opened on the seafront at Weston-super-Mare - on a landmark site that has previously housed Joe Montana's, Volts and latterly Stars. Now known as Seven VII, directors Vas and Nick Siangoplis and Michael Michaels (of Lazerlight Ltd) have already spent £1 million converting the sophisticated art deco ground floor, and will commence work on the other two floors after Christmas.

Named after the seven deadly sins, the first phase - designed by Nick Siangoplis - also features al-fresco, dining with freshly cooked food served in a conservatory and a terrace bar with large umbrellas and patio heaters.

Lazerlight has given equal priority to the sound and vision, entrusting Bristol-based Bristol Architectural Sound Services (BASS) with fitting a Martin Audio sound system. BASS's Mike Brice has split the ground floor into

UK - Design and Communications company Imagination has once again unveiled a crowd-pleasing Christmas lighting display today, continuing their 25-year tradition of revelling in the fun of the festive season.

The company's redbrick headquarters has been adorned with a magnificent arrangement featuring a giant glowing garland 60ft in diameter. The garland, which was constructed out of 300 Christmas trees and weighs around a tonne, is threaded with 10,000 sparkling white lights and 20 red bows, each 5ft in width. Clusters of illuminated berries have been created out of red bulbs woven into wire mesh spheres, while a giant neon bow perches atop the glowing structure. The Imagination building itself is the backdrop for the garland, flooded in a wash of blue light.

On the first day of the festive month, staff were greeted inside Imagination with a beautifully decorated atrium. The w

UK - HSL is supplying all the LED light sources for the current series of the X-Factor. Lighting director/designer for the show is Dave Davey, the set designer is Christopher George and it's directed by Jonathan Bullen and recorded weekly for ITV at Fountain Studios in Wembley, London.

It's the first time HSL has supplied the popular series, and follows on from a busy year in the TV world for the Blackburn-based company. The kit comprises six 10 x 2.5m high resolution Soft-LED curtains and 180 Color Kinetics I-Color tiles which were purchased specially for the series. There's also 130 JTE PixelLine 1044 battens and 120 lengths of Pulsar ChromaStrip from HSL.

Both Davey and George wanted to explore various LED concepts in the show visuals. They were looking for a single source supplier for all the LED products, which is where HSL stepped into the breach, supplying all this and

UK/South Africa - DPA has announced the appointment of Prosound as its South African distributor. Prosound's head office is based in Johannesburg, and the company also has offices in Durban, Cape Town and most recently, Dubai.

Established in 1973, Prosound has become a leading force in the Southern African professional audio industry. Providing services ranging from rental to full turnkey installations, the company deals with the pro audio industry right across the board, including live sound, broadcast, studios, education and places of worship.

Prosound has worked on projects across the Africa continent and as far afield as Albania and Mauritius and prides itself on providing world class engineering and systems solutions, from the smallest one-man band to the largest airport in Africa.

Prosound's sales and marketing manager Francois Lötter says: "Prosound has been rep

UK - A new online accountancy service, Accountsnet.co.uk has been launched to provide internet accounting to sole traders, partnerships and small limited companies. The system creates a virtually paperless office and covers all the usual accountancy offerings such as VAT, Tax and National Insurance contributions and payroll.

A team of chartered accountants is on hand to answer business queries; the company says the online service is fast, transparent and easy to use. Any PC with internet access can be used to securely enter transaction detail from the usual source documents such as invoices, receipts and chequebooks. Starting from a little as £20 per month for sole traders and £60 per month for limited companies, users can have a full set of year end accounts, payroll bureau, dividend administration, professional dealing with HMRC and Companies House, calculation of

UK - Sanctuary Mobiles has been acquired from Sanctuary Studios by a management buyout team consisting of Ian Dyckhoff, Tim Summerhayes and Ian Cooper. The business will trade under its original name of Fleetwood Mobiles, which was acquired by Dyckhoff and Summerhayes in 1993 before being sold to the Sanctuary Group in 1999. The duo remain onboard as managing director and operations director respectively.

"We are thrilled to have this opportunity to once again operate a world class business under the Fleetwood name, and are confident we have the right team in place to provide the best service for our customers' needs," says Dyckhoff. "Our aim is to continue to provide clients with the best location recording in the industry."

In its new incarnation, Fleetwood Mobiles retains all assets of Sanctuary Mobiles as well as the existing mobile recording team - en

Europe - An EU-wide campaign will start next year to address the safety of young people at work as according to European statistics they run a 50% higher risk of work accidents than other workers.

A 16-year-old worker's legs were broken less than two hours into his first day at work as he fell from the footplate of an 18-ton refuse lorry. He was riding on the outside of the vehicle because there was not enough room in the cab for him and the three other workers. A 17 year-old girl lost part of a finger only one hour of starting her holiday job. Her fingers were crushed in a machine at the bakery where she worked.

Figures from the UK Health and Safety Executive show that Men in the 20-24 age group suffer the second highest total incidence of non-fatal work place accidents. Women in the same age group are the fifth most vulnerable group.

Accidents like these are a daily occurr

UK - Architectural and feature lighting specialists LTP has supplied nearly 300 Color Kinetics LED fixtures for a lighting installation in the atrium of Prudential Assurance's City Place House, London HQ.

The lighting feature, which involves the up-lighting of 10 various sized bubble tanks, was created by architect/designers Natalia Kudriavtseva with Sean Mahoney of Hoare Lee, and specified by LTP after referral from Architainment, CK's UK distributor.

To up-light the tanks LTP's project manager Terry Reeves chose 92 pieces of Colour Kinetics Cove MX for their optical qualities as well as their practicality when it came to the actual installation.

The top of the atrium is glass panelled, and therefore filled with daylight for most of the year, so any lighting had to be exceptionally bright to hold its own. The MX is a Powercore fixture, which requires only a data enabler at

UK - High End Systems announced that during the Projected Image Digital's Technology Open Days in London, 7-8 December, various HES products will be on show and demonstrated.

Products include the Catalyst v4 software, the DL2 Digital Light fixture, the new Studio Command automated wash luminaire, the Hog iPC and Wholehog 3 console

Event hours are Wednesday, Dec. 7 from 11 a.m.-6 p.m. and Thursday, Dec. 8 from 2-8 p.m. Festive refreshments will be served. Projected Image Digital is located at 53 Northfield Road, London W13 9SY.

(Sarah Rushton-Read)

Georgia - A football stadium in Tbilisi, Georgia provided the unlikely location for a huge rock concert - in honour of the BP operated Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline running some 1100 miles between Baku in Azerbaijan on the Caspian Sea, to a newly constructed terminal at Ceyhan on the Mediterranean.

RG Jones was contracted to provide the audio - based around their Synco Martin three-way W8LC/WLX line array system - for an event which was headlined by Simply Red and staged at the Mikheil Meshki Stadium, home of Lokomotiv FC.

The company were working for Steve Nolan's Chromatic Productions, who in turn had been contracted by Neos Creative, BP's main contractor for the event.

RG Jones' engineer, Simon Honywill explained: "BP as operators of the BTC pipeline are staging events to celebrate the completion of this pipeline which runs through Azerbaijan, Georgia and Tu

Hungary - The Palace of Arts is a multifunctional and extraordinary architectural construction. Situated along the banks of the Danube on the Pest side of the Lágymányos Bridge in Budapest, it is described by the Palace of Arts Co. as "a place where tradition and avant-garde can coexist and interact fruitfully, in all branches of the arts."

The building's design - by Zoboki, Demeter and Associates - and a 21st century technological backbone enable the staging of high quality and large-scale performances, bringing together various branches of the arts under one roof. Its permanent residents include the Ludwig Museum, the National Concert Hall and the Festival Theatre. It is part of the Millennium City Centre, a major urban renewal development program in Budapest that includes the adjacent National Theatre.

Client and main contractor on the project, Arcadom Co. Ltd.,

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