UK - The Pavilion, one of Glasgow's oldest and best loved variety theatre venues, has recently overhauled its FOH system with a pair of Tannoy VQ 100 full-range loudspeakers. The new VQ 100s add a new level of clarity, definition and presence to the performances within the historic 1449-seat auditorium and have gone down well with both cast and audiences since they were installed during the summer season.

Having first opened on its corner site at the top of Glasgow's Renfield Street in 1904, the Pavilion Theatre is a rare example these days of a privately run performance venue that has carefully retained its period character, having avoided any significant renovations or acoustic treatments that would ruin the décor and atmosphere of the auditorium.

This was an important consideration when the venue management sought to upgrade the audio system. Discretion was key, with

USA - Theatre Projects is putting final touches on two unparalleled performing arts spaces: the Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre and the Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House, as last-minute preparations continue for the 15 October grand opening of the AT&T Performing Arts Center in Dallas.

As creators with Sasaki Associates of the original plans for the Dallas Arts District and as design consultants for the AT&T Performing Arts Center, Theatre Projects has spent over two decades involved in the planning and building of one of the US's most ambitious new centres for the arts.

"It's been an amazing journey working with the City of Dallas, the opera and theatre companies, and the Foundation since the creation of the Arts District in 1984," said Richard Pilbrow, Theatre Projects' founder and chairman emeritus. "It's been our privilege to guide the theatrical design to c

UK - When Wembley Stadium decided to transform the VIP guest hospitality room for this summer's biggest concerts, they turned to entertainment lighting supplier White Light.

The challenge was to create a versatile design that could provide a calm but attractive feel to the room for the pre-show dinner and drinks, but then transform the space into an exclusive nightclub for the after show parties.

To achieve this, White Light's Dominic Yates used some of the latest technology from White Light's extensive lighting stock to create a design flexible enough to give the room a different feel for each concert, while dynamic enough to continue the excitement of the gig beyond the end of each show.

The design made use of the new Fusion672 LED panels, which allowed the creation of both dramatically changing lighting backdrops and corporate branding, with the 'Club Wembley' logo presen

Italy - New Sound Service chose Proel sound reinforcement systems for Tim Cup 2009, a major sports event attended many Italian football fans each summer.

The leading Italian football teams are the protagonists of this competition which is usually also the first opportunity for them to introduce their new players and line-ups before the start of the national championship.

This year, Juventus, AC Milan and Inter Milan competed for the Tim Cup at the Stadio Adriatico in Pescara, whose sound reinforcement system was complemented by a Proel Axiom system. The system chosen was made up of: 24 AX2265P AXIOM series vertical array compact speakers, 12 AX1115SP AXIOM compact subs, four Edge212P point source array speakers, four Edge121SP subs, six Proel PSW2600 amplifiers, four AXPACKK10 amplifier racks plus DSO digital processors.

"This event," affirmed Marco Lovato of New S

UK - Parents' attitudes to apprenticeships need to change in order to put young people on a planned, clear career path and help the audio-visual industry enhance its skills base over the coming decade, claims Paul Dougherty, managing director of Tyne & Wear-based Blaydon Communications Ltd.

Paul Dougherty has good experience of apprenticeships: 20 years ago he, along with managing director of Blaydon's sister company UK Time Solutions, Chris Routledge, started out as an apprentice, following in the 70-year tradition of the firm in supporting apprenticeships.

Dougherty says: "Apprenticeship provides a solid, technical career base and as Chris and I have demonstrated, can lead to senior management and the boardroom. One of the bars to young people taking up apprenticeship can be the attitude or parents who see a university education as the best career option for their child

Norway - Projector manufacturer, projectiondesign has announced a change in ownership to include Norwegian private equity firm Herkules Capital AS. The move follows the purchase of a 54% share in projectiondesign from previous main shareholder, Eker Group AS headed by Norwegian industrial designer Bård Eker.

projectiondesign has emerged as an industry leader in the creation, development, design and manufacture of high-quality projectors for specialist professional, industrial and private sector applications. The company currently has 135 employees, including in-house product testing, research & development in electronic, optical and mechanical system design, and has shown strong growth since being established in 2001.

"projectiondesign is an exciting growth company, and is an attractive opportunity for Herkules. We have been familiar with the company for some time now an

UK - Fifteen venues across the UK will open their doors to 13- and 14-year-olds from 15 October until 2 December 2009, for The National Skills Academy for Creative & Cultural Skills' first interactive Offstage Choices careers events.

These events offer young people aged 13 and above a taste of the job roles available behind the scenes and offstage in technical theatre and live music events.

Pupils from local schools will meet and experience the work of a number of professionals including lighting and sound technicians, marketing and stage managers and designers, in venues from the New Theatre Royal in Portsmouth, up to the SAGE in Gateshead. Behind the scenes staff will share the tricks of their trade and experiences, working out of the 'spotlight'.

Offstage is produced by The National Skills Academy for Creative & Cultural Skills (NSA), a network of industry speciali

South Africa - Rosco has supplied 90 linear metres of its black/white Dance Floor and a number of dance mats to Johannesburg's newly opened The Dance Space as part of a sponsorship deal with South Africa's The Dance Forum.

The Dance Forum has been a major force in South African contemporary dance for the past 21 years, facilitating major projects such as the 12-day FNB Dance Umbrella Festival, a dance platform for young artists entitled New Dance and a Young Choreographers Residency Programme.

In wide ranging future plans, The Dance Forum intends to develop a series of workshops, debates, collaborations, master classes and residency programmes for professional practitioners as well as encourage collaborations between dance organisations and choreographers across Africa and the rest of the world.

Yet throughout its existence there has never been one singl

UK - Harman International has announced the successful completion of an advanced networked audio system at Turf Moor, the stadium of English Premiership football club, Burnley FC. The club management engaged acoustic consultants, AMS Acoustics and integrators ETA Sound to design and install a fully integrated PA/VA compliant public address system that would put Turf Moor system in the same league as Europe's leading stadium systems.

The resulting system, designed and controlled using Harman HiQnet System Architect features components from Harman Professional brands including JBL, Crown and BSS Audio.

AMS Acoustics had already implemented an earlier first phase upgrade last season to bring three stands into VA compliance. During the course of this exercise the capture of a full range of measurements was required and the resultant data, after analysis, was used as the cornerston

USA - Over the course of seven decades, the Sturgis motorcycle rally has grown from a small regional affair in 1938, into an all-out biker extravaganza.

The first Sturgis motorcycle rally in 1938 was a relatively tame affair, and remained so until well into the late 1960s, when films like Easy Rider and Hunter S. Thompson's book Hell's Angels fuelled the rise of the outlaw biker mystique. Since then, the festival has taken on a life of its own, and for a few weeks out of the year this pastoral community of 6,000 in South Dakota's Black Hills becomes the Harley Davidson capital of the world, with attendance estimates of upwards of 700,000 (slightly more than the population of the entire state).

On tap, for the musical portion of the festivities this year, were Aerosmith, George Thorogood, Toby Keith, Billy Squier, Lita Ford, Tesla, Hinder, Saving Abel, Buckcherry,

Germany - This summer, Berlin's State Opera (Staatsoper unter den Linden) presented the third Opera For All event (Oper für alle) to more than 50,000 spectators who filled the city's historic Bebelplatz. A Meyer Sound system featuring the Milo line array loudspeaker and the UPQ-1P loudspeaker provided sound reinforcement for the public simulcast of Richard Wagner's landmark opera Tristan and Isolde, followed by an open-air concert of Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5 and Romeo and Juliet Overture on the next day, conducted by Daniel Barenboim, the State Opera's general music director.

The free-of-charge classical music event was supported by Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit, and was attended by German President Horst Köhler, who said, "Opera For All opens up opera to wide parts of the society. Opera must not only be high culture for the wel

USA - Tomcat USA has confirmed the return of its Hoist & Truss Workshop for the 2009 LDInstitute. Space is still available for the workshop that will take place on 18 &19 November 2009 in conjunction with the LDI Show in Orlando, Florida.

During the course of the ETCP recognised workshop, participants will receive training from industry experts. Day one consists of a full day of motor instruction taught by Herb Hart of Columbus McKinnon. During this, participants will disassemble and reassemble a one ton CM Lodestar and receive instruction on troubleshooting and maintenance.

Day two includes a half-day course on truss design, use and theory taught by Will Todd, product support manager for Tomcat USA plus a half-day course on fall protection led by Bill Sapsis, president and founder of Sapsis Rigging.

This is the first time Sapsis has taught a session in conjunction with the

UK - HSL supplied all lighting for the Stereophonics homecoming show at Cardiff Castle, Wales, last weekend - including eight of the new Robe Robin 300E Beam moving lights, which made their UK show debut, specified by LD Tim Routledge.

The gig celebrated the band's forthcoming album Keep Calm & Carry On, and Routledge was asked to light this and a warm-up gig at the Electric Ballroom in London following a TV special he designed for them last year at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium, for which he won a Welsh BAFTA Award.

Blackburn-based HSL has supplied a number of Routledge's recent projects, and he was keen for them to also do this one. "The variety of kit that HSL has available is really impressive, as is their attention to detail and willingness to customise gear and accommodate non-standard requirements," he says. The project was managed for HSL by Mike Oates.

Austria - When German superstars Die Ärzte played two sold-out stadium shows in Linz, Austria, their lighting designer Lui Helmig spec'd 130 Robe moving lights as the main work-horses of the rig for the spectacular show.

Die Ärzte's live performances have a reputation for dazzlingly spectacular light-shows and this one was no exception. Helmig arranged the fixtures - a mix of ColorSpot and ColorWash 1200E ATs and ColorSpot and Wash 2500E ATs - across nine 'finger' trusses above the stage, and on a front truss.

On the floor were 12 ColorWash 2500E ATs and six ColorWash 1200E ATs, used for aerial beam work, effects and low level cross stage lighting - all adding a bit of additional drama and dimension to the stage.

The design also incorporated GLEC video screens hung in between the trusses, and Helmig tried to make the stage as open and accessible for sight-lines all around

USA - Bosch's Communications Systems Division has partnered with the NSCA Education Foundation to establish the Monte Wise Scholarship, an ongoing scholarship named in fond remembrance of Monte Wise - "one of the pro audio industry's great personalities and mentors" - who passed away on 30 September 2009. Monte was systems applications specialist, pro sound, for Bosch's Communications Systems Division.

"Monte touched many lives over the course of an exceptional career," says Daniel Nix, VP of sales, Americas, for Bosch's Communications Systems Division. "He was a mentor to many, and helped take hundreds of individuals and companies to the next level with education and technology. We were humbled by the amount of inquiries we received in the wake of his passing, from friends and colleagues asking 'Is there anything we can do?'

"The creation of the

USA - FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association), the international governing body of football, announced yesterday the appointment of producer Kevin Wall and his company Control Room as executive producer of the Official Kick-Off Celebration Concert of the 20100 FIFA World Cup South Africa.

Kicking off the FIFA World Cup on 10 June 2010 at the newly-renovated Orlando Stadium in Soweto/Johannesburg, this historic three-hour live concert event will showcase the music, sport and visual pageantry of South Africa. The event will feature musical performances by major international superstars and popular African artists collaborating together, along with special appearances by past and present football legends, and will be broadcast to networks around the world. All net proceeds will benefit 20 Centres for 2010, the official campaign of the 20

UK - An RSS M-400 48-channel digital console, complete with Digital Snake, and Cakewalk Sonar and REAC software, has been used to record a live album for up-and-coming indie rockers The Joy Formidable.

Backstage at north London's Garage venue, Roland Systems Group technical wizards Martin Thomas and Simon Kenning had good reason to admire the super-compact footprint of the RSS M-400 digital console, which enabled them to fit an entire live recording set-up as well as two engineers and a three-piece band into a 10'x 8' dressing room.

The RSS technology maintained a low profile in the club. The use of a single S-4000 Digital Snake stage box meant that the live recording team caused less than minimal disruption to the venue and the band's FOH engineer, yet was able to capture a live performance in 48kHz 24-bit broadcast-quality audio. Using the S-4000 Digital Snake 'standalone',

Belgium - Square Brussels, a new event space in the Belgian capital, recently purchased Studer Vista 5 and Vista 5 SR consoles as part of the sound reinforcement system for its auditorium. Belgium-based company Play, based in Nazareth, installed the consoles, which were purchased through Studer's Belgian representative HeynenNV.

Square Brussels offers 13,500sq.m of meeting rooms, exhibition space and a state-of-the-art auditorium. The venue is in the heart of Brussels and is located only 300m from the Royal Palace and next to the Museum of Arts and the Royal Library.

"The Studer Vista 5 and Vista 5 SR with its Vistonics interface are highly intuitive and very easy to use, which is perfect because during a live performance, the operator should be totally concerned with making the sound perfect as opposed to worrying about which button he is pressing," says Jos Jorisse

UK - Adlib has designed and installed an L-Acoustics dV-DOSC sound system into Manchester live music venue, Band on the Wall.

The landmark 350-capacity venue on Swan Street in the Northern Quarter of Manchester's city centre has just been completely renovated, restored and reborn by registered charity Inner City Music with the help of a £4 million combined award from the Arts Council England, Manchester City Council and Lottery Heritage Fund to transform the venue into a 21st century centre of music with strong community ties.

The system was designed by Adlib's Roger Kirby who says: "We all agreed that dV-DOSC rig would work best in the space offering a detailed high frequency and solid low end response, with the system also having adequate headroom for the eclectic programme of live events that are planned."

The music will encompass a wide range of musical g

Ireland - An Outline system reinforced the proceedings at Dublin's Storehouse 13, St. James Gate that marked 250 years of production of Guinness. To commemorate the occasion, Storehouse 13, which is a large hop store, was converted for one night into a live stage and TV studio.

3,000 ticket-winning guests were entertained by Sir Tom Jones, Estelle, Dizzee Rascal and Kasabian. The sound system - supplied by Britannia Row - was Outline's Butterfly: 12 CDH 483s per hang plus six Subtech 218s, powered by Outline's T9 amplifiers and controlled via Dolby Lake processing.

(Jim Evans)

Russia - Moscow-based L-Acoustics rental network agent Spin Music provided sound reinforcement for The Greatest Voices of Russia which took place at Sobornaya Square in the Kremlin.

This special event featured the Russian national orchestra and leading singers Anna Netrebko, Paata Burchuladze, Julia Gertseva and Sergey Skorokhodov, who performed Russian classical music by Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Mussorgsky, Glinka, Bortniansky, Prokofiev and Kastalsky.

Two hangs of 12 Kudo line source array cabinets were used for the main sound system, with two stacks of Kiva ultra compact line source array units and Kilo low frequency extensions for side coverage. Two Kiva speakers were also deployed to cover the front rows. Six SB218 subwoofers per side were set up in cardioid configuration to reduce low-end bleed on stage.

"Working on a square surrounded by cathedrals is

USA - House of Blues, Nashville, a four-studio recording facility formerly known as East Iris Studios, recently installed a Solid State Logic Matrix console to act as the centrepiece of the newly renovated Studio C.

House of Blues has worked with everyone from Miley Cyrus, Indigo Girls and Kid Rock to Faith Hill, Amy Grant and Dolly Parton. The studio complex is split between two buildings with the main Studio A and Studio B reserved for larger tracking and mixing projects and with Studio C designed to attract smaller budget projects that will benefit from Matrix.

"We had an engineer in the other day who tracked his project in a large studio, and tried to mix entirely in the box in his private studio," says Mike Paragone, studio manager for House of Blues, Nashville. "When we started, we brought up just two channels through Matrix and he was blown away by the so

Germany - Loudspeaker manufacturer dBTechnologies reports that working directly with employed representatives is proving to be a successful distribution strategy in some territories, with Benelux & France paving the way, and more recently Spanish and UK markets adopting the approach.

UK sales over the past year have been managed by Dave Kelland, an industry stalwart who draws on many years' experience in the pro audio world, having worked with numerous PA companies and prior to that, as a freelance sound engineer.

Kelland's sales success, coupled with the release of the Opera Digital and DVX professional speaker series' this year has led to the appointment of Richard Soper, who joined the team on 1 October as area sales manager for the south of England.

"Richard's bright, confident demeanour and previous experience in a technical sales role at Amber Sound stands him in

India - Harman Professional held a training seminar with Hi-Tech Audio Systems Pvt in New Delhi last week. The conference, which was held from 1-3 October was the first in a series of training seminars that will be held throughout India and was comprised of lectures in theory technology and integration coupled with hands-on demos and project work groups.

Last week's seminar was organised by Harman Professional¹s distributor, Hi-Tech Audio Systems Pvt and included presentations by regional sales director Sushil S. John that focused on the release of upcoming Harman products. In attendance were all of the master state dealers, dealers, rental companies, and AV integration companies from the North of India, which totalled 75 people.

"The seminar in New Delhi was a great success," John said. "Not only were we able to showcase different products and review our compa

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