Events

ABTT technical training

Details: 14 March 2016

UK - The Association of British Theatre Technicians will launch its annual Summer School 2005 at the A.C. Lighting North Trade Show being held at the Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds on 26 and 27 April.

ABTT Summer School 2005 will be held at Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry. Four Awards are being offered this summer. In addition to its Bronze for Stage Technicians, this year sees the launch of a Silver Award for Stage Technicians, a Silver Award for Sound Technicians and a Silver Award for Stage Electricians. For the first time, these Awards will have full accreditation from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, making the ABTT Awards the first accredited courses for technical and production practitioners in theatre.

The Bronze Award is five intensive days taking the following subjects: Electrical Fundamentals, Portable Appliance Testing, Knots & Spl

ABTT presents high-flying solutions

Details: 14 March 2016

UK - The ABTT Theatre Show 2005 (15-16 June, Royal Horticultural Halls, London) will present a variety of advanced products designed to enable safe working at heights, say the organizers. The new Work at Height Regulations apply the same restrictions to working at heights below two metres as have long been required at greater heights. Over two thirds of all injuries from falls are from heights below two metres, and to ignore the risks of falling, no matter the distance, potentially puts theatre technicians in serious breach of health and safety regulations.

The ABTT (the Association of British Theatre Technicians) has embraced the issue and will launch its draft for consultation of its Code of Safe Practice when Working at Height at the ABTT Theatre Show in June. Chairman of the ABTT's Safety Committee, David Adams explains: "Whilst designers can achieve much to reduce the

Speirs & Gregory to speak PALME

Details: 14 March 2016

UAE - PALME - the Middle East's premier professional sound, light, music, audio visual and systems integration exhibition, which runs from 24-26 April 2005 in Dubai, will feature a series of master classes and industry seminars specifically designed to help those involved in AV installation and event management keep up to speed with the latest products, services and solutions available, say the organizers, IIR. Held over the three days of the event, the sessions will be hosted by leading experts including leading architectural lighting designers Jonathan Speirs and Paul Gregory, renowned for international lighting design projects that include the Burj Al Arab and Golden Gate Bridge.

Jonathan Speirs' masterclasses at PALME 2005 will focus on three RIBA Stirling Prize (the UK Building of the Year award) projects, profiling the Swiss Re Tower by Foster and Partners, London, The Gat

Canegreen Commercial at the Savoy

Details: 14 March 2016

UK - The Spinal Research Top to Tail Dinner took guests into the world of James Bond and attracted the support of some leading celebrities in raising £80,000 at the Savoy this April.

Lorraine Kelly and Jim Rosenthal hosted 300 guests through a light hearted evening with a serious fund-raising purpose. A fast moving fashion show entertained guests with models including ex bond girls Maryam D'Abo and Caroline Bliss, joined by D'Arcy Bussel, Jilly Johnson and sporting icons David James, Richard Dunwoody, David Ginola and (hotly tipped as the next James Bond) actor Colin Salmon.

Sound engineer Richard Ryan skilfully mixed James Bond tracks to create a dynamic feature of the evening, he commented: "The fashion show was quite complicated due to the number of different tracks behind the catwalk parade. I introduced the stings behind each of the couples whilst keeping the backgr

Sanremo with Lighthouse

Details: 14 March 2016

Italy - Now in its 55th year, the Festival di Sanremo is Italy's own, and longer running, version of Eurovision. As usual, it took place in the Teatro Ariston di Sanremo from 1-5 March. It is always a visually spectacular affair and this year was no exception.

This year saw a whole new format to the show, which was broadcast across Italy on national TV station RAI. Hosts were Paolo Bonolis, director of the show, and popular TV personality, Antonella Clerici. Guest Stars included Mike Tyson, Vasco Rossi, Gwen Stefani, Michael Buble, Wil Smith and Argentinian singer Lola Ponce. The competition resembled Pop Idol, with two members of each group voted out and the remaining artists merged into one group, this continued until the winner was decided.

AV rental company Eurovideo developed a new concept in set design by placing Lighthouse LED modules in the risers of stairs at the rear

Hawthorn supplies for RSVP

Details: 14 March 2016

UK - Hawthorn was appointed as technical production contractors for the 2005 RSVP party at Olympia, supplying lighting, sound, AV, rigging and drapes.

With a low ceiling height and no provision for rigging Hawthorn decided to make a bold feature of the truss and created a ground support structure with lots of long spokes covering both the stage and the rest of the room. As UK dealers, Hawthorn used Prolyte's X30V truss due to its lightweight but superior strength, allowing large spans of truss with the minimum number of truss legs.

With only a 3m clearance, Hawthorn specified Mac 250's and Mac 300's - due to their small size, uplit with Thomas PIXELline battens. Working in conjunction with Mask Event Design and Production, Hawthorn sponsored the Event Talks area. Hawthorn draped the room in its white Expo Cloth, a fabric it imports for its light reflective abilities. These dra

LED Screen Hire at the Urban Music Festival

Details: 14 March 2016

UK - Hampshire-based LED screen specialists LED Screen Hire supplied large LED screens to the 2005 Nokia Urban Music Festival with the Princes Trust, via the event's production company, Nine Yards Productions. The two Barco D-Lite 7 screens - measuring 35 and 25 square metres respectively - were both onstage, upstage of the performance area, making a large asymmetric impact. Other video and broadcast hardware was supplied by CTV, and the event was broadcast on Channel 4.

LED Screen Hire also supplied 12 42 inch plasma screens around the arena , used for broadcast monitors. The project was handled for them by Nick Pask. Sound was supplied by SSE Hire and lighting by Siyan.

Princes Trust Event organiser Matt Donegan said: "It was a pleasure working with the professional team at LED Screen Hire - their ability to adapt with the minimum amount of fuss was much appreciated. Th

SPS Vision flies with Barco at London Air Show

Details: 14 March 2016

UK - SPS Vision provided a 5.4m x 4.1m Barco LED screen to organisers Clarion Events for another spectacular London Air Show at Earls Court on April 8 to 10.

The screen was flown in the centre of the main exhibition hall. Underneath it, 30 computer pods with flight simulator games were in place for the public to test their skills. As well as relaying giant images of the flight simulator games, the screen carried key information such as the seminar programme and promotional material for exhibitors. SPS's Bryan Leathem comments: "It was a great example of making the technology work hard to earn its keep."

(Sarah Rushton-Read)

Pharos takes accolade at Lightfair

Details: 14 March 2016

UK - The Pharos Lighting Playback Controller has won the Best of Category Award for the Controls and Controls Software category at the Lightfair International 2005 tradeshow in New York. The award, announced at the show at the Jacob K. Javits Center on April 12, follows the Pharos' acclaimed initial showings at LDI 2004 in Las Vegas and ARC 05 in London.

Richard Mead, managing director of Pharos Architectural Controls, said: "The response at Lightfair from designers and installers alike was tremendous. The Pharos LPC bridges the gap between entertainment and architectural lighting in a way that proves attractive to users in retail, themed or architectural environments. Pharos LPC is a solid-state, fit-and-forget solution for control of colour mixing fixtures, conventional dimmable fixtures and ballasts, and automated moving lights using either DMX or DALI protocols. The uni

St Mary's licensed for Rocket Man

Details: 14 March 2016

UK - St Mary's Stadium, the home of Southampton Football Club, has secured the opportunity to hold concerts at the ground during the closed season, the first of which will feature prolific singer and song writer Elton John to a sold-out crowd of 35,000 at the stadium in May.

St Mary's is not alone in a year that sees a significant increase in the number of football stadiums hosting concerts in the UK to provide an additional revenue stream and bring entertainment to their areas during the closed season. Some have hosted concerts before, while for others such as St Mary's it is a first, but in all cases the potential for noise upsetting local residents is a major hurdle to over-come in securing the all-important entertainment licence.

Acoustics specialists Capita Symonds has helped many UK sports venues secure concert licences during 2005, and the company was brought in by St M

Sunbaba in spanking new MTV challenge

Details: 14 March 2016

UK - Sunbaba created a series of branded digitally printed screens for MTV earlier this month which were used as a backdrop and branding for their Spanking New Music Week event at Manchester Metropolitan University Student's Union.

MTV's three-night event featured some of the UK's newest acts from Jem and The Longcut to The Editors, who are expected to break into the charts this year, performing in front of a series of DigiMesh backdrops produced by Sunbaba. The screens were digital printed for clarity.

In addition to the main stage backdrops Sunbaba also produced digitally printed PA Scrims using its new DigiSound scrim material which allows the sound to pass through little signal degradation.

(Sarah Rushton-Read)

Cobourne joins Showsec

Details: 14 March 2016

UK - Phil Cobourne has joined Showsec as UK Safety & Project Manager. He will primarily work on large scale events and develop the company's health and safety consultancy service.

Previously employed by the Tussauds Group at Warwick Castle, his 11 years there included numerous events from the castle's in-house classical concerts, the film première for King Arthur, three episodes of Mastermind, the first National Lottery outside broadcast and pop concerts ranging from Simply Red in 1999 to the Summer Nights concerts in 2004.

Showsec is servicing a steadily increasing number of one-off and annual events requiring professional crowd management, security and health and safety services. MD Mark Harding commented: "Phil brings a wealth of knowledge and experience and he will help to increase the momentum we have towards a health and safety conscious

New Orleans City Hall parties with Symnet

Details: 14 March 2016

USA - While noise, feedback, uneven coverage and even unintelligibility are acceptable, perhaps even preferable, on Bourbon Street, they were deemed unacceptable when the city's various governing bodies convene at New Orleans City Hall. Specifically, concern centred around the main council chambers, the site of numerous meetings by panels handling the city's business, such as the city council and the planning commission.

The root of the problem lies in an antiquated analog sound system that grew increasingly incapable of handling mounting audio demands. New World Resources Corp., a New Orleans-based AV systems integrator, was brought in to tackle the issue. "The system was really giving them a hard time," said company president David Humphreys. "They tried various short fixes, but they finally decided that it was simply a bad design. They agreed with us that a new

Colorado Convention Center shines with Martin

Details: 14 March 2016

USA - The Colorado Convention Center in Denver has completed a major $268 million expansion/renovation that makes it the 15th largest conference center in the USA. More than 100 national meeting planners played a major role in designing the expansion, a 292,000 sq. ft. seamless addition to the facility, which includes a new 50,000 sq. ft. flexible space ballroom. The new ballroom is divisible into 18 different rooms, offering literally hundreds of possible configurations. The 'wow' factor, however, comes when guests gaze up at the built-in colour-changing fiber optic lighting located in the ceiling.

Overhead sparkle 4,540 teardrop Swarovski crystal points powered by 72 Martin Architectural FiberSource CMY 150 fiber optic illuminators and Advanced Lighting Systems FocaLyte™ Fiber Optic Cable. The Martin FiberSource illuminators are located in the ceiling, at the extreme edge

Marantz CDR300 speeds National Band Festival

Details: 14 March 2016

UK - Organisers of the National Concert Band Festival say they have found the perfect recording device in their attempt to merge a playback CD of each band's work with constructive appraisal from an adjudication panel. Consolidated as a charity, each of the 50 bands participating in this year's national festival - held at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester - was recorded on a Marantz CDR300 Professional portable CD recorder.

This event is an adjudication by professional musicians and composers against a set criteria, based on musicality and tonality. These recordings enable up to 160 bands, at the regional stage, to assess how well they are progressing. NCBF previously used a battery-powered portable cassette recorder, but has now switched to the CDR300, according to NCBF business manager Kevin Cooke, using one channel to record the band direct to CD via a Behring

RCF UK announces customer open day

Details: 14 March 2016

UK - RCF has announced it is to host a two-day customer Open Day 'In House' exhibition, at Coombe Abbey Hotel, Brinklow Road, Coventry, on June 28 and 29. Opening hours are 10am-7pm on the Tuesday and 10am-4pm on the Wednesday.

During the event RCF plans to show many of its professional and commercial audio sound systems. These will include active demonstrations of the new ART Series and the larger format 4PRO Active Speaker System, including the new 4PRO 7001 4 Way Active System, launched at this year's Frankfurt exhibition. The Open Day will also see the first full UK demonstration of the RCF Acustica compact speakers.

RCF's Phil Price commented: "It is important for our customers to be able to see and hear our new speakers systems. This year alone RCF have introduced new models in all our major ranges as a well as a complete new range of Monitor Q Installation speakers

ACE PA selects Allen & Heath

Details: 14 March 2016

UK - ACE PA selected a 40-channel Allen & Heath ML3000 VCA live sound console configured with six stereo channels to provide sound reinforcement at the 80th Rotary International Annual Conference, held at Manchester's MEN Arena in April.

Production company Comtec Presentations appointed ACE PA to provide a PA system for the various speakers and performing artists during the three-day conference and celebration. Approximately 3,000 club members attended this year's event. For the conference - where guest speakers included HRH Princess Anne, Duncan Goodhew and Orpheus Trust founder Richard Stilgoe - there were inputs from two lectern mics, six radio mics, with VT, PC, DVD, CD and MD feeds. The first evening's entertainment included performances from a steel band, three school orchestras and a 200-strong choir, supported by carefully placed condenser microphones. Other entertainmen

D5 races ahead at Toyota

Details: 14 March 2016

USA - The Universal Forum of Cultures, with walls built from coral-like blue concrete and water flowing from a giant reservoir on the roof to keep it cool in summer, is a spectacular architectural addition to Barcelona's seafront. Known locally as the Forum, it was, quite fittingly since the Toyota Prius was the official car of Forum Barcelona 2004, the site of Toyota's European Regional Dealer Managers Conference 2005, an event produced by Jack Morton Worldwide. Sound was provided by UK sound production company Delta Audio, with DiGiCo D5 Live consoles providing their mixing solutions.

"In the past this event has been held in the Palau Saint Jordi in Barcelona, and also in Lisbon," explains Delta Audio's sound designer for the event, Jim Lambert. "It's a conference and party for 5,000 Toyota car dealers and managers from around Europe, held over two days. This ye

DALD lights UK Pavilion at World Expo

Details: 14 March 2016

UK - David Atkinson Lighting Design (DALD) recently completed the lighting of the UK Pavilion at World Expo, Aichi, Japan. The theme of Expo is Nature's Wisdom, with the aim to raise people's awareness of the global environment and explore the ways to promote a sustainable future. The UK pavilion called www.my-earth.org.uk was designed and created by Ten Alps Events, Landesign and the Natural History Museum (London).

The pavilion site incorporates a garden and an internal exhibition space. Both the garden and internal space contain specially commissioned artworks by nine renowned British contemporary artists on the theme of mankind's relationship with nature.

Although the garden would be viewed during daylight hours throughout the summer months DALD chose to illuminate the space for dusk and overcast conditions. The pre show queuing area consists of large 'leaf-filigree' woode

'BBC' con-man warning

Details: 14 March 2016

UK - PLASA Media has received a warning about a con-man operating in the London area who has stolen several thousand pounds worth of equipment from a London-based AV hire company. The culprit gave his name as David Jones from BBC Worldwide, and presents convincing paperwork - and an internal answerphone message at the BBC itself - to back up the claim. He then collected, via courier, a range of equipment including laptop computers and plasma screens, and disappeared.

The BBC is aware of the problem, we are told. If anything suspicious arises, please contact Simon Brown at the BBC's investigations department on 0208 752 5094.

(Lee Baldock)

Clarion Events NEC launched

Details: 14 March 2016

UK - Clarion Events Ltd (CEL) and the NEC Group's Centre Exhibitions are to form a dynamic new joint venture, to be called Clarion Events NEC Ltd (CENL). The two will come together in an innovative partnership to drive forward The NEC's exhibition organizing capability and maximize opportunities to stage and acquire new shows. The new partnership will combine the expertise of the two companies, bringing together CEL's creative approach with the NEC's formidable brand position.

CEL, which manages the PLASA Show on behalf of the Professional Lighting and Sound Association (PLASA), is the former in-house organizer of Earls Court and Olympia Group, and completed a management buyout last year. CEL will invest a two-thirds majority share in the joint venture which will acquire a portfolio of 10 shows including Antiques for Everyone and The Classic Motor Show. Simon Kimble, managing di

ABTT Show flying high

Details: 14 March 2016

UK - The UK 's dedicated technical showcase for contemporary solutions in theatre and auditoria, the ABTT Theatre Show 2005 (15-16 June, Royal Horticultural Halls) will present a variety of advanced automation and control systems for power flying, designed in line with the new industry standard - BS 7906-1 (Use of lifting equipment for performance, broadcast and similar applications. Part 1 Code of Practice for installation, use and removal of above stage equipment (excluding trusses and towers).

The ABTT has been closely involved in writing BS 7906-1, which complements the existing BS 7905-1. It draws heavily upon the existing ABTT published Code of Practice for Flying and contains additional advice on the use of power flying. The ABTT Code will be revised to reflect the new Standard, once the full impact of the Work at Height Regulations is assessed. Pressures from the Work at

White Light supports Rugby charities

Details: 14 March 2016

UK - White Light recently lit a charity dinner for the Rugby Football Union at their Twickenham headquarters, held to raise money for the RFU's two nominated charities - SPIRE, the official RFU charity that assists players who have suffered permanent total disability through rugby, which is currently supporting around 115 ex-players, and Show Racism The Red Card (SRTRC), which aims to combat racism through education and the use of professional sports players as role models.

The rig for the evening, overseen by White Light's Jon Coventry, included 24 of White Light's Exhibition Uplighters, 26 ChromaQ ColorBlock LED fixtures, eight Par cans, a Source Four followspot and a Zero 88 XLS lighting console along with associated rigging, cabling, colour and control. "We received lots of positive feedback from the guests," commented Sharon Moy-Taylor, the RFU's retail operations

Maltbury Staging with DV8

Details: 14 March 2016

UK - The internationally renowned "physical theatre" group DV8 embarked upon a world tour this spring with their new production Just for Show. The performance is about inventing a new reality for yourself when the one you encounter is not what you hoped for. This is an especially resonant theme for a touring theatre company as each venue throws up its own particular problems which have to be rapidly overcome before the show can begin. And first among these is the stage itself.

DV8 bought an initial package of Metrodeck last year and have now invested in substantial further stock which is used to build a large raked stage. The ease with which a stable Metrodeck stage can be set up and taken down is a massive help to a touring company - especially one whose work is built around physical movement. The performers must be able to trust the stage they are standing on.

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