Robe - LEADERBOARD - Feb 2025
PLASA Show 2025 - Banner - June-Aug 2025

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Abu Dhabi - United Arab Emirates capital Abu Dhabi's newly-built Heritage Theatre boasts, as well as breathtaking décor, a state-of-the-art audio infrastructure that will allow it to be monitored from several thousand miles away in the United Kingdom, using QSC's QSControl.net technology. Perched atop a hill overlooking the Persian Gulf, the 550-seat theatre was designed as a multi-purpose venue, hosting historical and folkloric events, lectures, and conventions, as well as doubling as a cinema with surround sound. UK-based audio company LSI Projects specified QSC amplification and processing and performed the full system integration, including sound, video, lighting, engineering and project management, for Abu Dhabi's Ministry of Heritage.

QSC PowerLight PL4.0, PL236 and PL218 amplifiers drive the main PA, and are fitted with DSP-4 signal processing modules, which add high-pow

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UK - A 40-channel Allen & Heath GL3300 multi-purpose live console has been installed in one of the largest concert and conference venues in the west of England. The Forum, located in Bath's city centre, features a 1700-seater auditorium, which was in need of an audio upgrade. The venue is a converted 1930's super-cinema, which has been extensively renovated in its original art deco style by current owners, Bath City Church. Its0 main function is as the home of Bath City Church, a vibrant Christian group with a growing membership of around 500 people. The auditorium's sound system, installed in the early 1990s, is operated by a team of 15 volunteers from within the church, comprising four teams of three sound engineers working on a rota basis, plus two riggers and a team leader.

"Selection of a suitable replacement desk was a project in itself," commented team leader Ch

LSi 40 - Banner - July-Nov 2025

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UK - Serious Stages supplied a 12 metre Orbit stage and roof system for the final of TV series Celebrity Big Brother at Elstree Studios. The latest Big Brother winner was ex-Happy Mondays dancer Bez - initially considered an outsider - who attracted huge public support along the way and squeezed Blazin' Squad rapper Kenzie and actress Brigitte Neilson into second and third places respectively.

Serious Stages was contacted just five days before the final by producers Endemol, after deciding they wanted the stage for the final evictions live on the Sunday. Eight Serious crew, led by Shaun Dixon, erected a standard one-bay Orbit roof system, 12 metres wide by 12 metres deep. The stage was completed and ready for lighting, audio, set and other production elements to commence their get-in on the Saturday morning. At the end of the show itself, the house guests were inte

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UK - London's glamorous Thai-theme restaurant and club, the Sugar Hut, has opened a large sister venue in Brentwood, Essex. Housed in a lavishly renovated Grade I listed building, the Sugar Hut Village features a high-quality but completely invisible dancefloor and club room sound system from ElectroVoice. Visually, its interior owes much of its success to the inspired use of LED effects. Cosmic Electronics, which was responsible for designing and installing the sound and lighting infrastructure, approached Lighting Effects Distribution, and 40 Solar L80 PCB LED effects (with DMX drivers) and a set of Alkalite Octopod 80s were used to colour wash the multi-zone venue.

Following the huge success of the original Sugar Hut in Fulham, London, owners Chris George, Gary Smith and Frazer Donaldson have taken on a 15th century coaching inn in the heart of Brentwood village. With its un

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UK - Cadac's S-Type console has had two high profile deployments in the Far East recently, involving Japan's prestigious Shiki Theatre Company and one of Indonesia's leading rental companies, Sumber Ria. Shiki Theatre Company added two S-Types to its complement of Cadac consoles for the opening of two new productions in January - Phantom of the Opera at the Dentsu Shiki Theatre SEA in Shiodome, Tokyo, as well as Evita which opened on 27th January at the Shiki Theatre AKI, also in Tokyo. In Indonesia, Sumber Ria recently chose an S-Type to tour artist Krisdayanti (KD) in late 2004, as a high quality analogue alternative to their usual analogue and digital console hire stock.

Shiki Theatre Company currently stages an average of seven performances every day of the year, with seven theatres of its own and eleven productions running simultaneously throughout Japan at an

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UK - Twelve James Thomas PixelPAR 90 LED fixtures are at the core of a new high-impact exterior architectural lighting scheme at the Royal & SunAlliance building in Bristol. The Grade II listed West Gate building was designed by renowned British architect Sir Giles Gilbert Scott - who's work included national landmarks like Battersea & Bankside Power Stations, Liverpool's Anglican Cathedral and the classic red British Telephone Box.

Royal & SunAlliance was keen to stamp its own modern - and lasting - identity on the building for the 21st century. It also wanted an innovative and high quality scheme to reinforce West Gate as a prominent city centre landmark. An additional challenge was that the 'Listed' status meant no signage could be attached to the exterior. Keen to embrace new technology, Royal & SunAlliance decided that lighting was an inventive solution that would also crea

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The Netherlands - Luxeon LED luminaires have been installed by Germany's Bocom as the sole light source in the bar of the Hotel Anna in Munich, Lumileds' LEDs creating a key attraction through the use of dynamic colour-changing light. In total over 1800 LEDs from Lumileds, housed in 12 luminaires throughout the bar area, are used to create the control and imagery needed for this designer hotel.

Harald Spilker, sales and marketing manager of Bocom GmbH, said: "The success and on-going high performance of the Hotel Anna solution underlines the benefits of Luxeon LEDs. Creatively we were able to achieve far greater control and dynamism over the lighting solution, while the minimal maintenance and on-going cost savings provide the hotel with a high-performance, cost-effective installation." Bocom is also responsible for the 35,000 Euro lighting refurbishment of the Rhein T

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UK - Brighton Film Studios, the facilities subsidiary of The Brighton Film School, has just taken delivery of the new JVC DLA-HD2K high definition projector. Franz von Habsburg, director at Brighton Film School, first saw the projector at VMI's new High Definition and Broadcast facility in Soho. Brighton Film Studios use the HD2K's special video processor unit, which accepts a wide range of HD and SD signals. It up-converts and rescales all signals to output 1920 x 1080 progressively scanned images which are transmitted via DVI signal to the HD2K projector.

"What I liked about the HD2K was the scaler," commented Franz who, as a BAFTA judge, has been using it to screen BAFTA award entries prior to casting his votes. "It ramps up any input of a lower standard to HD and produces an image that's outstanding and virtually pixel-free to the naked eye." The HD2K has

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UK - The Wales Millennium Centre (WMC), nestling at the water's edge of Cardiff Bay, which describes itself as 'the most exciting cultural initiative happening in Europe today', officially opened at the end of 2004, and attention to detail throughout the build was meticulous. Sound and lighting contractor Stage Electrics called upon the expertise and equipment of Ampetronic for an induction loop system to allow those with hearing disability to access audio through a substantial portion of the facility. The building contains 5,000 tonnes of structural steel which can absorb most of the energy from an induction loop system, while the floor of one of the main areas to be covered rests on steel sheets.

"Ampetronic performed a site survey at Easter of 2003," says Stage Electrics' Jonathan Porter Goff. "We'd worked with them before and we were very pleased to be workin

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UK - London based production house GSP Ltd appointed Drapes specialist Blackout and sound specialists Canegreen Commercial to help realise the setting for the film premiere of The Phantom Of The Opera, staged at the National Hall, Olympia. The movie is an adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber's romantic stage musical.

Blackout's project manager Chris Brain collaborated with GSP's managing director Emma Gold and GSP's appointed set designer to dress the venue to their specifications. The set recreated in minute detail an opulent theatrical environment in the film's signatory red and black colours. To set the scene an eclectic mix of props was sourced both from the movie and GSP's creative team. The stage was crowned by a 5 x 8m 25,000-crystal chandelier supplied by Swarovski. As a finishing touch 1,000 black-edged red roses, supplied by Jayne Copperwaite, were suspended on fish

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USA - Hummingbird Nest Ranch, a new world-class equestrian facility located 35 miles northwest of Los Angeles in Ventura County, has become the site of the world's first Soundweb London installation. Installed in November, two new CobraNet-equipped BSS BLU-80 units are now being utilised by the 140-acre ranch to provide digital signal processing and routing for up to a dozen different speaker zones. One of the DSP units is located in the 17,000sq.ft clubhouse's main audio rack, while the other is housed in a rack on castors designed to roll out to the judge's stand for events held in the Spotted Elk Ring, a 600ft x 300ft International Grand Prix field.

The BSS processor pair collectively interfaces with nine Crown CTs 600 amplifiers, all outfitted with IQ-PIP-USP3/CN cards, which drive approximately 30 JBL Control 30 loudspeakers in the primary and secondary arenas, clubhouse,

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UK - Autograph Sales Ltd, the UK's leading professional audio distributor, has supplied and installed a range of loudspeakers cabinets from EM Acoustics for England's groundbreaking Eden Project, Cornwall. The system was initially supplied for A Time of Gifts, a season of events that celebrated Christmas and other global festivals, all of which share many common themes. The events take place in the Warm Temperate Biome, and include the long awaited official Eden Project soundtrack First Breath. The soundtrack, which utilises the newly installed EM Acoustics system, is accompanied by a live performance three times a week - alongside a projected film journey.

Due to the size of the Biome, Mike Mann, Autograph Sales' project consultant, together with Lucy Gaskell, Eden Project's consulting technical manager, selected the 13 cabinets from EM Acoustics. EMS-81s, an EMS-

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UK - London's glamorous Thai-theme restaurant and club, the Sugar Hut, has opened a large sister venue in Brentwood, Essex. Housed in a lavishly renovated Grade I listed building, the Sugar Hut Village features a high-quality but completely invisible dancefloor and clubroom sound system from ElectroVoice.

Following the success of the original Sugar Hut in Fulham, London, owners Chris George, Gary Smith and Frazer Donaldson have taken on a 15th century coaching inn in the heart of Brentwood village. With its unique galleried courtyard playing an important role at the heart of the venue, the old hotel is now home to six different themed clubrooms, bars and restaurants. As a whole, the Sugar Hut Village holds nearly 900 people, dispersed through the Karma Bar, the Krug Suite, the Gallery Bar, the main restaurant, and other areas.

Having worked on the Sugar Hut in London and its s

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Germany - In early December, TV station Kabel 1 presented a major evening show, running through the '100 best films of all time', including classic blockbusters like Alien, Das Boot, E.T., Platoon, Schindlers List, Spider Man and Lord of the Rings. More than 350 Pulsar ChromaPanels were used in the set design, supplied by Procon and installed by Schall & Shein Design, Münich. They were used to create the matching atmosphere for the show in Bavaria Studios, Unterföhring. The set and design for the ChromaPanels was originally designed by Florian Wieder for the Pro7 production Geniale Erfinder-der Wissenspreis.

Daniel from Schall & Schein commented: "LED lights have high efficiency, their effects are produced through RGB colour mixing, they radiate homogeneous light and are absolutely lightweight. The whole design of the set was designed so the LEDs could be controlled in c

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UK - For the past three years, those in the north east of England have witnessed a giant concrete, metal and glass construction rising in Gateshead, on the south bank of the River Tyne. Now The Sage Gateshead - a brand new £70m home for musical education and entertainment - is open for business.

Gateshead Council is extraordinarily keen for the arts to be inclusive, encouraging as many people as possible to be involved. The purpose behind The Sage is to mix education and inspiration, combining state-of-the-art facilities for hands-on learning and performance spaces.

Beneath the metal and glass outer shell there are six separate buildings, which contain four main performance venues, a 26-room music education centre, ExploreMusic (a high-tech hands-on education facility run by Gateshead Libraries), a shop/box office, five front of house bars, a café and brasserie.

Interestin

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Italy - In Venice, leading Italian PA rental company Audio Uno has flown Nexo GEO S speaker arrays in one of the most exquisite architectural settings in the world. The historic Gran Teatro La Fenice de Venezia, which dates back to 1792, has been completely restored to its original glory following a devastating fire in 1996. Audio Uno was called upon to provide a premier-quality sound reinforcement system for the first major event to take place in the Gran Teatro since its renovation and re-opening. The Premio Campiello is Italy's top competition for writers, and this was the first occasion the prestigious awards ceremony had been held in the Fenice.

For the 2500-capacity theatre, Audio Uno supplied a GEO S tangent-array system which was configured in left and right arrays of eight GEO S830 cabinets each side. Two CD12 sub-bass bins were included on each side of the stage, and

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USA - Fur, in Washington DC, is a new multi-level entertainment establishment that's been drawing record crowds since it's opening late last year. Fur features a sophisticated décor, including the trademark mink-covered walls, but more importantly, it's the state-of-the-art EAW Avalon sound system that keeps the devoted patrons coming back for more.

Designed by John Fiorito, owner of OHM Productions and installed by his associate Jeff Darby, the EAW Avalon system was conceived during the renovation stage of the classic 1890s building. "Because we entered the renovation stage early, we were able to design the floor plan around the Avalon system itself," explained Fiorito. "As a result, Fur's Avalon system is cleverly integrated into all areas of the club whilst not detracting from the meticulous décor."

The main floor, which hosts the stage and dance flo

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UK - Software provider Stardraw.com will formally launch its latest application, Stardraw Control, at NSCA 2005. Previewed at PLASA in London, the application has already generated a huge amount of excitement amongst manufacturers and systems specialists who have welcomed Stardraw's new approach to solving the problem of controlling heterogeneous systems.

Stardraw Control generates standalone, customized control programs that can manage any type of addressable equipment from any manufacturer over any communications infrastructure. Instead of being locked into closed architectures wherever system control, monitoring or signal routing has been required, Stardraw Control offers systems integrators an open, software-based, unified control framework that can manage the entire system with a single application, regardless of system complexity.

Stardraw Control is fast, powerful,

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UK - When Umbaba opened to a select clientele recently, it completed a trio of exclusive London West End venues equipped from the ground up with ATC transparent reference monitors. Overseen by acoustician Nick Whitaker, the Umbaba system came about as a development of the PA they had designed and installed at Aura and Chinawhite. The guiding influence had been Freddie Moss, who has a strong financial stake in both Aura and Chinawhite, and was introduced to the ATC sound by Whitaker himself.

ATC's method is to use recording studio quality loudspeakers in slightly greater numbers to give enhanced sound performance and extended listening comfort. "The major advantage in the greatly reduced distortion over a PA-type system," says ATC's R&D engineer, Ben Lilly. "Distortion is the major cause of listener fatigue and discomfort."

"We wanted hi-fi quality bu

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UK - The Sage Gateshead, the stunning new £70m home for live music in the North of England, is at the heart of the regeneration of Tyneside. Funded by the largest Arts Lottery grant outside London, The Sage Gateshead is the first building for the performing arts to be designed by Foster and Partners and aims to be an inclusive, open-for-everyone music venue. It includes two concert halls, the Northern Rock Foundation Hall for rehearsal and performance and a 25 room Music Education Centre designed to pioneer a fresh approach to musical discovery. Theatre Projects Consultants (TPC) was responsible for the technical design, working with acousticians Arup Acoustics.

Hall One, with a capacity of 1650, is the largest of the two concert halls and uses retractable acoustic curtains, as does Northern Rock Foundation Hall, whereas the unusual design of Hall Two called for acoustic banne

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UK - Birmingham-based AV installation company Argus Services is creating something of a benchmark for sound reinforcement systems among the leading football clubs in the UK, having recently installed Martin Audio's AM Stadium Series loudspeakers cabinets at three Premier Division clubs.

The latest to install the specially-designed weather-proofed cabinets is West Bromwich Albion FC. Argus has added seven AM15 cabinets to the main stand at West Brom's Hawthorns stadium. Jerry Matthews of Argus explains that "it's a deep tiered stand, and, although there was already a single row of speakers at the front, the further you went up the rows, the less you could hear. We've had to mount a row of Martin Audio AM15s about 25ft up the stand, just about where the directors sit!" All the AM15's have been suspended on custom-built brackets. "These enable us to do everything fr

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USA - At the Las Vegas Hilton, High End Systems products have been installed at the new Barry Manilow Theatre - which opens on 24 February - for his year-long engagement, Barry Manilow: The Music and Passion. PRG Las Vegas is supplying the equipment, which includes six DL1 digital light fixtures, four Catalyst Pro media servers, 19 x.Spot and 24 Studio Color 575 moving lights, and control from a Wholehog 3 console.

LD Seth Jackson and set designer Jim Lenahan team up for the show. Says Jackson: "This is home for a year. Barry's done everything in his live shows, so this allows us to go somewhere different because now the limits of touring are off the table. It's a nice approach."

The DL1s will hang on the line sets over the main section of the stage on each side. "We're using them to do beam effects in the air, we're using them to light the band, we're

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USA - The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) - the organization which awards the famous Oscars each year - plays a much wider role in the day-to-day workings of Hollywood. As a large organization holding many meetings and conferences, the Academy recently undertook an expansion and modernization of its main Los Angeles conference room, which includes the installation of Sennheiser' ME36 condenser microphone.

Los Angeles-based Offenhauser/Mekeel Architects oversaw the redesign of the AMPAS room, and Warner Constructors, the firm behind many of Disney's theme parks, spearheaded construction. To create the room's audio and video systems, and provide acoustic design, Offenhauser/Mekeel brought in Menlo Scientific Acoustics, who have brainstormed acoustical and presentation system designs for venues including the Getty Center and the Getty Villa Museums. Menlo princ

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UK - Following the release of Stardraw Control Beta 1 last month, software provider Stardraw.com has announced the public availability of Stardraw Control Beta 2 with immediate effect, prior to its formal launch scheduled for NSCA next month. A community of nearly 600 systems specialists was involved in the Beta 1 test phase and further participants in the Beta 2 test phase are similarly invited. Stardraw Control Beta 2 offers enhanced stability and applicability over the first Beta version, which was developed on the Microsoft.net v2 platform, which is itself still in the beta testing stage. As there is no firm release date for MS.net framework v2, Stardraw has released Stardraw Control Beta 2 on MS.net v1.1, the current release version. "It will be very easy to port everything back over to MS.net v2 when it is formally released later this year," commented Stardraw.com
  1. The Junction's new theatre
  2. XS!TE: major new venue for Yorkshire
  3. Get Connected at PLASA 2005
  4. LED lights up Umbaba
  5. Luxury hotel for Edinburgh
  6. Affordable power flying
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