USA - Color Kinetics Inc (CKI) has announced the unveiling of its latest landmark installation, encompassing more than 1,800 LED-based fixtures as part of a lighting renovation project for Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). Based on preliminary operation and testing, the LED-based system is expected to consume just 25% of the total energy drawn by the previous fixtures, while also reducing maintenance and cutting the number of electrical vendors required from six to two.
The project called for the replacement of five-year-old metal halide fixtures within 26 glass pylons leading to the airport's entrance, known as the famed LAX Gateway. Ranging in height from 25 to 110ft, the translucent pylons can now display custom-designed colour-changing effects employing CKI's Chromacore technology, as opposed to the use of glass filters, coloured gels, and electro-mechanical colour sc
UK - Over the past two years, Birmingham-based Dolphin Media has systematically been upgrading the news studios of all 13 regions in the ITV network, using rear-projected 160in dnp optical screens from Paradigm Audio Visual. But they were forced to break from their standard model when it came to equipping the three ITV Meridian studios near Southampton.
Covering the East, South and West services of the Meridian region, the station wanted to replace the Perspex prints in their three news studios on the Solent Business Park with widescreen projection - but only had the minimum of rear projection space behind the existing set in which to work.
The challenge was to mount a rig that would enable projection onto the TV Studio version of dnp's Giant Wide Angle Studio screen. While the images are shot in 4:3 aspect ratio, the custom-cut screen (trimmed to 3209mm x 1309mm) would be des
The Radisson SAS Resort on the island of Djerba (Tunisia) has been equipped with the most modern dimmer technology from MA Lighting. The luxury hotel with its approximate 300 rooms and suites focusses on MA digital dimmer, WM' 12 x 3 kVA for the complete installation. The units have a robust coated 19"/ 14 HE steel housing for mounting on walls. They were installed in August by the Tunisian MA distributor MediaCom.
The 44 wall-mounted digital dimmers consist of 12 single 3 kVA dimmers (without RCD) have a large graphic display which shows status values and special functions as well as phase control display. The lighting control, which ranges from classic lights to professional projectors, is via Creston.
Patio Rosinus was responsible for the lighting design of the hotel, with Moris Brill Lighting Design as the executive company.
UK - Live event company Show Presentation Services (SPS) has been awarded the contract to deliver exciting new audio-visual services to customers at the NEC, in Birmingham. The company is the NEC's first ever in-house service provider that can offer everything from simple AV technology to fully-crafted and supported production.
Paul Thandi, recently announced CEO of the NEC Group, said: "Service is at the core of our business, and improving our customer offer to provide and deliver first class audio visual services is part of the vision shared at the NEC. This initiative underlies our continual focus on putting our customers first and leading the marketplace. Ultimately we want to ensure that every live event has tomorrow's technology, wrapped up in excellent service and delivery focus. We are delighted to have SPS on board to help achieve this."
UK - Now that the dust has settled on this year's PLASA Show, the organisers of next year's show - the newly-formed PLASA Events Ltd - are looking forward to building on this week's hugely successful 2006 event - the last to be organised on PLASA's behalf by Clarion Events.
Exact visitor figures will be released in due course, following the independent ABC Audit of the figures. However, early indications are that PLASA '06 may even have surpassed last year's PLASA Show (which was memorable for its frenetic business activity) with a notable increase in visitor numbers, and a very strong international attendance.
Many of the exhibitors that the PLASA Media team spoke to across during the four days of the show praised both the quality of the customers they had been seeing, and the large numbers of international visitors from all around of the world. Despite a relatively 'quiet' S
UK - tsg has recently completed the installation of a promedia hard disk player and audio system at the new Sam & Maxies restaurant in the Trafford Centre, Manchester. This Sam & Maxies, which is part of La Tasca Group Plc, is the second outlet to be opened during 2006 and is the third brand within the Group, which already operates La Vina and La Tasca.
Essentially a bar, grill and smokehouse, Sam & Maxies offers a subtle, more mature offer of 'Americana' but is not overly themed. Targeted at families, especially those with children of a school age, Sam & Maxies is an elevated offer of the typical American restaurants found within the UK today, with the children's menu being a scaled down version of the adult menu. Music is an integral part in establishing an appropriate dining experience and James Horler, chief executive of La Tasca Group, turned to tsg and its candyrock music
UK - Andrew Lloyd Webber's stage musical Evita has returned to the West End twenty-eight years after it first opened 28 years ago. Advances in technology down the decades see the production enjoying the latest generation of audio products, including DPA microphones which are being used across the entire cast.
"Radio microphone and miniature microphone technology in particular has had a huge impact on musical theatre," says sound designer Mick Potter, who specified the DPA mics, having used them extensively on all his sound designs since Saturday Night Fever in 1998. "The amount of frequencies now available for reliable use means miking all performers in a cast of 30 or 40 is no longer an issue. Transmitters are so small that on this production, female cast members wear them in their wigs, meaning no visible cable or transmitter packs at all. This is
UK - Knight Sound & Light have equipped a large Polish community centre in south London with a new technology infrastructure - built around 24 of Wharfedale's full-range Programme 50's.
Hamilton House in Balham - originally a gift from Lord Nelson to Lady Emma Hamilton and later owned by the Kray Twins, has operated as the White Eagle Club and hosted a wide range of Polish community activities since the 1960's.
While front-of-house operates as a bar/restaurant for the Polish community, the 400-capacity multi-function room is used for additional activities including karaoke nights, discos and live music.
The hall was in a run-down state when Magda Harvey took over the premises last year. The services of freelance consultant/DJ Robert Czekalski were enlisted and on advice from Knight Sound & Light, he opted for a Wharfedale solution. "We had experienced environmental heal
USA - In Cleveland, Ohio, the Browns Stadium's seven year old sound system has been revamped with the assistance of Nashville-based Durrell Acoustic Solutions. Durrell, a sports stadium audio specialist whose resume includes the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the homes of the Kansas City Chiefs and Cincinnati Bengals, determined that approximately 90% of the stadium's loudspeaker drivers showed signs of damage from the elements.
They recommended a complete system overhaul, with a new audio setup based on Community Professional Loudspeakers' WET series. "We chose the Community WET series as our primary loudspeaker system based on its proven ability to stand up to the extreme weather the Browns' Stadium experiences on the shore of Lake Erie," explained John Horrell, President of Durrell. "As Durrell was asked to warranty the new speakers for seven years, the WET se
UK - Serious Stages reports that it has completed a highly successful season supplying stages for post-race entertainment at various racecourses around the country for The Liz Hobbs Group.
At Newmarket, the Serious team designed a flat roofed stage tailored neatly to fit in between the two main grandstands. It was the first season Serious has worked at this venue and with Liz Hobbs, and the aim was to reduce the stage height from previous years, making it a more comfortable viewing angle, to maximise the available space, and to dovetail the flat roof of the temporary stage neatly in with the grandstands either side if it.
The project was managed for serious by Dragan Kuzmanov. The 40 ft wide by 48 ft deep stage and aluminium roof structure were built on 4 steel tower legs, with the roof sloping away to the rear, to ensure any water drained away safely from the performance area
UK - London-based theatre sound specialist Orbital has been awarded the sound supply contract by Dutch producers Stardust BV for their epic-scale new musical, Rembrandt.
Staged in The Netherlands' internationally renowned Royal Carre Theatre, Stardust's Rembrandt celebrates the 400th anniversary of the great painter. Orbital's team, headed by Drew Mollison, collaborated with sound designer Jeroen ten Brinke from the early planning stages to ensure that the specified Alcons system met his exact requirements.
Jeroen Brinke commented: "Working to a tight three-week pre-production phase, the Orbital team were fantastic. Streamlining operations on site, their practical advice and 24/7 technical support team sets a precedent. It's great working with them. Their level of service and support through the production process and on-going has been unparalleled."
USA - The AMC Valley View 16 Theatres in the Valley View Mall in Dallas enlisted the services of Illuminating Concepts to increase the visual attraction of the multi screen complex.
"The building has a long range visibility and can be seen from the main expressway," explains Illuminating Concept's Kenneth Klemmer, director of design on the project. "Originally they were looking at a white light illuminated theatre exterior but eventually decided on a concept to illuminate the building in colour with colour sequences, yet still provide the requisite amount of emergency white light."
Approximately 40 IP65 rated Exterior 200 colour changers from Martin Architectural were integrated into the theatre's perimeter balcony handrail to provide virtually unlimited colour choices for the roughly 30 foot high façade walls. The programmable 150W fixtures are mounted on
UK - In order the give the public a more in-depth understanding of the structure of an orchestra, the Royal Festival Hall on the South Bank, London, came up with an original way of introducing the structure and sound of the orchestra to both children and adults.
By positioning sixty special pods in the physical shape of the Philharmonic Orchestra and feeding the sound of individual instruments to each pod, the system enables visitors to listen to the different sounds of the respective musical instruments that comprise the orchestra.
The Royal Festival Hall turned to Audio Design Services of Stockport to configure a way of creating an amplifier for each pod position without the need to house 60 separate amplifiers. It was also necessary to provide high quality loudspeakers in the pods to faithfully reproduce the original sound of the respective instruments and yet come within a
USA - One of the largest churches in North America, Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, Kentucky, has installed Adamson Systems in their main sanctuary. Duncan Edwards, an ADI Group consultant, hired by Southeast Christian, concluded that an Adamson System would be the best system to meet the needs of the church after rigorous demonstrations and comparisons of line array products in the market. Edwards recommended Adamson to the church's board of directors who gave the final go-ahead.
Southeast Christian Church, founded in 1962, has grown to become one of the largest churches in North America. The current facility opened in 1998 and features a sanctuary that seats 9,600. The most attended day of the year is Easter Sunday, where crowds are commonly in excess of 30,000. This is facilitated through multiple services, all held in the main sanctuary. Adamson's demo stock was le
UK - At the autumn conference of the The Society of British Neurological Surgeons (SNBS), High Definition videoconferencing systems were used in a ground-breaking way to deliver a trainee surgeons' workshop based on a live operation. It demonstrated new techniques for endoscopic transnasal transphenoidal surgery for the treatment of a brain tumour. The systems were also used to deliver presentations to the conference by neurological experts from remote locations.
Hosted by the Preston unit of the SBNS and held in Windermere, the conference is a high profile and well attended conference that is designed to enable specialists in this field to jointly develop best practice for the diagnosis and treatment of a range of neurological conditions.
Supplied by Questmark the systems selected were the LifeSize Room, connected over the internet between the conference centre, Questmark's o
USA - ESTA, the Entertainment Services and Technology Association, has announced that BSR E1.27-2, Entertainment Technology - Standard for Permanently Installed Control Cables for Use with ANSI E1.11 (DMX512-A) and USITT DMX512/1990 Products, is available for public review until November 20, 2006.
UK - Harman Pro UK has supplied Harlow's long-established live music venue, The Square, with a new Soundcraft MH2 front-of-house console. For nearly thirty years, The Square has been renowned for its reputation on the 'up-and-coming' circuit - many British bands who have played here in the past have subsequently gone on to great things, including Blur, Coldplay and Muse.
Stuart Graham of Harlow-based Clarity in Sound Light and Vision contacted Harman Pro UK's Gary Dent, who came down to The Square with a 24-channel MH2, and ran through the features with The Square's sound engineers. They liked what they saw and heard, and the MH2 offered them more flexibility than their old desk.
Comments Gary Dent: "The Square were very keen to get more into running on-stage monitor mixes, and their old desk just didn't have enough aux busses to do the job comfortably. But with the MH2,
Ireland - Churches, live music venues, theatres and dance societies are just some of the venues that have installed PA equipment supplied by Harman Pro UK's main dealer in Ireland, Reynolds of Raphoe, recently. Reynolds, based in the North-West of the Irish Republic, have notched up an impressive list of recent sales, Harman reports, supplying installation companies in Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic with equipment from the Harman portfolio such as JBL speakers, Crown amplifiers and dbx processing units.
"The Celtic Tiger has slowed, but the Irish economy is still very buoyant and this naturally has an impact on leisure and entertainment. As a result, plenty of new bars, clubs and venues have opened around the country, while others have upgraded their sound systems to compete with the newcomers," says Reynolds sales manager Brian McGrath. "Our pro-active a
Austria - The Rettenbach Glacier, which enters the Austrian Ötztal-valley near the ski resort of Söldenprovided the backdrop to a production entitled Mars:2068 which is a science fiction spectacle about the conquest of the planet Mars.
The production was staged by lawine torrèn, a network of dancers, actors, media artists and technicians under the artistic direction of Hubert Lepka that was founded in 1992 in Salzburg.
The technical services for the project were provided by You Sound from Augsburg with Klaus Mayer as the technical director. "The production Mars:2068 is in itself quite demanding. Especially with the climatic conditions on top of a glacier at this time of year, it becomes a real challenge," commented Mayer.
"The project required not only equipment that was able to take a lot of strain, but also collaborators with mountaineering
Switzerland - The first TV broadcast from the new media centre of the Federal Houses of Parliament in Bern, Switzerland, has been transmitted. Accommodating the editorial offices of various radio and television stations, as well as production workspaces and radio studios, the media centre is home to the 280sq.m TV studio of the SRG SSR (Swiss Radio and Television Association). Much of the lighting equipment for the new studio was supplied and installed by ETC from their offices in Holzkirchen, Germany.
The new television studio is situated on the third basement level of the building - an impressive feat in itself, considering that no basement levels existed at the beginning of construction. An 18m hole had to be dug under the building which was itself propped on stilts for the duration of construction. The official laying of the foundation stone was in February 2005, and the 55
USA - One of northern Ohio's best-kept secrets, Kenyon College is a small but distinguished liberal arts college with an exemplary reputation as a leader in fine arts, humanities, natural and social sciences and athletics, especially their swimming and diving programs. The recently completed 263,000sq.ft Kenyon Athletic Center is the campus' crown jewel - a massive, multipurpose indoor complex designed by the Gund Partnership architectural firm of Cambridge, Massachusetts.
The Center's state-of-the-art media systems have been designed to function under a wide range of scenarios, making creative use of several independent but interconnected DSP and control systems. As Brad Kestner, operations manager at Sound Com in Berea, Ohio explains, flexibility and performance were some of the highest priorities in designing the systems. "The building itself is nothing short of massive,
Europe - Mediaedge:cia (MEC), the global communications planning and implementation agency, enlisted the help of Paradigm Audio Visual when planning an inventive 13-week pan-European roadshow aimed at promoting the K800i, Sony Ericsson's new Cyber-shot phone.
Tasked with creating an engaging brand experience to dramatise the phone's new and unique BestPic feature - which allows users to press the shutter button once and instantly get nine full quality pictures to choose from - they called on the rear projection display specialists to help bring the concept to life via a series of outdoor installations. These were set across ten countries over 15 weeks, starting at London's Victoria Station.
Potential participants are encouraged to the 'Body in Motion' installation by promotional staff and asked to strike a pose for a nine-shot action photo sequence, triggered by an adapted K80
Italy - Even from a considerable distance, travellers near the city of Ravenna, on the main road along Italy's Adriatic coast to Venice, can see a huge Ferris wheel on the horizon: this is the landmark of one of the country's best-known amusement parks - Mirabilandia.
The park recently inaugurated its first indoor attraction, a dark ride called Ghostville - a trip through the haunted ruins of an old Western gold-mining town featuring a cutting edge audio, lighting and animatronics set-up.
The ride was designed and built by specialist firm Art Project of Torbolo; they, in turn, called in Vida Studio Srl of Milan to supply a turnkey package, comprising hardware and systems for all the ride's audio, video, lighting and control, including automation control via PLC. To ensure perfectly distributed high-impact sound with the ability to cover the screams of up to 1,000 people per ho
UK - The Hoxton Grille, located within the trendy new-build Hoxton Hotel in London's Shoreditch, has all the natural ambience of an all-day brasserie/bistro surrounding an open terrace. Operating independently from Sinclair Beecham's 205-bedroom four star hotel, Hoxton Grille owners Simon Wright and John Pallagi have created a restaurant and bar combination which follows on naturally from their acclaimed portfolio of contemporary chic Room Restaurants, which was founded in 2000.
Adding to the ambience throughout the large open-plan ground floor is guitar and film soundtrack-inspired music, sensitively programmed and delivered by iPod and Denon 6-disc multi CD player.
Based nearby, audio system designers and installers, Sound Division Group, has a long association with Simon Wright's ventures. Here they were called on to enhance the existing background system - fitted when the