Finland - Near the end of last year the Finnish shipping company Viking Line Abp signed a contract with Aker Finnyards Oy for the construction of a high-speed passenger ferry for the route between Helsinki (Finland) and Tallinn (Estonia), with delivery set for April 2008.

The new Viking XPRS had to be tailored for the growing customer needs that have characterised the Helsinki-Tallinn route since Estonia joined the European Union in May 2004. The emphasis was thus on providing full facilities, including a modern range of shopping and dining choices, flexible conferencing spaces and a nightclub. At the same time it needed to meet the increased requirement for passenger vehicles - 365 days of the year.

Multiple Soundweb SW9088iis DSP devices from BSS Audio were specified to create the routing flexibility.

Jouni Sironen, AV co-ordinator for Viking Line Abp, developed an archite

USA - The Christian Faith Center in Seattle is one of the latest large houses of worship yet to install a Midas XL8 digital mixing system. The church is located on two main campuses in suburban Seattle - one of which is a state-of-the-art facility completed in September 2007 - and 8,000 people a week now attend services at the two sites.

When it came to improving its sound reinforcement system, the church worked with AV specialists Michael Garrison Associates to install two XL8 systems in the 5,000-seat sanctuary at their new campus, a 550sq.ft octagonal space with stadium seating.

Kris Hillstrom, technical director at Christian Faith Center, described how the church is sounding better than ever: "We knew that we wanted to make a substantial investment in our new sound system. Seattle is a very music-savvy part of the world, and we all felt that, as one of the largest hou

UK - Stirling-based professional sound and lighting specialist, Scotaudio, selected Community I/O8 loudspeakers for the new Hydrotherapy Pool installation at Raploch Campus, Stirling. The pool is designed for children with special needs, and comprises innovative interactive lighting which can be controlled via floating radio switches. The install presented some challenges in terms of controlling both sound and lighting within an IP rated environment.

Scotaudio technical director, Andy Greig, commented: "We needed loudspeakers that were aesthetically pleasing and could cope with the high humidity environment whilst delivering a solid and accurate reproduction in an acoustically live room - the Community I/O8 was a perfect choice. For some of the children who will use this facility, sound is one of the main senses they use to explore their environment, and we needed the best

UK - Located between Trent Bridge ground, home to Nottinghamshire's county cricket team, and the City Ground, home to Nottingham Forest FC, is the Southbank Bar. When there's a big match in progress, football or cricket, the venue fills to capacity.

Nottingham-based design and installation company OneBigStar has rejuvenated the venue for its owners Great Northern Inns.

Although OneBigStar has subsequently provided AV and lighting systems to other venues in the Great Northern Inns portfolio, the Southbank Bar was their first collaboration. An extensive refurbishment at the end of last year has produced an impressive video network of 12 HD plasma screens plus two large drop-down projection screens.

The screens are complemented by 12 Electro-Voice ZX1 full-range loudspeakers. "On a match day, this venue is absolutely packed with people," explains Simon Taylor of OneBi

USA - Arup is providing theatre consulting and acoustic design services to Sn°hetta, interior architect for the Ashland Center at the Brooklyn Arts Tower, in the BAM Cultural District of New York.

The new centre is part of a commercial development designed by Behnisch Architects and Studio MDA, providing street-level retail space with a high-rise residential tower. The plinth houses the performance, studio spaces, administration and technical support program for the cultural component of the development.

Arup is leading the programming and planning process for the fit-out of the new centre with architect Sn°hetta. A main flexible performance space with facilities for dance and movement, and an inventory of large studios for rehearsal, workshops and production creation is being planned by all the stakeholders of the organisation, including the client, the Downtown Brook

UK - Through dealer White Light, lighting manufacturer ETC has installed lighting at London's Arcola Theatre in Hackney. But the installation was the easy bit for the theatre. The difficult bit was keeping the show's peak power consumption below 4.5kW. And the reason why they had to do that was because the venue has recently had a hydrogen fuel cell installed, as part of its bid to become the world's first carbon neutral theatre.

ETC's technical director Adam Bennette, who happens to live just a couple of streets from the theatre, assisted with the installation, which includes nine 375W ETC Source Fours and a SmartFade ML control desk - which is also able to control the LED and fluorescent lighting on the show. "I have a pet hate of West End shows which are over lit and can even end up dazzling the audience," explains Bennette. "So it was nice to be able to work o

UK - Adlib Audio has completed it's first School Tutorial Event of 2008. Adlib's Andy Dockerty says, "The way to learn how to become a live sound engineer and system technician is to actually be involved in the environment.

"Many young people are pushed into 'live audio' and 'technical' courses by career advisors at schools. Whist sounding superficially exciting, these courses are obviously bringing in funds to educational establishments, but "live" production cannot be taught in a classroom or a one space environment.

"You need to be able to anticipate venue-to-venue problems and nuances and experience true working days - including load-ins and outs before you leave college."

Dockerty adds that apart from highlighting technical issues, the Adlib Schools Events are realistic about the fact it's not an especially glamorous career at the outset, a

Korea - A number of new QSC Audio ILA line array installations have been carried out in Korea recently by territorial distributors, Sama ProSound. The long-established Seoul-based company reports that applications vary from auditoria in educational establishments to places of worship.

The main auditorium at Wooshin High School in Seoul is used for a variety of functions and its long rectangular shape would generally have dictated that a large number of subwoofers would be required to complement the main full-range main speakers.

QSC's Installation Line Array (ILA) offers 140° horizontal coverage, and 12 enclosures have been specified (in two hangs) with four WL118-sw subs. This necessitated adding only a pair of QSC's AcousticDesign AD-S82's in each of the corners of the auditorium's second floor to ensure that an evenly-dispersed sound can be experienced from any location

New Zealand - Audio networking for Skycity's new Vue Bar in Hamilton, has been placed entirely in the hands of the Soundweb London DSP platform from BSS Audio.

The Soundweb system, comprising a BLU-80 signal processor and BLU-32 I/O expander, forms part of a Harman Pro integrated system, designed and specified by James Greet from Greet Consulting of Auckland, in consultation with Paul Edlin of JANDS NZ Technical Resource Group (TRG). The system was supplied and installed by Security Specialists of Auckland - and all network design programming and commissioning was handled by Robson Birch, of JANDS NZ TRG.

The 600-capacity Vue Bar has been designed specifically to provide world-class entertainment in the city centre, and marks the end of a multi-phase development which also saw the opening of the Rebo Restaurant and Bar in May of last year. General manager Geoff Hogg confirms t

UK - BDP Lighting won the special projects category and had a further entry short-listed in the workplace category in this year's Lighting Design Awards. The awards were presented at the London Hilton on 6 March. BDP's Guerilla Lighting events in London and Manchester won in the special projects category and Westminster Academy, London was short-listed in the workplace category.

The concept of Guerrilla Lighting was created by Martin Lupton, director of BDP's lighting group, to promote lighting design and create a platform to discuss key issues such as professional design, waste and sustainability. The power behind the exercise was the participation and collaboration, which was what particularly impressed the judges.

Under the guidance of a team leader, the teams created transient lighting designs by using high powered torches, battery powered LED projectors, luminous dot ligh

USA - Spectra, is one of two art pieces commissioned during the construction of the Lynnwood Convention Centre north of Seattle. It is a 35ft outdoor sculpture created by Seattle artist Doug Hansen. The tower is made of steel fitted with fused colour glass panels, reflecting light from PixelArc C LED fixtures uplighting from the base.

Director of operations Mohnie Mangat explains: "We looked at a lot of fixtures before choosing PixelArc. It was the perfect choice for our needs: simple, easy to use, low energy and very powerful."

When the existing fixtures specified by the construction architect were found to be insufficient and the intended water feature did not work - the Lynnwood PFD who own the building, asked the Center's management company SMG to look at ways to make the sculpture more dynamic.

SMG's Mohnie Mangat has a lighting design and theatrical backgroun

Oman - The visual effects for the opening of the new Lexus showroom in Oman were created by Tim Riley, video designer from XL Video. The opening took place outside the new showrooms with grandstand seating for around 500 and the Lexus building as a backdrop.

Running the full length of the showroom are eight metre high windows which allow the passers-by, or in this case the audience, to look into the floor and view the array of new, cars. But around dusk, this all changed when a large section of the windows came to life. They were lined with 72 Martin LC2140 LED panels covering a total of 144 sq.m.As the LC panels moved through colourful stages of intensity, beginning with images gently floating on glass, the cars inside the showroom slowly disappeared and the focus became the staged area outside.

"I had been looking at several other LED products, but when I saw the LC2140

Austria - When the Grand Casino Baden reopened in 1995 - as part of the resplendent Congress Casino Baden - it not only became the largest casino in Europe but one of the most prominent event centres in the country. A subsidiary of Casinos Austria AG, the venue was set up to handle around 240 events a year (in three different function spaces) 365 days a year.

Back in 2002 Andreas Gallé, Congress Casino Baden's senior technician, decided to install a CobraNet digital backbone. "When we started to evaluate new amplifiers two years later it was logical to look for network-based audio devices," he explained.

The technician specified quantities of QSC PowerLight PL6, PL236, PL230 and PL218 amplification, networked via seven QSC BASIS 922 units. To this the Casino subsequently added a further three BASIS 922 DSP's, linked by the DataPorts of two QSC CX 168's and and

South Africa - The first Avolites Tiger console in South Africa was delivered by distributors DWR to Pretoria-based lighting rental company, Stage Effects.

The Tiger's first gig in the country was Gospel Times, a show broadcast from the South African Broadcasting Association (SABC) Studios, Johannesburg. From there it went directly on to Tempo's, a Johannesburg venue where Stage Effects runs moving and generic lighting. "It's smaller than the Pearl but just as powerful," enthuses Stage Effects' Theo Papenfus. "On many of these shows where you are just adding moving lights to a studio generic rig, you don't need a large console."

The Tiger joined the two Pearls already owned by Stage Effects, which works across all industry sectors, but specialising in lighting for live concerts and broadcast applications.

(Jim Evans)

UK - The UK's latest 'super club', the 1200-capacity, three-level State Club in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, has opened its doors with the UK's largest installation to date of the Dynacord XA PA system, installed by Doncaster based Electro Music.

Created by Peter Swann, the entrepreneur behind the successful Sands Jazz Club in the same town, the spacious State Club resides in the totally renovated shell of a former cinema. In its new guise it makes abundant use of the space to offer four venues in one - nightclub, live music venue, café/lounge and digital cinema.

The main stage hosts live acts and, using its retractable 20m screen and dedicated DLP digital cinema projector, daytime movie screenings. It is flanked by a pair of ground stacks of Dynacord FX12 mid-high tops from the XA range that focuses sound on the dancefloor, with a row of eight matching FX20 Planar waveg

UK - Wandsworth's Cancer Resource Centre offers a pioneering model for the future, according to world-renowned cancer doctor Professor Karol Sikora of Imperial College. His appointment as President of the Centre was announced at the Centre's 25th anniversary celebration on 27 February at Battersea Power Station, attended by stars and users and supporters of the centre - and accompanied by a rare lighting up of the chimneys of the power station.

Martin Professional contributed to the evening's celebration by creating an atmosphere in light over Battersea Power Station. Martin products used to illuminate this event were eight Exterior 600 washlights, which were placed on the flat roof of the power station to light the side face of two of the large chimneys.

Peter Western at Martin Professional commented, "We were approached to offer some lighting for this event and were hap

China - The Suzhou Science, Technology, Culture, & Art Centre is the newly-established cultural landmark of Suzhou City in China. Designed by architect Paul Andreu, the centre features a 1,200-seat grand theatre, an entertainment restaurant, IMAX movie theater, seven film projection halls, a 33,000sq.m commercial center, and a crescent-shaped open square.

The Centre is equipped with a pair of Zeus DSP intercom matrices by RTS. This system features the same programmability as the top-of-the-line ADAM frame, but in a package that is better suited for smaller installations such as theatres and other performance venues. The Zeus provides 24 channels of audio in a compact 2RU package. Each channel is capable of supporting any of the RTS Digital Matrix Intercom line of keypanels, or four-wire inputs and outputs.

For wired communication, the Centre chose the dual-channel BP-325 beltp

UK - An entire walk through experience for international brand, Hitachi provided Stage One with their latest logistical challenge. This extensive scenic build contract for their client, The Liquid Way, involved the total fitting out and masking of the QE2 Centre's third floor, to create eight distinct areas.

The walk through experience was entitled Inspire Life 2008 and was attended by top business executives, MEP's and Government representatives, amongst others. Products from across Hitachi's entire range were exhibited through the area.

"We had several challenges to contend with," said Simon Wood, sales director, Stage One. "Both of which are hardly unique; the first being access and the second, time. However, we worked hard to overcome both and delivered the project on time, on budget and to the high specification required."

The eight different

Italy - Opened in December 2007 in Bellinzago (Lombardy), the Arcadia Multiplex comprises 10 differently-sized auditoriums - the largest, a 300-seater. Every auditorium is THX-certified and offers 3D digital projection.

EVI Audio's Italian partner TEXIM were called in as early as the project planning stage. Arcadia and TEXIM had already worked together on the CineCity multiplex in Padua. In addition to tried-and-tested cinema systems of the TS series (TS 9040D-LX and TS 550D-LX), a total of 28 EV TL 880D subwoofers are employed in the new multiplex. Nine EV TS 9040D-LX speakers handle the reproduction of the L-C-R information in the three smaller auditoriums and 21 further EV TS 550D-LX provide the sound in the seven larger halls. The surround channels in all ten auditoriums are delivered by a total of 154 EV SL12-2V surround speakers.

The massive amplification needs of all th

New Zealand - When North Harbour Stadium in Auckland approached Marshall Day Acoustics to propose a new sound system for their 12,000 seat grandstand, expectations were high. Having suffered 10 years with a budget-driven and ageing system and looking to secure the stadium's future as a nation-leading outdoor arena, the new sound system had to be capable and flexible enough to cater for all possible audience and event requirements, and be future proof to suit its expansion plans.

Enter Audio Telex in conjunction with Marshall Day, who developed a comprehensive state-of-the-art design using EASE acoustic simulation software and based around Renkus-Heinz loudspeakers.

This is the first major Renkus-Heinz stadium sound system in Australasia and stadium marketing manager Chris Kemp comments, "We don't want to tell people we have a new sound system, we just want them to hear th

UK - A Shermann RS5 system has been delivered and is now operational in Guernsey - the first RS5 system in the Channel Islands. Kevin Taylor Audio invested in the Shermann system along with an Ashly Protea 3:24CL digital speaker controller to replace an older powered system which he claimed "was not really up to the job".

Kevin Taylor was absolutely delighted following the system's first gigs and called Shermann's HQ in Mid-Wales to register his appreciation. "The RS5 is ideal for my requirements; effortless and really compact too. I couldn't believe how flat it was and I needed virtually no additional EQ to make the system sound near perfect."

Elsewhere, Shermann RS5 systems have been in use on a number of recent events and UK tours including Barbara Dickson, Steeleye Span and Gilbert O'Sullivan. A slightly uprated RS5 model will be available from May 1st

UK - Abingdon and Witney College has enjoyed the use of Metrodeck staging for the last few years. Thomas Mindenhall originally approached Maltbury as he wasn't happy with the old fashioned wooden system the college had always used and wanted something safer, more versatile and easily stored and transported.

The college started with a straightforward package of Metrodeck in standard sizes. Thomas has returned to Maltbury over the years, ordering a few decks every time which slowly added to their collection as the budget allowed. "The great thing is that when I put the older pieces and the new ones together for a show there's no difference between them," he says.

(Jim Evans)

UK - Over 100 axes of automation control and machinery have been installed at the Royal Festival Hall, transforming the functional properties of the venue. ISG Interior Exterior, the main contractor for this project, contracted Stage Technologies to design, manufacture and install the over-stage suspension machinery and control system, as well as the control systems for the stage elevators and the variable acoustic elements.

The Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre is a busy venue with a wide variety of performances; many of which are just a few days long or even for one night only. This poses logistical issues for the production staff who must often do the 'get-in', rehearsals, performance and 'get-out' in a single day.

The major refurbishment carried out at the venue over the last few years presented an opportunity to add to the infrastructure to make this process easier an

UK - The University of Surrey Students' Union in Guildford is the home to Rubix, the campus-based nightclub, which recently had a new Turbosound loudspeaker system installed.

The multi-levelled nightclub has a capacity of up to 1,500 students and sits directly on top of the Students' Union building. There are five areas: the main dance floor, Haris, the Bottle Bank, PJDs Bar and the main foyer and walkthroughs.

Ian Lipp, technical manager of Rubix explains the reasoning behind the new install: "The previous system was 10 years old and sounded like it needed replacing. The old one was a cross between an installation and a touring rig that we used in our other venues. We wanted to get a rig installed that was designed purely as an install for our club without the requirement of needing it to be used elsewhere."

The Turbosound products that make up the installation ar

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