PLASA Publishing has learnt that John Jeffcoat died of a heart attack on Sunday June 4th. Jeffcoat was one of the industry's more colourful characters and had a long career in this industry. In the seventies he founded Meteor Illusion with Tony Gottelier, and then later established another distribution company - Son et Lumiere - before joining Optikinetics in the mid eighties as director of export sales. He stayed with the company five years before moving out of the industry to run his own hotel business. He later returned to the industry working first with the Multiform Technology Group and then subsequently setting up his own company - Yes - which distributed tiny smoke machines.

Millennium Multi Media.com, a new internet-oriented digital and traditional entertainment, technology and communications company, is to build the Millennium Entertainment Center, a $20 million, 60,000 square feet, two-level dome housing a revolutionary entertainment venue situated on five and a half acres of Las Vegas' famed strip. The MEC, will accommodate 2,000 customers, and unlike other Vegas venues will have no gaming elements. The main elements of the venue will be a range of conference facilities and a nightclub - the key attraction of which will be a computerised light and laser projection show featuring interior fireworks, falling snow, lightning, twisters, and a host of other computer graphic and holographic effects. World-renowned supper club impresario, Mark Fleischman, former owner of Studio 54 and creator of the well-known Tatou dinner clubs, will head the project.

Forefront Audio, Blue Box Company and Funktion One collaborated to present an exclusive preview of Funktion One's new production-series Resolution loudspeakers at the Ericsson@Homelands UK Festival VIP arena. The Resolution system was first installed into the Millennium Dome last year and is now being developed into a production series, available for purchase later in the year. For the tented VIP area at Homelands, four Res 9s and eight Funktion One 218 bass bins were installed. The speakers provided more than enough energy for the space - measuring 35 x 15 metres - which by 11pm was sardined with over 1200 revellers. QSC Powerlight amplifiers and new XTA DP224 processors drove the system. Several DJs spun the decks throughout the day and night - Craig Richards, John Beach, John Digweed and Pete Tong among them.

Showlight 2001 - the conference for lighting professionals - takes place in Edinburgh in May next year and offers delegates opportunities not to be missed. An afternoon at the Strand factory in Kirkcaldy will give visitors an inside look at one of the lighting industry's leading companies with other visits ranging from the technical to theatre to distilleries - taking in some of the most notable landmarks in and around Edinburgh. These include Edinburgh Castle, famous for the Edinburgh Tattoo, St Andrew's Castle and Cathedral and Glenturret Distillery. Another definite date for the diary is the Showlight Dinner, this year sponsored by Strand Lighting, which takes place at the magnificent Hopetoun House. Inclusive in the registration fee, this is a chance for you to wine and dine alongside some of the biggest names in the lighting industry. We are currently looking for innovative speakers

Just opened in Central London, the Dali Universe is the world's first permanent commercial exhibition of Salvador Dali's work. More than 500 works of art are on display, complemented by an extensive Celestion sound system throughout all four galleries. Dali Universe is equipped with a multi-zoned audio system featuring 48 Celestion KR2 and 4 SR1 cabinets, installed by Metropolis of West London. "In true Dali style, the exhibition is a fusion of cutting-edge technology and modern art," explains David Allan of Metropolis, "with the walls covered in blackened steel and all the KR2s are mounted above the ceiling. At the entrance, the designer asked for them to be mounted above steel plates to achieve a big, boomy and decidedly surreal effect." There are five different audio sources, including DVD, CD and MPEG, and the system is powered throughout by Metropolis' proprietar

PLASA Presents Light and Sound Shanghai has opened for the third year. Emerging from the Intex exhibition centre to the sound of a brass band, a group of distinguished guests from China and the UK spoke briefly to a large crowd and opened the show. Guests from the UK included Warren Townend, British Consul General in Shanghai, Sammy DeHavilland, PLASA Treasurer; Andrew Morris of Earls Court and Jonathan Gould of Clarion Events. This year's show includes a record number of exhibitors in the international section and expands the show onto the second level of the Intex centre for the first time. The show runs until Friday 9 June.

Star Hire (Event Services) Ltd enjoyed its busiest weekend ever with its fleet of mobile stages over the BBC Music Live weekend. The company could have hired their own stages out two or three times and in the end had to sub contract three stages in to deal with the increased levels of demand. The Star Hire team supplied a range of stages to events all over the country from Kings Lynn to Newcastle and even north of the border to Leith. The company was also involved in the Somerset House concert, where a CS 15–12 was the first ever stage to be erected for a concert in this historic building, the stage being installed the day after it was opened to the public by the Queen Mother.

Recognising the importance of this region as being the largest entertainment community in the world, Martin has opened an office in Las Vegas. As the first manufacturer of intelligent lighting with an office in the city, Martin intend to offer technical and sales support, technical design and project support for the designers, dealers and customers in the region. The company has appointed Tim Brennan as the sales manager of the new office. Brennan, a well-known figure in the theatrical and entertainment Lighting community, will work with support from Martin's West Coast office team to develop a stronger presence for Martin in the Las Vegas market.
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ETC Halcyon Silent

High End Systems Halcyon Silent builds on ETC’s legacy of fanless automated fixtures by incorporating features from the highly sought-after Halcyon family. Halcyon Silent perfectly balances silent operation with brilliant output of 18,400 lumens and high-impact features. 

For more information visit us at www.etcconnect.com

FX Rentals have taken on distribution of the new range of Taytrix modular acoustic panels. FX Group's technical director Frank Oglethorpe spotted the panels at a recent AES exhibition."They are incredibly light-weight and can easily be stacked for transporting. Once on site they are assembled using a system of slots and straps into virtually any shape the client wants. We have already used them to isolate amplifiers and to build vocal booths." The panels are available for sale or rental and come in three different models - Plexiglas, Fabric and Combination.

Selecon has demonstrated its commitment to the UK and European markets, with three appointments in the sales and marketing division of its UK operation. Following 11 years with Hawthorn Theatrical, Nick Gale has joined the company as sales manager for Selecon UK, where he will be responsible for dealer liaison, training and managing the client base. Selecon UK marketing consultant, Michael Goldberg, has seen his role broadened to sales and marketing director for Europe. Overseeing the general policy for Europe, the move also allows Michael to continue to act as a freelance consultant to other companies within the industry. A third member of staff, Lorna Parsons joins the Selecon team from Theatre Vision. Working for Zero88, (which provides Selecon UK logistics out of Wales), she will serve the Selecon customer base from the Wales office.

The latest recruit to Orbital is Andy Robinson, who has joined the company as head of production engineering. Robinson has many years experience of sound systems in live events and has spent the last three years touring with Michael Flatley and Lord of the Dance, in both sound and management roles. Production engineering is the vital interface between a designer and a working sound system and his appointment reflects Orbital's increased commitment in this area.

If you've read or heard about Wybron's revolutionary CXI Colour Fusion scrollers, but still don't understand how just two gel strings can give you any colour under the sun, help is at hand. Wybron has designed a simple, easy to understand colour wheel which demonstrates perfectly the technology behind the CXIs. Made up of two concentric wheels, which represent the front and rear gelstrings, the user simply selects a colour by rotating the front wheel relative to the rear wheel. The channel values needed to achieve the colour are shown next to each window, allowing users to recreate the desired colour effect on the CXI itself, with ease.

An old laundry in South West London is now a 'hard hat' zone as work gets underway on the construction of Sphere Studios - the most ambitious music recording complex to be built in the capital for many years. The new studio is set to rival London's finest and will operate as a fully commercial venture incorporating three main control rooms dedicated to tracklaying, stereo mixing and 5.1 surround mixing. The main partners behind Sphere are musician and producer Francesco Cameli and Malcolm Atkin, formerly general manager of Sir George Martin's Air Lyndhurst facility. During the construction of Air Lyndhurst Atkin was involved in all aspects of its design and later took responsibility for its commercial operation.

To celebrate the launch of the new Strand 300-series lighting desk, and to introduce it to the London theatrical community, White Light and Strand Lighting collaborated on a successful open day at the Soho Theatre in London at the end of May. The star attraction of the event was Strand's new 'baby' lighting console, the 300-series. Based around the same GeniusPro operating system as the popular 500-series lighting consoles, the 300 console is of an attractive, compact, versatile design that allows a system to be built to suit the particular needs of smaller venues. The 300 was demonstrated in action by Strand's Bill Richards, using the Soho Theatre's White Light supplied and recently installed new rig of conventional lanterns driven from Strand LD90 dimmers and automated lanterns including Strand Pirouette PCs and City Theatrical AutoYokes. Soho will become one of the first venues in the

High End Systems' veteran sales representative Sean Hoey has been promoted to the position of sales manager for the US and Canada. Hoey has been employed with the automated lighting manufacturer at its Austin, Texas headquarters since 1991.

TFL's sales team got a boost recently when Laura Robertson joined the company to fulfil the new role of sales assistant to Gary White. Robertson, who comes to TFL from Nomadic Displays, will spend the next six months familiarising herself with the TFL product range.

A Midas Heritage 3000, an XL250 and racks upon racks of Klark Teknik processing have recently been delivered to LT Sound in Venezuela as part of a complete EV X-Array system sale put together by Steve Mendez of Sam Ash music retailers in New York and Josh Radin of Metro North Marketing. The sale is the biggest of its kind for Sam Ash who is internationally recognised for its music retail operations across the US. LT Sound is a full service production company dealing with some of the most high profile tours passing through its territory. The decision to purchase a major PA system was taken because the company is planning an international Latin American tour with some of the bands signed to its record label, LT Music. Special guest star, Ricky Martin, kicks off the tour on 18th June in the 28,000 capacity El Poliedro arena in the Venezuelan capital of Caracas, to be followed the next night

Leading names in the world of sound and lighting are supporting the next generation of broadcasters by sponsoring the students of Ravensbourne College of Design and communication, South London, in their Ravensbourne on Air showcase, on Wednesday 14 June. Strand, Pearsons, Yamaha, Avolites and Primarc are just a few of the companies which have thrown their weight behind the event by lending equipment to or directly funding the students at the National Centre of Excellence for Broadcasting to facilitate the programming of the six-hour schedule. The day is an opportunity for representatives from the broadcast industry to see for themselves the direct relevance of Ravensbourne's courses to their particular area of the industry.

LMC Audio Systems has appointed Graham Allen to the newly-created position of head of sales and marketing (London). Graham has 10 years' industry experience and has worked for several major players including Behringer, Shuttlesound and more recently with Sysco. A further addition to LMC is Iain Gregory, a physics graduate from Birmingham University who has joined the London sales team.

AMEK has gone online with a new website dedicated to its Pure Path Series of outboard products, designed by Rupert Neve. The new site is exclusively Pure Path in content, with comprehensive operational and technical information on the range, as well as downloadable documents and notes from the designer himself. Pure Path Online is platform, browser and resolution independent. Its design makes use of vector graphics, enabling a large amount of pictorial information to be transferred in very small bandwidth.

Distributors Adam Hall have issued a recall notice for part of the Palmer Power Amplifier product line. The move follows the discovery by the manufacturers of Palmer amplifiers of a component fault in the soft start circuitry. The amplifiers affected are the P500LX, P800LX, P1400LX and P2000LX. If you have one of these amplifiers call the Adam Hall helpline on +44 1702 613922.

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