One of the largest concentrations of its kind in the world, a record-breaking number of 26 BSS Jellyfish has been ordered for installation in the leafy backwater of Bagshot in Surrey. Installation Technologies, the Oxfordshire-based audio-visual installation company, is masterminding the ultimate personal entertainment network for guests at the Pennyhill Park Hotel, part of the Exclusive Hotels group.

Winner of the AA's prestigious Hotel of the Year 2002 award, Pennyhill Park is currently constructing a lavishly appointed spa and health centre. Adam Bloch of Installation Technologies has designed an entertainment system which delivers multi-channel choice to every fitness room and treatment suite, giving guests the ability to pick their own music, ambience and volume preferences using th

Denon has unveiled the latest addition to its range of CD players - the DNS5000. Among its many features are a Motor-Drive Active Platter offering scratch and search with the feel of an analogue turntable, 2 in 1 alpha track, hot starts, hot disc, mirror mix, user-replaceable drives and three-way scratch.

The most significant feature of the S-5000 is that the platter spins - the machine is a true CD turntable. To emulate a record deck as closely as possible, the turntable has a vinyl disc on with grooves cut into it, replicating the feel of a conventional record! The S-5000 offers the ability to manipulate the vinyl disc in the required stylistic manner, plus the added bonus of no stylus - and no jumping! The Forward/Back function is perfect for ‘cutting in’ samples without having to close the mixer fader - like having an extra hand! The platter can be assigned to scratch e

A year after the devastating events of 11 September, 2001, light is gleaming again in the Winter Garden, the centrepiece public space of the World Financial Center complex. The vaulted glass atrium was severely damaged during the collapse of the towers, and the lighting system, including speciality entertainment luminaires and architectural-control functionality, was destroyed. Miraculously, people were evacuated in time to prevent injuries. As part of the $50m renovation, a new glass façade archway has replaced the footbridge which led to the World Trade Center. High within the arches of the new glass ceiling is a state-of-the-art lighting rig and ETC control system.

Todd Berling Design Inc was asked in November 2001 by Brookfield Properties to assess the damage to the venue's theatrical systems - rigging, lighting and audio. "Our original walkthrough was overwhelming. We got to

Following our news story last week on the death of Derek Power, we now understand that his funeral will take place at midday this coming Friday at St Mary's Church, Callington, Cornwall. Flowers have specifically not been requested in favour of a collection at the service for the benefit of the church itself.

500 guests attended this year’s UK AV Industry Awards Ceremony on 16 October; and the event attracted record numbers of entries. One of the most hotly contested categories was Installation of the Year, which included five finalists instead of the usual three. Electrosonic, which was involved in three of the final projects, emerged as the overall winner of Installation of the Year for ‘Thinktank’, the Birmingham Museum of Science and Discovery. The other finalists were Williams F1 Conference Center and Grand Prix Museum; the Vanco Lab Presentation Environment; the Sheraton Frankfurt 270 degree AV installation; and The Big Picture at Imperial War Museum North.

The principal criteria applied to the judging process were evidence of innovation and company performance, coherent strategies and objectives, capable implementation, the appropriate use of technologies and creati

i-vision has launched the I-Vex Flagstaff - an illuminated flagpole which embraces a broad spectrum of applications including the architectural, retail, corporate branding and events markets. The I-Vex is currently available in three different versions: as a wall-mounted pole, as a standard upright flagpole or as a mobile upright flagpole.

Variations in height can be achieved, but currently, the three standard lengths for the wall versions are 1.3, 2.3 and 3 metres. The uprights are available in three standard sizes - 4, 6 and 9 metres - and the mobiles come in 4 and 6 metre heights. The wall mounting poles are available in fixed, user-definable colours, which can be matched to any standard Lee or Rosco gel colour. The uprights are also available as fixed colours.

All three versions are available with CYM colour-changing mechanisms, complete with onboard programmer. The latter offers

Contracted by Unusual Services, Fourth Phase London has paid yet another visit to the Royal Albert Hall. As the lights went down on Wednesday 16 October, the London landmark became the venue for 'Whip Craic', an evening of music from the worlds of rock, pop, classical, opera, comedy and theatre hosted by the Countryside Alliance.

The Countryside Alliance promotes the interests of rural people, including all countryside pursuits and field sports, sensible wildlife management and wider countryside concerns such as employment and environments. As all of the £200,000 raised by this event will be used to support the organisation's work, it was essential that the evening of music and entertainment made an impact on the audience.

Fourth Phase supplied a variety of MAC 500s and 600s and a Wholehog II control desk to supplement the existing house rig, plus crew. Creating a lighting design to

Australian company Jands Electronics, the well-known manufacturer of a leading range of lighting consoles and dimmers for the entertainment industry, is the latest manufacturer to join the Art-Net Alliance. The purpose of the Alliance is to promote the wide-spread adoption of the Art-Net Ethernet Standard. The Art-Net Alliance with the inclusion of Jands is now truly a global network.

From their Australian base Jands supports a global customer network. "Supporting Art-Net will ensure that we maintain our position as a supplier of leading edge products. The features offered by Art-Net will ensure our users continue to have access to the latest lighting data transmission tools," Paul Mulholland, managing director of Jands told us. "We look forward to implementing Art-Net in future generations of our products."

The Art-Net tools package continues to grow on a weekly

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Rafael Anaya has joined TMB's LA sales department. Anaya, originally from Mexico, has an associate’s degree in electronics with a wide background in the repair and maintenance of electrical/optical/mechanical equipment of all kinds. Beginning in the medical equipment industry, his career eventually led him to the position of chief technician, then South American sales director for MoboLaser, which allowed him to develop a relationship with TMB: "I spent a lot of time with The Three Amigos [Colin Waters, Tommy Stephenson and Jaime Duarte] out on the tradeshow circuit. They really are great guys." When Rafael sought new challenges in his career, TMB seemed the perfect fit.

"Rafael proved himself to TMB as a vendor; working with all kinds of technically complex products and helping us take really good care of our customers. Once the discussion about him joining us sta

JBL Professional is excited to announce the first international installation of Precision Directivity Series loudspeakers. Vodafone Arena, a premiere sports and entertainment venue in Melbourne, was recently renovated with PD speakers, receiving a very positive response. The 10,800-seat Vodafone Arena features retractable and removable seats to accommodate various events including tennis, basketball, live music concerts and a velodrome for bicycle races. A retractable roof, which takes ten minutes to fully open or close, allows the venue to be transformed from an indoor arena to an outdoor venue. The roof presented an understandable challenge when designing the sound system. Since the system could not be mounted in the centre of the arena, the catwalk running around the perimeter of the open roof was utilized.

The original sound system, consisting of a six-element circular array of 15&

Hayden Laboratories, exclusive UK distributors for Rane pro audio products from the US, launches Rane’s new AC 24, stereo 4-way active crossover. The product is aimed at domestic, commercial or professional use, and for those wanting to optimize their audio systems. The AC 24 combines conventional analogue controls with digital signal processing. The result is a fully-featured, high performance product.

Digital technology links the analogue inputs with the analogue outputs (these are XLR balanced) with the analogue controls on the front panel allowing the AC24 to perform in a way not possible using analogue circuits. The analogue Linkwitz-Riley implementation guarantees, by definition in phase adjacent outputs, which allows the two signals to sum correctly. The use of digital processing allows the product to add appropriate phase compensation so that all outputs add properly when

Artistic Licence has announced that Stage Electrics is now stocking and distributing Artistic Licence products. Stage Electrics’ network of 10 branches covering the UK will offer the full range of Artistic Licence products. Artistic Licence sees the strong service ethics and excellent technical support offered by Stage Electrics as matching their own. These were important factors in appointing Stage Electrics as a distributor.

Linda Moore of Stage Electrics says it’s the innovative nature of the product range which led to them to take on Artistic Licence distribution, commenting: "The DMX, RDM and Ethernet tools provided by Art-Net will allow for leading-edge technology to be used in our installations."

(Lee Baldock)

The resources of Creative Technology and Dimension Audio were combined at this year’s Paris Motor Show, where their integrated technology created presentation media, IT infrastructure and audio playback solutions for a number of exhibits. While CT debuted their newly-acquired Barco SLM G8 projectors on the Lexus stand, the centrepiece was the Ford stand, where Kylie Minogue helped launch the new StreetKa.

CT used Dimension Audio as the sound supplier. The latter, working for Imagination, provided a system to fulfil the requirements of sound designer, John Del Nero. The sound source delivery was all from hard disk and the automated show was played out through Dimension’s front-line d&b sound rig. Dimension also provided editing facilities in the form of their Syntrillium Cool Edit Pro suite.

CT’s project manager, Darren Alexander, was overseeing the performance of th

D.A.S. Audio sound reinforcement systems have been installed at ‘Dinopolis’, one of the worlds most modern theme parks, based on the age of the dinosaurs. Located in Teruel, Spain, the themed entertainment of Dinopolis aims to shed light on the age of the dinosaurs through the use of animated replicas, special attractions and live sketches evolving around the study of palaeontology.

Dinopolis, is divided into various halls, each with its specific subject matter, such as the Hall of the Sea, Hall of the Mammals or the Paleontology Workshop. Besides the now famous ‘Time Traveler’ attraction, which places the visitor in a special all-terrain vehicle for a ride through the origins of life on our planet, two new attractions have been added. ‘Saurus Park’, aimed at keeping the very young visitors busy and ‘T-Rex’, featuring a life-sized Tyranno

Le Mark continues to experience a year of success. Returning from a successful launch by Apollo Design Technology of Le Mark’s PLASA 2002 double award-winning product GEL-TAK Filter Fix at LDI Las Vegas, the Cambridgeshire-based company has found that they have been short-listed for a ‘Huntingdonshire Business Award’ in the category of ‘Spirit of Ingenuity’.

"The award is presented to the company and its staff rather then for an individual product", said managing director Stuart Gibbons. "We are extremely thrilled and honoured to even be shortlisted," said Gibbons, "being based in the high-tech county of Cambridgeshire so close to ‘silicon fen’, we are aware of the high calibre of competition within our catchment area."

(Lee Baldock)

Some of the biggest names in television gathered at the Royal Albert Hall in London on October 15 for the ITV 2002 National Television Awards. But everyone in the packed auditorium had a ring-side seat - thanks to the presence of several Screenco big screen displays. The main backdrop was a 40sq.m 25mm LED screen, upstage centre, reinforced by two 13 x 8 sq. metre 15mm IMAG displays, situated left and right of the stage. Screenco also provided a plasma display for the backstage press area.

While the centre screen was sent a feed comprising of stage close-ups, the flanking screens and plasma display took its feed from the live television mix. Hosts Trevor McDonald and Tess Daley presented the awards, screened on ITV1, while this year ITV2 also broadcast exclusive coverage from backstage and the glamorous after-show party. Graham Filmer, director and general manager at Screenco commented

Taunton-based rental company APR Audio has just invested in an impressive 60-box X-Line system from Electro-Voice, complete with 14 racks of the new Electro-Voice P3000RL DSP remote-controlled amplifiers, all supplied by Shuttlesound. Following the product's UK PLASA launch, this is the very first remote amplifier sale in the UK, and the first worldwide that will be supporting a stadium-sized X-Line system. In addition, APR has also purchased a 40-input Legend 3000 supplied direct from the Midas factory in Kidderminster.

For Andy Reed of APR Audio, an existing X-Array user, the decision to invest in X-Line was straightforward. "I had been looking to increase my inventory for some time, and as an existing X-Array user, my first port of call when looking for a new system was naturally Electro-Voice. I was invited to go and see how the X-Line system performed on Rod Stewart, and fran

Stardraw has announced a unique symbol update as part of the monthly update process available to all current subscribers. By popular request, the company has made available the component elements used to create its high quality product symbols in the Block Schematic, Rack Layout and Pictorial Schematic environments of Stardraw Audio, Stardraw AV and Stardraw Radio.

The update includes more than 500 symbols of buttons, switches, knobs, connectors, logos, meters and much more. They have been created to meet all of the criteria currently used in the production of Stardraw libraries and conform to layer and drawing specifications.

According to marketing director, Rob Robinson, this is a significant enhancement. "By making the component symbols available, we are effectively giving our subscribers even greater scope to customize Stardraw to their own requirements. Although our library

The Aberdeen Exhibition & Conference Centre in Scotland is about to complete a one-year, £18m expansion and redevelopment project. The venue’s two existing halls have been expanded to provide conference capacities of 2,000 and 500 respectively, while two new 700-capacity multi-purpose suites have been added.

GB Audio of Edinburgh won the contact to supply and install sound systems in these four spaces. The brief was to deliver consistent, high definition sound throughout the complex. To further complicate the requirements, each individual suite has the ability to divide into two independent spaces, meaning that the sound too would have to divide down and even operate in different directions if required. GB Audio achieved this by deploying a BSS Audio Soundweb DSP system controller, which offers instant recall of preset EQ and delay settings at the touch of a button. A total of 4

As part of its ongoing expansion plan, Gekko Events has announced the creation of the brand new Gekko Effects, a lighting and effects division. Gekko Effects will specialise in supplying flame lights and small effects for the full spectrum of live events - from corporate meetings and permanent venues, to live production and parties. Laura Dodds is responsible for the management and business development of the division. During her 10 years in the industry, Dodds has racked up a broad lighting experience, from working on blue-chip projects such as Party in the Park, Eurovision and The Royal Variety Performance, as well as Ricky Martin and The Spice Girls tours.

Founder and MD of Gekko Events Ltd, Kristin Magnuson, comments: "The creation of Gekko Effects will participate in positioning Gekko as a major brand within the events industry. Laura’s skills will allow Gekko Effects t

LAX Audio, the UK distributor for Wembley Loudspeaker, has announced its appointment as UK distributor for Rodec mixers, aimed at the "professional, quality-minded user". The deal was signed at the PLASA Show at Earls Court in September. Belgium-based Rodec began manufacturing valve amplifiers in the late 1960s, and later moved on to become a European pioneer of DJ mixers. The company’s latest products on show at PLASA were the BX14 and BX9 mixers.

(Lee Baldock)

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