Robe - LEADERBOARD - Feb 2025

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USA Minneapolis recently hosted the United States Institute of Theatre Technology's Annual Conference and Stage Expo over the 19-22nd March. The show was well attended, 15% up on last year with 3,300 people taking part. Whilst the actual stage expo is quite small from a visitor/exhibitors viewpoint, the conference programme more than makes up for it. Many American universities offer theatrical and drama courses giving rise to a large theatre oriented student population. The annual USITT show is heavily geared towards those students as well as those wishing to go to university, and accordingly manufacturing exhibitors are there not so much to sell their wares, but more to encourage an interest in their products, and also to give advice and training.

The conference programme is a

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Singapore - Asia’s most established sound, light, broadcast and AV communications exhibition, PALA, has rescheduled its event from July to 1-3 October 2003.

The decision to reschedule the exhibition was made following consultation with exhibitors, trade associations and government bodies in light of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak in the region. "Ensuring a safe and effective business environment for our attendees is the core objective of change in PALA’s show dates," stated Rosalind Ng-Seah, deputy managing director of IIR Exhibitions.

October's show will take place at the Suntec exhibition venue in Singapore.

(Ruth Rossington)

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UK - Music video specialists Blink TV shot and edited video footage of Kylie Minogue for leading contemporary dance pioneers The Rambert Dance Company’s new work ‘21’ - a production which will receive its London première at Sadlers Wells later this month.

Blink are no strangers to Kylie - the company produced all the insert material for last year’s seminal ‘Fever’ tour, and a specially commissioned video for her Royal Variety performance. They were approached by renowned Rambert choreographer Rafael Bonachela, who devised 21 to provide imagery for the dance piece, which runs in three sections, and lasts 21 minutes. The soundtrack for the performance has been composed by Benjamin Wallfisch and its lighting design conceived by Chris Davey.

Bonachela asked film production designer/video artist Alan Macdonald, and Kylie’s own personal image mak

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UK - Sennheiser UK has introduced the HD280 Silver, a stylish new addition to its ever popular range of professional DJ headphones. HD280 is capable of reproducing bass down to an impressive 8Hz, while the ultra-sensitive neodymium equipped drivers deliver a precise linear frequency response, with 102dB maximum SPL. The closed design provides extremely effective ambient noise insulation.

The HD280 Silver features the same rugged and practical design characteristics of the Sennheiser professional headphone range - best known to DJs through the popular HD25 and HD25SPs - with easily replaceable parts, including the single side coiled cable and ear and headband padding. Unusually for headphones of such power and size, the lightweight HD280 Silvers are also able to close down to an easily transportable size with collapsible rotating ear-pieces providing for comfortable single-ear mo

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UK - The Laban is offering its first dance Summer School in its new home, from 14-25 July 2003. Students can train intensively for two weeks with leading dance practitioners in state-of-the-art facilities. The variety of courses on offer makes the programme ideal for those who want to refresh their skills and keep up-to-date or for those considering professional dance training. Guest artists and teachers include the Transitions Dance Company, Linda Hartley, Wendy Houstoun, Benji Reid and Ben Wright.

(Jane Cockburn)

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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

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Only three sound reinforcement companies took advantage of the new Exhibitor Seminars, all of them tellingly local. Alcons Audio's Tom Back explained ribbon transducers, understandably, while Ampco discussed active noise control. But Duran Audio really took the mouse by the clogs with a hefty analysis of digital directivity control.

Duran's proprietary Digital Directivity Control (DDC) resides in the company's Axys Intellivox speakers, but here new concepts were introduced called Digital Directivity Synthesis (DDS) and Digital Directivity Analysis (DDA). Between them, DDS and DDA can simulate almost infinite radiation patterns of an array, and provide a glimpse into the future of system design for, especially, problematic acoustic spaces.

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UK - London’s jet set rubbed shoulders with the rich and famous at an exclusive party thrown by leather specialists Louis Vuitton to celebrate the launch of their fifth London store at the Royal Exchange in Cornhill. 300 guests packed the venue over two floors to get on with the serious business of having a good time. Entertainment specialists Sound Division provided the audio system and DJ control equipment.

According to Sound Division's Chris Baxter who designed the sound system, the brief was fairly straightforward - to provide a compact, yet powerful, sound system with DJ control that would be capable of making itself heard over the noise of 300 people. "We had a slight problem during set-up in the form of a continual earth loop coming from the venue’s power supply. However, once we’d sorted that out, we achieved a tidy, precise install over two floors

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Create new traditions – Cameo P6 - High Output Full-Spectrum Ellipsoidal

Cameo's P6 is a future-proof LED profiler with a powerful 600 W RGBACL engine and 16,000 lumens. It’s an energy-efficient replacement for 2.5 kW halogen profile lights in theatres and venues. With excellent light quality and natural colour rendering, it fits perfectly in theatres, musicals, TV studios, congresses, and live events.

With an LED life of 50,000 hours and low power use, the P6 cuts energy costs and supports the EU’s ‘Green Deal’ goals for climate neutrality by 2050. It also meets updated eco-design rules for lighting.

www.cameolight.com/p6profile

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UK - Multiple award-winning Brit band Coldplay, supported by Feeder and Ian McCulloch, recently played to sell-out audiences at Earls Court in London with a total of five Midas consoles in attendance, all supplied by Tour Tech. Coincidentally, the set-up featured a console from every Midas - an XL4 at FOH for Coldplay with a Heritage 3000 on monitors, a Legend 3000 on FOH for Feeder with an XL250 running monitors, and finally a Venice 320 for ex-Echo and the Bunnymen’s Ian McCulloch.

Daniel Green, who’s been at FOH for Coldplay for the last four years, feels it can hardly be called work. "The band is a pleasure to work with, and despite their massive success over the last couple of years, they’re still just a bunch of totally normal guys who are passionate about their music." However, Coldplay’s success has meant playing bigger and bigger venues

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Other flagship desks on show in Amsterdam included Yamaha's PM5000, launched in Frankfurt; Audient's Aztec, launched last year; DiGiCo's D5 Live; and Stagetec's Aurus - again, both launched last year. However, the presence of these desks cheek by jowl with their studio counterparts illustrated the synergy between the new markets better than anything.

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Innova Son's Compact Sy80 appeared centre-stage, an 80-input, 48-buss live console based on the Sensory Compact Live chassis. It features upgraded 'Sensoft' software, and with a stage-box can be expanded to create further inputs and outputs.

Company founder Philippe Royer presided. "It's very much the result of consultation and feedback from our end users, dealers and distributors," he said. "One of the main improvements has been in the design. Beside that, it's a more rugged console for touring and there is a new suite of software functions. The user can specify the layout of his console, so it becomes a global or universal console. Each of the faders can be an input - mono, stereo or multiple; a VCA; a matrix; or an aux and so on. It is completely user-defined."

Because of this, the Sy80 is equally at home tackling FOH, monitoring, live recording and on-air duti

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UK - With all the less than positive speculation surrounding the industry in the last year or so, it was good to discover that Leisuretec Distribution are as active as ever and looking optimistically to the future.

The company was founded by Mike Henden in Luton in 1990, and having grown consistently year on year, moved to its existing address in Leighton Buzzard in1995, since when the premises have literally trebled in size. The expansion has come from diversity: the company stocks and distributes an extensive range of products catering for many different market applications from pro audio, retail, studio, conference, stage and lighting, to education, pubs and clubs. The stock is vast, and the main emphasis of the business is on customer care and commitment to detail - complemented by experienced staff from a range of backgrounds.

Henden is understandably proud of his company’

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UK - The Coronet, a 2,100 capacity, three-level multi-purpose entertainment facility, opened recently in south London. The venue’s £2m refurbishment programme is one of the first in a series of regeneration projects in the vicinity of Elephant and Castle, SE1.

The building in which the Coronet is housed was built in 1872 as the Theatre Royal. Following a fire, it reopened in 1879 as the Elephant & Castle Theatre, seating over 2,000 people. It was here that Charlie Chaplin first took to the stage as a child, and, in fact, the pub next door is named after the silent movie hero. Later remodelled as a 2,315-seat cinema (1931) and modernized as an ABC cinema (1967), the venue became The Coronet in 1997 - eventually closing in 1999.

Jeremy Millins, MD of the Pure Group, realized the potential of the venue two years ago. He contacted investor and theatre producer Dominic Madden, who

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Amsterdam's RAI Centre has now hosted three of the last six European AES Conventions, and while this reflects the popularity of the city among delegates, exhibitors and voyeurs alike, as a commercial rope-ladder for the high end it may be wearing a bit thin.

It was quiet, and if the exhibition is to stimulate the local markets around itself, there are other cities that need attention while Holland's well-turned soil could lay fallow for a few years. That said, portents for improvement were visible both in that very local support, and in a few promising technological breakthroughs for sound reinforcement.

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AKG

SR40/DIV, a stationary UHF diversity receiver added to the WMS 40 wireless mic system.

www.akg.com

Audio EngineeringThe Micron 700 Series wireless system goes to 16 channels, using MDR762 twin-channel diversity racks in conjunction with the new BandMaster antenna distribution and combiner systems.

www.micronwireless.co.uk

Bruel & Kjaer

Launch of 2260 Observer, a portable sound level meter and analyzer. In real-time, it analyzes in 1/1- or 1/3 octave bands, covering 8Hz-16kHz and 6.3Hz-20kHz respectively. Room reverberation measurement is an option.

www.bksv.com

DPA Microphones

Low-voltage versions of the DPA 4061 and 4066 headband mics, namel

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UK - A.C. Lighting’s Project Division was recently awarded the contract to supply and install the lighting system in a new multi-purpose hall at Barnsley College, designed and project managed by Adam Beaumont.

Although designed primarily for sporting activities, the College wanted to gain maximum functionality from the new hall by also using it to stage occasional theatrical productions and other high-profile campus activities. With budget and storage playing an important part in the overall design of the system, plans to use a truss and rigging system had to be rejected in favour of finding a more cost-effective and space-saving solution. A.C. Lighting Projects Division opted for PCM’s versatile Unibar electric winch and track system.

As another criteria was that all walls had to be kept free of system equipment for safety reasons, the Unibar track system was susp

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In addition to Innova Son, the other important console appearance was Cadac's S-Type, announced in September and now in production. It's available in 17-, 25- or 33-way frames, typically at 25 frames with 16 mono inputs; eight group, aux and matrix outputs; eight DC master faders; and a communications module.

The 4-band parametric EQ comes from the J-Type, while this desk can be expanded via buss connectors to link a number of frames together. The modules can be placed according to taste. According to Cadac's Tony Waldron, plenty of live sound people had been to visit the stand. "We've had the Dutch contingency, lots of German and Denmark contacts - all the usual customers who want to see the latest from us.

"In the last 10 years," Waldron observed, "loudspeakers have become so good that they reveal things in a live or playback mix that you couldn't hear before. P

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Audient launched the ASP008 - a compact, 1U rack mount unit, featuring eight channels of the highly acclaimed mic pre, developed originally for the ASP8024 recording console and the Aztec live sound mixer.

All channels include XLR input, 48V phantom power, switchable input impedance, 25-250Hz hi pass filter, phase reverse, as well as line input selection. Channels one and two also feature a -20dB attenuator and a high impedance Instrument/DI input, on a jack on the front panel. LEDs provide indication of signal present and overload. A digital output option is available in addition to the standard balanced analogue outputs, making the ASP008 an ideal 'front end' to any DAW or Pro Tools system.

This is the first new product to be launched by Audient since its restructure earlier this year. The company has recently relocated to new headquarters at Herriard Park in north Hampshire, UK,

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In case the show threatened to rise above a background murmer, Drawmer introduced the SP2120 Speaker Protector, a 1U processor designed to prevent excessive SPLs from a given speaker system. With a security lock and key to allow only authorized system adjustment and management, it gives engineers the power to protect the drivers and electronics in the speakers themselves, and venues the capacity to stay within local noise-level limits whoever's on the stage, in the DJ booth or in the CD rack. It wasn't needed at the RAI Centre.

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Digigram quietly demonstrated new EtherSound control software, although, as Frank Siedel pointed out, you don't necessarily need a computer to gain the benefits of networked audio. "You can get the audio in and out of the EtherSound network just by configuring the channels and the devices themselves," he said. "Many people think network audio equals system administration and a lot of troubleshooting - just because, in most companies, everybody has network headaches every day. But EtherSound is not like this, because it can be set up without even a computer.

"But, if you want more flexibility, you can use our software. It simply tells you what equipment is connected to the network, the number of inputs and outputs, and allows you to manipulate these as a matrix. All you have to do is define channels by clicking and dragging, and of course, every configuration can be

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UK - Late May sees the launch of the Platinum TwinTrak Pro, the latest member of the award-winning Focusrite Platinum range. Designed principally as an affordable, high-specification dual mono/stereo tracking device, TT Pro, (as it's known), also boasts comprehensive latency-free monitoring, high performance digital connectivity, and all within a sturdy 2U 19" rack-mount chassis.

Each channel features Focusrite's award-winning Platinum pre amp, embellished with the option of instant 'air' and variable input impedance for improved microphone performance and extended creativity. A Mid-scoop EQ follows, and provides variable frequency and depth of cut for vocal problem solving and miked-up cabinet ambience. In pride of place is TT Pro’s powerful dual mono/stereo optical compressor. This features Focusrite's custom fast-acting optos, alongside side-chain inputs and the a

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USA - For several years now, designers have turned potential lighting slowdowns onsite into productive work time using Prelite’s Mobile visualization system - an interest which has led the company to launch Prelite Onsite.

Prelite Onsite systems are custom built CPUs configured specifically for the demands of 3D visualization. To optimize for speed, they have only the necessary software installed and large amounts of RAM, as well as state-of-the-art professional-grade graphics cards. Each system includes all necessary DMX interfaces and dual flat screen monitors, which can duplicate the same image on both screens - for local use by a programmer and remote use by a designer - or be placed in extended view, allowing a single view to span both displays.

Design teams can opt to have a Prelite system administrator onsite to handle every aspect of implementing this virtual sy

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