Greece - Bon Studio S.A. won the contract to install the audio infrastructure in three of the most contemporary stadia in Europe, used recently for the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. Drawing heavily on the product portfolio of Harman Pro group companies for whom they handle distribution, Bon Studio was able to meet the specifications laid down for the Pampeloponissiako and Panthessaliko Outdoor Stadia, and Nikaia Indoor Stadium. When some of the designs were later modified to achieve optimum sound quality, Bon Studio were able to comply with the revised requirement.

The new 24,000-seat Pampeloponissiako stadium in Patra was built in order to stage the Olympic football tournaments. Bon Studio installed the sound reinforcement system in the stadium's main arena plus sound reinforceme

UK - As part of an ongoing exterior lighting upgrade, London's National Theatre has purchased a number of colour changers from Ambient Lighting Ltd, the UK distributor of Italian lighting manufacturer, Griven.

The fixtures purchased by the NT are the 1000W Colosseo CYM units from Griven's dedicated 'Architectural Dimension' range. The fixtures have been installed by the NT's own staff to light the exterior north face of the Lyttelton flytower, viewable from Waterloo Bridge and surrounds.

Ambient Lighting reports that the NT will host a continuous demonstration of the fixtures during the evenings of this year's PLASA Show, so that interested parties can see the unit in action in a real environment. The Colosseo will also be on stand at PLASA, alongside the 4000W xenon Kolorglobe fixture, aimed at large-scale architectural installation.

UK - Production Services has announced the upgrading of its SP Series power amplifiers - despite the fact that the existing designs have provided sterling service with only one breakdown (due to operator problems) over the last 12 months from all the SP Series amps in use worldwide, say the company.

The changes start with the front plate, machined from 10mm thick aluminium block. Superior airflow has been achieved as well as making the amplifier more robust. According to the manufacturer, everything about the amplifiers has been upgraded from transparent output limiting through components to general design and layout. The result, the company says, is improved reliability and sonic performance - with no price increase.

(Sarah Rushton-Read)

France - Digigram, a world leader in innovative digital audio network solutions, announced recently that US based Jimmy Kawalek has been hired as worldwide business development manager for the licensing program of Digigram's patented EtherSound technology.

"There are few people in the world that have as much knowledge and market insight in professional networked audio as Jimmy has. He knows exactly what pro audio manufacturers need to efficiently implement audio networking and remote control capabilities into their products, and he has a proven track record of creating long-term business relations, which are beneficial for all parties. We are very happy to have him on board," said Philippe Delacroix, Digigram managing director.

Kawalek added: "I am very excited to join Digigram and to be part of the EtherSound team. The more I learn about this incredible technol

UK - Scottish lighting specialist black light has formally launched its new Glasgow office, adding a significant string to the bow of Scotland's Lighting Company. Based in the Parkhead area of the city, the new office has actually been open for several months, during which time general manager Iain Weir has been building up the business, stock levels and developing relationships with a range of clients on the western side of Scotland and northern England. "Giving the office an initially low-key opening was a deliberate policy," says Iain. "That way we could ensure that everything was in place and working at 110% efficiency before the official launch."

"The new office shows black light being both proactive and reactive," adds managing director Gavin Stewart. "There is an enormous range of projects on the western side of the country, which we ar

UK - Chris Cronin of Total Fabrications Ltd has announced the formation of Total Solutions Group, established to manage a suite of well-known brands associated with trussing in the entertainment industry.

Sitting under the umbrella of the Group will be the brands Total Fabrications, Slick (one of the oldest truss manufacturers in the industry, purchased by Total Fabrications in 2003), T2 (the Award-winning, high-specification safety truss), Total Training (the new rigging training initiative set up by the company) and New Wave (the decorative trussing brand which has won numerous awards). New Wave is marketed by TSG for its US-based sister company Total Structures, which remains separate from the new TSG structure.

Some of the Group's brand names - Total Fabrications, T2 and Slick - are available for manufacture under license in other countries around the world, through technology tr

UK - In the last few weeks, DHA has supplied gobos to all of the new shows heading into London for the autumn, including Mary Poppins, The Woman In White, Saturday Night Fever and Bat Boy.

For Saturday Night Fever, at the Apollo Victoria, lighting designer Gavan Swift specified eight custom gobos for Martin MAC 2000s and two custom gobos for Selecon Pacifics as well as 204 stock MAC designs and 44 stock conventional designs. The Pacific gobos of the 'dancin' man' and 'halo' parts of the logo were used to light the logo on the show's front gauze. The gobos and lighting rig were supplied by Stage Electrics in Bristol.

Stage Electrics are also supplying the equipment for the new Cameron Mackintosh/Disney co-production of Mary Poppins, which will open in Bristol before transferring to London. Howard Harrison's lighting design includes 193 stock gobos f

UK / USA - The Effects Company, UK manufacturer of a range of Special Effects products has announced an agreement with Jireh Supplies of Lawrenceville, Georgia - to distribute their range of products throughout the USA. Jireh is an established company which will carry a good stock inventory of the complete range of Effects Company products, which will be promoted to their existing and new customers, in conjunction with their manufacturers' representatives.

Managing director of The Effects Company, Martin Blake, says: "We have always sold directly to the end user or 'trade installer' in the USA but many enquiries 'go dead' when they cannot purchase directly in the USA. Now customers can purchase from Jireh Supplies, knowing their requirements can be shipped immediately from stock and have the full back-up and service of a reputable company. This pro-active sales agreement wi

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UK - Fed up with the usual freebies given away at trade shows? Then make sure you visit the ETC stand at PLASA 2004 for a chance to win one of its brand new, easy-to-use portable SmartFade consoles, worth £800! ETC is giving away a certificate good for one SmartFade 1248 each day - to have a chance of winning, all you have to do is visit ETC stands F39 or F40 to register your name in their Daily Draw.

While SmartFade is ideal for first time users, educational establishments and amateur groups, it nevertheless offers all the control performance required by lighting professionals. With three operating modes, SmartFade offers a simple Two Scene mode with 12 or 24 channels for novice users, or Normal mode, providing 48 or 96 channels with 288 or 576 memories and 48 sequences for more experienced users. DMX512 input facility also allows SmartFade to be used as a sophisticated backu

UK - Massive Attack's summer festival tour was a high impact combination of electronics and visual expression, with James Thomas Pixelline fixtures and United Visual Artists' Dragonfly II software amalgamated into arguably the brightest show of the summer season. For those unable to prize their shades from their craniums after dark - this was the gig to be at!

The band wanted a visual departure from last year's LED wall, which featured low-resolution imagery. They favoured a less technical stage look, but also wanted to continue with digital technology: this provided the starting point for lighting designers Andy Hurst and Vince Foster and the UVA team, who came up with the concept of a super low-res horizontal wall of Pixelline - 151 pixels wide by 161 high - with gaps in between the units.

Highlighting the band in silhouette, the Pixelline wall served as a dynamic (and very bright)

UK - PLASA 2004 heralds the first Prize Stage alongside the PLASA After Show Bar, set to run from 6-8pm on 12, 13 and 14 September. The Prize Stage is the brainchild of DiGiCo marketing director, David Webster, and is sponsored by nine of the entertainment industry's major players: Avolites, DiGiCo, Lab.Gruppen, Lighthouse, Meyer Sound, Mobil-Tech, Sennheiser, Stardraw and XTA Electronics.

Each evening, the sponsors will be giving away exciting prizes in a free draw for show attendees who have obtained an entry form from the companies involved and comply with the necessary criteria. There will also be the chance of winning a joint prize of £1000 for those who have visited each company and had their 'Prize Passport' (available from each of the sponsoring exhibitors) fully stamped.

"We're very excited to be able to put something like this together," says Webster. &q

UK - Established in 1990, Sound Division has come a long way since its roots as a sales and service provider in the DJ technology field. Since the restructuring of the company in 2000, managing director David Graham has worked hard to develop other areas of the business with the result that now, some four years on, Sound Division is a much broader-based concern. Today, the company encompasses contracts and installations as a key area of its market, and a thriving entertainments and corporate events division run by Chris Baxter, which trades under the name of 'Sounds Good To Me' - as well as its traditional hire and sales operations.

While Sounds Good To Me is a side of the business that has always done well under Baxter's direction, and continues to do so, Graham is particularly pleased at the way in which business has taken off for the contracts division. Over the last two to three ye

UK - Wakestock, which takes place in Abersoch, North Wales, is Europe's largest wakeboard music festival - a watersport/music combination which is proving highly popular. Sound, lighting and power for the event was provided by Cheshire-based VME.

The event was staged over three locations: Pwellheli inner marina and Abersoch main beach were used for the wakeboard competition, while Penrhos was the music site, where headline act Kosheen was supported by the Ordinary Boys, Snatch and others. It took two and a half days to set all power, lighting and sound equipment across the site.

PA for the main area was Kling & Freitag's Access system: four T9 and T5 cabintes, with 12 B5 and four B10s as subwoofers, powered by Lab Gruppen amplification. At front-of-house were a Yamaha PM4000 and an Allen & Heath ML5000. For each desk was an outboard rack carrying a Yamaha SPX 900 and SPX 2000, a dbx

Greece - Le Maitre played a part in the Closing Ceremony of the 2004 Olympics, having been contracted to provide some of the special effects for the event by Jack Morton Public Events, producers of the ceremony. A team of six technicians were flown to Athens, along with 20 confetti blowers and over 500kg of confetti, glitter and streamers. The Le Maitre crew spent five days setting up the equipment in the Olympic Stadium between midnight and 6am, when the day's events had finished, trained 20 local technicians to help operate the cannons, and took part in two full rehearsals.

The effects created provided a spectacular accompaniment to the three-hour ceremony. The Chinese performance of the Beijing handover ceremony was given a dramatic finish using 15 of Le Maitre's Electric Air Cannons to fire yellow streamers from inside a giant lantern. The ceremony featured performances fro

UK - Lighting designer Dave Byars used two Avolites Diamond 4 consoles for a recent show at The Eden Project with French band, Air. One was his touring console (he's been on the road with the band since the beginning of the year) while the second was supplied by Avolites to control illuminations specially installed to light the Eden Project's famous Biomes, which backed onto the stage.

For Air's performance, the Biomes were lit with a combination of James Thomas PixelPAR 90(A) architectural fixtures and Pixelline 1044 battens. The Biome D4 was operated by Fraser Elisha.

For the tour - a combination of own shows and festival slots, with lighting and sound production supplied by Entec - Byars needed a lightweight desk with compact dimensions that was easy to hoist up FOH festival towers. He also needed it to offer plenty of creative power, and found the D4 ideal from all perspectives.<

UK - The organizers of the Reproduced Sound conference have issued a provisional programme for this year's event, which takes place at the Oxford Hotel in Wolvercote, Oxford, from 8-10 October 2004. Previously known as 'The Windermere Conference' after the location in which it spent its first 14 years, the conference was successfully held at its new location in November 2003, and will return there this year for its 20th event.

The theme for the conference this year is 'Improving the listening experience', and the organizers are encouraging creative interpretations of theme in papers submitted for the programme. The event will also include an area for demonstrating and exhibiting products and catalogues, and practical demonstration sessions will take place on each of the two evenings.

The event is expected to attract more than 100 delegates, from all parts of the audio profession. Fu

USA - CITC, the innovative US manufacturer of special effects products, has supplied equipment to two recent film productions. Disney's forthcoming film, based on the first book from C.S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia series, is currently being filmed in New Zealand. To achieve the winter-wonderland described in C.S. Lewis's land of Narnia, CITC supplied SnoBiz snow machines to Jason Drury of Film Effects in New Zealand.

Meanwhile, The Chronicles of Riddick, starring Vin Diesel and Ja Rule, has made use of CITC's Stratosphere Haze machine. The film's special effect technician, Bill Orr, had three large stages in which to maintain a balanced haze. He commented: "It doesn't have to stay on very long to make six hours of haze that's even."

UK - The entrepreneurial aspirations of two well-known entertainment industry figures are being unveiled this month, with the launch of a new company, Global Design Solutions (GDS).

GDS is the creation of Matt Lloyd and Richard Cuthbert (both previously of Stage Electrics). The company boasts many strings to its bow, in both technical and commercial arenas, not least of which is the development of new global products specifically related to the technical entertainment presentation industries - R&D for two of which is already well underway.

"We're bringing new, innovative ideas to the marketplace and creating solutions," says Lloyd. "We've identified gaps in the market and are using our expertise and imagination to create forward-thinking design ideas which we'll license to manufacturers and end-users."

Alongside product development, the main direction of GDS wi

Ireland - AVC, the Dublin-based audio-visual equipment hire company, has become the latest European rental operator to invest in the Nexo GEO S Series tangent array system.

John Magann and his team at AVC opted for the GEO S "because of the technology and the compactness of the system." Already a Nexo PS Series user, AVC has now made the strategic decision to concentrate its hire stock entirely around the Nexo designs. "It's a perfect fit," says Magann. "The GEO S elements are ideal for the concert and cabaret work that we do, as well as being perfectly suited to our corporate clients and the events market. The Nexo PS Series can be used as a monitor system with GEO S, or in its own right for the smaller jobs."

AVC made its decision after discussion with local dealer Rea Sound, and a visit to the Millennium Forum in Derry, where a Nexo GEO S sound system

USA - Bill Morris has returned to High End Systems (HES) Inc in a new role as VP of sales. Based at the company's Austin, Texas headquarters, Morris will oversee sales of HES automated/digital lighting and Wholehog control products in North and South America and Asia.

Morris was VP of worldwide marketing at HES from March 2003 to March 2004. He has spent the last six months running his own marketing consulting firm based in the Austin area. Prior to his stint at High End, Morris was employed by Dell Computer Corporation and was responsible for developing and implementing Dell's software sales and marketing strategy. In earlier years, he founded and managed a marketing and public relations firm based in Dallas, Texas.

HES CEO Frank Gordon says, "We turned to Bill for this position because we recognize that he is customer-oriented, he understands the business and the direct

UK - The entertainment technology industry seems to have reached an age where the time is right to take stock of its roots. Initiatives include the sociological - recall our report on Paul Dexter's RoadCases project (L&SI May 2004) which aims to record the experiences of rock and roll roadies for posterity - and the technological, with the NEET project . . .

NEET - the National Exhibition of Entertainment Technology - first materialized in 1999, founded by Jason Williams. After serving as the secretary for the Projected Picture Trust, which deals with protecting the heritage of the cinema industry, Williams realized that there was very little effort being made to protect the heritage of other entertainment technologies. Hence NEET, created with a simple set of objectives: to locate, preserve, and exhibit early examples of entertainment technology, providing a valuable educational and h

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