UK - Lighting Partners has supplied new exterior architectural fixtures for the National Theatre on London's South Bank. The company supplied nine Showtec City Painter 575 units which feature a shutter and zoom facility, coupled with CMY colour mixing and an MSR 575 light source.

The National Theatre's lighting resources manager Alex Murphy said: "We initially tried the unit as we were extremely tight for space. However, when we turned it on and saw the light output and played with the zoom we knew we were on to a winner. We're just trying to find new places around the building to use them now."

David Morgan of Lighting Partners added: "We are delighted to build on our relationship with the National Theatre and to have been able to bring the Showtec product to the

UK - One of Birmingham's best known nightclubs DV8, has chosen Wharfedale loudspeakers for its new front bar extension, Innov8.

Mark Broadhead, installation manager at local dealers Matthews Electronics, who service many of the local bars, says that the comprehensive Wharfedale range offers so many options, that each venue can have its own tailored Wharfedale-specific sound to reproduce the wide range of background and DJ sound. This was certainly a feature that appealed to DV8 owner, Wayne Toon.

The 900-capacity venue was in a run-down state when he purchased it some four years ago and added it to his 150-strong community pub portfolio in the West Midlands. Recently he decided to commit in the region of £300,000 to developing a bar that would build up the early evening trade.

DV8 itself, which trades with a 6am license, is something of an institution in the city. Whil

Slovakia - Slovakia's leading television lighting designer Martin Kubanka specified Robe moving lights at the core of his design for the country's latest Big Brother style series, Vyvoleni.

This second series was produced by independent TV channel JOJ, and recorded in Koliba Studios - the largest in Slovakia. Like the massively popular first series, it also utilised Robe ColorSpot 1200 ATs.

Vyvoleni quickly became the top rated TV show for its three month run, where 15 housemates including four couples vied for some serious money prize and the chance to become celebrities.

The TV action included twice daily 'house visit' shows, plus a weekly eviction show with an interactive and very enthusiastic live audience.

Kubanka is a big Robe fan and uses the luminaires regularly on most of his work which includes high profile shows like Superstar and large TV

USA - Director/Choreographer Kathleen Marshall's Broadway revival of the 1950s classic play The Pajama Game has received a 2006 Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical, while Marshall herself won one for Best Choreography. The show received an impressive seven Tony nominations in all, including Best Direction of a Musical, and best performance nominations for leading actors Harry Connick, Jr. and Kelli O'Hara.

Meyer Sound's Design Services Department played a key role in the show's sound design, working with NYC-based sound designer Brian Ronan to create a system custom-tailored for the show. Ronan added an array of 15 M1D ultracompact curvilinear array loudspeakers to the American Airlines Theatre's existing sound system, which included four UPA-1P compact wide coverage loudspeakers around the proscenium, 10 UPM-1P ultracompact wide coverage loudspe

UK - The Crystal Bar carries through the Dorchester's themes of luxury, quality and high service standards to late night opening. Opening from the refined calm of the promenade, it offers relaxed drinks and discrete corporate or VIP entertainment. Following successful commissions, CGA Integration was chosen to provide an audio system reflecting the Dorchester signature values through high quality, attention to detail and intuitive operation.

The Crystal Bar is a compact, opulent venue finished to a high degree of craftsmanship. The installation had to fit with the design brief, be invisible and yet provide a dynamic audio range and usage flexibility for many different occasions. Interfacing with the hotel fire alarm and procedures was also essential.

Consultation with the Dorchester identified an extremely varied scope for events and entertainment. Routine opening required bac

UK - Kent-based David Fitch Services is celebrating 25 years in business this year. David Fitch took the usual route to stage lighting i.e. as an amateur, starting at the tender age of five working with his father on the school show. Later, at the age of 16, lit his first show called Asses Ears.

After leaving school he spent six years in the family engineering business with four years at college studying engineering and management, and took over the running of the business just as the 1980 recession took hold, and the company closed. Fitch was faced with the choice of unemployment or seeing if the hobby could become a business . . .

Starting with six lights and a dimmer board (laughably described as 'portable', Fitch recalls), and working from the garden shed, Fitch made inroads into the local school and amateur market. Aquiring second-hand lanterns, he build up a stock

Sweden - Wireless Solution Sweden AB has announced that the City of Stoke's innovative Living Lights project, of which W-DMX played a major role, has been awarded first place in the lighting category of The Street Design Awards 2006, a national contest in the UK to reward innovation by local authorities.

Recognized as one of the most advanced art lighting systems in Europe, the $900,000 installation, done by Thorn Outdoor Lighting, turns Stoke's Civic Centre into a giant 300ft by 75ft canvas for colourful light shows each night, designed by students, as featured in January's issue of L&SI.To facilitate the demanding requirements of the installation, Thorn chose W-DMX IP65 units for wireless control of the entire system.

The building is illuminated by 57 groups of DMX-controlled, Thorn RGB LED strips (more than 100 fixtures in total) fixed to the building. These c

UK - Pharos Architectural Controls will be exhibiting at PLASA 06 in Earls Court next month on stand F31. The Pharos Lighting Playback Controller (LPC) won a PLASA Innovation Award at PLASA 05, and is ideal for architectural, retail and themed entertainment environments that require sophisticated control of colour mixing, dimming, moving light and LED sources. Its advanced timeline-based lighting control, versatile triggering options and rugged solid-state construction make it the ideal all-in-one control solution for fixed installations, the company says.

At PLASA 06 Pharos will be introducing additional products to the LPC range, including the Remote Input Output (RIO) Module, and demonstrating the latest designer software, with a host of new features including Mac OS-X support.

Pharos will also preview a brand new controller which will extend the Pharos range in a new direc

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USA - Eagle Communication Inc. recently installed two Allen & Heath GL2800 live sound mixing consoles in Second Ebenezer Baptist Church in Detroit. The mixers were selected to manage a large number of inputs, as well as multiple mixes feeding different speaker clusters and locations in the church.

"We chose the Allen & Heath GL2800 because of the great sounding, very quiet mic-preamps, simple mute groups, and easy mixing of live performances. Most importantly, the mixer is user-friendly for church volunteers," says Eagle's technical specialist, Rob Wisnieski. "It is a big improvement over the previous mixer's performance and reliability."

A 56-channel GL2800 is used for the main sound, and a 40-channel GL2800 is used for monitor mixing. Input sources include a live band with keyboards, drums, bass, 10 vocal soloists, eight choir mics, a lapel mic, podium mi

UK - This August, the longest-running hire contract ever for entertainment lighting supplier White Light will come to an end. White Light supplied the lighting rig for The Woman In Black at the Fortune Theatre in 1989; the show has been running ever since.

However, even though the hired rig will be coming back to White Light, the show is not ending. Instead, the producers and original lighting designer Kevin Sleep have decided to update the rig to give the show a fresher look; anticipating a long continuing life for the show, they have decided to purchase rather than hire the new lighting. White Light's hire team will no longer be involved with the show, but the sales team are working to provide an updated version of the rig, based largely around ETC's Source Four profile. The changeover will happen at the end of August.

"This also means that we'll be getting back

USA - The new JET Nightclub at the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas includes a sound reinforcement system featuring EAW Avalon Series loudspeakers, which were specifically designed to meet the high demands of premium nightclub sound.

Within a 15,000sq.ft space, JET is outfitted with high-end entertainment technology in each of its three distinct rooms, which are discretely fed hip-hop, rock and house music. As he's done with numerous cutting-edge club sound designs, John Lyons, president of design/build firm John Lyons Systems, chose to head the JET system with EAW Avalon Series loudspeakers, which he originally co-designed with the EAW engineering team.

In light of unique sonic challenges presented at JET, the two entities again teamed up on a hybrid custom loudspeaker design called the Avalon DCX. Specifically, the DCX marries elements of standard Avalon DC1 and DC2 models with EAW

UK - KV2 Audio returns to PLASA with a larger stand upstairs at Earl's Court where they will be showing their full range of Active and Powered Loudspeaker Systems. Heading the line up is the mighty VHD Touring System fresh from its festival successes this summer from around the globe.

The KV2 VHD speaker system is a very high definition, active driven, large format audio system for touring or fixed installation applications. The cabinet line up consists of the VHD 2.0 mid high cabinet and three different subwoofer modules - the VHD 4.18, the VHD 2.15 and the VHD 1.21. System control and amplification comes from the VHD 2000, a rack mounted controller/amplifier system specifically designed to actively drive the VHD 2.0 cabinet. It also contains control functions for the system and subwoofer signal routing to feed the VHD 3200 subwoofer amplifier. The VHD 2000 is the world's first

UK - Perhaps because he lives in San Francisco, sound sculptor Bill Fontana has come to regard suspension bridges as living structures that should be heard as well as seen. Fontana creates works in which he puts microphones and sensors in interesting locations and transmits the sounds they pick up to equally interesting locations some distance away, where they are reproduced in real time by carefully placed loudspeakers.

Fontana's recent work Speeds of Time involved positioning microphones and accelerometers (vibration sensors) in the clockworks of London's Big Ben, and playing the sound back from loudspeakers in a corridor of the Palace of Westminster below. Sound Island used hydrophones (underwater microphones) to gather sounds at the beach in Normandy, France, which were reproduced from speakers hung on the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.

As well as clocks and beach

UK - TMB will be exhibiting some new products at PLASA 06, on stand D38.

New to the DecoPAR range of fixtures are PAR 16 and track-mount models. Available in a variety of finishes, DecoPAR is more than a light source; the fixture is a scenic element itself.

The ColourPix range of LED display systems has been expanded to include high- and low-res modules comprised of interlocking panels, custom-configured for pixel pitch and size depending on the project. A touring version of ColourPix high- and low-res modules is offered for repeated transport, rapid setup and teardown.

Alpha One of Germany offers Falcon high-power, compact fixtures for architectural and portable use. Xenon and Metal Halide models are available, in static or automated versions, and IP-rated for outdoor use.

Interactive Technologies' new CueServer playback processor is a self-contained, web enabled solution

UK - For over four decades, Neil Sedaka's timeless standards have helped change the face of popular music. With countless hit singles, and platinum and gold records, he is recognized as one of rock and pop music's legendary pioneers. On Friday, 7 April, 2006, Neil performed at London's Royal Albert Hall (RAH), which was filmed for a worldwide DVD release.

Ollie Jeffery, technical show manager at the Albert Hall explained the production, "We were originally asked by Neil Sedaka production team to provide a three colour wash and a special for the Piano. We developed from a three colour wash to a comprehensive lighting rig using a mixture of generic and moving lights."

They felt that the best light to give good images on the backdrop would be the new Mac 700 Profiles which were supplied to them by White Light. Its variety of gobos and animation wheel was a big advantage

UK - DPA Microphones are making their first-ever appearance at PLASA 06 on the stand of UK distributor Sound Network, stand R42.

DPA is one of the leading microphone brands on the market today. The Danish range of mics have become a standard for theatrical and orchestral work as well as for live, recording, installation and house of worship applications. In addition to showing established products such as the 4066 omnidirectional and 4088 cardioid headband mics, which feature DPA's miniature mic technology, there are several new products on display at PLASA.

The SMK4061 Stereo Microphone Kit is a stereo recording solution aimed at project studios and for discreet mic setup on stage. The kit packages two DPA 4061 high quality omnidirectional miniature microphones with a variety of mounting accessories. These include the BLM6000 Boundary Layer Mount, which can be used in conjunc

Italy - Proel will introduce a number of new audio products, including its latest NEOS range of active and passive loudspeakers, at the PLASA Show. The NEOS range has been designed to give high quality acoustic performance in a cabinet that is both lightweight and compact, say Proel.

The NEOS cabinets feature B&C custom transducers, neodymium magnets, titanium diaphragm HF drivers, and an asymmetrical rotatable 1" horn. The bi-amplified active versions are powered by Class D power amps with switching power supply, and onboard DSP.

The cabinets are built from 15 and 18mm birch plywood, coated with a highly resistant anti-scratch Protector-coat paint finish, have a double angle flange (0° or 7.5°) and integral M10 flying points.

Also from Proel is the new Sound Processor line, the result of a detailed series of developments by the company's Sound Reinforcement R&D

UK - L-Acoustics UK has supplied its first Powered cabinets for an installation at the Winchester Family Church. Will Bradshaw the group technical director comments: "Due to the internal shape of our Stanmore Lane Church we had always struggled to achieve a clear sound from the live worship band and any singer or Minister on stage. We just couldn't reach all parts of the auditorium clearly with the original PA system. We were already in dialogue with L-Acoustics as they are working on a much bigger project for our main building in the centre of Winchester, so we asked them to solve this particular problem. After viewing the building and with careful consideration, the Solution was to provide a pair of the new L-Acoustics 112P powered speakers mounted high up left and right of the stage. The result was staggering - crystal clear sound in any part of the auditorium, even in the

UK - Hawthorns have released a unique new facility on their website to assist hire customers quickly build a specification and get an idea of budget costs. "The new online Hire shop is a fully automated system which allows customers to view each item from the thumbnail picture gallery, select individual products from our extensive hire stock, check the pricing and build up a quote," said Simon Wood, general manager of Hawthorn's. "It will make getting a budgetary quote so much easier for customers as they can do it at anytime, 24/7, 365 days a year and the system even remembers to add in the essential auxiliary components."

The system produced quotes may be saved and sent to the Hire team experts at Hawthorn's for confirmation of specification, formalisation of pricing and confirmation of equipment availability. "We are already receiving excellent feedba

UK - As part of their 25th Anniversary celebration, Vari-Lite will take PLASA attendees on a walk down memory lane this year. On display in the PLASA café will be a complete historical retrospective of the Vari-Lite product line from the prototype VL0 to the VL2416. The newest additions to the Vari-Lite range, including the VL500 80V automated luminaire, will be on the PRG Europe stand (J38) alongside this extraordinary retrospective, say the company.

All the fixtures, excluding the VL0, will be operational, allowing show patrons to once again see the VL1 automated luminaire - the famed luminaire that began the automated lighting revolution in 1981 - back in action. Vari-Lite invites visitors to take a moment to stop by and remember when you first used the VL2 or when you first saw the VL6.

Also on hand during portions of the show will be Jim Bornhorst and Rusty Brutsch

UK - Creative sound specialists CP Sound were called in by Mike Filpi, owner of Clapham Old Town's newest Italian gastronomy - Mooli - to design and install a sound system for the new establishment.

CP Sound has delivered sound solutions for a variety of top class restaurants up over the last five years, including several flagship venues for the Conran Group and a number of leading independents.

CP's Colin Pattenden previously worked with Filpi on several high profile projects whilst he was a project manager at the Ignite Group (Eclipse Bars, Bouji's, etc). "We stated with a challenging situation" says Pattenden "The restaurant was already built when they decided a proper sound system was vital to the ambience". The CP team therefore undertook the task of installing the system and leaving the venue pristine behind them.

Mooli's is a small main room with a

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