Italy - The winter resort of Madonna die Campiglio was the setting for the recent annual gathering of the UniCredit Group. Sporting activities kept guests entertained throughout the day, whilst in the evening the Italy-based banking organization laid on a buffet accompanied by live music and acrobatic displays in a 7,000sq.m circus tent. To ensure the technical networking and implementation did justice to the occasion, for the third year running the UniCredit Group hired TC Showtechnik of Weilheim to handle both electrification and lighting and sound production.
With 18 masts holding it aloft, the big top was furnished with XLD and XLE compact line array loudspeaker systems from Electro-Voice. These were supported by PX1122M and PX1152M multi-purpose loudspeakers, whilst the requi
USA - PRG Distribution North America has announced its distribution partnership for North America, Mexico, Central America and South America with electric chain hoist manufacturer ChainMaster.
Manufacturing motors for the entertainment industry since 1993, ChainMaster introduced the first variable speed VarioLift motor in 1998. Their product line spans from 1/4 to 12 ton motors, 2-32 channel control boxes, their XYZ computer control for large jobs, and trolleys. ChainMaster was recently awarded the rigging contract for the Qatar Convention Center in Doha and is supplying that venue with nearly 1,800 VarioLifts and seven 256-channel control systems.
"We are very happy to partner with ChainMaster," said Tim Brennan, vice president of PRG Distribution. "When I saw the precision placement and the low noise level of the VarioLift at the Prolight+Sound show, I knew th
Colombia - Held on 17 May, the Pentecostes 2010 outdoor event drew thousands of attendees from all over Colombia. It was particularly notable this year, due in part, to the robust sonic performance of a D.A.S. Audio-based sound system.
vento Totales and FrancoSound (owned and operated by Jader Montoya and Amilkar Franco respectively) are two well-known sound companies in the Colombian professional audio sector. Both firms service the live sound/pro touring market and also operate equipment rental divisions. Together, they pooled their talent and resources to assemble a high performance sound system that made this year's event among the most memorable in recent history.
Amilkar Franco - with assistance from associate Reynaldo Flores - oversaw the selection and installation of the equipment for this year's event and also handled various sound engineering responsibilities.
Indonesia - The Jakarta International Java Jazz Festival has become one of the world's largest and most comprehensive music festivals. The 2010 event, which took place 5-7 March, saw over 100,000 music fans come to hear 200 performances by artists including John Legend, Bob James, Lee Ritenour, Toni Braxton, George Duke, Kenny 'Babyface' Edmonds and more. The event was reinforced by EAW's KF series of line arrays.
This year, the festival took place at the Jakarta International Expo Kemayoran (JIE). "JIE is an exhibition venue," Andre Supryanata from Sumber Ria Sound, the pro audio rental company in charge, stated. "But it fits perfectly to accommodate the festival's growing audience. What we had do was to present the best audio system that can cover up the lack of acoustic treatment of the building."
In total, P.T. Kairos Multi Jaya, EAW's Indonesian
UAE - Promoter Fluid Production brought Grammy-nominated DJ David Guetta to the Dubai World Trade Centre on 9 April to rock his Middle Eastern fans. His eclectic musical style of combining electro, hip hop and R&B called for a pulsating lighting approach.
Lighting designer Frank Schotman created the special lighting and chose to work with Martin Professional's MAC 301 Wash, MAC 401 Dual and MAC 2000 range luminaires, as well as Martin LC Plus LED panels. The lighting equipment was supplied by Eclipse and acquired from Martin Middle East.
Schotman placed most of the MAC gear on five finger trusses that covered most of the event centre hall, allowing him to envelope the audience in color. He also placed Atomic strobes and other lighting on five truss towers for special effects.
Guetta's show was enhanced by an LED backdrop displaying a multitude of graphics and images. To crea
Sweden - Described as Europe's biggest royal wedding since Prince Charles married Lady Diana Spencer in 1981, Victoria, Crown Princess of Sweden married long-time partner Daniel Westling on 19 June 2010. The event was the occasion of huge celebrations throughout Stockholm, including a three-hour TV special that was broadcast live from Stockholm's Kungsträdgården. Pro audio distribution specialists, Electrosound, who also operate a thriving rental division, were contracted to handle all of the sound production for the main stage and sound distribution for the TV-4 OB truck.
The show was a big event that included live performances from a number of top Scandinavian artists including Eagle Eye Cherry, Linda Sundblad, Carpark North, Gentlemen, Jasmine Kara, Anna Maria Espinosa and many others.
Part of the system provided by Electrosound was a full Innovason network system running
UK - For over 10 years Primacoustic has been at the forefront of acoustic treatments for both studio and commercial installations. Now with the launch of the IsoTool range the company has addressed a number of acoustic attenuation and isolation problems that are common where capturing pristine sound is essential. There are five products in the range:
Voxguard is a high performance ambient noise attenuator, designed to mount on a microphone stand and surround a recording microphone, to help control the sound from entering the microphone by minimising the reflections in the room.
Crashguard is designed to shield a drum mic and attenuate the sound of cymbals during recording. Small enough so that it will not get in the way and durable enough to sustain repeated abuse from drummers.
The TriPad is a tripod mic stand isolator designed to prevent vibrations from the stage and floor
Singapore - On 2 July at the Singapore Botanical Gardens, thousands gathered to hear Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli at the annual YTL Concert of Celebration 2010.
Selected by local partner Nova Superscreen, Lighthouse Technologies provided three LED display screens, one on the main stage and two at the Botanical Garden's Shaw Foundation Symphony Stage and Palm Valley.
"The YTL Concert of Celebration is one of Singapore's most acclaimed and highly regarded events, and with the Singapore Premier and dozens of international guests on hand, we were confident that Lighthouse products would deliver a world-class viewing experience," said Nik Ahmad Huznee, chief executive officer at Nova Superscreen.
"The R16 screens performed stunningly, delivering perfect colour and excellent clarity, just as we expected. Lighthouse really makes the entire process, from
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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.
UK - New from LD Systems, a brand of the Adam Hall Group, the DAVEG2SERIES portable PA system is a flexible, compact, active system that has a number of practical features, such as the inclinated satellite speakers which provide optimal acoustic irradiation, butterfly handles and an optional castor board.
With an excellent price-performance ratio, it is ideal for entertainers, duos, smaller PA systems and presentation applications, says the company.
The DAVEG2Series active module features all necessary inputs and outputs as well as protective circuits. Transport bags for the subwoofer and satellites, are also available.
Other features include a lockable Volex power plug, an output clip-limiter and the subwoofer is equipped with a M20 thread.
UK - Three diverse places of worship - and three completely different RCF system solutions; this was the approach taken by Scottish-based d3 Audio and Visual Ltd, who carried out the installations.
Director Phil Lidstone believes this purpose-specific policy has given them a competitive edge in one of the company's core market areas.
"We design for each individual application rather than use a one-system-fits-all approach," he stated. "We are known as specialists in this sector, where we integrate the two disciplines of pro audio and audio visual under a common control platform. It's a case of being able to differentiate between speech-only systems and those requiring a full dynamic range - and make them operable by non technical users."
RCF, he says, have systems that cover all eventualities. "We have confidence in their ranges, and from R&D to fini
UK - GLP's powerful new impression XL has made an immediate impact at the start of the Scissor Sisters world tour, which included an appearance at Glastonbury.
Lite Alternative's Paul Normandale has designed the six floor-mounted impression XL LED heads into an elaborate motion controlled set.
His company also fielded a further nine impression 120RZ Zooms from their inventory - adding to the fixtures they first incorporated into the set design for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs earlier in the year (all fixtures supplied by AC Entertainment Technologies). Like the XL's these were mounted at the back of the stage, and blasted their light through four 8 x 8 sections of spinning aluminium louvre shutters, lifted on a Kinesys K2 motion control section.
After a three-year break, the New York-based Scissor Sisters were clearly seeking something more sophisticated than a disco lighting set - b
UK - Carden Park, one of Cheshire's premier golf resort hotels, continues to raise the bar and lead the way in conference and banqueting facilities in the North West, following a £350,000 refurbishment.
As part of the refurbishment, the hotel brought in Bose Pro Partner, Apple Sound, to upgrade and enhance the AV in the Carden Suite. The self-contained Carden Suite, which has its own entrance and car park, can accommodate up to 400 delegates and continues to complement the existing 11 conference rooms and dedicated business centre, all supported by highly trained event and conference organisers.
In addition to nine 60" plasma screens, Apple Sound installed a Bose sound system, consisting of a Bose ControlSpace ESP-88 audio management system, and Bose Panaray 502As loudspeakers with bass support from Panaray MB4s, to provide both background and foreground sound for c
UK - Ellie Goulding is out on tour with an iDR-48 MixRack and iLive-R72 compact control surface managing monitors. Goulding is currently touring Europe on the festival circuit, including the John Peel Stage at Glastonbury, as well as numerous TV appearances, including the Jonathan Ross show, and has provided support for John Meyer on his European arena dates.
Monitor engineer, Steve Pattison, uses a mixture of the R72 surface and a Touchscreen laptop, giving him the flexibility to talk to the artists during sound check, and move around the venue during the show.
"The band are loving the fact I am on stage face to face changing their mix as they ask, and not running back and forth to the desk. They want to know why we haven't had this before! It's useful having the laptop when stage space is cramped as I can put the rack backstage and sit my laptop on the house desk."
UK - The recently launched oubiance.co.uk website reports that it has received a deluge of online feedback praising the extremely reasonably prices of the products within the consumables range.
Barclay Dakers, who heads up the online resource for theatrical supplies, said, "We have been overwhelmed with positive feedback and suggestions since the launch of the site two weeks ago - it has exceeded all expectations."
The site - which prides itself on ease of use and relevance of information - is an exclusively online service. This ensures that overheads are kept to a minimum and pricing can be reduced accordingly.
Dakers continued: "Essentially, efficiency is the name of the game at oubiance.co.uk. We have worked hard to ensure that the site is easy to navigate and this helps customers to quickly find what they are looking for. In turn, processing an online orde
UK - John Hornby Skewes & Co, the exclusive UK and Eire trade distributors for HK Audio's professional sound reinforcement brand, has announced the availability of the Elements PA system range.
Using just six individual components, or 'elements', the user can configure a system for anything from a small conference PA, to a full band stage rig. The entire system is quick and simple to set up, due to the innovative, cable-free internal E-Connect coupler, says the company.
The system starts with the E435 Mid/High unit. Made of extruded aluminium and engineered with line array technology, up to four of these mid/high units can be powered by the similarly designed EA600. This is a 600 watt, Class-D power amp, which can also be used to power either two mid high units and a passive subwoofer, or two subwoofers.
Bass response is provided by the E110 subs.This easy to transport 10&qu
Poland - The celebrated Zbigniew Hubner Theatre in Warsaw underwent a major renovation earlier this year, with a full audio refit spearheaded by the installation of a Midas PRO6 into the Scena 100 performance hall by Audio Plus, distributors of Midas and Klark Teknik in Poland.
Zbigniew Hubner Theatre, which was founded in 1945, has long been a focal point of Polish theatrical culture, attracting leading artists, directors, musicians, choreographers and stage designers both nationally and internationally. The venue has a long history of using Midas consoles, with a Midas Legend 3000 and a Venice installed in theatres two and three respectively.
Sebastian Ku?ma, the theatre's head sound engineer, chose the PRO6 having previously used the Midas Legend 3000. He was particularly impressed with innovations such as the ability to control the time of crossfades between two scenes wit
UK - Manchester- based DBN Lighting supplied lighting design, equipment and crew for the main stage and two other tented areas for the new two-day Parklife music festival, the latest addition to the lively Manchester music party scene. It also celebrated the centenary of Platt Fields Park where it was staged.
DBN was asked to light the dance/indie/crossover by event organisers The Warehouse Project and Ear To The Ground - with whom they have worked on many other projects.
Ian Brown headlined the main stage on the Friday night and Friendly Fires on the Saturday, and the project was managed for DBN by Nick Walton.
Walton also did the production design for the main stage, which was largely based around the lighting spec and design for Ian Brown by LD Fletch from Colour Sound Experiment. The rig also incorporated the flexibility to be morphed into a completely different l
UK - Christie has announced the latest edition of its Christie Mirage Series, the Christie Mirage WU7K-M. Featuring a full WUXGA resolution display and dual lamps for uniformity, the Christie Mirage WU7K-M is a compact, 6,300 ANSI lumens powerhouse.
With dual-link DVI support at 330MHz full bandwidth and up to 10,000:1 contrast, the projector delivers crisp images, vibrant colours and uniform brightnes, all at the lowest cost of ownership, says the company.The stereoscopic 3D display system meets the precise needs of the energy markets, life sciences, government, education and medical research where performance, reliability, easy maintenance and low operating cost are critical to project success.
Built on proven 3-Chip DLP technology, the Christie Mirage WU7K-M has three modes of 3D input: standard frame rate of up to 120Hz, as well as frame-doubled content for maximum source
UK - On 5th June 2010 a group of bikers, hailing from all sectors of the entertainment technology industry, swapped their blacks for leathers and their hard hats for helmets and embarked on an eight-day sponsored motorbike tour of UK theatres to raise money for The Theatrical Guild (TTG).
David Edelstein, who co-organised of the event with his wife Brenda, comments: "We set out from the National Theatre following a hearty breakfast. In total we rode over 1600 miles and on the way visited 16 fascinating and unique theatres. We've been welcomed by some wonderfully hospitable and generous theatre staff and are hugely grateful for all the brilliant support we received. Sponsorship came from all sectors of the entertainment industry, we certainly couldn't have done it without them."
Those who took to the road were: Rob Barnard, Neil Collins, David Edelstein, Charles Haine
USA - PRG Distribution North America has announced its exclusive distribution partnership for North America, Mexico, Central America and South America with Eurotruss. Eurotruss has been manufacturing truss since 1993 and was the first to implement the conical connection system. Their wide range of aluminium truss systems covers all aspects of the entertainment industry.
"We are very excited about this relationship and have already begun selling Eurotruss systems into permanent installations through our dealer network," stated Eric Mueller, director of sales for PRG Distribution NA. "It is evident to me that that our friends at Eurotruss have the same mindset for support and responsiveness as we do in any situation. They are very responsive to our needs for our customers and we look forward to working together with them for some time to come."
UK - York DanceWorks is a new singing, dancing and theatre school close to the York city centre. The massive studio (nearly 200sq.ft) boasts one of the best all-round floors available, and is suitable for the full range and variety of dance styles that are being taught.
"We had been looking for a floor to best suit our school for some time, as we offer such a wide variety of performances we need a floor that could do it all. Overall we found Le Mark's Consor portable dance & performance floor to be incredibly durable easy to roll out and very well priced. My personal thanks to Le Mark for the flexibility and patience in arranging the order and delivery, a great floor, and great service to match" says DanceWork's Sue Stead.
DanceWorks hosted two sell-out shows in June in aid of Help for Heroes.