USA - The Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF) began its 71st season at its three-theatre location in Ashland, Oregon operating in true rotating rep, meaning a different show plays each afternoon and evening; 11 plays are currently rotating at the 360-seat Black Box New Theatre, the 600-seat Angus Bowmer Theatre, and the 1200-seat outdoor Elizabethan Theatre.

Michael Maag, master electrician for OSF, orchestrates an impressive routine to light these performances, with around two-and-a-half hours between curtain down on one show and house open on the next. The lighting crew changes colour, gobos, and shutter cuts on the rep lights in each theatre. With such a demanding schedule, there are very specific requirements. They needed fixtures that would operate easily and quietly, while still giving excellent colour. Maag chose the Wybron Nexera CMY colour-changing fixtures for two of the

Germany - Meyer Sound made the initial public presentation of its new M'elodie ultracompact high-power curvilinear array loudspeaker to great acclaim in a series of high-profile demonstrations in Germany in May. M'elodie is the newest and smallest member of the company's MILO family of loudspeakers, which grabbed the industry's attention with the 2003 release of the original MILO, and has subsequently grown into a complete product line of curvilinear array solutions.

Named for John and Helen Meyer's granddaughter, Elodie (sister of Milo), M'elodie was rolled out in four events staged in Hannover and Wiesbaden attended by owners and engineers from major rental and installation companies from all over Germany. The demonstrations, the first public showings of M'elodie anywhere in the world, were organized by Jim Sides, managing director of Meyer Sound's German office, as part of th

Spain - A new nightclub, Mission 439 has opens its doors to the Guipuzcoan night life. The locale has become the top showcase for DJs wanting to promote their work in the Basque country. Located in the city of Irura, each Friday and Saturday night it draws clubbers from as far away as France to see the latest national and international DJs.

The sound for the club disco has been installed by sound and lighting company Audio Skan based in Guipúzcoa and headed by Santiago García Bou who designed both lighting and sound. The audio system is made up of eight D.A.S. Audio Reference series RF-215 systems reinforced by eight Sub-218 for the low frequencies powered by external amplifiers.

The power capacity of the loudspeaker systems and their high efficiency provide high level sound for club's busy dancefloor, say D.A.S. According to Santiago García Bou: "The choice of the D.A

UK - Britain's pre-eminent jazz performer Courtney Pine has been working with Shuttlesound's technical team to customise a microphone for his bass clarinet. The new prototype made its debut at a special concert staged in the remarkable Turbine Hall at Tate Modern in London. Part of the first ever arts festival to be held at Tate Modern, Pine was playing the world premiere of his new film score for the recently restored cult film Borderline.

Pine approached Shuttlesound to find a solution to the problem of micing his bass clarinet for the live performance. This particularly long wind instrument, which produces sound from top, middle and horn, should ideally be served by two microphones. However, as Pine's microphone of choice is an EV RE920TX condenser in conjunction with a RE1 wireless system, this would have meant two beltpacks strapped to the instrument, making it cumbersome.<

UK - Theatre sound specialist Orbital is pleased to announce another hugely successful showcase as part of The ABTT Theatre Show (14-15 June, Royal Horticultural Halls, London). Having exhibited at the show for eight consecutive years', the company claimed a record traffic flow on their stand over the two-day event, which underlines the Show's position as a key event in Orbital's marketing calendar.

Scoring a hat-trick for Orbital at the ABTT's annual industry awards and gala dinner, its CSC Show Control software scooped the Sound Product of the Year award. Representing the third time the company has received this prestigious accolade, CSC is solely distributed by Orbital, and offers a unique blend of flexibility and ease of use. It delivers an advanced software based sound playback and system control to a wider audience.

Robin Townley, the ABTT's Honorary Secretary, pr

Finland - Top Finnish metal superstars Nightwish used 28 Robe Show Lighting ColorSpot 1200 AT moving lights and 24 Wash 250 XTs on the final concert of their Once world tour, staged at the Hartwall Arena in Helsinki.

The fixtures were specified by the band's LD Tommi Stolt and supplied by one of the leading Finnish rental companies Akun Tehdas. The Nightwish crew chief Villie Kauhanen asked Akun Tehdas to supply lighting again, after they serviced band's last Finnish tour. The company has a good reputation in terms of equipment and crew on the road in Finland - which now includes a selection of Robe Show Lighting products.

The Robe's where positioned on main rig over the stage and back wall horizontal trusses. They were creating basic effects for the show. Stolt particularly likes Robes for their high output and fast movements. The 1200 ColorSpots also have good gobos.

China - PALM Expo 2006 was slated as China's premier international exhibition for the entertainment technology industry. Running from 31 May to 3 June, it spanned 60,000sq.m over its four days and covered a total of 12 halls at the China International Exhibition Centre in Beijing, where Turbosound exhibited in conjunction with Chinese distributor Phoenix Audio & Lighting Technology Ltd.

TA-890 touring enclosures and TA-880 trapezoidal install products were on show, along with the TSW-218 double 18" horn-loaded sub from the widely acclaimed Turbosound Aspect range of loudspeakers. Also making an appearance was the TCS-101C and TCS-151C from the TCS Compact series.

"We also displayed the TCS-C50T ceiling speaker - a product designed specifically for the voice evacuation, paging and background music markets - and custom designed TCS Compact products, which illustrate th

UK - Induction loop systems specialists Ampetronic has announced that it has been awarded ISO 9001:2000 quality management certification.

The standards required to achieve the internationally recognised ISO 9001:2000 certification don't just affect a company's output. They form a fundamental part of its entire operational structure, giving customers total confidence that every single part of the organisation is functioning to the highest possible level, says the company.

"Gaining ISO 9001:2000 certification demands the very best of any business," says Ampetronic managing director Julian Pieters. "We want to demonstrate to the world the excellent standards of quality and performance that are at the very heart of Ampetronic's business.

"Certification is a good way to propel the company to the next level, to encourage us to be proactive in improving everythi

UK - Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College (BCUC) has teamed up with a new entertainment industry partner to add value to its successful BA (Hons) degree course in Music Industry Management and Live Production - Shuttlesound, the UK distribution subsidiary of the Telex EVI Group.

The BCUC has purchased a substantial sound reinforcement system from Shuttlesound, featuring a Dynacord XA2 loudspeaker system, with Electro-Voice ZX4 floor monitors, powered by EV's CP2200 amplifiers. There is a 32-track Midas Verona mixing console at front-of-house and a 24-track Siena on monitors, and the outboard pack includes Klark-Teknik DN370, DN504 and DN514 audio processing units. Shuttlesound has also supplied a complete inventory of Electro-Voice microphones, including N/D767s and RE200s.

The system's use is being maximised through a reciprocal arrangement with the University's Stude

South Africa - The Easter period is normally a very busy one for equipment supply companies in South Africa and 2006 certainly proved no different for Gearhouse SA.

Management and staff were deployed countrywide servicing an impressive array of concerts and shows including tours by Robbie Williams and Snoop Dogg as well as Freedom Day national concerts and smaller events. Included in this massive equipment delivery were the 20-plus Soundcraft consoles owned by Gearhouse SA. Mixing desks ranging from M8, E8, K1 and MH 3 and MH4 series took care of everything from small conferences to massive concerts.

Running concurrently with these shows Gearhouse also kitted out The Rand Show 2006. The show welcomed over 500,000 visitors this year with the two main entertainment venues playing host to the country's biggest artists, with the Main Arena and the Esplanade Lake Stage being

Russia - More than 400 architects and designers gathered for the seminarLux: Light & Luxury, which was organised by company Mercury, and Lighting Design Center (illuminator group) within the XI international exhibition Arh Moscow.

On the 3 June in the Central House of Artists, well known Moscow architects and designers gathered to discuss the role of lighting design in creating the luxury image of world leading brand show-rooms.

The central theme of the seminar was a unique Russian project - Barvikha Luxury Village. The architect Yuri Grigoryan (Project Meganom), the author of Barvikha Luxury Village project, and Boris Knyazev, CEO of the Lighting Design Center (illuminator group), described the experience of their creative co-operation.

International experience of co-operation of lighting designers and architects was presented in the seminar by Claudio Valent

UK - Lighting designer John Rinaldi of Stage Light Design is one of the first UK customers to take delivery of a Jands Vista S3 lighting console. The company specialises in providing a full lighting design and production service for the exhibition and corporate events market, with major clients in the broadcast, telecommunications and electronics sectors.

Intrigued by the Vista's overall concept and philosophy, Rinaldi had been following its progress with much interest, but was waiting for the launch of a more compact and affordable version which would be a better fit with his budget and regular pattern of work.

He commented: "The majority of our work is exhibitions, which usually means packing all the lighting control equipment into a tiny little cupboard space on client's stands. The S3 is ideal for this as I can use it with a laptop to program shows on the stand, and t

UK - Large format projection specialists E//T//C UK projected onto the historical Didcot Power Station last night - to celebrate the start of Oxfordshire's 1000th birthday celebrations on June 21, the longest day of the year.

The projected artwork was a 50 x 50 metre image of the Oxfordshire 2007 logo. It launched an action-packed programme of festivals and special events celebrating the county's very own millennium, co-ordinated by Oxford Inspires.

The image was beamed onto one of the 114 ft high cooling towers of Didcot A - one of three of npower's coal-fired power stations - by two overlaid 6KW PIGI Projectors, situated 200 metres away on wasteland that's part of the power station complex.

The projectors were programmed by Karen Monid, who together with Michael Barry, engineered the projection project for E//T//C UK. It was a relatively straightforward job technically, bu

USA - Syncrolite is gearing up for one of its busiest summers. All of Syncrolite's rental equipment is booked up. Tours already scheduled include Depeche Mode, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Rolling Stones, David Gilmour, Madonna, Robbie Williams, Dave Mathews, The Eagles, Pearl Jam, Toby Keith, Tom Petty, Roger Waters, The Who, Rascal Flatts, Billy Joel, Mariah Carey, Goo Goo Dolls, Kenny Chesney, Nickelback, and Ligabue.

Syncrolite just finished The Opening Ceremonies for the World Cup. The next manufacturing run of Syncrolite B-5/2's is scheduled to be completed by the end of June with 50 of these highly demanded xenon skylights being produced. Most of these lights have been spoken for months in advance, says the company, and the popularity and demand for Syncrolites has hit an all time high.

Syncrolite's newly renovated website offers information on: products offered, prod

Austria - Situated in the midst of the picture-book Austrian Tirol is Walchsee, where the five star Hotel Seehof recently underwent a complete audio upgrade. Independently run by the Münsterer family, the requirement was for an audio system which offered simple and flexible functionality - requirements which have been met with a combination of QSC loudspeakers and amplification.

Where the need for flexibility was particularly manifest was in the hotel's seminar area. This space is used alternatively as a single, large hall, or divided with a mobile partition wall as two smaller seminar rooms for presentations. With a single button push, each configuration can be adapted and audio optimised for speech intelligibility as necessary, with the DSP controlling eight QSC AD-S52 speakers and a QSC CX254 4-channel power amp.

The Hotel Seehof's events area is known as the 'Tenne', and

UK - The Hurlingham Club in London provided the perfect setting for those attending PLASA's AGM and Members Lunch on Tuesday 6 June. Over 180 members and special guests were there to enjoy the day, learn more about the Association's achievements over the last 12 months and meet with industry colleagues.

Adrian Brooks, vice-chairman of PLASA, reflected on how PLASA - originally known as BADEM - first found a role delivering a trade show for discotheque equipment manufacturers, and on the remarkable growth of the PLASA Show and the Association since that fledgling start 30 years ago. He went on to reflect how the continued success of the Show had allowed the organisation to focus on initiatives intended to develop the industry further. Ambitious projects such as the National Rigging Certificate and qualifications for the PA/VA sector are central to PLASA's commitment to raise prof

UK - Hawthorn was approached by Old Billingsgate, for whom they are preferred suppliers, to fit permanent trussing and rigging into the central London Grade II listed venue.

Hawthorn's installation team specified 20 Prolyft motors and over 120m of Prolyte S36R truss, along with motor controllers and cabling.

Prolyft motors are backed by a world-wide network of service points, and Hawthorn is one of 25 service points there to offer a complete back up and peace of mind, wherever the motors are being used. Hawthorn will have a state of the art test facility for load testing, complete with computerised testing and a complete database of records linked to Prolyte's own system.

As well as Prolyft, Hawthorn is also an approved service centre for many of the key industry manufacturers such as Clay Paky and Martin Professional, and offer a complete maintenance and testing service for

UK - The 10 days from 7 June were busy ones for leading entertainment lighting supplier White Light: as well as their regular work supplying new shows around the country, the company also made a number of 'public appearances', including its own Graduates Open Day, a visit to the Theatre Engineering and Architecture Conference, and its stand at the 2006 ABTT Show.

The Graduates Open Day is now an established annual event, where White Light throws the doors of its Wimbledon base open to anyone contemplating a career in the technical or design sides of the entertainment industry. This year's Open day was attended by 26 students who got to experiment with the latest lighting equipment from a range of manufacturers as well as listening to a careers advice from a panel of established industry figures including David Amos, Kevin Sleep, David Harvey and Mike Le Fevre and then a 'keynote

UK - Serious Stages continues its successful relationship with the Hampton Court Palace Festival, once again supplying the main stage for the 2006 summer entertainment and music programme. This event includes appearances by world class artists as diverse as Kiri Te Kanawa, Eric Clapton, Glyndebourne Touring Opera and Jools Holland and His Rhythm and Blues Orchestra.

Serious has supplied the stage - including decking and access ramp - and roof for this event since the Festival began 13 years ago with IMG as clients and Keith Morris as production manager, and has designed a bespoke flat roof structure tailored exactly to fit the Base Court area deep in the heart of the Palace grounds. This is scenically dressed to complement the surrounding architecture, brickwork and colouring.

The flat-roofed stage is built from a combination of MaxiBeam trussing for the box at the top and GS

UK - Flight case specialist 5 Star recently supplied the Sound Division Group with a number of custom cases to house a selection of new plasma screens - purchased to keep up with an increased demand due the World Cup 2006.

5 Star supplied Tour Grade plasma trunks for the NEC 50" and 42" model screens to the north London based AV company. The cases feature special compartments for the screen mounting brackets and accompanying speakers which are detached from the screens when the systems are de-rigged - keeping everything self-contained within the trunk.

The trunks are finished in navy blue laminate, complete with the Sound Division Group's corporate logo screen printed on the sides. They were turned round very quickly to meet the start of the World Cup.

"Demand for plasma screen hire has exploded since the World Cup started, so it's been an incredibly busy time

UK - On Saturday 17 June the London Gala Orchestra graced the brand new Star Events Group Morbit stage in the stunning grounds of the Grade 1 listed Chatsworth House.

Less than a year ago, Star Events Group came up with the inspired idea to create a mobile orbit dome stage. The idea was to provide the outdoor event scene with a versatile stage that has all the benefits of the Orbit roof's high weight loading capacity and elegant aesthetics, combined with the flexibility and quick build times of the mobile trailer stages. The final result was a 13m dome stage that can be built from start to finish in around five hours by just five crew. The erection of the roof is simple and quick and the PA system can be suspended from the two cranes that are an integral part of the stage, positioned either side of the unit, negating the need for expensive forklift hire and PA towers.

Helen Ma

The Netherlands - Allen & Heath's Dutch distributor, TM Audio, recently completed a huge audio installation in a new multi-function venue, installing a variety of Allen & Heath products to manage all the sound requirements, from mixing consoles to audio distribution and processing.

Situated in Purmerend near Amsterdam, the new venue, P3, was commissioned to host a variety of international and national cultural events, including music concerts, theatre, and dance performances, as well as provide facilities for rehearsals.

"P3's modern architecture and advanced technical facilities qualify it as one of the leading venues in Holland; as such, it required audio equipment to match," says TM Audio's project manager, Jaap Pronk. "The fact that Allen & Heath's product portfolio is so varied, meant we were able to exclusively install A&H kit. P3 can provide high quality

Turkey - W-DMX and Stockholm-based Spectra Stage & Event Technologies recently returned to Istanbul, although without the Euro-disco music this time (W-DMX was first used by Spectra in Turkey during the 2004 Eurovision Song Contest.) The team revisited the Turkish capital to flip the switch at the grand opening of the ultra-luxurious Istanbul Kanyon - an urban living complex that contains 168 residential apartments, a 26-floor office building, and a shopping mall with 170 stores. Amazingly, every apartment, office, and store space is already sold out. The Prime Minister of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan opened the mall during the nationally televised 30 May event, which included 6000 VIP guests.

The team used 20 Space Cannon 8kW and 28 Century Colour 2500W supplied by local company Playback. They used all four universes of a Whole Hog II, all operated with W-DMX by Wireless Soluti

Germany - Over 4,000 guests flocked to the Ostseehalle in Kiel on Saturday the 6th May to attend the Bacardi Bat Club Party, one of the most popular disco events in northern Germany. This year, its appeal was further enhanced by an exciting combination of DJ sounds and live music.

To ensure even coverage throughout the almost 5,000 sq.m hall, which has provided the setting for numerous TV broadcasts as well as musical events, the team of sound specialists led by Hannes Sellugga opted for a Dynacord Cobra system.

Two Cobra Subs and six Cobra Tops were flown each side of the stage and a further cluster of four Cobra Subs stacked in front of it. The system was powered by Dynacord L2400 and Dynacord L1600 amps, with the Dynacord CL 1600 preferred for the nearfills and monitors. Control of the main PA, nearfills and monitors was provided by the Klark Teknik DN360.

The setting-up

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