The recent Sports Awards of the Century gala evening at the Vienna State Opera House, with live performances from Eros Ramazotti and Sir Cliff Richard among others, was lit by a large automated rig supplied by Vari-Lite Austria. The rig included 18 VL5, eight VL6, 16 VL6B and 20 VL7 luminaires, programmed and operated by lighting designer Norbert Wolfsberger. The production company for the event was Cataclysm.
The first commercial use of Gearhouse Structures' Tensile 1 structure was for the Gatecrasher 2000GC millennium celebrations, held at the Don Valley Stadium, Sheffield.The 15-hour event attracted an audience of 25,000and required 180 tonnesof sound, lighting and video production. Gearhouse also supplied LED screens for the event, including one of the largest ever Optiscreen systems ever erected - 78sq.m. Lighting was supplied by LSD, the 180-stack Nexo Alpha PA system was supplied by SSE and Laser Creations and Pyro Production were responsible for the lasers and special effects.
PLASA Publishing has learnt that Harman Pro Group North America has reached a preliminary agreement to acquire Crown International, the Elkhart, Indiana-based manufacturer of power amplification products. According to Mark Terry, president of Harman Pro Group North America, the acquisition is expected to close within a month and is subject to the ratification of a definitive agreement. "The addition of Crown's amplifier brand will increase the power and appeal of the entire Group to customers around the world."
Proquip Gearhouse Ltd recently supplied video equipment and crew for Jaguar's millennium celebrations and promotion days held in December at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham. The event, which attracted dealers and suppliers from all over the country, featured a single 8x8 and two 4x4 Toshiba videowalls for the display areas. In addition, several rigs of Sony playback equipment and monitiors for tertiary displays were supplied by Gearhouse Birmingham.
VLPS London has started off the New Year supplying equipment to a string of high profile motor industry events across Europe. For Volvo's launch of the new V70 in Brussels, lighting designer Glyn Peregrine used ETC Source Fours, Minuette and Cantata fresnels an Arri desk and Avolites dimmers; in Seville, Ford launched the new Transit, with lighting designed by Mike Sobotnicki, incorporating 12 VL5Arc and 16 VL6B luminaires, along with ETC Source Fours and Par 64s, all controlled via a Wholehog II. Other projects for Ford included the company's exhibition stands at the Brussels Motor Show (lighting design by Andy Offin) and the Amsterdam Motor Show (lighting design by Ross Corbett).
QSC Audio has appointed Naperville, Illinois-based Spoiled By Technology (SBT) as its new sales representative for its northern Illinois/Eastern Wisconsin territory. QSC's sales and marketing director Peter Kalmen said: "SBT's strong sense of customer support and service fits perfectly with QSC's customer-driven sales philosophy."
Arup Acoustics, the specialist group within Arup offering consultancy on all areas of acoustics, noise, vibration and audio visual design, is establishing a new office in Manchester. The company has already handled a number of high profile projects in Manchester, including the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester Airport and the International Convention Centre, and will use the new base to offer its growing number of clients in the North of England a more efficient service. Richard Greer, Nick Antonio and Jo Webb will make up the acoustics team in Manchester.
London-based Lighting Technology has announced major developments in its reporting and organisational structure including the promotion of senior personnel within the Group. Garry Nelsson is now group sales and marketing director and Bruce Kirk Group projects director. They have between them ultimate responsibility for the total sales of the Group. Reporting to Nelsson, Ron Knell now takes on the role of export sales manager, Dave Short becomes sales office manager and Rob Williamson field sales manager. Andy Dodd is now Manchester branch manager, enabling Graham Bassett to join the sales force and handle the task of developing the North East of England for LTG products, following the acquisition of Sound Electronics. This branch will officially be known as Lighting Technology Newcastle from 1st March.Strategic restructuring of Lighting Technology Projects has resulted in the creation of
Since its inception 25 years ago, Suffolk-based Gofer has expanded from a power distribution company to being a complete event service company. As a result, it has recently moved to new premises, increasing its capacity three-fold, with 12,500sq.m of warehousing and 1.5 acres of land to house its equipment, plus a canvas covered swimming pool and jacuzzi for those times when stress relief is required. Re-structuring within the company has also taken place - Gofer is now divided into three autonomous divisions: lighting, sound and power distribution. Each department has its own highly experienced team, with directors Dave Miller and Rob Quin at the helm.
Gearhouse LED Screens was recently contracted to supply the main display screen for the London Boat Show at Earls Court. The company supplied a 5m by 5m OptiScreen system to the show for the second year running, which was used to display sponsors' messages and advertising. Gearhouse has now built over 600sq.m of OptiScreen panels since the system was launched in the autumn of 1998.
Six of BSS Audio's new FDS-366 Omnidrive Compact Plus system controllers are running the new Thunder Ridge sound system at The End in London. The five-way X2000 - a custom-designed replacement for the original system installed four years ago - required precision tuning to cater for the venue's acoustics. The four units will each control one five-way stack in the main Vaults system, while active monitor systems will be run from the remaining channels. All will be data linked via RS 485 multi-drop, allowing BSS Soundbench set-up and monitoring anywhere within the venue. The Lounge system, which will again be run five-way, will be controlled by two more Compact Plus units (one per stack), plus active monitoring on spare channels. This system, along with the adjoining AKA rig, will be linked via RS 485.
Turbosound has appointed Altrincham-based Concert Systems as its exclusive distributor for the North of England, basing the choice on the company's professional facilities and approach to pro audio sales. Concert Systems has made a considerable investment in Turbosound product, which will be featured in their warehouse demonstration area, as well as being available for on-site appraisal. This includes the new TCS Contractor Series and self-powered QLight TQ-440SP, for which Concert Systems' MD Paul Tandy sees enormous potential in the AV industry.
Screenco supplied a 5x15 module wide-screen format digital LED screen to presentation services company Motivforce for the J. Rothschild Assurance annual company meeting at London's Barbican Theatre in January. Special guest of honour at the event was actor Christopher Reeve. This was the first time that the client had used an LED screen for a keynote presentation. In order to accommodate the 14.5m wide screen, the Barbican Theatre's ceiling was modified by Unusual Rigging. Video cameras were supplied by Screenco's sister Avesco company, Creative Technology, and Screenco supplied the video production hardware. Giles Conte was Screenco's project manager, working with vision mixer Chris Keating and screen technicians Bill Dixon, Andy Joyse and Tim Parry.
Publisher Highbury House has made moves to purchase rival Nexus, publishers of Live!, DJ magazine and Disco International. The Nexus titles will add to an already substantial Highbury portfolio of around 40 magazines ranging from technical publications such as Camcorder User through to home interest titles such as Women's Health. The Group also publishes a further 50 under contract. The acquisition of Nexus will be the latest in a string of investments for Highbury: in March 99 it formed a joint venture with Internet Advertising to publish magazines on the internet, three months later it bought Wyvern Crest, a database marketing company, for £3.7m and in September 99 it acquired WV, publisher of consumer magazines, for £7m.
Triple E supplied and installed its track systems for the Christmas and New Year window display schemes at Harrods in London. Designed for theatre and television applications, the tracks have found a new use in retail display, courtesy of Harrods' design team. For the display, 24 S-shaped curtains of Swarovski crystal - each with a 3m drop and weighing 25kg - were hung from the tracks to create a sparkling screen around dresses from designer Julien Macdonald. The team from Nigel Morgan Lighting used ETC Source Four Pars (50 degree) and Mad Lighting's IMPs (Image Marketing Projectors) with colour-changers and custom gobos. Further items from the Swarovski crystal range were also displayed on fibre optic 'atom tables' made and installed by Dan Tippetts and Nick Farmer of Farmer Studios. The latest display, which uses aluminium frames constructed from the UniCyc system, runs until 26 Februa
Following a major refurbishment programme in 1998/9, the Grand Theatre, Blackpool, has recently upgraded its technical systems to include over 90 Selecon luminaires. The theatre has taken possession of new lighting equipment for the main house and foyer areas. Lighting Technology Group (Manchester) supplied the Selecon kit comprising 24 special front-of-house profiles in a gold and cream finish to match the decor in the foyer, 30 high performance Fresnels, six 2.5k Arena fresnels, five 4-way cyc lights and 30 Aurora units. In addition to the Selecon kit, Lighting Technology supplied 15 James Thomas Engineering lighting bars, each with six Thomas Par 64 lanterns and an additional 40 colour-changer Par cans. All luminaires were supplied with the new Trigger Clamp from Doughty Engineering. The theatre also purchased an Avolites console and dimming for the venue.
Cinema specialist Sound Associates has, for the first time, specified an EAW cinema system for installation in a new Odeon multiplex. Asked to specify a system for Odeon's latest £4.5 million 'millennium' eight-screen cinema in Epsom, the Surrey-based company decided to break with tradition and audition EAW's CB series. As a result, Sound Associates has installed three CB523 bi-amplified three way speaker systems into the four large screen cinemas, and CB259 bi-amplified two-way systems into the others - each stacked with SX184C subs. This combination has been found to offer clear left, centre and right sound distribution across the whole room. All the components were supplied by Sound Dept, EAW's exclusive UK distributor. Boasting a capacity of 2,176, the all-format cinema offers Dolby digital and DTS digital sound throughout with two auditoria designated as feature cinemas.
After years of alternating between being supplier and client to each other, Triple E and Blackout, best known as suppliers of track and drapes respectively, have announced a merger of the two companies. The announcement, by the two managing directors David Edelstein and Steve Tuck, was made from a joint stand at the SIEL exhibition in Paris. Trading as Blackout Triple E with immediate effect, the new company offers a complete in-house design and manufacturing service for custom drapes and hardware, as well as a hire service for track, drapes and rigging. Current investment plans include dramatically expanding the rigging division with the addition of 80 CM Lodestar chain hoists.
A further day in High Court has been scheduled for March 2000 for the case between Paul Madden (Intimate Studios) and GLW (the manufacturer of Harrison recording consoles). The hearing will address the claim for £400,000 against GLW in regard to the alleged failure of the Series Twelve Music console, which was installed at Intimate Studios in London, to perform acceptably and the termination of an associated marketing contract. It will also consider if it would be best heard in the USA. GLW's contention is that Intimate Studios' Paul Madden obtained the console in the full knowledge that the Series Twelve as configured for music was in development, therefore any terms in regard to 'fit for purpose' did not apply to this sale. Further action is being undertaken by the finance company who purchased the console from GLW in 1995.
Transtechnik has installed an automated lighting control system in two Bayerischer Rundfunk (Bavarian Broadcasting Corporation) television studios in Munich. The company used three Voyager systems to control the overhead equipment in the studios, two Focus lighting control systems, around 180 lighting hoists and 40 scenery hoists. In a studio where two production control rooms are shared between four television studios, the new system allows complex cues to be reset at the touch of a button. The network has been designed for redundancy and utilises Ethernet hubs and fibre optic cables, but the conventional method of DMX patching by switching over DMX connections also has its place, making unintentional access to one of the remotely-controlled studios practically impossible.
Marquee Audio has added further to its range of state-of-the-art digital audio tools with their appointment as main dealer for the Innova Son Sensory series by UK distributor, Fuzion plc. Marquee celebrated with an open day at their Shepperton HQ, where the Sensory desk was shown to interested visitors such as Chris Beale of SSE Hire and leading live sound engineer, Jim Ebdon. Fuzion's technical director, Gary Ashton, and Marquee's digital specialist, Andy Huffer, were on hand to explain the Grand Live desk, with full on-board automation, and the more basic models, the Essential Live and Digital Live (fully-automated, with digital I/O facility).
BioAcoustics Ltd has recently installed a new audio description system at the Theatre Royal, Windsor, based around the latest dedicated Sennheiser equipment. The theatre, which was the first in Europe to introduce audio-described performances for the blind and partially-sighted (Bill Kenwright's Stepping Out, in 1988), has also been instrumental in assisting other venues with introducing similar systems. The replacement of the ageing, original Sennheiser system includes six Sennheiser SZI 1025 'radiators' and SI 1015 'modulator' that transmit the sound to the Sennheiser HDI-302 two-channel headsets, as well as a dedicated room for the describers to work in. The £12,000 upgrade was funded with support from local business, with additional funding from bodies including the ADAPT Trust and Guide Dogs for the Blind.
The annual Siel show has just completed its run at the Porte de Versailles in Paris and in true French style managed to bring together all that is fascinating about the entertainment industry. Business seemed to be good on the show floor which may have something to do with the show's slightly revised format: having previously mixed both the theatre and nightclub industries together, organisers, Reed-OIP, siphoned everything to do with the nightclub sector into its own separate hall thereby making life a little easier for the visitor. To strengthen its international credits, Siel invited Great Britain to be the Country of Honour and Reed worked with PLASA to co-ordinate a British pavilion, complete with traditional watering-hole, which quickly established itself as a social hub for exhibitors and visitors alike. The UK's Minister for Trade & Industry - Richard Caborn MP - visited the show
Lighting manufacturer Osram Sylvania and Motorola Inc. have signed a definitive agreement which will see Osram Sylvania acquiring the assets of Motorola Lighting who manufacture electronic ballasts for the lighting industry. The sale, which is expected to be finalised in April, would see the Motorola Lighting business becoming part of Osram Sylvania's Electronic Control Systems business.
