Mackie Designs has launched a fully interactive, online tradeshow exhibit that will highlight new products from Mackie, Mackie Industrial and Eastern Acoustic Works (EAW). The 'e-Show' will offer educational and entertaining features, including streaming and downloadable video demonstrations, new product announcements, downloadable software demos, instant access to product datasheets and a series of topic specific discussions hosted by representatives from all three companies. Visitors will be able to order literature and can even buy real tradeshow 'swag!'
"We acknowledge that there is no substitute for the personal interaction of a live tradeshow," said Karen Anderson, director of marketing communications at EAW. "But, in the absence of actually being there, we feel the ‘e-Show’ is a great way to provide many of the informational, educational, and fun eleme
A vibrant new South African production has arrived on the West End stage. Umoja - The Spirit of Togetherness opened at the Shaftesbury Theatre this month to rave reviews and a cast of 33 singers and dancers, four African drummers, and a five-piece band.
Conceived by Todd Twala and Thembi Nyandeni, and brought to the stage by director Ian von Memerty, the task of 'sound designing' the story of African music fell to Trevor Peters. With FOH engineer, Tanja Somers, Trevor recommended that the show turn to Trantec to supply the requisite number of radio mic channels. "When the production started a year and a half ago we had three rifle mics, two handheld radios and CD backing tracks, but as funds became more available so the production has grown." In The West End, 20 S4000 lavalier mics are worn by the cast with S3500s on the guitar and sax.
Tascam, the professional audio and musical instrument division of TEAC Corporation, has acquired the stock of Texas-based NemeSys Music Technology, Inc. NemeSys is known for its popular GigaSampler and GigaStudio software-based sampling and music production tools for the PC platform, which Tascam will immediately begin distributing under its own brand. The company has appointed the principal software engineers and former owners of NemeSys to its team in order to ensure the continuing development of the 'Giga' platform. "We are tremendously excited by the possibilities inherent in TASCAM's acquisition of NemeSys," commented TEAC vice-president Gene Joly. "The GigaSampler and GigaStudio products are already revolutionizing the world of music creation and production and we're certain that the addition of Tascam's distribution and marketing strength will allow these tools to b
Western Australia's Burswood International Resort Casino has undergone a major upgrade of its Resort facilities. The project is the biggest redevelopment of the Resort since its inception in December 1985, and involves the creation of additional floor space across three major areas of the Resort complex. The key components of the redevelopment project cover an International Food Emporium; a Cabaret Nightclub, Spinners Café & Sports Bar and a Grand Ballroom.
The atrium area of the resort has also been refurbished with the addition of commercial retail areas. As the atrium is housed under a large glass dome, the resort management were concerned about heat gain and light glare in the area. Architects Silver Thomas Hanley decided to address this problem by hanging large perforated reinforced PVC sails internally over the atrium, providing heat and sun control to the lower areas of the atr
Federal Signal has won a contract to supply a customized version of its Millbank JustiFire single-channel, four-zone public address and voice alarm (PA/VA) system to the Coleraine Diamond Shopping Centre in Northern Ireland. The 'landlord' system will be used to provide emergency voice evacuation, PA paging and message broadcasting services.
Millbank JustiFire is an off-the-shelf product designed as the integral element of a BS5839 part 8 compliant (European BS EN 60849) VA system. The utilization of a standard Windows-based configuration programme provides ease-of-use and a simple graphical interface enables the system to be set-up to meet the requirements of individual installations. For the Coleraine Diamond Shopping Centre, Federal Signal has added an additional power supply to enable JustiFire to support two operational amplifiers and a stand-by unit.
Seeing is Believing, the lighting design consultancy based at Knutsford in the North West of the UK, has just completed four major contracts for Cisco Systems. The events, all produced by Project Worldwide of London, comprised an internal event in Paris and an external event - Networkers - in Copenhagen. Each event was in two parts - a conference and a party.
Seeing is Believing was contracted to provide the lighting, rigging and drapery for all four events.
The parties with the theme of 'The Stadium' and 'New Dimension' were for over 3,000 people and staged in the Grand Arch, La Defense, Paris and The Forum in Copenhagen. A large amount of intelligent (principally Martin MACs) and generic lighting, trussing and rigging was used, and in keeping with Seeing is Believing's policy of finding and using local suppliers, all equipment for Copenhagen was sourced locally. The company has rec
Adlib Audio has added 50 Nexo Alpha cabinets to its inventory to go alongside their recently-purchased JBL Vertec system, and their established stock of Martin Audio and Adlib own product. Adlib believes the marketplace is changing as a result of increased input from engineers, each of whom has his own way of doing things, and the company wanted to have the flexibility within their inventory to react positively to clients demands. The Nexo Alpha cabinets were supplied by Nexo's UK distributor, Fuzion plc.
When CNN's London bureau moves into new multi-million dollar state-of-the-art digital studios in the centre of London this month, it will utilize a new complement of Trantec radio mic and in-ear monitoring systems.
Four S5000 lavalier wireless mics and two S5000IEM systems were purchased from LMC London, for use by news staff in the new studio in Great Marlborough Street, which was opened by The Queen at the end of November. This was part of an investment that reinforces the importance of the network's largest production and broadcasting unit outside the US. The system was specified by consultant sound engineer Richard Mason, and the order placed through the London office of LMC Audio. LMC's Tom Davis explained that the TV network wanted to change the format, implementing a new radio mic system that would give them a more flexible solution. LMC presented CNN with a site demo, giving a
Home Shopping Europe Ltd went live to air at 1.00pm on 7 October from its UK home at Park Street Studios, Frogmore. Managing director Christian Unterseer hosted the launch a mere nine months after the company had acquired the site. This is Home Shopping Europe's most recently completed studio complex, expanding upon facilities in Germany, Italy and Belgium to provide extensive European coverage.
DeSisti Lighting played a major role in fully equipping the studio and supplying the lighting control system. The 316sq.m studio is fitted with a matrix grid which allows for the luminaries to be positioned anywhere as required. Hanging from the grid on adjustable length drop arms are 1 and 2kW Leonardo spotlights, 2.5 and 5kW Botticelli softlights and Giotto cyclorama top lights, all pole operated.
The lighting control is a sophisticated system from ETC, combining an Express 250 memory contr
Creative Staging was recently selected to provide the video projection, audio and lighting design and supply to the Nike exhibition - 'Nike - A Design for Movement' - working alongside exhibition designers Tonkin Architects, and the computer graphics and video producer at the Design Museum.
The project involved four 'zones', coming together at the centre, each having its own theme with a separate video and audio sound track. Periodically, the four videos would synchronize to form 270-degree 'wrap-around' computer graphics with lighting effects. As visitors moved from zone to zone, the soundtrack changed automatically to synchronize with the video material and exhibits in that area without the headphone wearer having to adjust or change units in any way. This was achieved through the use of infra-red headsets with video and audio material run from synchronized DVD players controlled by
Telex EVI Audio's 'Channel Climbing Contest' was one of the highlights of the 2001 music trade fair in Frankfurt. Visitors were invited to climb the 4.5m-high reconstruction of a Midas Venice mixing desk and once up there, plug in four giant plugs. The competition, which was highly entertaining for both participants and spectators alike, definitely added a little more excitement to the already busy fair. Of the hundreds of contestants, Werner Koelbl from Schoefweg in Bavaria proved to be the fastest. With a time of one minute six seconds, the 37-year-old literally climbed to the top. Most of the other contestants took around three minutes for the same task.
Werner Koelbl can now look forward to a trip to Venice. Together with his partner he visited Telex EVI Audio's European headquarters in Straubing to collect the voucher for his trip. After Wolfgang Zollner had taken them on a short
Cadac's long-standing association with Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera continues with the latest production scheduled to open in Korea on 2 December 2001. Phantom is being staged at the LG Arts Center by The Really Useful Group of Australia, in conjunction with local entertainment company Zemiro. Production sound engineer Greg Pink is responsible for all the engineering aspects of the show's sound system, which has been jointly supplied by Orbital Sound of London and the LG Arts Center. The system includes a new 31-input Cadac J-Type Live Production Console, equipped with six Programmable Group and three Programmable Auxiliary modules. Phantom's track record encompasses some 18 countries and 99 cities, playing to audiences of over 58 million to date: the Korean production follows in the footsteps of a number of major musicals staged at LG Arts Center, which is also
Total Fabrication Ltd’s (TFL) T2 safety truss has been put through its paces over the last few months at Sunderland’s Empire Theatre. The Theatre’s chief lighting engineer Dave Westcombe was enthusiastic about T2 and quickly allayed fears about using new technology. "The lanyard attachment is superb," he said "and within a very short time I was able to use it one-handed."
Four of the theatre's key staff were given on-site safety training by TFL's Chris Higgs: during this process, TFL brought along a representative from Lyon Equipment, a leading supplier of equipment and training for work and rescue at height. He followed the entire training procedure as an independent observer and then made recommendations on the correct harness pieces needed for the Empire’s particular environment.
The Empire's technical manager, Mel James, who had also co
Three years in the waiting, the technical crew of the Queensland Performing Arts Centre finally have the new luminaire upgrade they have been waiting for since 1998. Over the past two months Selecon has supplied its largest order to a single client of over 700 luminaires, including Pacific 5.5-13, 12-28, 23-50 and 90 degree units and both Arena and 1200 High Performance Fresnels and PCs.
Supplied by The Production Shop, Selecon’s Queensland dealer, the decision to choose Selecon luminaires came after months of extensive tests held at the Centre under the exacting eye of lighting manager David Schultz and his crew. Tim Kennard, at that time of the Production Shop, arranged the numerous sample units and provided the technical back up. In a move away from their established inventory, QPAC are now using Zoom profiles front-of-house in preference to fixed angle units.
The collaboration between the US theatrical equipment consultant, JR Clancy, and UK manufacturer of stage automation systems, Stage Technologies, has moved on another step with the signing of a formal agreement between the two companies. This agreement, which covers land-based stage engineering installations in North America, was signed at the LDI 2001 exhibition in Orlando earlier this month, and cements a relationship that has been strengthening over a number of years.
The companies first worked together in 1995 providing a complete 95-axis power flying system for the Teatre Nacional in Barcelona, Spain. More recently, JR Clancy provided the Conference Center of The Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints in Salt Lake City with a complete automated rigging system complete including a 45-axis Nomad control system from Stage Technologies.
Richard Brett, ABTT Conference Director, has confirmed to PLASA Media that the international conference on Theatre Engineering and Architecture 2002 will take place between 16th and 18th June 2002, in London.
Focusing on stage technology in its widest sense, and covering all types of performance venues, this is the first international conference structured to attract theatre technicians, architects, consultants, scenographers, lighting designers, stage and building services engineers, acousticians and fire control specialists, as well as administrators, building owners, cost consultants and project managers. The conference includes papers and discussions on the current trends in stage machinery and other stage technologies, alongside debate about the types of, and need for, new buildings. One of the aims of the meeting is to offer those designing, financing and managing major arts proj
PLASA has gone live with its first web-based discussion forum - a technical discussion on the use of Chain Hoists, particularly the connectors used for their control circuits. Access to the forum is via the 'Forums' link in the Standards section of the PLASA Website, where users can register online. This first application of the forum is being overseen by PLASA's Technical Standards Officer Tim Cox, and further forums, both for the use of Standards groups and for the industry in general, will be introduced to the site over the coming months.
Screenco has supplied an LED screen to The Saturday Show, the recently-launched CBBC's Saturday morning programme. The show runs from 9.00am to 12.00pm every Saturday morning and is the first Saturday show from CBBC that will play every week of the year. The ultimate audience participation show, it is presented by Dani Behr and Joe Mace, and is broadcast live from Television Centre. Commissioned by CBBC, Screenco provided a Lighthouse 6 x 5 10mm LVP10 LED screen, which is used as a backdrop for the main performance stage in the Saturday Show Studio. Feeds consist primarily of pre-edited visual packages produced on the 'Fire' graphic system for pop performances. The Saturday Show is the latest of many BBC programmes that Screenco and sister company Creative Technology - from whom they sourced the screen - have been involved in. As part of the Avesco Group, both companies provide a full ra
130 SGM scanners and moving head fixtures have been specified for 'Torno Sabato . . . la lotteria', the top rating Saturday night programme produced by leading Italian broadcasting company RAI TV. The show, which started in September and runs through to January 2002, is seen each Saturday by a record 10 million audience, and attracts a host of international guests (these have included Cher and Jamiroquai). The show is broadcast from different locations across Italy and to meet these exacting requirements, RAI TV called on the expertise of Global Service, led by Pierantonio Faccenda and coordinated by Maurizio Corradi, to deliver the sound and lighting elements. Global Service opted for SGM fixtures for each recording, including Giotto Series Moving Heads and Victory Series Scanners.
You’ll see a number of changes to L&SI over the coming months.Central to our plans for 2002 is the introduction of a regular technical section - Technical Focus - which will feature hands-on reviews of products, discuss technical issues, assess the latest standards and health & safety directives, review recent book releases and feature a readers’ Q&A section.
First subject in the hot-seat is digital signal processing. We’ll also be looking at the recent amendments to the Working Time Directive and BECTU’s campaign to secure paid annual leave for freelancers, together with the debate rumbling away about chain hoist connectors.
To oversee its development we have appointed a new technical editor, James Eade. James is a qualified mechanical and electrical engineer who has an extensive knowledge of the entertainment technology industry.If you have a question you&
The prestigious MTV Europe Music Awards took place live from the Festhalle in Frankfurt, Germany on 8 November, presented by the ever-controversial Ali G. Contributors to the event were headed by main lighting contractors Vari-Lite Europe Ltd, Britannia Row Productions, who provided a Turbosound Flashlight PA, and Black Pig, who co-ordinated the live video screen production.
Al Gurdon designed the lighting, assisted by programmer/operator Mike Owen, and Vari-Lite supplied a massive system comprising over 400 automated luminaires, 700 conventional lights and a Virtuoso control desk. Vari-Lite also supplied a prodigious 3,500 feet of truss, 105 chain hoists and nearly two kilometres of cable. The stage consisted of two large curved set pieces, principally lit by a combination of VL5s, VL6Cs, VL2402s, together with 26 MAC 2000s and 13 truss-mounted Sky-Art Searchlights with beam divertor
The December issue of Studio Sound magazine will be the final issue of the publication dedicated to the audio broadcast and studio sector. The magazine, edited by Tim Goodyer, is part of the CMP stable, and a sister title to Installation Europe, Pro Sound News Europe and What's New in Pro Audio.
ARX Systems, the Australian-based manufacturer of professional audio products has appointed well-known Melbourne-based distributor - The Resource Corp (TRC) - as its Australian distributor. ARX managing director Colin Park told us: "ARX has previously managed its own distribution network in Australia. However, with both our domestic and export markets growing rapidly, especially in Europe and South America, we realized our Australian Dealer Network needed a heightened level of support that only a truly distribution-based company like TRC could offer."
Tony Hosking and his team at The Resource Corp have over 100 years of accumulated experience in the Australian Industry.
The West End braced itself in the aftermath of the WTC/Pentagon attacks, fearing that with people less willing to travel, audience figures would simply dwindle away, and that some shows would be forced to close ahead of schedule.
However, if the recent results released by the Ambassador Theatre Group are a barometer for the rest of the West End, then the anticipated downsizing ain’t coming. Attendance figures for ATG venues across the UK show a 3% increase in the West End and a 12% increase in the regions. ATG’s managing director Howard Panter told L&SI: "People are not staying away from the theatre - attendance figures are up and some shows are playing to record houses." Executive director Rosemary Squire added: "Far from closing shows, we are opening even more shows. We are bringing a major musical - My One and Only - to the West End in the New Year, and a