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The Broadway staging of the revival of Rodgers & Hammerstein's 1943 musical Oklahoma! opened on 21 March at the recently renovated Gershwin Theatre, New York. The classic musical about the American West hasn't been seen on Broadway since the late 1970s, but it's now back by way of the well-reviewed London production directed by Trevor Nunn and produced by Cameron Mackintosh.

Fourth Phase supplied the entire lighting system for the show, working closely with lighting designer David Hersey to realise his creative vision. Darren DeVerna, vice president of Fourth Phase's parent company PRG, has a long-standing professional relationship with David and headed the Fourth Phase team. The production features a combination of conventional and theatrical lighting, new colour mixing technology, animation and fog effects equipment, plus dimming and control systems.

Fourth Phase is one of

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Martin Professional has announced that it will continue to expand its production capability with the establishment of a manufacturing facility in China. Production is expected to begin by the start of the year 2003. As an important part of the company’s strategy to maintain its competitiveness in the lower-priced lighting segments, the new Martin facility will be geared toward the production of Martin’s DJ range of lighting products. The facility will be located in the Chinese city of Zhuhai in the southern part of the country.

Martin will maintain full control over the facility’s production and level of product quality. Martin Professional President and CEO Kristian Kolding commented: "The DJ market has traditionally been an important segment for us and with this new facility it will continue to be so. The factory in China will allow us to maintain an aggressive

PLASA Show 2025 - Banner - June-Aug 2025

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Sarner is working on a unique multi-million pound travelling exhibition of Russian Yachts, which is set to open in Hamburg at the end of this year. ‘Treasures from the Tsars Imperial Yachts’, depicts the evolution of the Imperial Navy from 1703, when Peter The Great launched his first ship, through to 1918 and the era of Nicholas II - it includes more than 400 original artefacts, jewellery and ships from the palace of Peterhos and the Central Naval Palace in St Petersburg.

Intellectual property management company, Eagle Crown Productions, who have the rights to this stunning collection, first met with Sarner to discuss the venture almost three years ago. As a result, Sarner have been responsible for every element of the exhibition design and concept; visitors enter by walking onto an imposing aft deck of an imperial yacht; once inside there are displays of panoramic archive

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UK-based loudspeaker specialists Celestion has announced a series of moves designed to enable the company to better leverage its unique technologies in the global marketplace. The company is exploiting more fully the economies of scale presented by being part of the multinational Gold Peak organization, moving production of its high volume professional loudspeaker products to its own off-shore manufacturing plants.

As part of this process, the company has managed an exhaustive and detailed collaboration exercise to ensure that Celestion’s UK build processes and sonic quality have been fully replicated in its extended off-shore manufacturing facility. Launched at this year’s NAMM show, Celestion’s Inverted Neo speakers are the first of a series of innovative, technology-led professional products that will continue to be built in the UK. The company is also looking to

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On the evening of Wednesday 24 April 2002, Lightfactor/LightProcessor, Lights Camera Action, Vari*Lite Europe and the Society of Television Lighting Designers (STLD) will host an open evening at the Fairway Trading Estate in Greenford Middlesex, just off the A40/M.

The gathering will offer an opportunity for demos of the latest technology from these three companies - including the VL1000 and VL2000 series of luminaires from Vari*lite; Strand, Mole Richardson, Dedolight and Panavision high definition camera technology from LCA; Paradime digital dimmers, SGM moving lights and other brands from Lightfactor’s extensive product ranges, as well as a great chance to network with other industry people, including members of the STLD, ALD, BSKTS and BSC. The day will also include a tour each company’s premises and a chance to meet with the manufacturers and suppliers.

Please call P

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The Roundhouse is a well-known and curious live performance space, located near London's trendy Camden Lock and less than a mile away from Autograph Sound Recording, the sound design and audio equipment hire specialists. The site became legendary for punk and glam rock in the 1960s and 70s, where The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix and Pink Floyd made their names and The Doors played their only UK gig. This North West London venue is once again becoming an established home to quality live presentations and Autograph are proud to be taking part in its revival.

Throughout the company's 29 year history, Autograph has been associated with The Roundhouse on many occasions, supplying varying size systems for some of it's momentous shows and more recently Bounce, the highly successful modern street dance extravaganza. For its first ten years Autograph was a neighbour to this historic venue, the

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Production rigging experts, Flying Squad Aerial Rigging, were appointed by London-based brand experience agency, LIVE, to assist in the realisation of Robin Thompson’s set design for Barclays Human Resources event at London’s Excel Centre. As the largest single Human Resources event ever staged by Barclays, it stretched across four halls of the Excel centre, covering more than 8000sq.m and was attended by over 1,000 employees.

Working closely with Stage One and Robin Thompson, Flying Squad supplied and installed a staggering 1.2kms of trussing and 126 motors. With Rory Mckeown as project manager and Bryan Wilson as crew chief, Flying Squad accurately configured the structure underpinning Robin Thompson’s design into three sections: auditorium, reception and workshops. Ten individual workshop areas were constructed around the perimeter of the vast semi-circular auditor

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DIVAS is a new company, specializing in the design, project management and installation of visual and audio systems to all areas of the professional entertainment business. The DIVAS team consists of four individuals - Tony Day, Damian Brunetti, Darrin South and Steve Nicholls - who have all worked together on various projects in the past.

The company will design, specify and install lighting sound and AV schemes, either working directly with end users or working under the umbrella of large sound, lighting and AV companies. DIVAS has already been working in a miscellany of environments including clubs, bars, shops, cinemas, ice arenas, leisure centres, stadiums, hotels, churches, museums, ballrooms and live music venues. One recently completed project was the sound and lighting systems spec and installation at Flicks club in Sleaford, Lincs. The club is housed in a former cinema retai

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Imagination - one of Europe’s largest independent design and communications companies, has opened an office in Stockholm. The company has appointed Bo Albertsson, former marketing director at Ericsson Mobile Communications, as the managing director of this new Scandinavian operation. Albertsson, took up the position in March coinciding with the official opening of the office.

"In my role as marketing director at Ericsson, I had been Imagination’s client for five years. I have always been a great admirer of the company and their unique approach to building brands. I think there is tremendous potential for Imagination in the Scandinavian market and I’m delighted to be joining them at such an important phase in their development," said Albertsson. Imagination (Scandinavia) AB will be supported creatively by Imagination’s headquarters in London.

(Ruth Ro

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‘The Deep’, the world’s only Submarium, is Hull’s £45.5 million Millennium Commission lottery project. Opened on 22 March by Prince Andrew, the complex was designed by Sir Terry Farrell with Lighting Technology working alongside Waterman Gore to provide the ‘above tank’ lighting. A totally new concept in visitor attractions, the Submarium is a dramatic fusion of aquaria combined with a descriptive voyage through the worlds Oceans.

’The Deep’ boasts the deepest water tank in Europe. This and the 11 tanks are home to seven species of shark and thousands of other fish. These range in size from the ‘Endless Oceans’ tank which holds 2.3 million litres of salt water to the smaller ‘Jewel’ tanks which hold just 1 cubic metre. The interior spaces are strongly influenced by the physical nature of the ocean and maximum use

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Spectra, one of Northern Europe’s leading lighting companies, has been chosen as the official lighting and technical supplier for the Eurovision Song Contest 2002. The Estonian Television broadcaster, ETV has commissioned the event which will take place in the newly-built Saku Suurhall, in Tallinn, Estonia, on May 25. ETV estimates that 120 million viewers will watch worldwide.

Spectra will supply a full range of lighting and video equipment, together with technical coordination and crew. The company will have 26 people working on site in the month running up to the event. This is not the first time that Spectra has handled such a major technical project. Swedish television company, SVT, chose Spectra as the official lighting supplier and technical coordinator for the 2000 Eurovision Song Contest which took place at the Stockholm Globe.

The spec will include some 800 lanterns,

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Proel S.p.A. has announced an agreement reached between the company’s Sound Reinforcement Division and Laboratorio Musica Vanis Dondi, developers of the L.i.S.A. Linear Source Array system. The agreement between Proel S.p.A and Laboratorio Musica will bring about the development of a completely new line of pro audio products, developed jointly between Proel and Laboratorio Musica, and based on the technical success of the L.i.S.A system - the first high power line array system to be made in Italy.

Recent projects for the L.i.S.A. system include a tour of Italy with Franco Battiato and the recent MTV Independent Day in Imola.

(Lee Baldock)

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A limited number of ISCE (Institute of Sound & Communication Engineers) members is being invited to DNH's beautiful lake-side factory at Kragaro on Wednesday, 26 June. With an early start from Stansted, the full day will include tours of production, test, demonstration and design facilities, possibly resulting in a unique ISCE-branded loudspeaker unit. For further details of the visit, please contact Michael Leaver at the e-mail address below.

Booking details are availabale from the Secretariat on +44 (0)151 639 5211, or from Michael Leaver at the e-mail address below.

(Lee Baldock)

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Yamaha's Commercial Audio Division has announced the shipment of its first DM2000 digital mixing console to 2nd Sense Broadcast Ltd, based at Millennium Studios, Elstree. The console, bearing the serial number 0001, is the world's first professional installation and 2nd Sense managing director Andy Hewitt took the opportunity to host two open days for current and potential new clients to coincide with the DM2000's arrival. The open days also provided an opportunity for other engineers and members of the Institute of Broadcast Sound to see and hear the console at work in the newly completed video edit and production suite.

Hewitt, a former BBC sound engineer, was one of a number of sound engineers approached by Yamaha's R&D department two years ago to help specify the next generation of Yamaha digital audio mixing consoles. The result of those consultations, which took place simultaneou

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ShowCAD Artist show control systems have recently been installed in Luminar Leisure’s Chicago Rock Cafes in Basildon, Ilford, Redditch, Swansea, Tamworth, Trowbridge and Wrexham. The installations were carried out back-to-back by Lynx Lighting of Yeovil over a very busy two-week period.

ShowCAD is already installed in many Luminar venues including the Liquid chains and, like ShowCAD, Artist implements MIDI, MIDI Show Control, SMPTE, digital and analogue input/output protocols. Additionally, Artist software can control 5000+ DMX channels and, operating on a Windows platform, the software also utilises standard PC protocols and functions.

In the Chicago Rock venues, the systems are programmed to run on Artist’s Real Time Clock and therefore will run all day, every day completely automatically, with the scenes and cues programmed to change to suit the hour of the day or nigh

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The newly formed Stage Electrics Wales has reported a strong start to the year, especially in the live TV sector. St David’s Day 2002 saw the Welsh branch supplying lighting, rigging and mains distribution for the Welsh television broadcast of S4C’s annual talent competition - 'Can-i-Gymru' or 'A Song for Wales'.

Cardiff-based Apollo Television brought in lighting designer Martyn Rourke and designer Phil Williams to transform the Afan Lido leisure centre in Port Talbot into a TV studio for the two-hour live broadcast. Over 18 Lodestar motors were used to fly the entire rig in the venue that had a restricted weight loading. Stage Electrics’ project manager for the event Tim Routledge commented: "In conjunction with structural engineers and with the knowledge of our rigger, Gary Smith, we were able to monitor the deflections in the roof beams once the load was appl

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XL Video - specialists in touring and live event video production - supplied a full digital touring package to the successful Pop Idol tour - one of the fasting selling tours in the history of UK popular performance!

Video director and XL crew chief was Ruary MacPhie and the medium of video played an important role in the show’s look, a creative collusion between Peter Barnes’ lighting and set design and Kim Gavin’s overall artistic direction. XL supplied four Sony D35 cameras for live camera playback - two in the pit on a track-and-dolly system, one at FOH and the fourth, hand-held onstage. Realtime show action captured by these was primarily beamed onto two soft screens either side of stage. The main onstage screen consisted of 40sq.m of Unitek 25mm pixel pitch LED, located upstage centre, supplied direct to the production by GL UK. It split to form an entrance/exit

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West End theatre members of BECTU have voted to accept a pay rise worth 11.3% on average.

In a ballot of BECTU members throughout London’s commercial theatreland, 71% voted in favour of the offer. Members are now set for a further pay rise in October 2002, worth 4%, or inflation plus 1%, whichever is greater. The two-stage offer put to members was tabled by employers, the Society of West End Theatres, in response to an earlier ballot in which 96% of union members in the sector had voted in favour of industrial action. "This is a significant first step in the union’s campaign to end low pay among theatre workers," BECTU organizer Mark David-Gray told us. Originally, the employers had tabled a pay rise of only 1.6%, prompting a determined campaign by BECTU to fight low pay in the West End. Since then its membership in theatreland has increased by more than 30%.

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Specialist AV company, Blitz Communications has secured two theatrical firsts for the new Queen musical We Will Rock You, opening in London's West End on 14 May. The show marks the first time that Blitz's new HRS high-resolution videographics system will be used which will be linked to the biggest video screen ever installed in a theatre.

The HRS system will allow graphics, pre-recorded video sequences, live action shots and scenic backdrops for the show to be displayed on a giant LED screen measuring 10.2m x 4.8m. Blitz brokered the deal for production company Lighthouse to obtain the LED screen, which cost £1million and was shipped over from Hong Kong. It is made of LVP1010C Quarter Bin LED panels and divides into eight separate smaller screens. Four of these operate at floor level on individually powered, steerable trucks. Another four are flown using an automated motionsyst

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Vertigo Rigging has installed the Broadway hit musical version of The Full Monty into the Prince of Wales Theatre for its West End run. Vertigo are past masters in the art of rigging large West End musicals. Others having included Beauty & The Beast, The Lion King, Notre Dame de Paris, Mamma Mia and many more.

Vertigo’s Full Monty team was led by the unflappable Ken Mehmed. The team worked closely with master carpenter Micky Murray and production managers Stuart Crosbie and Simon Marlow for producers Sacha Brookes. Vertigo used 40 Lodestar motors to rig the flown elements of the set, designed by John Arnone. These were dead hung in the theatre’s roof once positioned correctly in a very precise operation. A substantial proportion of the stage scenery is flown, so the PoW grid is very tightly packed with flats and set pieces, and the rigging had to be spot on. One of the more

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Color Kinetics Incorporated, specialists in LED illumination technologies, and Targetti, a leading Italian designer and manufacturer of architectural lighting fixtures and systems, have announced an OEM partnership. Through this partnership, Targetti will incorporate Color Kinetics’ patented Chromacore LED technology into a new line of custom fixtures. The two companies also plan to co-develop new Chromacore-based ‘designer’ lighting fixtures.

The new product line, which is planned for launch in the second half of this year, will enable Color Kinetics’ full spectrum colour and lighting effects to be incorporated into any décor through an array of Targetti’s fixtures. Besides aesthetic benefits, LEDs offer a host of practical advantages over conventional light sources that make them an extremely energy efficient, long-lasting, low maintenance and versatile

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Delta Sound Inc has increased its rental stock of L'Acoustics product, to become one of the largest sources in the UK of the popular line array system. An L'Acoustics partner for nearly three years, Delta Sound now have more than 100 L'Acoustics cabinets available for hire, including the arena-sized V-DOSC line array and subs, the compact dV-DOSC system and the 115FM floor monitor.

This latest acquisition of stock occurred when L'Acoustics closed its own UK rental operation at the beginning of the year, offering the current UK partnerships first choice to buy their surplus systems. Delta Sound, a leading sound service provider for the corporate events market, leapt at the chance to expand their V-DOSC stock further, not only to support their own needs, but that of other rental companies too.

One such association is with SSE Hire Ltd, the Birmingham-based hire company, who recently ut

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Now in its 10th year, Big Day Out is an Australian touring festival that visits Auckland, the Gold Coast, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth every January. It is unique in its design, scale and complexity and attracts many headline acts - the 2002 event featured The Prodigy, Garbage, New Order and Basement Jaxx.

This year, security was tightened following the tragic death of 16-year-old Jessica Michalik last year: organizers West & Lees made changes to audience safety provisions and introduced volunteer safety teams, increased audience lighting and erected a new, alcohol-free, D barricade area (from Mojo Barriers) in front of the main stages. The audience was given free water bottles and sun-block, and crowd surfing was banned. "We also carefully considered the time certain bands take to the stage," explained Matt Dougherty, one of three production managers on the tour. &q

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L’Acoustics has announced the appointment of SISME Co as its new distributor for Italy. Established in 1967, Sisme is based in Osimo Scalo, near Ancona, on the East Coast of Italy, and is also the sole Italian distributor for brands such as Shure, Phonic, LA Audio, Crest Audio, and for many other brands.

Due to the wide variety of products that they have distributed, for more than 30 years now, SISME Co. have become specialists in managing permanent installation projects, alongside their more regular sales activities. Claudio Bugari, SISME’s president, says: "We can efficiently support all the technical demands of our customers; with two general support engineers, and a full-time technician we provide a fast and efficient in-house repairing service."

Outside the company, SISME has a sales force of 11 independent representatives covering the whole Italian territo

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