Lighthouse recently held its first Open Days at Shepperton Studios in Middlesex, where it gave the first European showing of its new LVP0630 and LVP1050 high resolution, high brightness LED screens, and followed on from a highly successful Infocomm exhibition, where confirmed orders for the new products topped $4 million.

Over 100 attendees, including both existing Lighthouse rental partners, integrators and potential new customers from around Europe and the UK, viewed the state-of-the-art screens in the art gallery-style setting of The Orangery, in the heart of the world-famous studios. The ultra-high brightness LVP1050 (10mm pixel pitch, 5000 nits brightness), and the high definition LVP0630 (6mm pixel pitch, 3000 nits) both feature Lighthouse’s new M4 technology. At 5000 nits, the LVP1050 is the world’s first outdoor SMD (Surface Mount Device) LED video screen. It featu

The James Last Orchestra recently toured Germany, Austria and Switzerland with a large number of Audio-Technica microphones included on the channel list of front-of-house engineer, Paddi Addison. A combination of PRO35X, AT4050, AT4041, ATM25 and ATM23HE models - 43 microphones in total - demonstrated the versatility of the range by covering a wide variety of instruments.

Addison, who has mixed for the James Last Orchestra for over a decade, explains: "James Last has 40 musicians on stage and, of course, every note they play needs to be heard with fidelity and clarity (otherwise the very demanding audience certainly lets me know)! Since we started using Audio-Technica mics, I have found it much easier to achieve this result. There is a suitable Audio-Technica microphone for every situation. I particularly like the open and natural feel of the AT4050. I use it on overheads and perc

The single largest concentration of Nexo sound systems in Asia sits 6,000 feet above sea level, just 45 minutes from the capital of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur. The Genting - City of Entertainment is a favourite destination for many in the region, providing a wide range of recreational and sporting facilities, as well as luxurious hotels. The newest addition, the First World Complex, embraces the First World Plaza, Genting International Convention Centre (GICC) and the First World Hotel, recently completed with its block of 3,228 rooms making it the 'biggest' in Asia in terms of rooms.

ElectroSystems of Singapore completed the installation of sound reinforcement systems thoughout the City of Entertainment, specifying Nexo loudspeaker cabinets for the 6,000-seat Arena of Stars concert hall and the Genting International Convention Centre (GICC). Billed as the largest convention centre in Mala

Concert sound specialists Tour Tech - already owners of Soundcraft Spirit 328 digital production desks - recently upgraded to the new-generation 328XD. Dick Rabel’s company purchased a pair of the feature-packed digital production consoles - and immediately had several of their artists lining up to use them - with the Levellers heading the list.

"This follows the success we had with the standard 328s, which were used with Stereo MCs and PJ Harvey - including her UK and US tour," commented Rabel. Top band Coldplay are another to take advantage of a new 328XD to mix down hard disk and samplers for live work, before transferring to the main console. So Solid Crew have similarly been using the 328XD. "Coldplay are currently using a 328XD and 8 way mic/line expander for live touring work," confirmed Dick. "They have been using these components since they comm

The owners of AJS Theatre Lighting & Stage Supplies Ltd have acquired the business of Cerebrum Lighting (formerly part of the Lighting Technology Group which last month went into administration) from the administrators PriceWaterhouseCooper.

The company has been renamed Cerebrum Ltd, and although in time it will be integrated into the AJS group structure, it will continue to operate and trade as Cerebrum Lighting, based in south London. Cerebrum Lighting has of course been a respected supplier of lighting equipment in the industry, having traded for many years.

The move comes just two years after key changes at AJS itself: the company was brought by Decibel Ltd in January 2000, as a management buyout from the previous owner Adrian Sant. Led by Christopher Coates, the last two years has seen the company undergo a major restructuring programme, and a continued investment programme has

Genelec Oy, a world leader in active monitoring systems, is strengthening its support for the Chinese marketplace by opening Genelec China Representative Office in Beijing. The office will officially open at the end of this week to coincide with the BIRTV show which runs from 22-25 August, 2002.

Ilpo Martikainen, president of Genelec Oy, told us: "This investment aims at ensuring customer satisfaction in the growing Chinese market in all respects: local support, product availability and close contact with the customer base. Our cooperation with ACE / Power Source Development in Hong Kong and China continues and we highly respect their achievements with their customers."

Lars-Olof Janflod, international sales manager of Genelec Oy has been visiting the Chinese market regularly. "The development of this market place during the past few years has been remarkable. Comparin

The Klark Teknik Group has appointed Dublin-based Sound & Communications as the exclusive distributor for all Midas products in Ireland. Sound & Communications already has a long-standing partnership with Shuttlesound and Electro-Voice and is therefore well placed to take on Midas distribution. According to Midas international product manager David Cooper, Sound & Communications was the natural choice. "We felt that the time had come to get closer to our customers in Ireland, especially since the launch of higher volume products like Legend and Venice. We needed someone who could offer local support and local market awareness. Given the strength and nature of their customer base, plus their proven success with other related brands, we feel that Sound & Communications is the best partner for Midas in Ireland."

Sound & Communications Alan Murphy agrees. "We're delighted to

Last Autumn, Italian fashion designer Giorgio Armani opened his new worldwide headquarters at Via Bergognone 59 in Milan. Located in the up-and-coming Porta Genova district, the facilities are set to be the global stage for the Armani brand. Japanese architect Tadao Ando, who, like Armani, is famous for his appreciation of simplicity and purity in his design, was commissioned to transform the space into an ethereal fusion of concrete, water and light.

Central to the 12,000sq.m building is the 3,400sq.m Armani Teatro, which caters for a variety of events, including fashion shows. With simple reorganization, the black-box theatre, normally laid out for catwalk shows, can form a proscenium stage for drama, a thrust arrangement for dance, or be emptied out for use as an art gallery or a site-specific installation. It can also be used as a lecture hall, convention area, or even as a tempor

Ibiza’s popular nightspot, Bar M, is where many eager clubbers begin their night of revelry before going on to dance the night away at Privilege, the world’s biggest club, where the weekly Manumission can pull a crowd of up to 10,000. Naturally, Bar M wanted to give the happy clubbers as good a sound experience as they expected from Manumission, and to do this required an innovative approach by Britannia Row Productions’ sound system designer, Roly Oliver.

"KLP approached us in April, looking for a sound system which would be the talk of the island and with dedicated clubbers worldwide," said Oliver. KLP represent Orange, sponsor of both Bar M and Manumission. Oliver flew to Ibiza to see the challenges for himself. Bar M has two indoor bars but most of the action takes place outside. His first problem was that local bye-laws prohibited placing speakers outsi

Sennheiser continues to clock up endorsement agreements with major artists across the world. Among the latest signings are The White Stripes, who have been performing their signature brand of stripped-down guitar and drums rock to capacity crowds at gigs and festivals in the UK and across Europe with a clutch of Sennheiser evolution mics, including e865 condensers for both Jack and sister Meg’s vocals. Jack White (guitar and vocals) and Meg White (drums and vocals) cut an especially distinctive sound, which has propelled them rapidly to ‘major selling artist’ status.

evolution microphones were chosen before the start of the tour by front-of-house engineer Matthew Kettle, after success using them on previous projects. "Sennheiser has provided not just top quality equipment for this tour," he said of the UK and European dates, "but as on previous occasion

Futurist Ltd, the West Yorkshire-based provider of lighting and sound equipment and services, went into liquidation in early June. The company, which was owned by a charitable trust, the Robert Luff Foundation Ltd, was managed by Michael Lister.

Michael Lister has told PLASA Media that he and his wife, Dawn, have purchased the 'assets and goodwill of Futurist Ltd'. Furthermore, an existing company, DML Corporation Ltd, which was owned by Michael Lister, has been re-named Futurist Projects Ltd, and Lister has told us that the "Futurist brand will continue to be marketed and promoted" through this company, which will be based at Trinity Business Park in Wakefield.

The creditors of Futurist Ltd included a number of well-known manufacturers and service providers in the industry, some of whom were subsequently hit by the loss of Lighting Technology at the end of June (see L&SI

12 September will mark the first anniversary of White Light taking possession of its new HQ building in Wimbledon, south-west London. Since 12 September is also the day after the PLASA Show, White Light has decided to hold a post-PLASA, one-year celebration Open Day - and everyone is invited!

For most of its 30-year history, White Light was based in a quirky but much-loved building tucked away in the back-streets of Fulham, taking over other space nearby as it expanded into the White Light Group during the nineties. As the number and scale of the White Light Group’s projects continued to expand, finding a new home which would allow all of the Group’s activities to be brought back together under one roof became a top priority; after a long search, the White Light Group - including White Light Hire, White Light Sales, The Moving Light Company, The Service Company, Colourhouse

Specialist audio supplier to the corporate and entertainment market, Delta Sound, has recently added a Legend 3000 to its inventory of Midas consoles, which now totals five Heritage 1000s and two Heritage 3000 consoles in a variety of frame sizes. Since its arrival at Delta Sound, the Legend 3000 has already been out on a number of prestigious events including the Commonwealth Games, for which Delta Sound was principle audio contractor. Other events include the Microsoft Tech-Ed conference in Lisbon, an annual event with over 5,000 delegates, and an accounting conference in Vienna for Braxton (formerly Deloitte Touche). The company is currently in service at the Assembly Rooms in Edinburgh for the Edinburgh festival.

According to Delta managing director Paul Keating, there is no better desk for the money: "I bought the Legend 3000 so that I have a Midas console to compete with oth

CT Exhibitions, through its London and NEC offices, supplied audio-visual services to a number of design and production companies with clients participating at the Farnborough International 2002 air show (July 22-28). Specialists in providing the technical infrastructures for exhibition displays, the two operations pooled both their expertise and their equipment resources.

Design company IEDS contracted CT to equip two locations for its client, General Dynamics United Kingdom Ltd, by providing plasma screens, DVD players and a 6ft x 4ft screen running off an NEC LT155 video projector in the hospitality chalet area. General Dynamics’ stand display was in the form of a multimedia projection show featuring four pods based around Samsung LCD monitors, along with a further two Barco 6400s, a 40" plasma display, control equipment and audio reinforcement. A significant amount of LE

ARX Systems, the Australian-based manufacturer of professional audio products has appointed Electric Audio as its new exclusive distributor for The Netherlands. ARX's managing director Colin Park announced the appointment: "We welcome Axel Nagtegaal and his team at Electric Audio to our European Distribution network. Europe has really taken to the new products we've been releasing in 2002; with a serious Distributor like Electric Audio in The Netherlands we look forward to developing our market presence even further."

Centrally located in Almere, Electric Audio was formed in January 2000 as the Electro-Voice and Filo Professional Cables distributor for The Netherlands.

(Ruth Rossington)

When the new dance club Rehab opened in Leeds this month, it positively reflected the changing DJ requirements for audio processing. Aside from recognizing the growing popularity of the straight tone arm, with the incorporation of a pair of Stanton’s STR8-100s into DJ mission control, it followed the lead of other pioneering British clubs by installing Stanton’s flagship VRM-10 mixer, with valve preamp and built-in filter. All products were supplied by the company’s UK distributor, Lamba plc.

Most Technical’s Dave Parry - mastermind behind the technology at London superclub Fabric - acted as technical consultant on the Rehab project. The Stanton install comes a month after Lamba plc appointed Marquee Audio as their new professional dealers, to further increase their exposure at the top end. The move is already paying off, and this month sees the installation of

Star Hire (Event Services) Ltd supplied all of the staging and supplementary site structures for the Route of Kings series of concerts, promoted by the collective talents of Triple A and ClearChannel Entertainments this summer.

The 2002 Route of Kings series of shows this year took place in London, Cardiff, Warwick and Leeds and featured headline artists including Paul Weller, Rod Stewart, Meatloaf, Bryan Adams and St Germain. Through the course of this run, Star Hire supplied its Vertech stages to the Route of Kings sites. During this busiest of periods, the company logistics involved 63 truck movements transporting equipment all over the UK, employing 48 staff across nine event sites, while the artists on Star Hire stages were watched by a collective audience in the region of a quarter of a million people.

This summer Star Hire improved its award-winning Vertech system through the

Yorkshire-based audio and visual specialists TMC has been involved in many top quality sound systems for venues across the nation. Based in the centre of Bradford and founded in 1987 by directors Paul Smith and Miles Marsden, TMC (The Music Company) has just received the ultimate recognition for its achievements by picking up the prestigious BEDA Installation Company of the Year award.

The award is based on the company’s installation of audio and visual systems at the UK’s biggest new clubbing venues and its on-going partnership projects with major club operators. Creation in Leeds, The Works in Birmingham and Oceana in Milton Keynes have all benefited from TMC’s state-of-the-art sensory systems that have established the three venues as the hottest tickets in town. This is the third time that TMC have won the award, having previously carried home the ‘oscar styl

The much-anticipated new Bond film, the 20th film in the series, is currently in production at Pinewood, near London. Die Another Day, produced by Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli and directed by Lee Tamahori, will see Pierce Brosnan return in his fourth outing as James Bond, and will be released in the UK on November 22nd 2002.

As usual, the film set is closely guarded and few details of the plot or its characters are available, but significant quantities of custom and pre-made Van Damme VGA cable have been ordered by Chris McBride, the film's computer and video supervisor. "We're using Van Damme cabling both for on-screen and off-screen applications," explains Chris. "Our department provides all the on-set video and computer requirements, working with the shooting crew. And we also supervise the on-screen screens, those seen in the film."

As in many

The Midas distributor for Finland, Oy Hedcom, have recently supplied a 52-input Midas Legend 3000 to the Crazy Reindeer (Hullu Poro) club in Lapland as part of a larger AV installation completed late last year, which also includes three video screens with multiple cameras and a Nexo Alpha E sound system. Located in a ski resort way above the Arctic Circle, the Crazy Reindeer Arena is a 1,500-capacity club/live venue which also offers full conference facilities during the day as well as saunas and a jacuzzi. In addition to the Arena, the Crazy Reindeer complex includes hotels, restaurants and an extensive leisure programme.

Oy Hedom's Ari Manninen explained that versatility and reliability were strong factors in the decision-making process. "During the season there is a show every night and the place is packed out, so the desk will be working pretty hard," said Manninen. "

Sunday 8 September - 7.30pm till late . . .

This year the PLASA Show is celebrating its 25th year, and it’s something we’d like to share with as many exhibitors and visitors as possible. So, we’re hosting a PLASA Party on the evening of Sunday 8th September at 'The Bridge' (underneath London Bridge) - one of London’s newest venues, to which everyone is welcome. The all-inclusive tickets are just £50.00 (plus VAT) and include a champagne reception, buffet supper and all you can drink. Not to mention the chance to dance until late.

For further information call Mikaela Fenton-Jones on +44 (0)207 370 8207.

Having been appointed as one of a number of UK Derksen dealers in November last year, DHA Lighting is delighted to have now become its exclusive UK distributor, stocking an extensive range of the German company’s interior and exterior lanterns. Louise Tester, sales manager for the UK and the Derksen contact at DHA, said: "This is an exciting development for DHA - the stock of Derksen lanterns will complement our own range of image projectors and gobos whilst opening new possibilities in architectural lighting, corporate events and retail."

In addition to a full range of Derksen interior and exterior lanterns, DHA will also stock GoboTop, the smallest low voltage gobo projector currently on the market. A minute piece of equipment, GoboTop turns commercial low voltage multi-mirror lanterns into projectors and can be used in conjunction with both glass and metal gobos. By

About 600 guests, including the German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, and many famous politicians and actors, attended the recent opening of the new Opel Co-ordination Centre in Berlin. With a permanent exhibition of the latest models and numerous changing displays, ‘Opel in Berlin’ will be a genuine attraction for visitors. Art exhibitions and lectures will be staged and there is an ‘Auto-Media Café’ for the general public too. The whole exhibition was designed by Stadler Project of Offenbach, who were also the project managers.

Working with Scheiner Interaktive Medien of Langenfeld, who were responsible for the AV design and project management, Electrosonic supplied and installed all of the audio-visual systems in ‘Opel in Berlin’. On the ground floor the visitor can surf the world of cars in the Auto-Media Café, where there are 10 interactive dis

Lighthouse LED screens, supplied by Massteknik, Scandinavia’s foremost giant screen provider, played a huge role in the visual aspect of the recent month-long tour by Sweden’s best-known and most popular artist, Tomas Ledin. A total of 77 panels of Lighthouse LVP1010D LED video screen (10mm pixel pitch, 1000 nits of brightness) was divided between three screens which tracked from side to side across the stage, forming either one giant screen of 11 x 7 panels (7.04 x 3.36m), or three smaller individual screens, with the centre screen being larger than the two outer screens.

Throughout the month of July, the tour visited open-air venues in no less than 30 cities around Sweden, sometimes on consecutive nights, with each concert attracting crowds of up to 10,000 people. This is the second year running that Massteknik has provided Ledin¹s entire video solution and, to make such

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