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Business

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UK - BPI and multi-platinum award winning producer, Martin Rushent, recently opened the new recording and production facilities at Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College's Faculty of Leisure and Tourism in High Wycombe. The purpose-built facilities - which include a Digidesign Pro Tools HD system and Genelec 5. 1 monitoring in studio 1, along with a Mackie HDR24/96 in studio 2 (both linked to two live performance spaces) - have been designed and built to support the new BA (Hons) in Music Industry Management and Studio Production. Students will have the unique opportunity to develop their music recording and production skills at the same time as working towards a solid music management qualification at degree level. In opening the new facility, Rushent commented: "These are amongst the best facilities for music production in the country, and the students who complete th

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UK - Bradford-based Pro Audio Systems recently supplied HMS Ark Royal with an extensive package of PA equipment. The package included two HK Elias systems from John Hornby Skewes, a range of microphones from both beyerdynamic and Audio Technica, Samson Expedition EX20s and an American DJ DCD pro450 CD, sourced from Sound Technology, a pair of Smart Wireless Twin 15 systems, with handheld and bodypack transmitters, Tascam cassettes and minidisks and a Spirit FX8 mixer and E8 input channel. Also included in the package was a Yamaha MX20/6 mixer, a Fostex VF160 multitracker, six flight cases, three multicores and assorted stands, cables and accessories.

(Ruth Rossington)

PLASA Show 2025 - Banner - June-Aug 2025

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UK - The controversial Alcohol and Entertainment Licensing Bill suffered a number of setbacks in the House of Lords on Tuesday during a Report Stage debate. Among the amendments upheld by the combined ranks of Liberal Democrat and Conservative Lords are the exclusion of most forms of unamplified music, and music which is incidental to other activities. Despite this defeats, the government will still ask MPs to overturn the Lords' amendment when the Bill is returned to the House of Commons, and pro live music campaigners have highlighted the need to lobby MPs to support the Lords' amendments.

Another amendment was the exclusion of Educational Establishments from the terms of the Bill; it had been feared that schools would have to apply for licences in order to stage nativity plays. The Lords voted by 169 to 107 in favour of the amendment, despite warnings that this could leave Un

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UK - Creative Technology has again joined forces with the Walt Disney Company to develop the Playhouse Disney Live! Roadshow, which has been entertaining visitors to some of the UK's leading shopping malls. Designed to promote the Playhouse Disney Channel, the six-week tour was organized by director Kathleen Gearhart and production manager Jonathan Stott of Walt Disney Special Events.

The set was designed by Idea Design Europe and this year the live backdrop was constructed around the Barco 8mm iLite 8 indoor LED screen in a 6 x 2 configuration, provided by Creative Technology and set between the 'house' frontage and start of the roof. Displayed on the screen is a series of graphics and pictures of the puppets, which is designed to encourage the children's audience to interact with the live entertainment.

The audio playback was provided by CT's sister company, Dimension Audio,

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UK - Award-winning Saville Audio Visual has further strengthened its position as one of the UK's largest AV firms by acquiring Edinburgh-based conference specialists, The Media Facilities Company. The deal means that Saville will be the only professional AV company operating from all four UK capitals.

The Media Facilities Company was established by John Dick in 1990 and has its headquarters in Leith, Edinburgh, where the latest developments in digital projection, plasma screens, digital editing, lighting, sound and video-conferencing technologies are available. One of Scotland's fastest growing AV companies, it has seen its turnover soar by 42% in the last 12 months, despite widespread trading difficulties faced by the Scottish tourism industry in the same period.

In recent months, the company has worked on events and conferences with a number of Scotland's blue-chip companies

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UK - FX Technical Services, part of the FX Group, has recently completed an exclusive install of a Linn Knekt Multiroom system at Butlers Wharf - a private penthouse complex overlooking London's River Thames. One of its properties has recently undergone an extensive rebuild and FX Technical Services was called upon by the project's architect to install a sound system that would complement the flat's exclusivity.

The system comprises a Linn Kivor multi-output hard disc audio player, a Linn FM/AM tuner, a Sky plasma screen and Linn and BW speakers, both free-standing and ceiling-mounted. The system allows the hi-fi to be controlled from any room in the house with the minimum amount of equipment in each room. The team were also able to lay down the necessary cables before the flat was decorated and thus the install was completely unobtrusive to the overall design of the property.

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UK - Simon Brophy, the former head of lighting at the Millennium Dome, his wife Margaret Bragg, who worked as his assistant, and company director David Gordon appeared at Southwark Crown Court yesterday morning for an initial hearing regarding allegations of contractual fraud at the Millennium Dome. No trial date has been set as a result of yesterday's hearing, but a Directions Hearing has been scheduled for June 27 this year - at which point a decision will be taken about what needs to be done in order to prepare the case for a court hearing.

We have no further news on the woman in her 60s who was arrested at the same time, and a couple, both on their 30s, who were arrested in February 2001. These three remain on police bail pending further enquiries.

(Ruth Rossington)

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Australia - MC2 Audio has announced the first major theatre installation via its Australian distributor, Funktion One Australia. Her Majesty's Theatre, Ballarat, located very close to Melbourne, is a beautiful old theatre, built in the mid-1800s at the height of the gold rush. Today it's an historically important and heavily over-worked regional theatre. The auditorium is constructed in traditional style with stalls at ground level and the circle and dress circle above.

T Series amplifiers have been selected to drive the Funktion One speaker system, which is located throughout the auditorium. John O'Donnell of Funktion One Australia says: "MC2 amplifiers were chosen to drive the entire system based on their high quality, transparent sound, high reliability and their compatibility with the Funktion One range of products."

The system has been configured to use one chan

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UK - Just as we were loading up the news, we got a call from Total Fabrications in Birmingham to advise us that the telephone number which appeared on their advert in the February issue of L&SI is incorrect. Unfortunately, the number TFL put on the ad actually belongs to some poor soul in Birmingham who is currently fielding calls on the range of TFL and Slick products. Total Fabs have asked that we do all we can to put them out of their misery, so if you want more information on TFL or Slick, the correct number is +44 (0)121 772 5234.

(Ruth Rossington)

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UK - Bosch Security Systems has strengthened its position as one of the leading global and UK suppliers of security and communications systems with the recent acquisition of Philips CSI.

Bosch is integrating the former Philips CSI operation with the well-established Bosch Detection Systems business into a single new company called Bosch Security Systems, which now offers the complete product range covering fire and intrusion detection, CCTV, public address, paging and congress systems. The combined operation is being re-located to a new home in the existing Bosch facility in Denham. Bosch will continue to sell and support all the former Philips CSI products under the globally known Bosch brand name, alongside its well-known Detection Systems branded products.

The combined Bosch Security Systems business is headed up by UK MD Joe McCann, previously general manager of Bosch De

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UK - black light - the independent lighting, sound and staging company - has opened a new office in Glasgow. In a move designed to provide increased support for its customers in the West of Scotland, the new facility will initially carry stocks of gel and other consumables, but will build up to offer full rental stock within a matter of weeks. In the interim, hire products will be sourced from the company’s Edinburgh office. Colin Morrow, a familiar face to many from his association with Sound Acoustics, will run the Glasgow operation.

black light has seen steady growth in recent years, supplying lighting, staging, trussing and audio systems to theatres, exhibitions, conferences, trade shows, educational establishments and heritage centres. Its product range now includes fixtures from Italian manufacturer SGM, who has recently appointed the company to act as its distribut

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Finland - The Nexo GEO S compact tangent array system has been installed in three prestigious cultural venues across Finland, an impressive hat-trick for distribution and installation company Oy Hedcom Ab.

In Helsinki, the small arthouse Theatre Studio Pasila became the first GEO site in the country. In a relatively small auditorium, with capacity for approximately 350 people, two GEO S arrays have been installed left and right of the stage, each with four S-805s, one S-830 and a single CD12 sub. In addition, there is an S-830 cluster above the centre of the stage. In the theatre, six PS8s have been installed as surround speakers - these are powered by Camco Vortex.

At the House of Culture in Espoo, the Tapiola Hall has a capacity of 800. Every year, the House of Culture hosts a well-known festival called the April Jazz, which attracts names like Joe Zawinul, Chick Korea, Jan

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USA - Celebrating 11 years of in-depth industry training courses, another successful Hoist and Rigging Workshop was recently hosted by Tomcat USA in Midland, Texas. Expert instructors were joined by over 71 industry professional participants from over 15 states, including Hawaii.

Instructor Don Dimitroff, from Columbus McKinnon, as well as Tomcat’s own Dave Beard, worked participants through the Lodestar electric chain hoist. Rocky Paulson of Stage Rigging and Morgan Neff of Mine Safety Appliances stressed safety in rigging techniques and fall protection equipment while Keith Bohn, Tomcat design manager, wrapped up with truss theory and design.

Participants were not only treated to four days of power-packed informative classes, but also four nights of local entertainment, the traditional factory night at Tomcat USA with extensive tours, demonstrations, a graduation cerem

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UK - The British Board of Film Classification - located in the British Film Industry’s Soho heartland - is the industry body charged with ensuring fair and effective regulation of the film industry. The Board has to classify every film and video that goes on sale. Thus its 45-seat Preview Theatre, which is also available commercially, undergoes a high degree of usage.

Cinema installation specialists Sound Associates have a relationship with the Board extending back to 1986, and have periodically updated the replay systems as new sound platforms have been established. When they were recently called in to fit an AMX remote touch-screen system, they took the opportunity to recommend that the Board simultaneously upgrade its loudspeaker system. "While their screen frame was coming out it seemed to make a lot of sense," said Sound Associates’ Graham Lodge. "

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UK - Working together, sound design and installation specialists CP Sound and professional audio distributors Arbiter Pro Audio have brokered a finance deal to enable the Shoosh Bar in Thames Ditton, Surrey, to benefit from some of the best sound, lighting and AV equipment.

Shoosh is a stylish independently-owned, new-build bar/restaurant concept, and the finance deal enabled the design, specification and installation of an impressive technical infrastructure at the venue. Cutting a deal became necessary as cash was tight after the funding of interior building works, designed by Steve Howie of Howie Design. New ventures are traditionally the most challenging when it comes to raising additional finance. However, CP Sound’s Colin Pattenden undertook to help Shoosh owner Terry Ramsay raise the necessary, so he didn’t have to compromise on his sound and lighting installa

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USA - City Theatrical, the New York-based manufacturer of entertainment lighting accessories has acquired the New York firm of Matsuda-Dunn Design - an engineering and design firm specializing in products and projects related to the entertainment lighting industry. Its operation will be integrated into City Theatrical’s production facilities in the Bronx, and the entire organization will be known as City Theatrical.

CTI’s President Gary Fails told us: "This acquisition strengthens City Theatrical’s engineering and product development base, and gives us an experienced custom projects group. While we have always done a great deal of custom metalwork and manufacturing, we now can offer our dealer network a much higher level of support on their systems and installations work, including electrical and mechanical engineering and software development. We hope t

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UK - Stagetec Distribution started the year in style with a surge in Compulite Spark lighting console sales - orders were received for three SparkTOP systems from Richard Martin Lighting (RML) plus a Spark 4D/LX system for Alton Towers in the first month of the year.

RML specializes in the television lighting, and is already the largest Compulite rental house in the UK, with 19 systems in stock. However an increase in its workload necessitated the additional systems. Current RML TV shows with Compulite in control include Blue Peter, Never Mind the Buzzcocks, Crimewatch, Midweek Lottery, Shooting Stars and the Saturday Show.

One of the latest productions for which RML has supplied a Spark console is ‘Smart’ for CBBC. The show demonstrates different techniques for drawing, painting and creating. Lighting designer Dave Davey had the challenge of designing a flexible,

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USA - Sennheiser USA has announced the creation of a new communications division, Sennheiser Communications, dedicated to telecommunication headset technology solutions. Sennheiser Communications will make its international debut at the 2003 CeBIT Information and Communications Technology (ICT) conference and exhibition in Hanover, Germany.

The new division represents a joint business venture between German company Sennheiser electronic GmbH & Co. KG and Danacom A/S, a division of Danish company William Demant Holding A/S, Copenhagen, a leading supplier of audiology products. The William Demant Holding Group will transfer its current headset business to the joint venture, and Sennheiser will complement this with its newly established telecom business unit and global distribution network.

The newly established joint venture, Sennheiser Communications A/S, will be based in Cope

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Italy / UK - Proel International has launched a brand new website, packed with useful information for both end-users and retailers. Featured on the site are all Proel International’s products, from recent introductions such as the Alto signal processing and amplification range, through J&D guitars and basses, to well established brands like Proel itself (with its huge choice of sound and lighting products), FBT PA equipment, Qube PA, B&C loudspeakers, Tamburo drums, Discotech lighting, and the entire JTS range of high quality microphones and headphones.

The site includes links for every product in the fast-growing Proel catalogue (including the company’s gigantic selection of leads and accessories) as well as a database listing key dealers in the UK, so that customers can easily find the Proel stockist closest to them. Retailers can use the site to contact their Proe

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UK - Flintshire-based Apple Sound has recently supplied Rolls-Royce’s manufacturing plant with a sophisticated TTS 30 TourGuide system from beyerdynamic. Situated in the heart of the English countryside in West Sussex, the facility is based within the historic Goodwood Estate and within easy reach of the circuit that Rolls-Royce now use as a test track.

The original design concept for the facility - which needed to reflect the quality of the Rolls-Royce marque, but also welcome those expected to visit the site - was implemented by architects Nicholas Grimshaw and partners - creators of the acclaimed Eden Project in Cornwall. Apple Sound has considerable experience of TourGuide systems, having been involved in both their sales and hire for over 10 years. Working closely with Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Annett Asztalos, Apple TourGuide product manager, John Scott, helped specify

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USA - The Scorpions & Whitesnake 2003 tour is using High End Systems products to add punch and reliability to its rig. Lighting director Charlie ‘Cosmo’ Wilson specified 12 High End Systems Studio Color 575 automated wash luminaires and two Studio Beams for the tour, supplied by contractor LSD/Fourth Phase of Los Angeles.

Now on his seventh tour with the Scorpions and his first with Whitesnake, Wilson was easily able to design a truss to accommodate both artists while giving each a distinctive look at the same time. The bulk of the rig was outfitted with PARs and LSD’s own brand of lighting and console. The tour kicked off on 29 January and continues in North America until 22 March. Following that, Wilson takes off with Whitesnake on their UK/Europe tour, which runs from mid May to early June again with High End Systems fixtures in the rig.

(Ruth Rossington)

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UK - The eighth annual CEDIA UK Expo will be held in Brighton between 24 and 26 June, 2003. According to the organizers, it will feature a wealth of new exhibitors from the security and lighting industries, as well as established leaders in the residential entertainment systems and home automation markets, and will occupy 25% more floor space than last year’s show.

The seminar programme is expanding as well, and includes the introduction of CEDIA certification examinations for technicians and designers, developed by the UK Education Committee from a structure successfully employed in the US. Manufacturer training will also be integrated with the seminars to ensure that theory and practice are perfectly complemented. Extra curricular activities include the Chairman’s reception for invited guests on the night of 24 June and the Expo party the following evening.

The

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UK - Six months ago Northern Ireland-based installation company Light and Sound FX (LSFX) was commissioned to carry out a complete technical makeover of Lush nightclub in Portrush. The brief was simple: to design and install a new state-of-the-art sound system.

Darren Gardener of LSFX explains: "When we met with Col Hamilton, the resident DJ at Lush, he was adamant that the sound had to be on a par, if not better, than the big UK mainland and US clubs." To achieve this, Gardener looked at all the main audio players, in the end recommending an EAW Avalon system. The Avalon system is one of the most specified club systems in America, so Col Hamilton contacted an American DJ friend to ask if Lush should invest in an Avalon system. The answer came back loud and clear that it was the ‘system of choice’ for serious clubs stateside and that Lush was making the ri

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UK - Now in its 26th year, the PLASA Show, which draws to Earls Court in September, thousands of UK and international visitors interested in lighting and sound from entertainment and installation industries, promises to be brighter, fresher and more creative than ever before.

The look and atmosphere of the show is being revitalised for 2003: a project manager has been appointed to implement the feature areas which include a central networking area, situated in the hub of the show. Other highlights include Architectural Audio & Visual - a new show sector which recognizes the growth of architectural lighting, contract audio and vision industry into this market. Products, case studies, new ideas and creative design solutions will all be showcased, aiming to inspire both architects, specifiers, installers and end users.

The New Technology Gallery, situated at the front of the ha

  1. Reflex Systems celebrates 15 successful years
  2. Central Theatre Supplies appointed Strand lighting dealer
  3. Leisuretec appointed as Strand Lighting distributors
  4. Metropolis AV & FX at LA Fitness
  5. Single CD player from American Audio
  6. transtechnik Lichtsysteme brings light to Munich stages
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