Robe - LEADERBOARD - Feb 2025
Doughty - Banner - from 6 June 2025

Business

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UK - London-based rental company FX Music has remained at the forefront of public address technology since brothers Dave and Alan Beck set up the business 20 years ago. Back then, they adopted the legendary Dave Martin-designed Philishaves - and have continued to run the classic Martin Audio LE series floor monitors throughout the two decades.

Three years ago the company returned to Martin Audio as its preferred FOH speaker, buying 20 of the Wavefront 8 Compacts and 24 WSX subs. And delighted with the signature sound of the Wavefront, has now celebrated its 20th year by making a substantial investment in Martin Audio's Line Array technology, with 18 x W8LC Compacts and 12 x W8LM Minis.

Much of this new inventory was immediately pressed into service for David Brown's DB Audio, at a major corporate team-building event at Telford International Centre this month. Discretely trimme

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UK - Eat to the Beat was welcomed on stage to accept its third consecutive Favourite Caterer Award at the Total Production Awards on Monday 31 January. Straight after winning the award, managing director Tony Laurenson was back on stage to present the award for Favourite Venue to the Royal Albert Hall, a venue in which Eat to the Beat worked at over 90 days last year.

The celebrations continue for Eat to the Beat (part of the Global Infusion Group) as on 7 February the company will celebrate 21 years 'Going Global'. Laurenson commented: "It was a fantastic night and we are so proud to be voted favourite caterer by the industry. 2004 was a great year for the group with many memorable events. I'd like to thank all our wonderful clients, crew and suppliers! We now look forward to a challenging and exciting 2005!"

(Sarah Rushton-Read)

Doughty - Banner - from 6 June 2025

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USA - Electrosonic and Scharff Weisberg Systems Integration Inc have signed a joint venture agreement creating Electrosonic New York, an audio video systems integration organization that will operate out of Long Island City. By combining Scharff Weisberg's existing systems installation business with the Northeast division of Electrosonic, the new company will be able to provide New York-area architects, designers, consultants and builders with unsurpassed AV design and installation support from a local source, say the company.

Scharff Weisberg president Josh Weisberg described the collaboration: "We've been friendly competitors for years and have occasionally worked together on projects. So, when Electrosonic decided they would benefit from a higher profile in the New York area, we realized that our clients could benefit as well from Electrosonic's global reach and well-de

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USA - Autograph A2D, the US distributor of the D5T, the theatre version of DiGiCo's D5, has supplied further consoles to this market. Two systems have now been delivered for Broadway's latest premieres, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and Spamalot, both designed by Acme Sound Partners and both opening in March.

The D5T consoles have been purchased by separate New York-based rental companies, who are also supplying full sound and communication systems to the individual shows. Dirty Rotten Scoundrels is being supplied by Sound Associates, while Spamalot has chosen ProMix as the rental provider. Each of these systems includes a D5T together with D5TC operator's console and a D5T-RE redundant engine, giving fully switchable backup should the need arise.

Nevin Steinberg explains how Acme Sound Partners came to specify the DiGiCo D5T's for both these shows: &qu

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UK - Disney and Cameron Mackintosh's eagerly anticipated theatre production of Mary Poppins, now playing at the Prince Edward Theatre, has been nominated for nine Olivier Awards, including one for best lighting design. Wowing London critics and West End crowds, the show's lighting artistry is achieved in part with the help of 35 of ETC's Source Four Revolution automated luminaires.

Chosen for their flexibility, the Source Four Revolutions, each with a shutter module, were specified by lighting designer Howard Harrison and supplied by Stage Electrics. Because the production's elaborate scenery limited its lighting positions, Harrison opted to use an automated rig, including the Revolutions, to ensure that each position could be worked to its full potential. The S4 Revolutions also appealed to the stringent acoustic demands of Richard Eyre, reportedly the most noise-sensit

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UK - The PLASA Show has today launched phase one of the newly designed website www.plasashow.com) for this year's show, which takes place at Earls Court between 11-14 September 2005. Phase one is aimed at visitors and already has the facility for visitors to pre-book their tickets at the discounted rate of £7.50, saving 50% of the on-the-door price (£15).

The website will constantly be updated as the show develops and phase two, the exhibitor section, will be launched in the next couple of weeks, providing exhibitors with all they need to know about the show, including an up-to-date exhibitor list and floorplan.

If you would like further information about the show please log onto the website or call +44 207 370 8208.

(Lee Baldock)

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UK - On 3 February 2005 Nelson Mandela spoke to a mass rally of an estimated 20,000 people in London's Trafalgar Square. The primary aim of the Make Poverty History Campaign is to get the debts of developing countries cancelled. Also featuring at the event was Sir Bob Geldof and Channel 4 presenter June Sarpong while Jamelia provided entertainment with a live set.

Stage Electrics supplied staging for the rally including a custom-designed platform to fit on the square's main staircase and two dedicated press platforms to support a press presence of 350. PA equipment was also supplied by Stage Electrics, taking advantage of EAW's KF730 and SB730 wide angle dispersion to provide wide coverage throughout the square combined with a JF260 acting as centre fill for the press pit at the front of the stage.

Sound was operated by Chris Coxhead from a Soundcraft Series Five console with

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UK - The legendary Cavern Club in Liverpool's Mathew Street has purchased two Soundcraft mixing consoles as part of a major equipment upgrade. When Cavern directors Bill Heckle and Dave Jones realized it was time to retire the venue's old FOH mixer they initially harboured ideas of deploying a large-frame 48-channel MH3 to mix monitors from the FOH position.

Heckle explained: "With the improvement of the club's infrastructure we needed to give the place a boost with the standard of equipment we could offer visiting production crews and our own LIPA engineers. We initially spoke to two companies but were more comfortable with Soundcraft as its desks convert theory into practice and I know I will get the after-sales service."

But with limited available space, he was advised by Soundcraft's live sound sales manager, James Baker and Adlib Audio's Andy Dockerty - who has

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UK - CGA Integration Ltd has upgraded the facilities of the Intashape Fitness & Weight Loss Centre in Swansea, with the installation of additional audiovisual equipment. Following an online enquiry, CGA met with Catherine Hughes, owner of Intashape Swansea. She was looking to upgrade the existing system and was searching for a reliable company to install and support some additional equipment to her venue.

She explains: "I have previously had sound and video equipment installed and not been happy with the level of support of the quality of the end product. CGA came to site and showed me their portfolio, listened to me and then explained the systems to me." She adds: "I have received a very personal service from CGA, with the same point of contact from initial contact to completion of works - I would recommend them to other gym owners."

CGA installed a full

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USA - Tulsa's First United Methodist Church is a beautiful example of Tudor Gothic style architecture. The cross-shaped building features impressive 75ft vaulted ceilings with massive oak trusses, solid stone walls, and stained glass windows all around. But it was these very elements that were responsible for some serious sound reinforcement challenges that, until recently, had plagued the church since its dedication in 1928.

With all the hard surfaces and the cavernous ceilings, sound ricocheted all over the building, garbling speech throughout the 1,100-seat space. Over the years, church leaders consulted many audio engineers, but most dismissed these challenges as impossible to solve without acoustical treatments - which would have negatively impacted the church's aesthetics.

But in early 2004, church leaders heard a more optimistic answer from consultant David Rauch of B

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UK - Hisapano-Brit rockers, and newly signed Audio-Technica endorsees, Breed 77, are touring across two continents, with a complete inventory of Audio-Technica microphones. The five piece, which hails originally from Gibraltar, attract comparisons with the likes of Alice In Chains and early Metallica. They are currently in the throes of a short burst of UK gigs and support slots, prior to heading out on an extensive Australian tour throughout the rest of February; not such an unusual career move, given that they have a five album recording deal with the UK arm of Albert Productions, worldwide publisher of AC/DC.

The band has been on the road consistently over the last three years, across Europe and in the UK promoting two album releases, and supporting the likes of Il Nino, Raging Speedhorn and Prong.

The switch to A-T microphones was a collaborative decision between the band

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Romania - For years, the Club Kristal in Bucharest, which can accommodate up to 1,500 guests, has been rated the best disco in Romania. Indeed many say that the 1,000sqm entertainment centre, with its seventeen giant video screens, laser system and multifarious mist machines, is quite simply the best club in Eastern Europe. There's no doubt it attracts top talent. The cream of the world's DJs, including Sasha, Deep Dish and Paul Van Dyk, are regularly to be seen behind the club's turntables.

To ensure that the Club Kristal retains its place at the top table amongst the world's finest discotheques, at the beginning of December 2004, the owners invested in a Dynacord Alpha Concept system capable of pumping out a shuddering 10,000W comprising: six Alpha xi-90 tops, eight B3 bass enclosures, 16 Dynacord amps (L2400, L1600 and L1000).

One of the reasons why the Alpha Concept is one

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UK - Toby Alington's Richmond Studios team took on one of the biggest challenges in its history last night when it recorded the BRIT Awards' largest-ever lineup of live bands - 12 bands in a two-hour, non-stop live show at Earl's Court. Alington and an audio team of 10 recorded the complete 25th anniversary live show in an array of recording mobiles parked in a secure area next to Earl's Court 2, which was transformed into a spectacular 5,500-seat arena for the BRITs by event producers MJK Productions.

The bands' performances, awards presentations and speeches were recorded onto digital multitracks. An overnight post-production at London Studios will see the show trimmed to its broadcast length, ready for broadcast on ITV this evening. Finally, Alington will create an 'international' version of the edited show, with the English commentary and voiceovers removed.He comments: &qu

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China - HK Audio's Chinese distributor, Melody Development Company, has supplied a speaker system to the Born In 70s bar in Nanjing. Located in the city's 1912 Leisure Street, the exterior of the bar, with its red brick, white walls and black-tiled roof, is just like the other 40-odd bars and night clubs along the street, and competition is fierce as each one strives to establish its own style. Born In 70s has chosen a gentle, mellow atmosphere in which to present live performances of classic songs. Melody Development's Nanjing office was happy to supply an HK Audio system and help to establish the unique musical experience the bar was looking for.

"We are not a noisy disco pub which just needs high volume and lots of booming sound," says bar owner Lu Dong. " HK Audio loudspeakers, with its clean and dynamic response, truly fulfill our requirements. We made the de

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USA - OptiLED's Linear Optical Array LED lamps were chosen by the Jacksonville Transportation Authority's (JTA) Board to illuminate the Main Street Bridge as part of a city-wide beautification effort in anticipation of this year's Super Bowl championship played at the Alltell Stadium in Jacksonville. Based on its successful track record working with linear LED product, award-winning lighting design firm Stone Mountain Lighting Group was subcontracted by Miller Electric to integrate, install and program the lights on the bridge with almost 1,200ft of OptiLED's Linear Optical Array LED lights, which have been assembled together to form an impressive LED matrix to create various graphics and designs.

The project is a joint effort between the JTA, the City of Jacksonville, the Florida Department of Transportation and the First Coast Metropolitan Planning Organization. Spanning 1,680

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USA - ESTA has announced that five draft standards are now in public review until 26 April. The standards deal with wire rope ladders, theatrical boom and base assemblies (lighting trees), the ACN protocol, pin connectors, and flat-wall photometry. The documents are accessible on the ESTA website.

BSR E1.1, Entertainment Technology - Construction and Use of Wire Rope Ladders, is a revised version of ANSI E1.1-1999, Entertainment Technology - Construction and Use of Wire Rope Ladders. E1.1-1999 was offered for public review to reaffirm it last year, since it was at the five-year anniversary at which an American National Standard must be reaffirmed, revised, or withdrawn. No one offered any public review comments, but close examination of the document by Rigging Working Group members s

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UK - Autograph Sales, has continued to introduce new customers to Meyer Sound, specifically to its celebrated Ultra Series range. Among the new customers is Stage Sound Services, based in Cardiff, which has become the first rental company in Wales to invest in Meyer Sound. The four UPJ-1Ps and two UMS-1P subs will immediately be put to work on the UK theatre tour of Dracula. The production will run for twenty weeks with Christopher Cazenove staring as Van Helsing. Dracula's sound designer Fergus O'Hare specified the Meyer Sound cabinets.

Phil Hurley, Stage Sound Services' MD, is an existing Autograph Sales customer and is thrilled to join the Meyer Sound fold; "I feel this is just the beginning of our commitment to the product range," he says, "enhancing the choice of products available to our growing client base."

Westminster Sonus, a leading conferencin

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USA - Manhattan-based television and film composer Daniel Antonio Srebnick adopted Metric Halo's mobile I/O 2882+DSP production interface 18 months ago. Now no longer tethered to the recording studio, Srebnick is enjoying a newfound creative freedom resulting from his transition from a full-blown DAW system.

His contributions to the soundtrack of The Squid and the Whale, a new independent film by writer-director Noah Baumbach, which stars Jeff Daniels, Laura Linney, Jesse Eisenberg and Owen Kline, and was co-produced by Wes Anderson and Peter Newman, will debut at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival. "I used all Metric Halo's products for that project," notes Srebnick.

Although having invested very heavily in an industry standard DAW, Srebnick, an avid Mac user, realized that the power of the new G5 would allow him to run Logic - which he uses for scoring, audio a

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China - China's largest on-site museum, the Emperor Qin's Terracotta Warriors and Horses Museum, marked its 25th anniversary with the opening of a new 530-seat auditorium. The museum is located in the Shaanxi provincial city of Xi'an, one of the six ancient capitals of China, and is home to one of the most significant archeological excavations of the 20th century.

It is also home to one of the country's most modern audio installations, featuring a fully digital networked system based around QSC's Rave/CM16a audio transport and monitoring components. The Rave system and QSControl.net system were chosen for their simple setup and expandability.

Comprising of a RAVE 188s-24 unit in the auditorium's control room routed to a second 188s-24 unit in the equipment room via a single Ethernet CAT-5 cable, two of QSC's CM16a Amplifier Network Monitors control 15 two-channel QSC CX-series

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UK - A customized Martin Audio stadium system has been installed at Blackburn Rovers' Ewood Park facility by locally-based contractors, Romers. Six enclosures - based on the Blackline H3 system - have been fitted under the roof of the 8,158-capacity Blackburn End stand, which is populated by the home supporters.

Specialists in stadia fit-outs, Romers wanted to create maximum vertical coverage - via a 40° x 70° horn pattern (rather than the customary 70° x 40°); thus a bespoke solution was favoured, with the loudspeakers mounted on their sides.

Martin Audio's Peter Child said: "We based the customization of the H3's on our AM3 Stadium enclosure and were able to offer the solution they required. The enclosures were sprayed with a high density polyurethane plastic coating both internally and externally, while the drivers were weather-proofed behind a heavy galvanized and

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Ireland - Healey Music Warehousing, who manage Outline Ireland (sales and rental), supplied all the live stages at this year's opening celebrations for Cork City of Culture 2005, when over 80,000 people visited Ireland's second city to be entertained by a wide variety of performances. Tony Healy of Healey Music said: "We have had Outline for the last couple of years and in fact have just significantly increased our inventory, which enabled us to supply all the main performance areas around Patrick St."

The Doppia from Outline is an ultra compact high/mid loudspeaker which stands only 19" high and 14" wide, yet boasts 2 x 12", 1 x10" and a compression driver with 3" diaphragm. Doppia's were utilized with Outlin's Victor Live sub basses which astonishingly perform down to 28Hz. All systems were powered by Outline's TP range of digital amplifiers

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USA - Show Distribution Group Inc of Canada, ChainMaster's exclusive distributors in the USA, Mexico and Canada, has moved to larger premises so as to be able to extend still further its range of activities. The new 2,000sqm facility in Quebec offers considerably more space for the Service department plus greater storage capacity to meet increasing demand.

Show Distribution has more than 300 rigging lifts, 100 VarioLifts and 25 VarioTrolleys at its disposal at all times; this is material that Show Distribution has purchased and uses to support customers in the hire business who, in 2004, accompanied tours by Metallica, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Green Day, Shania Twain and Tim Graw with lifting gear and controllers from ChainMaster. Show Distribution also furnished chain hoist systems from ChainMaster for live shows and marketing events staged by Everlast Productions of Florida and

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UK - XL Video supplied video production including the massive 16 x 7m Unitek V9 central LED screen and two 30msq 16:9 ratio Barco S10 LED side screens for The 25th Brit Awards, staged at London's Earls Court 2.

The screen was integrated into Mark Fisher's scenic design. It split apart vertically into two sides and both sides tracked off-stage utilizing a Kinesys movement system for millimeter perfect accuracy. It was the third year running that XL has been the supplier of video screens for the show to MJK Productions and production manager Mick Kluczynski. It was the second year running that automation specialists Kinesys were called in by show production riggers Outback, to co-ordinate the moving of the screens.

The project was managed for XL by Paul Wood and for Kinesys by Dave Weatherhead. Kinesys attached two variable speed winches to staging company StageCo's 46m wide gro

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USA - Tomcat celebrated 13 years of in depth industry training courses with another successful Hoist and Rigging Workshop in Midland, Texas. Top-notch instructors and 62 industry professional participants from all over the United States, and even Mexico attended the workshop as well as the all new Advanced Workshop.

Don Dimitroff of Columbus McKinnon, as well as TOMCAT's own Dave Sowa, coached participants through the Lodestar electric chain hoist. Rocky Paulson of Stage Rigging, a Freeman Company and Morgan Neff of Mine Safety Appliances stressed safety in rigging techniques and fall protection equipment while Keith Bohn, Tomcat design manager, and Will Todd, Tomcat project manager, offered a course in truss theory and design. Not only did participants receive four days of power-packed, informative classes, but also four nights of fun filled entertainment, including the traditi

  1. Blue Box solution for Broadway Theatre
  2. Hawthorn Theatrical comes of age
  3. LM Productions' StratoFantasia show
  4. Acquisitions set to increase in 2005
  5. ETC's dimming for Copenhagen Opera House
  6. Billy Elliot comes to the West End
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