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

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The Netherlands - Dutch AV company, SLR Productions & Sales, has purchased an Allen & Heath ML4000 live sound VCA console to add to its hire stock. The mixer has already been used at various events, including corporate seminars, pop concerts, and festivals. SLR already has several Allen & Heath consoles in its event portfolio, including a PA12 portable stereo live mixer, a GL2200 multi-purpose live sound mixer, and an ML3000 VCA console. The company made the decision to invest in a new ML4000 to cater for bigger projects requiring greater capacity. "We have been using Allen & Heath products for several years, so we were assured of the ML4000's sonic quality, flexibility and reliability," says SLR's MD, Robert van Hees.

(Lee Baldock)

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UK - Large format projection specialists E//T//C UK - fresh from its dramatic projections onto Buckingham Palace last week for the 60th and final MOD Commemorations of World War 2 - also beamed giant images onto Portsmouth Guildhall for Portsmouth Remembers - a one-off evening of images, words and song staged in Guildhall Square to commemorate the ending of hostilities in 1945.

The Portsmouth Guildhall, home to Portsmouth City Council, was opened in 1890. It was bombed to a shell in 1941, and reopened after extensive rebuilding in 1959. Measuring approximately 60m wide by 40m tall, E/T/C UK's projections stretched across the entire front fascia of the white stone structure.

E//T//C UK was approached by Heather Todd from the Council's Arts Services Department, who was aware of their work on Buckingham Palace. She thought that projection would be the ideal medium to produ

Doughty - Banner - from 6 June 2025

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UK - Production company Flux Events have promoted and production managed a dramatic evening of music and film at London's Royal Albert Hall using a 13.2m x 10m Harkness Hall screen. Staged as part of the VE Day 60th Anniversary celebrations, a performance of Shostakovitch's Leningrad Symphony written in 1942 at the beginning of Nazi siege of the city, was performed by the St Petersburg Academic Symphony Orchestra conducted by the composer's son, Maxim.

A seventy two minute film by Russian director Georgy Paradzhanov which was inspired by author-designer Sergai Davitiaya and the official Russian information agency, Novosti, cleverly used newsreel and contemporary images to mirror the haunting themes of the music. Projection was by two Barco projectors running overlaid images.

Another Harkness Hall screen, measuring 14.8m by 9.5m featured in an earlier Flux Events open air produ

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UK - Bandit Lites supplied production lighting and crew for the recent G4 theatre tour, once again working with Production North. Matt Jensen was the LD, Sarah Hollis the production manager and Bandit's Lester Cobrin co-ordinating.

Cobrin said: "After a very successful TV series and UK tour with X-Factor it was no wonder that the bands debut album shot straight to the top of the charts earlier this year. Their voices are so powerful and dynamic which appeals to a very wide audience. G4 are a completely different act to what is out there at the moment. I'm not in the least surprised this tour sold out."

Choreographer Gary Lloyd and G4's producer Ashley Tabor had initially come up with an asymmetrical stage view, which was then developed into a more industrial scaffolding based set by Production North's Steve Levitt. Jensen used the set as the starting point for his li

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UK - TMC Ltd has devised a tricky design solution for the 900-seat auditorium at the Birmingham Christian Centre - an Elim Pentecostal church in the city centre - with the help of architectural effects provided by Lighting Effects Distribution.

Commissioned during the late 1980's the building's ceiling is split into awkward asymmetric segments within a polygon-shaped building. But the infrastructure had become tired, the sound element needed upgrading and a visual dynamic introduced.

TMC's hire department had enjoyed a long relationship with the church's events department over the years. The contract sales team were consequently introduced to the project, and invited to work with the client to develop the scheme.

It was evident that the existing low pressure sodium lighting, with its familiar yellow hue, was inadequate and TMC were asked to design a concept in which the mood

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UK - 10 July saw the culmination of a week of events marking the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II, when the Queen was joined by the prime minister and 12,000 others at Horseguards Parade for the World War II 60th Anniversary Festival of Commemoration and address to the nation.

With a speech by Her Majesty, Simon Callow hosted the event which featured readings, humour and music from World War II. The cast included a choir of 184, a 157-piece orchestra and a host of celebrities including TV host Bruce Forsyth, singer Petula Clark and actors Jane Horrocks, Robert Hardy and Clare Sweeney. There was also a special appearance by Dame Vera Lynn, while in a symbolic gesture; veterans' groups handed over their standards to the younger generation.

Working for Unusual Services to a sound system design by Imagination's John Del Nero, Wigwam Hire provided four Martin Audi

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USA - Adding to Clay Paky's reputation for excellence on the Las Vegas Strip is the new spectacular, created by Franco Dragone - Le Rêve, at the new Wynn Las Vegas hotel and casino. This show features an array of automated fixtures from the Italian manufacturer and brings to more than 10 the number of permanent show installations that currently use Clay Paky equipment.

The custom-built 2,087 seat Wynn Theatre, which houses Le Rêve, features a one million gallon pool in its centre and a domed roof 80ft overhead. Lighting designer Koert Vermeulen uses 32 Clay Paky Stage Profile Plus SV fixtures, along with 13 Stage Scan moving mirror fixtures and nine CP Color 150E colour changing fixtures. "I'm an LD who designs a lot with gobos," said Vermeulen, "and Franco loves gobos on his shows. The Stage Profile was the only fixture that gave me two gobo wheels and s

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USA - Mackie and the SAE Institute have announced the winners of the first SAE Institute/Mackie International Scholarship Contest. The contest, which was announced at the Winter NAMM show last January, grants one international student and one US student a full-tuition scholarship each to the SAE Institute's award-winning audio technology program. The winners are Elijah Walsh of Ontario, Canada and Shane Newville of Michigan.

"We received literally hundreds of excellent applications for this program and it was not an easy task to choose just one international and one domestic winner," said Mackie's Kyle Ritland. "But both Elijah and Shane demonstrated exceptional talent, a clear vision for their future and a strong commitment to achieving their goals. We're confident they will both be excellent representatives for Mackie and hope that this opportunity will help the

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UK - Audient's new ONE speaker processor was put to the test at the two-day Cornbury festival this month. Artists as diverse as Steve Harley, Elvis Costello, Joe Cocker, Bonnie Tyler, and the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain performed on the two stages in the grounds of Lord Rotherwick's Cornbury Park, which saw more than 10,000 people pass through each day.

Used on stage two, sound engineers Alan Ashford and Nick Pemberton (also Audient's UK sales manager) said they were impressed by how smooth the EAW KF850 system sounded.

Pemberton says: "I've used KF850s for years, it's a great box. It's very 'rock'n'roll' sounding; I've heard them with all sorts of processors and amps before, but the combination of the ONE speaker processors and the LAB Gruppen amps sounded amazing. Even for such a small system [six stacks] it sounded huge without the usual bark at 2.5k!"

As

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Singapore - Running from the 19 - 21 June, the 2005 edition of the Telex Academy in Singapore was attended by over 300 audio specialists - further evidence of the enormous strides being made in the south east Asian audio sector as well as of the need for these information seminars organized by EVI Audio say the company.

In addition to training courses and presentations of the latest pro audio products from Electro-Voice, Midas, Dynacord and Klark Teknik, the team of Erin Lim (vice president, South East Asia), Mathias von Heydekampf (president, Pro Audio) and Martin Traut (marketing director, EVI Audio) were anxious to make good the information deficit on the subject of intercoms. A special seminar was therefore devoted to filling in participants, who had made the journey from all over south-east Asia, on the latest developments in the intercom sector and the wide range of applic

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UK - Midway through transforming the infrastructure in all nine rooms at one of Lanarkshire's landmark entertainment centres, Hamilton Palace, Keachie Electronics needed a reliable power engine to drive the new sound set-up. The venue owners, Lynnet Leisure Group were implementing the Palace's first upgrade in the 16 years since the 2,500-capacity venue first opened and needed to upgrade the vast complex of nightclubs, feeder bars, VIP rooms and dining areas.

Bryce Keachie's company turned to a combination of German-made Camco Tecton and t&m Systems products - both brands distributed in the UK by Fuzion plc. He says he was assisted in his decision by a visit to last September's PLASA Show - when he was gearing up for the project. Keachie arrived in London accompanied by Lynnet Leisure's general manager, Craig Amner. "It enabled me to see all the different amplifier choices

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USA - ESTA, the Entertainment Services and Technology Association of North America, has announced that BSR E1.19, Recommended Practice for the use of Class A Ground-Fault Circuit Interrupters (GFCIs) intended for personnel protection in the Entertainment Industry, is available for public review. The draft standard gives advice on where, when, and how to use GFCIs in the entertainment industry. The official ANSI 60-day public review period starts on August 5, but the draft standard is available now at www.esta.org/tsp/documents/public_review_docs.php. The public review runs through October 4, and the links on the website will disappear at the beginning of 5 October, the ending date noted.

Reviewers are also asked to look for protected intellectual property in the draft standard. ESTA and Accr

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USA / Romania - Loud Technologies Inc. announced the appointment of Bucharest-based Stage Expert as the exclusive EAW distributor in Romania. In addition to being one of Romania's premier professional audio and lighting distribution operations, Stage Expert is also a leading production house offering staging, video and event management services as well as PA and lighting rental.

According to Stage Expert partner/production manager Alexandru Calin, EAW offers a high quality complement to his existing portfolio of brands. "EAW remains one of the biggest names in concert touring and has a well-earned reputation for being world leaders in technical audio advancement and creative loudspeaker design. We are very proud to represent EAW in Romania and look forward to a mutually beneficial relationship."

EAW's Sean Martin is equally pleased with the appointment: "In addi

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UK - Hawthorn has announced that here are still some places left for its 'Hawthorn @ Home' event next Friday, 29 July. Hawthorn's Hire and Sales team will host the events, which will kick off with lunch and an informal get-together, followed by the hands-on session / demo of the equipment.

The 29 July event will be an introduction to Hawthorn - people, products, projects and tours of newly extended office and warehouse complex, with hands-on demos of LED for hire, lighting, sound and AV equipment. The second event, on 2 September will cover 'Generic Lighting' products with representation from Selecon, ETC, Thomas, ADB and Strand. The third event, on 7 October, is titled 'Flash, Bang and Feedback' a demonstration of pyrotechnics by Le Maitre and radio mics by Sennheiser, Sony and Trantec.

(Lee Baldock)

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UK - A.C. Lighting's Audio division has sold a Funktion One Resolution 4 loudspeaker system to Dave Nutbrown at Starsound Systems. Nutbrown was already using Funktion One's award winning touring speakers and had been getting an excellent reaction to them from his customers - particularly the quality of audio and powerful output for such compact cabinets, he says.

As a result, Nutbrown wanted to expand the company's hire stock, so he approached audio sales manager Peter Butler at UK dealer A.C. Lighting to supply four Resolution 4 touring enclosures and two F-218 bass enclosures.

The Resolution 4 touring enclosures feature a revolutionary flying system shared by all Resolution touring enclosures, which makes for fast and easy set up due to all the inter-cabinet flying hardware being built into the enclosures.

The F-218 double 18" bass enclosures utilize Funktion One's re

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UK - The 6,000 jobs recently lost at the UK-based MG Rover Group are symptomatic of a wider trend across Europe that has seen manufacturing production decrease. Britain alone has shed a million manufacturing jobs in the last 10 years - a reflection of the general economic shift from manufacturing to service industries.

Part of the reason for this decline is that manufacturers worldwide are dealing with numerous issues - increasingly prescriptive legislation, customer migration to Asia and the challenges of building a successful infrastructure to sustain and improve manufacturing. In recognition of these issues, PLASA (Professional Lighting and Sound Association) has established a Manufacturers Forum to allow the organization to better understand the issues faced by its members. An initial meeting will take place in central London on Tuesday 2 August and all 250 manufacturing mem

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Japan - A wonderful example of a modern classical concert hall, Tamba Symphony Hall in Japan has received many compliments for its striking interior design, particularly the use of local wood, something that is both aesthetically beautiful and acoustically ideal. Though relatively new, the concert hall was built in 1988, the Tamba management felt that advancing audio technology dictated the need for refurbishment.

"An acoustic comparison test was made at the site," said Mr Kunitaka Fukatsu of the Otaritec Corporation, which was asked to advise on a new system. "A few selected manufacturers systems were chosen and carefully examined. Finally a Q1 based system made by d&b audiotechnik was chosen. The reasons were clear; the d&b system's high quality sound and intelligibility; the potential for high SPLs when required with no loss of quality; and the low electrical c

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UK - Martin Professional's Mach CI6 in-fill loudspeakers - 43 cabinets in total - have been installed into The Strand, Preston as part of a high quality background music system. The Strand is the city's newest and most exciting 'must go' venue, a contemporary new entertainment concept aimed at a lively, stylish clientele with good tastes in food, drink, design and music.

Preston is one of the fastest developing towns in the UK, with over 25,000 students, an ambitious urban regeneration scheme underway and a rich history in culture and commerce. The Strand is independently owned by Dave Patterson and general manager Dave Jones. They spotted a gap for a stylish venue outside the city centre that would attract over 25s and those prepared to make an effort to go out. The Strand is also the first completely non-smoking night venue in Preston.

The various social areas within the Str

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UK - Specialists in lighting, sound and power provision Pearce Hire was contracted to manage the temporary power requirements for Birmingham's National Day of Commemoration with a spectacular Victory Fireworks Fantasia and a stage set on the lake in Cannon Hill Park. Continuing work with Birmingham City Council, after successfully providing power in recent years for the Jubilee celebrations, New Years Eve events, Diwali and Centenary Square, Pearce Hire has become a regular provider to the City Council.

Over 15,000 people enjoyed the fine weather and music at Cannon Hill Park's Victory Fireworks Fantasia. Chaired by Nick Owen of Midlands Today, a fabulous 1940s-themed afternoon concert starred British favourites Max Bygraves OBE and Joan Regan, while extracts from the Rat Pack Live featured music from Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Junior. Rousing the crowd th

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UK - On Wednesday 13 July, David Caulfield, the UK managing director of Martin Professional, presented £1,000 to Lyn Paver, chief executive of the Devon Air Ambulance Trust at Stage Electrics, Exeter. Martin Professional offered Stage Electrics a sales incentive promotion for a two-month period in late 2004, similar to many promotions in many sales organizations around the country. "However, Stage Electrics does not incentivize sales staff individually as we believe it is always about team efforts," explained Linda Moore, sales and marketing manager of Stage Electrics. "Therefore we gave each of our branches the opportunity to win £1000 for a charity of their choice for the branch with the highest achievement over budget."

Exeter Branch nominated Devon Air Ambulance and set about winning the money for them. All of the Stage Electrics branches participated a

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UK - Lighting company Blinding Light supplied all design, effects and ambient lighting for production company Sledge at Microsoft's recent spectacular 'After Hours' party. The event was staged in the grounds of Stratfield Saye house - a rambling 17th century pile, home to the Dukes of Wellington since 1817 - in a huge De Boers 'Star Show' circus tent measuring 68m by 44m. Catering was housed in an additional 45m by 20m 'A' frame marquee next door. "The client wanted a special location with a great ambience to accommodate up to 2,000 people" explains production manager Matt Phillips.

After Hours featured live performances by Basement Jaxx and Madness, and the show closed to a rousing set by DJ Norman Jay. Matt Phillips came onboard to oversee the complete production management needed to support the event along with Grant Mitchell looking after the finer technical detail

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UK - Live brand experience company MMM recently conceived and produced a new model launch and dealer training event for Jaguar UK, based on the hands-on demonstration of the company's new XJ Diesel and X-TYPE 2.2 models, pitted directly against their competitors' vehicles. As well as coming up with the event concept and format, MMM's technical production crew supplied all necessary sound, lighting, video and AV.

An active car mechanics workshop at Bruntingthorpe Proving Ground, Leicestershire was transformed into a high-tech auditorium and presentational space for the three-week event. The environment created also included break-out learning centres, and a series of lit walk-throughs with industrial sculptures made from Jaguar engine parts. The primary objective was to highlight Jaguar's new diesel and aluminium technology, perceived as being central to the future of the brand.<

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UK - Metropolis AV has designed a colourful new architectural lighting installation, including some specially customized LED fixtures, at the new Sportsman Casino in Old Quebec Street, central London. Tucked away in a discreet street near to Marble Arch, the venue - a world class gaming facility - wanted something eye-catching that would distinguish it from the surrounding buildings and that would be an additional finishing touch. Exterior lighting was the perfect solution. In addition to conventional colour changing wall-washing effects, they also wanted a bit of movement.

Metropolis's Simon Harris and Andy Shelton thought laterally when designing the scheme. They asked their manufacturing division Met 3 to make some special moving versions of its TC12 LED spotlight, complete with 6° lenses. These are mounted within existing down-lighter fittings and fixed onto off-the-shelf p

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UK - Avril Lavigne's FOH engineer John Kerns looked pleased as he watched the crowd response at the recent Hammersmith Apollo gig. "This is probably the first time I have taken a real rock show out with a Meyer loudspeaker system," Kerns admits.

Having taken over FOH duties from Jim Yakabuski partway through Lavigne's extensive European and American tour, Kerns found himself in the capable hands of Audio Analysts system technician Brett Dicus. "Jim came up with a setup that he really liked," explains Dicus, "which was Meyer mains and a centre sub-hang. That is our priority whenever possible. The Meyer high-end energy from about 5kHz on up can't be beaten. We find we do not have to do the usual boosts for intelligibility with the MILO boxes."

The typical setup for a Lavigne show employs substantial quantities of MILO high-power curvilinear array lo

  1. HK's Actor for Princess Pavilion
  2. Martin Pro presence at Wynn Las Vegas
  3. Wigwam fields A-T mics for WWII commemoration
  4. APR Audio provides EV at Glastonbury
  5. FX Rentals provides for New Music Award
  6. Bandit Lites for Bonnaroo
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