Germany - In an expanding market in Europe, PROEL has announced at Frankfurt, the establishment of a representation office in Holland.

Managed by René Poelman, the structure will begin to operate in April, and will be distributing and selling all products from PROEL Universal division: lighting and sound reinforcement systems, die hard cables and stage boxes, microphones and wireless systems, stage accessories, stinger amplifiers and the famous tamburo drums.

The complete installation line (ceiling speakers, horn speakers and 100V line transformers to name just a few), will also belong to this wide portfolio as well as the ultimate home division created by the Italian company. This features home entertainment furnishings for large screens, Plasmas, LCDs, realized by the American design trend leader Bell'o, and distributed by PROEL in many European countries including th

UK - Lisburn-based Zest Audio has completed the installation of a PA system for the Corpus Christi Church in West Belfast, built as part of an inner-city regeneration programme. The church is a new-build, designed for congregations of up to 400.

Commissioned to provide the PA by the M&E Consultants, Zest installed the system using Clock Audio MR66 automatic mixers, QSC ISA amplifiers, Phonic EQ and crossover processing, AKG hard-wired microphones, Shure radio microphones and Community loudspeakers throughout.

Commenting on the choice of Community loudspeakers, Zest MD David Honeyford said: "For intelligibility and vocal quality, the Community loudspeakers and excellent with very high output from such compact, discreet boxes. As with all modern church installations, aesthetics were an important consideration. Well controlled dispersion from the distributed CPL27 and CPL42

Belgium - When d&b audiotechnik's Belgian partner Amptec learnt that the country's national French speaking broadcast company RTBF was looking for a new sound system, they took the opportunity to introduce them to a d&b PA system. "It all started about two years ago," said Amptec's David Liebens. "We did demos for them at the 'Festival de Jazz à Liège' in 2004 and in 2005 using a Q-Series loudspeaker system."

Amptec knew that RTBF would be releasing a specification for a PA system for the Eurovision for Kids 2005 competition and would be inviting interested companies to tender. "We invited a number of key RTBF technicians to one of d&b's user seminars run by John Taylor and there is no doubt that they learned a lot about their approach to quality sound," said Liebens.

Shortly afterwards, RTBF invited a number of companies to propose a suitable s

Australia / Sweden - LSC Lighting Systems has been appointed as the sole Australian and New Zealand distributor for Wireless Solutions - the wireless DMX solutions company from Sweden, after previewing the W-DMX products at the Entech trade show in Sydney in February.

One company that decided to trial a system was renowned Sydney-based hire company Lots of Watts, who trialled the system at Hillsong Church's recent album recording at the Sydney Entertainment Centre. Daniel Monro from Lots of Watts says that the SEC is a venue in which they had tried other wireless DMX systems before, with disappointing results. "It would result in us having to run a lead up to the roof to make the system work," he said. "This time around, with the W-DMX units, we installed the receiver in the roof of the main arena to supply data for all the moving lights covering the audience, wit

UK - System integrator Tiger AV has found a unqiue application for Marantz's PMD570 solid state digital recorder - to encourage storytelling in the new 'Seven Stories, the Centre for Children's Books' development in Newcastle.

A national home dedicated to children's literature had long been the dream of Elizabeth Hamill and Mary Briggs, whose vision was to place children, young people and their books at the core of the UK's national literary culture. Their wish was realised late last year when the multi-galleried Seven Stories opened in a Grade II listed Victorian flour mill in the riverside Regeneration and Conservation area of the Ouseburn Valley in Newcastle. The building was restored throughout 2005 at a cost of £6.5 million.

Tony Crossley, technical director at Tiger AV, said: "The Centre thrives on being able to offer exhibitions and visuals that make the orig

Italy - Watched by a combined worldwide TV audience of over four billion, the opening and closing ceremonies of this year's Winter Olympics featured legendary Italian tenor Luciano Pavarotti, a stunning lighting design, and enough pyrotechnic effects to keep the Italian fireworks industry in business for years.

What that TV audience could not have seen, however, was the complex work needed to distribute audio to the 35,000 artists, athletes, VIPs and other guests inside Turin's Stadio Olimpico - or how that work was made all the more difficult by the demands of television.

The audio show designer for the opening and closing ceremonies, Gary Hardesty of Sound Media Fusion, originally conceived a conventional FOH system which would have seen line-array clusters hung either side of the stage, with additional arrays being flown at various points further down the area, each one bei

Hong Kong - Keeping its trading partners informed and involved is an integral part of Lighthouse Technologies way of doing business. A key part of that strategy is its annual partners meeting, where a range of European clients gather for a weekend of information exchange, presentations and networking.

For the second year running the event was held at the ski resort of Bormio, in the Italian Alps. and included a demonstration of the new R6 screen and the launch of Lighthouse's new used panel brokerage business.

Lighthouse's newly appointed chief technical officer (CTO) Grant Elliott, also hosted two clinics and a brainstorming session, during which feedback from the partners was welcomed with a view to incorporating the ideas in future Lighthouse technical updates and products.

A special presentation was also made by Marko Leppik of Beneway Oy, a Finnish company whose HUDLE s

UK - Automation specialists Kinesys have designed a customised control system for the large moving band platform used on Movin' Out, the Twyla Tharp dance production set to the music of Billy Joel. The show has just opened at London's Apollo Victoria Theatre.

Kinesys were asked onboard by Total Fabrications' Chris Cronin, who designed and built the 14m wide by 8m deep structure that moves several times during the performance and is in full view of the audience throughout.

The platform needed to move up and down as well as tracking upstage and downstage, so Kinesys supplied five of their Velocity drives and a laptop running their proprietary Vector software.

The four two tonne winches - one in each corner of the structure - were supplied by TFL and travel at up to a quarter metre a second, the platform is tracked by a single motor and line shaft system and is controlle

UK - Lighting technicians from across the industry are invited to attend a unique training and social event to be held on the 6th of May at the EDGE venue in Solihull, near Birmingham.

The hosts (Solihull Society of Arts) and organisers (UKSLC.ORG - UK Sound and Lighting Community) have assembled a top team of leading UK console manufacturers to deliver training on the latest lighting desks and entertainment technology throughout the day.

Compulite, MA, Chamsys, ETC, Zero 88 and Robe are providing a wide variety of lighting control equipment for attendees to use, and their staff will be on hand to answer questions from console operators at all levels of experience.

The training sessions are designed to cater for everyone from drama pupils wishing to learn about 'real world' performance technology, to freelancers who want to practice on new consoles, and seasoned LX operator

Australia - Following on from a recent series of installations overseas, most notably in Hong Kong, Coemar De Sisti Australia has completed another high profile architectural illumination project in conjunction with Australian company Laservision - this time in their hometown of Melbourne.

120 Collins Street, a landmark office tower, is one of the most significant buildings on the Melbourne Skyline. Comprising 50 levels of office space, with a total building height of approximately 264m, the building is topped with a 50m communications tower. Following a collaborative approach from Laservision, Coemar De Sisti Australia's MD Peter Kemp began initial consultations and planning for a project which involved illuminating the communications tower. Initial designs for the lighting incorporated discharge-lamped colour changers spread throughout the tower with the outer uprights highlig

Saudi Arabia - A sound system from Italian pro audio manufacturer Outline has been used for the opening ceremony of the 21st Janadriya Festival in Saudi Arabia. The Janadriya Festival is held with the patronage of Crown Prince Abdullah Bin Abdullaziz Al Saud, who became King of Saudi Arabia following the death of his brother, King Fahd. Since then, the festival's opening ceremony has been attended by the Saudi Arabian King. The festival's main contractor was Saudi Arabian company Rhythm Media Production, whose owner, Futtais Bughna, was in charge of the direction and production of the entire event.

The art director and writer was Moneer Al Quatani, while the scenography was by the International Theatre of Dubai. Other major suppliers included Tony Shembish's Avolites Middle East, supplying lighting consultancy, Avolites lighting desks and High End moving head fixtures; Sound & L

UK - Bandit Lites UK is supplying lighting - including all trussing and rigging - for Westlife's current arena tour. It's the sixth consecutive year that Bandit has worked with Westlife, and once again the production company is Production North.

Westlife's remarkable career is still breaking new markets as record sales of the latest 'Face To Face' album and the tour deliver the band's dynamic, slickly choreographed and highly entertaining show to both new and traditional audiences.

Lighting designer is Peter Barnes, who worked closely with lighting director, programmer and operator Dave Lee - the two have collaborated on the last three Westlife tours. Bandit's account handler is Mark Powell who says: "Working with Peter is always a pleasure, and Westlife go from strength to strength every year."

Creative directors for the 2006 show are Ian MacDonald and Will Baker

UK - The ABTT reports that Barnet Artsdepot in North London has been hosting a series of technical training courses recently. 12 technicians have attended the courses, as well as technicians from the Artsdepot itself. The courses form the Association of British Theatre Technicians (ABTT) Award for theatre technicians, with subjects including Electrical Fundamentals, Knots, Counterweight flying, and Manual Handling.

Two technicians attending the course were the recipients of the Nicholas Van Wijk Bursary. These bursaries are the kind gift of Heather, widow of Nicholas van Wijk who spent most of his working life in the West End Theatres. He was Master Carpenter at the Aldwych Theatre in London from 1994 until his death in October 2003. Nicholas always laid great store in passing on his stage technical knowledge to the next generation. The recipients of the bursaries were Christoph

USA - L-Acoustics took advantage of the recent NSCA Expo in Las Vegas to formally recognize a number of its independent manufacturers' representative firms for their service. The most significant of these awards - the coveted 2005 Rep Of The Year plaque - was presented to Warman Marketing by L-Acoustics vice president of sales and marketing Paul Freudenberg.

Spearheading sales and support for the loudspeaker manufacturer's Rocky Mountain region, Warman Marketing is centrally headquartered in Broomfield, CO, with offices in both Provo, UT, and Phoenix, AZ. Currently celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, the firm is under the direction of founder and principal Harry Warman.

"Harry and his team really put on the miles and did a fantastic job last year of representing L-Acoustics throughout gargantuan territory, all the way from Montana to New Mexico," says

France - Gérald de Palmas has been a chart-topping recording artist and stellar concert draw in his native France ever since his debut single, Sur la Route, rocketed to number one in 1993. Though not yet as well-known in North America, de Palmas' name nonetheless has come to public's attention through a 2003 duet with Sheryl Crow (The First Cut Is the Deepest) and his songwriting contributions to Celine Dion's Gallic repertoire.

In 2005, de Palmas proved his staying power with a tour that pulled capacity crowds in nearly every French city that could offer at least a mid-sized arena. The tour came to a triumphant close in late November, with the last 20 shows, mostly staged in venues with seating capacities of 6,000 to 8,000, being supported by a system built around 24 Meyer Sound Milo high-power curvilinear array loudspeakers.

The Meyer Sound package was i

Germany - Frankfurt's ProLight&Sound 2006 (29 March - 1 April) was a comprehensive success for EVI Audio, says the company, with a great many visitors to the booth, lively interest in the lectures in the Telex Academy, and a great atmosphere at the musical performances, whether at the booth ("Liquid Blue") or the Agora Stage ("The Real Groove Band" with their many special guests).

Sharing centre stage among the numerous new products on display were the four new amplifier series from Dynacord and Midas' first digital console, the XL8, which was making its world debut. The new flagship of the live console range, which had long been awaited with keen anticipation, caught the eye of all visitors and was the subject of a detailed presentation to representatives of the music trade.

Following the maxim "Never change a winning team", EVI Audio and the Mus

Europe - Tommy Hilfiger Europe (THE) selected Alcons systems for its European Hilfiger Sessions - a new jam-session concept where top and upcoming artists join for an "in the round" concert. Top audio quality has been recognized by THE as essential for the experience, which underlines the fashion company's strong connection with music.

THE's At van Barneveld said: "The idea of the Sessions arose from the wish to couple music to the brand Tommy Hilfiger. In the USA, combinations with music have been developed, literally from the beginning of the brand (as Tommy Hilfiger is a musician himself). This can be sponsoring of concerts, the close-cooperation with young artists or the development of own TH formats. The Sessions is one of those concepts."

The plan is to have a roll-out throughout Europe, with sessions in a number of European cities in a period of six

Belgium / Morocco - Belgian signal processing specialist Apex has signed a deal with one of the leading PA companies in Morocco. Encom has placed an order for 15 units of Apex's GX230 (2 x 30 band) graphic equalisers, and has also been appointed to represent the full line of Apex products in Morocco.

Based in Casablanca, Encom fulfils three different roles - as a PA company, as an installer and AV integrator, and as an importer of pro audio equipment. The company owns the first L'Acoustic V-Dosc system in Africa, and is also the L'Acoustics distributor in Morocco.

According to Encom's general manager Rachid Mediouni, Encom has long enjoyed "a good history with Apex. We already have a substantial inventory of the GX Series EQs, which enjoy the Apex reputation of stability and excellent sound quality. We never have any after-sales problems with this equipment, another reaso

UK - The people behind the Blue Room online discussion forums have announced the launch of a new service for the entertainment industry. The Blue Room Wiki, it is hoped, will provide the backstage community with an ever-growing knowledge-base of technical know-how. Building on the success of the Blue Room forums, the Wiki will enable forum members to contribute their knowledge in article form to an online encyclopaedia.

The Blue Room now boasts almost 4,000 members, with over 110,000 messages posted since its official launch in January 2003. With over 4.5 million hits each month, the Blue Room has proved very popular. "The introduction of a Wiki is something which we've been working on for a while. We saw that the Blue Room was becoming, in part, a repository for a vast assortment of technical knowledge and advice, and an online encyclopaedia seemed like the next logical st

UK - The expertise of scenic contractor Stage One was brought into play for a special Channel 4 show, T4 On The Pitch, televised over the first weekend in April. The company, who have been producing sets and scenery for over 20 years, built all the sets and backdrops for the football-related games and 14 famous footballers captained teams of children (all competition winners), competing in a bid to be crowned Mourinho's Ultimate +10 Team.

Steve Dolan, senior project manager, said: "This project provided a very interesting graphics challenge, as from the basic visual artwork we needed to produce graphics that met the constraints of television advertising standards and that weren't blatantly advertising the programme's sponsor."

Advertising agency Stream commissioned Stage One to build the sets, which covered the space of one entire indoor football pitch, at the

Israel - Idan Raichel catapulted onto the Israeli music scene two years ago with the hit album Idan Raichel's Project. The singer/songwriter's latest album Out of the Depths was followed by a successful tour that embarked last winter.

Lighting designer Amir Mickey Vilensky chose 12 MAC 700 Profiles to connect a simple set with Idan's unique musical style. "It was the best fixture to achieve the goal of intensifying the visuality of the show with the best colors and a wonderful movement," he stated.

Martin's local Israeli distributor, Lightone, provided the 700's to lighting and sound company Yeda Kol with a 'no problem' guarantee that turned out to be 100% accurate.

Co-designer and programmer for the show was Offer Brum who worked with Amir to create a distinctive and complementary set of colour and effects especially for The Idan Raichel Project

Portugal/Morrocco - Due to the continuous worldwide demand for V-Dosc, further service providers have decided to invest in the genre.

In Portugal, Puro Audio have invested in a complete 32 V- Dosc box turnkey system. Antonio Monteiro, technical director and partner of Puro Audio says: "The demand for V- Dosc in Portugal is really high, and we need to offer to our customers a state of the art system. On the other hand, to be part of the famous V- Dosc Network Partnership is a real added value for us."

In Morocco Rachid Mediouni the managing director of Encom (already a dV- Dosc provider) has purchased a V- Dosc system comprising of 18 elements to go with their existing stock of 24 dV- Dosc. This will allow them to address many prestigious festivals & events planned for this summer. This will be the first V- Dosc system permanently based on the African continent.

(Ch

Germany - From his early days as a young heartthrob to his more universal appeal in later years, Udo Jürgens has long been a legend among German music fans. With several generations of fans and decades of performing, Jürgens is still going strong. He's just released his 50th album, Jetzt oder nie (in English, Now or Never) and his current 38-city European tour has been so successful that a second tour of 40 more dates has been scheduled for autumn.

Emsdetten-based Westfalen Sound Schallwand is providing the tour with a full Meyer Sound system based around 24 Mica compact high-power curvilinear array loudspeakers. The main Mica array is augmented by 12 600-HP compact high-power subwoofers, as well as an assortment of additional Meyer Sound systems, including six UPA-1P compact wide coverage loudspeakers and four UPM-1P ultra-compact wide coverage loudspeakers for

UK - PLASA - the Professional Lighting and Sound Association - has announced a joint initiative with CMP Seatrade, the organisers of the Seatrade exhibitions, to host an afternoon presentation in London in early May introducing PLASA Members to business opportunities in the cruise sector.

Contracts won with cruise and ferry lines can be among the most lucrative in the world: there is currently $14.2 billion being invested in new-build activity and numbers in the cruise ship orderbook are at their highest since 2002. There is also renewed strength in the region's shipbuilding industry and the refurbishment and re-equipment sectors are also experiencing a growth surge.

The presentation, led by Seatrade MD Chris Hayman, will cover the opportunities that exist for PLASA Members in the cruise sector and the value of attending the Seatrade Med exhibition in Naples in October where f

Latest Issue. . .