Australia - Martin Professional's Australian representative Show Technology were among the companies servicing the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne recently. The largest number of Martin MAC 2000 fixtures ever used on a single event graced the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) for the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the Games. Distributed through Show Technology, some 806 MAC 2000 series fixtures (868 MAC fixtures in total - also a single event record) were supplied for the quadrennial spectacular by local partners Bytecraft and Chameleon, with additional fixtures brought in from Procon of Germany.

"We are very excited to be associated with such a high profile event and to work with such talented people," said Emmanuel Ziino, MD of Show Technology. "Show Technology's vision statement is 'Lighting Solutions with Imagination' and it was a thrill to have had the o

UK - Jack Morton Worldwide has always operated a vigorous Control of Contractors scheme to ensure that all of its chosen suppliers can demonstrate compliance with all current health and safety legislation. This year, however, Chris Richards, Jack Morton Worldwide UK technical director, decided that it was not sufficient to simply audit its suppliers' H&S documentation - but that a program of consultative Supplier Forums was needed to fully engage its suppliers in all of Jack Morton's H&S systems and procedures.

The first Supplier H&S Forum took place in March of this year and was extremely well received by the Jack Morton Event Production Team and its rigging services suppliers. Representatives from Vertigo Rigging, Summit Steel and Blackout were all invited to the forum to discuss in detail proposals to ensure compliance with the Work at Height Regulations and their impact on t

UK / Belgium - Apex has assigned UK distribution of its range of signal processing products to KV2 Audio Europe Ltd. The appointment comes after the KV2 team's visit to Belgium, and rigorous tests of the Apex lines of digital and analogue signal processing products. "Our aim is to ensure that each part of the signal chain is of the highest integrity," explains Jonathan Reece, MD of KV2 Audio Europe. "We want to deliver the best-quality solution, from system design onwards, and Apex can provide the high-quality processing that we'd like to offer, either in its own right or in conjunction with other products that we manufacture and distribute."

The announcemetn comes shortly after the addition of two new products to Apex's entry-level dB-range of analogue signal processors: the dBC-8 and the dBG-8. The dBC-8 is an 8-channel compressor/limiter in a 19" 1U p

UK - Lighting designer Pete Hosier (aka "Luton Pete") specified and used an Avolites Diamond 4 console to control lighting for the 2006 BBC 3 Planet World Music Awards, staged at London's Brixton Academy.

The D4 is always his desk of choice he explains. He has used Avolites' most powerful console extensively since a D4 was installed at Shepherds' Bush Empire 16 months ago, where he's one of the house programmer/designers. "It was ideal for a show like the Planets, with very limited programming and rehearsal time, multiple artists and a lot of lighting to control 'on the fly'."

This was the fifth Planet Awards (originally called the BBC 3 Awards World Music Poll Winners Concert) a show that's quickly become established as a premier event for world music.

This year's show gathered musicians from all corners of the planet and incl

UK - Over the past 23 years, front-of-house sound engineer Kevin Pruce has worked with the biggest names in the business. His live engineering credentials are like a who's who from last three decades of pop, and includes Duran Duran, Adam Ant, The Human League, Tears For Fears, The Style Council, Sinead O'Connor, Björk, Lemon Jelly, Starsailor, Yoko Ono, Meat Loaf and Madonna.

Kevin says: "When it comes to FOH, spec the right equipment for the job, not what is flavour of the month." Pruce himself has an arsenal of Focusrite gear at his disposal. "I have used the ISA 110 [mic pre and EQ], the ISA 430 [Producer Pack], the Red 3 [dual compressor/limiter] and Liquid Channel. I use them all for vocal processing and they are all superb, just so well designed and functional."

But he particularly picks out the ISA428 [multichannel mic pre front end] for praise for

USA - Cirque du Soleil has announced that review performances begin at The Mirage in Las Vegas on 2 June for The Beatles LOVE, the company's latest production, which celebrates the musical legacy of The Beatles. The Gala Premiere will be held Friday, 30 June, 2006. This joint artistic venture, born out of a personal friendship and mutual admiration between the late George Harrison and Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberté, marks the first time that The Beatles company, Apple Corps Ltd, has agreed to a major theatrical partnership.

Sir George Martin, The Beatles original producer, and his son Giles Martin have been working with the entire archive of Beatles recordings to create the musical component for LOVE. The result is an unprecedented approach to the music for a stage production. "After spending more than 40 years of my life working with The Beatle

UK - Light & Sound Creations has completed the installation of sound, lighting, plasma and LCD displays and security surveillance system at the Glass Spider, Sunderland's stylish new super-pub.

Located in Green terrace, the heart of Sunderland's 'nightlife quarter', the Glass Spider boasts the largest terrace in the North-East and is operated by Wylam Developments, who also own Ttonic and Vision in Sunderland. Opening night at the Glass Spider featured live music, Vegas-style showgirls, an ice sculpture on the terrace and VIPs arriving by stretched Hummer.

Community loudspeakers have been used throughout the venue, chosen by Light & Sound Creations. The main dance-floor uses four CPL42-94, ceiling-mounted in landscape format, with two TD215S compact dual 15" subs. Bar areas and infill around the dance-floor use Community CPL27s and a CPL23 provides foldback for the DJ boo

UK - Production company West End Studios has upgraded its main lighting control console to a Jands Vista T2, as part of an ongoing investment in new equipment for its production facility, which provides a total event design service for clients in the broadcast, video, conferences and events sectors.

When the studio decided to replace their console due to the increasingly sophisticated lighting demands of productions, technical production manager Andy Cheshire contacted Jands Vista distributor A.C. Lighting to arrange a demo. He and the studios' in-house lighting technicians were so impressed by the Vista's flexibility, usability and speed that after the demo they saw no point in looking at any other consoles.

Cheshire commented: "I was looking for something which could handle a lot more fixtures, was smarter and faster and had ethernet outputs. The Vista was the obvious c

UK - 5 Star Cases has designed and manufactured a special custom flightcase for leading DJ equipment manufacturer Pioneer Europe NV. The case houses a combination of its CDJ-200 CD decks and the new DJM-400 mixer units.

The main brief was to incorporate a cable shield or 'mini loom box' for ensuring that the cables can be kept neat and tidy along the rear of the case when in use and when packed away. Loom boxes are a standard feature on 5 Star's large audio mixing console cases, and so it was logical to incorporate this element of the design into the final layout. "Pioneer wanted a practical and good looking system case to compliment the small footprints of both the CDJ and DJM units," explains John Barsby, 5 Star's product development manager. "The loom box needed to be large enough to take the cables and compact enough to keep the case dimensions within the agre

UK - Next week sees the return of the annual A.C. Lighting North Tradeshow at the Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds. The company says its entertainment technology showcase will include exclusive first UK showings of over 75 new lighting, staging, audio and visual prototypes/final production models, and representation by over 65 leading brands.

In addition to the exhibition, a busy programme of guest speakers will lighting designers Durham Marenghi and Peter Barnes, Roger Barrett of Star Events Group, structural engineer Peter Hind and general manager of the PSA, Andy Lenthall, who will be taking time out of their busy schedules to provide informal seminars on topics including Live 8, the 2006 Torino Olympic Games, new Noise at Work regulations and designing truss structures.

A.C. Lighting says that places for the seminars are limited so to avoid disappointment pre-register today

Norway - BSS Audio's Norwegian distributor LydRommet has devised a highly cost-effective solution at the 400-capacity Aal Culture House, which allows a single set of amplifiers to drive two sets of JBL Professional loudspeakers, one for cinema and the other for general PA/conference purposes. According to the company's Espen Andersen, they have been able to implement this thanks to BSS Audio Soundweb London and now plan to establish this as a template for future implementations.

The company is using Soundweb London, which offers dual-redundant CobraNet audio networking, as the base in almost every installation they do, he explains. "In many cases it has been our ability to provide a total HiQnet solution that has enabled us to win the contract; in fact we have been able to show that it is actually possible to save money by implementing HiQnet in smaller applications."<

Philippines - With minimal plotting and rehearsal time, lighting designer Jonjon Villareal relied on the LSC maXim control console to save the day for Ballet Philippines recently. Forerunner Technologies, the LSC Lighting distributor in the Philippines, recently supplied the Cultural Center of the Philippines with an LSC maXim XLP control console for a performance by the Ballet Philippines. The production bought to life Ryan Cayabyab's bestseller Great Filipino Love Songs at the CCP Main Theatre in a show entitled Da Capo #1: Playing Maestro Ryan Atbp..

"The lighting crew at the CCP found the LSC maXim to be intuitive and fast to learn," said Mario A.S. Benipayo, president and CEO of Forerunner Technologies. "Most did not even have to read the manual thoroughly. Most notable was the ability of the maXim to feel right at home in a theatre application.

UK - Sound equipment from BSS Audio and Martin Audio is being used extensively in the first Minibar, Ministry of Sound's newly-piloted bar concept. The first is at Harrogate's Grade 1-listed original bath house (which also incorporates a Revolution Bar and JD Wetherspoon). Inside, there's a jacuzzi, hanging chairs, a massive chandelier, three VIP areas, touch-screen computers replacing waiters; plus a high-quality sound system and visual effects, which require complex processing and routing.

All system processing, switching and routing is handled by proprietary Soundweb components from BSS Audio, a company with which system specifier, Dave Bradshaw has enjoyed a long relationship. The 700-capacity venue is divided into eight zones, spread across two floors. This includes the pure white 'Kandi Bar' downstairs, replete with giant leather beds. Bradshaw has set up a DSP network bas

South Africa - The newest premier nightclub to hit Johannesburg - The Manhattan Club - opened to the public at a spectacular launch party on 1 April in Rivonia, an upmarket suburb of the city. Club Manhattan owners, Jonathan Akal and Guy van der Post, have spared no expense on quality finishes and products and a spectacular concept for the new club, including a powerful EAW sound system.

Both the audio and lighting have been supplied and installed by EAW's South African distributor, Johannesburg-based audio specialists, Surgesound. The audio rig comprises four EAW Avalon DC4 full-range loudspeaker systems comprising two 12" LF speakers, one 8" MF speaker, a single 1" exit compression driver each, along with four EAW Avalon DCS2 subs featuring EAW's advanced horn-loaded technology, which maximizes horn length in a relatively small enclosure. The DCS2 subs offer dua

Hong Kong - St Moritz in Switzerland was the setting for a recent fashion show by Alexander & Peter Slupinski, where the great and the good of the fashion world assembled to see the Slupinski's latest creations on the catwalk. And this year, for the first time, they took advantage of Lighthouse screen technology to provide a fantastically versatile and eye catching show.

Swiss production hire specialist Winkler Veranstaltungstechnik provided three Lighthouse 4x6 panel R6 LED screens - two at the front of the catwalk entrance which the models walked between, with one further back to provide a seamless backdrop as the models paraded.The screen footage was all graphics-based, put together by video designer Roni Huber and graphic designer Roger Wydler, and designed to perfectly complement the garments.

"Mr. Slupinski knew what he wanted and how the overall impression should l

USA - dbx Professional Products, a division of Harman International, has announced a recent installation at the new Aquatic Center in Ventura, California, which employs the dbx ZonePRO 640 digital zone processor as the audio central controller.

During the Center's design phase, it was decided that great sound was a crucial ingredient, both for enhanced enjoyment of the park and to assure clear, intelligible announcements for security and emergency purposes: the ZonePRO 640 is now providing highly discrete zoned audio throughout the new centre in a compact, easy-to-program and cost-effective system, say dbx.

The $22 million Ventura Aquatic Center is a state-of-the-art facility that offers users of all ages and skill levels the best in water sports. The Center features a 1.5-mile walking trail perimeter, large grassy malls, two 25ft water slides, a Children's area with two wadin

USA - A Lectrosonics wireless user for many years, production sound mixer David Daniel had never really stopped to consider where exactly the company was based - until an on-set mishap during the first 10 days of filming The Flock - a movie starring Richard Gere and Claire Danes - left him short of transmitters while shooting on location in Albuquerque.

"Rio Rancho could have been anywhere," says Daniel. "It didn't occur to me until I was into the shoot and Claire goes to the restroom and drops her transmitter into the toilet that the Lectrosonics plant was around here somewhere. Thankfully, it turned out to be a suburb of Albuquerque. I called and, before I left the set that day, Karl Winkler from Lectrosonics was on the set with two replacement transmitters including one of the new SM 'Super Mini' units."

The SM super-miniature transmitter was ' we

Belgium - Ampco Belgium has announced the first sale in Belgium of the brand new Midas XL8 digital mixing console, to DEE Sound & Light of Boom, Belgium. The purchase of the flagship console, launched at ProLight&Sound in Frankfurt, also marks the birth of DEE Light & Sounds' new DEE Digital Rentals division, which at the same time has announced the purchase of a Digidesign Venue digital mixing environment.

DEE Sound & Light founder, owner and managing director André Schneider has grown the company to become a major player in the Belgian audio and lighting rental industry, and has already invested a substantial sum in the latest Midas technology. Clients range from festivals and international promoters including Clear Channel Entertainment to Europe's leading theatre companies, with productions touring almost constantly through Europe and the rest of the world.

Karel de

Belgium - Specialist Belgian audio-visual company DB Videoproductions has recently given its services a major upgrade by the creation of a brand new, state of the art OB truck, built around a DiGiCo D5 console. Based near Antwerp, the truck is the company's fourth OB facility, but the first to feature full digital audio recording and mixing facilities.

DB Videoproductions specialises in entertainment and sports outside broadcasting, where the sound is just as important as the images. "We felt it was time to upgrade our services to include multitrack recording and the ability to deliver material direct to CD or DVD immediately after an event," says the company's Ivan Mangelschots.

The new UNIT4 truck couples the DiGiCo D5 to a Sadie 64 hard disk recorder and Pro Tools HD3 system, which provides a 64-track recording system of ultra-high audio quality. "The D5 is t

Sweden / China - Wireless DMX debuted in China last autumn during the Sanya Carnival, thanks to Guangzhou Television, one of the largest TV stations in the country, who ordered four wireless DMX universes for the event. The carnival, which led up to the 55th Miss World Pageant Finals took place in Sanya, a beautiful sunshine-filled city on South China's Hainan Island. The Miss World Final has taken place there for the last three years.

The order was placed during the CALM show in Beijing through Wireless Solution's local distributor, Guangzhou Leifull Light & Sound. Leifull has offices in Guanzhou, Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong, and offers clients technical support and training for both project and installation. They were selected over tough competition to supply the equipment for the event.

Leifull used 18 units of W-DMX R-512 receivers on the East bank of the Sanya River a

Germany / Denmark - Leading amplifier manufacturer Camco GmbH reports that it has "taken the bold step of transferring its distribution business in Denmark to an all-new start-up company". Effective from April, the recently incorporated Pascal A/S will be responsible for the distribution and support of all Camco products in the country.

There are some familiar industry faces behind Pascal, notably Thomas Kyhn and Peter Frentz, formerly of DPA Microphones, who join Jesper Hansen and Lars Fenger, who hail from other parts of the electronics industry.

With impressive in-house technical expertise, the Pascal team, based in Copenhagen, will form a new partnership with Camco's own R&D engineers in Wenden, Germany, to look at forward product development as well as distribution opportunities.

(Lee Baldock)

UK - Lighting designer James Anderson, who has worked with Jethro Tull for three years as production manager and promoter, has been doing the lights for about 18 months. The band's Brazil concert was the first time he used moving lights and that's why Martin is on his specification list, as he explains: "Not only were they the first intelligent light I programmed, but you can get them virtually anywhere you are in the world, and they are really reliable."

For the UK tour, Entec Sound & Light supplied all the gear. Anderson likes the MAC 700 profiles and is using them for the first time on this tour, six on the rear truss and four on the front. He also has four MAC 600s on the front truss. He particularly likes the animation wheels on the 700 Profiles and makes much use of them for creating swirly, floaty backdrop projections. Anderson explains: "The animation whee

Spain - Mecalux is one of the world's leading companies in the warehousing system market. Its activity consists of designing, manufacturing, trading and providing services related to metal shelving, automated warehouses and other storage solutions. The company, whose distribution network spans Spain, France, Portugal, Italy, Germany, Argentina, Mexico, USA, Poland, Austria and the UK, recently opened a new HQ - the Mecalux Building, located in the Almeda Industrial Park in the city of Cornella de Llobregat, outside Barcelona. The four storey building and parking area have been outfitted with a D.A.S. paging system.

The paging system consists of 390 CL-6T ceiling loudspeakers equipped with a multi-tap line transformer. The D.A.S. speakers are easy to install thanks to their self-locking turrets and provide excellent sound reproduction capabilities. The speakers are powered by D.A

UK - Robe moving lights and Anolis LED fixtures have been specified and installed into Fusion, a new 750 capacity nightclub in Wellington - a suburb of Telford, Shropshire. The independently owned venue has been a club in the past but was disused for some time before its acquisition by ER Leisure. It was then completely refitted, with a new interior design by Graham Chance of Breley Design, and a lighting, sound and AV design by Andy Chamley of AC Audio Rentals.

The owner wanted four circular and two S-shaped trusses installed in the roof as visual rigging points for the lights and to give the roof a shape and form, but other than that, Chamley was given complete carte blanche to create an interesting and eye-catching design. It also had to be diverse enough to meet the club's broad-based music policy, and make the reasonably intimate space come alive from all levels and angles.

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