Belgium - Nowadays it is tough for small hire companies to survive. This was one of the reasons why a few Belgium hire companies decided to consolidate their know how and stock, to continue as the ASL-Group. Jointly the ASL-Group now operates 100 SP-10 line-array systems.

The new ASL-Group comprises the Belgium hire companies ASL Audio, Jacobs Elektro - Coruna, The System and Klinkers Electro. Peter Ellegeest (MD of ASL): "We have worked with Sound Projects products ever since the beginning. Because of the growing customer demand for line-arrays and moreover, since in certain circumstances an array simply is the best or easiest solution, we were in search of an array. A system that should match our present SP3 concert-systems.

"The first test we did with SP-10 was an outdoor festival where we used 24 boxes. Already at the first notes during the sound check the distin

UK - Avenue Q has taken the West End by storm with its cheeky mix of clever puppetry, social satire, adult comedy and catchy songs. Sound designer Mark Menard, from New York-based Acme Sound Partners, oversaw the transfer of the show from Broadway and, as always, chose to use DPA miniature microphones on his production.

"At Acme we have used DPA since the company first appeared, and the DPA 4061 miniature omni-directional microphones appear on all of our shows, simply because they are the best on the market," says Menard.

All 10 Avenue Q cast members - who appear operating a variety of puppets or simply as actors - are fitted with DPA 4061s. The two main actors are double-mic'ed because aside from operating the Princeton and Kate lead puppets, they also operate other characters from time to time. "There's no time to change - they literally have a few seconds to

USA - Kish Rigging, main rigging contractor to the MTV Video Music Awards, used a CyberHoist / InMotion 3D motion control system to animate a spectacular set for the event in New York's Radio City Music Hall on August 31.

MTV's flagship show has been treated to many ground-breaking visual designs in the past and this year's set was no exception.

Director Hamish Hamilton and designers Mark Fisher and Anne Brahic along with lighting designer Allen Branton based the design on a flown array of 16 LED video screens of various sizes, each mounted in a classical ornate gilt picture frame and flown from CyberHoist CH1000 one tonne motors and CH500 half-ton motors. The screens, nine of which were constantly in motion throughout the show, were used to show a combination of Imag footage, specially created graphics, captions and visual effects.

Kish Rigging's project manager JR Cassidy

USA - Boston is known for its passionate sports fans, and being heard over the roar of the enthusiastic crowds at Boston College's Alumni Stadium is no mean feat. The 44,500- seat stadium recently completed a major renovation project that included a powerful new distributed audio system to get the announcements everywhere they need to be, while maintaining sufficient directionality to keep the sound from spilling out into thesurrounding neighbourhoods.

The sound system utilises a combination of Community WET and R-Series weather-resistant loudspeakers throughout the park, including 60 WET 2W8 2-way systems and 28 WET 920H 3-way cabinets, as well as more than 100 R.25 and R.5 horn-loaded two-way systems covering the general seating areas.

Taiwan - A Proel sound system was recently installed in Hulu Temple, built in 1947 and located in Taipei.

Buddhists and residents alike are happy to hear the beautiful music through the Proel sound system. "Now the music from the new sound system enhances the solemnity of the atmosphere and keeps our minds peaceful," says people in the neighbourhoods.

The sound system is mainly composed by TPRK8P speakers - installed in the courtyard - and MO5T speakers for the sanctuary of this temple. The first one is a model from the TPRKMARKII series, featuring a new and unique design, while the second speaker is a two-way 60W monitor, supplied with mounting bracket.

It is mainly used for speech - for ceremonies, background music - for events and holidays, and Buddhist music appreciation.

UK - The Event Show has announced that Michael Eavis, the Godfather of Glastonbury, will be speaking at the Access Sessions, hosting a question and answer seminar for event organisers at Olympia in London on 24 January 2007, day one of the two-day exhibition.

The Event Show is established as one of the leading exhibitions in the industry for anyone organising indoor or outdoor events. The Show attracts some of the most prestigious names in concert promotion, sound and lighting, festivals and live entertainment.

"This is a major coup and we expect a packed audience for his seminar," explains Michelle Tayton, manager of The Event Show. "The continuous evolvement of Glastonbury is one of the event industry's greatest success stories. The fact that we have been able to provide event organisers with access to one of the industry's most prestigious figureheads is test

Spain - Allen & Heath's digital processing system, iDR, was utilised on theSpanish version of the TV programme, Hell's Kitchen. Entitled Esta Cocina es un Infierno, the programme ran for ten weeks with a weekly live primetime show and daily catch-up shows.

Each week, two teams of celebrities led by renowned chefs Sergi Arola and Mario Sandoval, were tasked with preparing a menu for 25 people, whilst living together in a reality TV house for the duration of the programme. An iDR-8 16x16 matrix mixing processor and iDR-In and iDR-Out expander units were installed to manage the audio distribution to and from all the zones around the house set.

None of the competitors carried microphones, instead AT3031 Audio-Technica microphones were installed throughout the living space, monitoring the housemates 24 hours a day.

(Chris Henry)

UK - Theatre Projects Consultants has been awarded the status of an Investor in People. This award acknowledges that the company recognises the importance of its people and values their contribution to its business to deliver a high level of service to clients throughout the world.

The Investors in People Standard is a national quality standard which sets a level of good practice for improving an organisation's performance through its people. It provides a framework for improving organisational performance and competitiveness through a planned approach to setting and communicating business objectives and developing people to meet these objectives.

The Standard was developed in 1990 by a group of organisations representing both employees and employers, and was launched nationally in 1991. In October 1993 Investors in People UK (IIP UK) was established as the body that would tak

Italy - For the second consecutive year, the cult television programme Che tempo che Fa has chosen the multiprojection concept to create its architectural set.Director Duccio Forzano and director of photography Danilo Marabotto, have asked visual designer Paolo Buroni to create a 360° set with clouds as the theme. In order to do this, the entire perimeter surface of studio 3 in Milano has been covered with a gigantic screen.

Using 11 Stark projectors, Paolo Buroni has created a full-immersion setting of graphically processed clouds. The goal was to create a floating sensation throughout the studio. This effect was obtained by projecting overlapping images on the background walls as well as on the floor all around Fabio Fazio and his guests.

By programming the Stark projectors using the special scrolling function, the effect of slowly moving clouds was created, an ef

USA - Bandit Lites have announced their recent involvement in Farm Aid 2006. The event took place on September 30, 2006 at the Tweeter Center at the Waterfront-a 25,000 capacity outdoor amphitheater in Camden, New Jersey.

Farm Aid 2006 featured Farm Aid president and founder, Willie Nelson, board membersNeil Young, John Mellencamp and Dave Matthews, as well as Jerry Lee Lewis withRoy Head, Los Lonely Boys, Arlo Guthrie, Gov't Mule, Steve Earle, Allison Moorer, SteelPulse, Shelby Lynne, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Jimmy Sturr & his Orchestra, Pauline Reeseand Danielle Evin.

Willie Nelson, Neil Young and John Mellencamp organised the first Farm Aid concert in1985. They wanted to increase awareness about the loss of family farms and raisefunds to keep family farms in business. Dave Matthews joined the Farm Aid board ofdirectors in 2001. To date, Farm Aid has raised over $29 million t

UK - One of the first of DiGiCo's new D5T12 consoles - designed specifically for theatre productions where space is at a premium - is already at work, touring throughout the UK with the stage production of Me And My Girl.

The D5T12 was delivered to Cardiff-based Stage Sound Services in August and was immediately whisked off to the tour's first show at the Theatre Royal Plymouth, on 1 September. Indeed, so hot off the press is the new console that the show was actually programmed on the prototype console at DiGiCo's UK offices.

Designed in association with theatrical sound designer Bobby Aitken, the new console is a hybrid of the already successful D5T digital theatre mixing system. The D5T12 provides 12 output faders, rather than the standard eight, to provide more VCF control within the standard console surface and footprint.

Having purchased a DiGiCo D1 console from

UK - Over the past ten years XL Video has proved to be one of the fastest growing rental staging video production companies on the global map, establishing itself as a market leader in the concert touring market, as well as in the trade show, television, outdoor and indoor event sectors.

With a UK base in Hemel Hempstead, and sales office throughout Europe and the United States, the XL Video Group maintain a multi-million pound, state-of-the-art equipment inventory. Following impressive year-on-year growth the UK operation is shortly to relocate from its 9,000sq.ft premises to a massive 42,000sq.ft facility in order to accommodate its expanding hire fleet and marketing reach.

Sensing it had a shortage of dependable high-brightness projectors, took delivery of its first consignment of Christie DLP projection in the form of ten flagship S+20K SXGA+ Roadsters. Before the order wa

UK/Iran - Allen & Heath has appointed a new distributor, Shidco, to exclusivelymanage the sales, distribution and service of Allen & Heath product lines in Iran.

"Shidco ticks all the right boxes - existing distribution lines with respected brand names, impressive in-store representation, and proven sales and after-service records - offering a very attractive partnership agreement, and excellent prospects for Allen & Heath in this territory," says Allen & Heath's sales director, Bob Goleniowski.

With over 30 years' experience, Shidco is recognised as a leading importer and distributor of pro audio, visual and lighting systems in Iran. Moreover, the company owns some stores in Tehran and other cities of Iran, manned by highly qualified staff who are dedicated to providing prompt sales and immediate after sales services as well as training programmes to customers.

Sh

USA - Gear-Source, Inc. announces it will launch a completely new version (GS3) of their site www.GearSource.com at LDI 2006 in Las Vegas.

"With GS3, we've grown up a whole lot, and you'll see it shows," says Marcel Fairbairn, president of Gear-Source, Inc. "Not only are we expanding our offerings, and giving the user even more options to search, post listings, purchase, etc - we're making the entire process easier."

GS3 has streamlined the online selling process, and brought the important information to the forefront."It's always been our goal to offer a host of selling methods, options, etc. Until now, we haven't had the tools. The new page designs, and backend software will allow us to start adding features to the listing process enabling the seller who needs his money fast to take advantage of additional tools available."

GearSource.com empl

USA - FOH Engineer Dave Rat and his company, Rat Sound Systems, has worked on The Red Hot Chili Peppers' tours for nearly two decades now.

For the Peppers' most recent album, Stadium Arcadium, Rat Sound chose to augment its L-Acoustics amplifier arsenal with the addition of two dozen more LA48s to drive the tour's V-Dosc and dV-Dosc rig.

"After the June 2004 European stadium tour with the Peppers, where we used nine local vendors for shows in a dozen countries, I was able to get a good idea of the similarities and differences between the three amp types used in Europe," says Rat. "Though the differences in audio were relatively subtle, our decision to use the LA48 amplifiers was ultimately based on the fact that they greatly reduced our overall touring weight without any sonic sacrifice whatsoever."

For the current Stadium Arcadium outing, t

USA - Bandit Lites has teamed up again with lighting designer, Seth Jackson to light Toby Keith's most recent Hookin' Up and Hangin' Out tour. Toby Keith will play sixty-plus shows to cities throughout America from August through November.

In his fourth tour with Toby Keith, Jackson says that he and Keith are very in sync when itcomes to lighting needs and expectations. "Toby Keith is a rock show. It is big, bright, and anything but subtle, "explains Jackson. "We try to interact with the set design yet still give ourselves a lot of layers and positions so we can create as much depth as possible, while still accommodating the necessities of a rock show: heavy backlight, lots of floor angles, audience lighting, and a lot of pyrotechnics."

Jackson and lighting director, Eddie Connell, are using the VL3000 spot as thebase of the system. In addition, Jack

UK - PRG Europe has been working on several corporate events recently, including a press launch for Persil Be My Coach, which aimed to encourage parents to get involved in sports with their children, and an event for Virgin Cosmetics in September.

At the end of August, the Z Room at the old Truman Brewery was designed to look like a garden while assembled journalists and camera crews took photographs of England cricket captain Michael Vaughan with groups of children. Then a larger event on the same afternoon, including performances by Mr Woo - widely acknowledged as the world's greatest football entertainer - and the Gandini Jugglin' Project launched the Be My Coach programme for children and families. Produced by event management company So Just Add Water, PRG Europe supplied leaf gobos to add to the back garden effect. Craig Bennett, project manager for PRG Europe, explains: &

UK - Clear-Com, a Vitec Group brand and global leader of intercom solutions has introduced a new choice of service contracts and extended warranties for customers.

While Clear-Com products are recognised throughout the live performance and broadcast industry for their construction and reliability, with the increasing complexity of systems, Clear-Com has decided to enhance their after sales service with a choice of service contracts and extended warranties. These new services ensure complete customer confidence through a dedicated global support team, says the company.

The Clear-Com Service Contract can now run for three or five years and is available as an optional service, to all customers. Key features include: technical customer on site training; a maintenance visit; an annual site visit and system service check; global 24 x 7 technical, multi-lingual customer support desk;

UK - From Broadway hit to West End spectacular. The new musical Wicked that tells the untold story of the witches from L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz has opened at the Apollo Victoria Theatre. Magical scenery and special effects create the world of Oz and are controlled by Stage Technologies' automation system.

Stage Technologies has supplied 27 moving axes to automate this new stage show created from Gregory Maguire's book of the same name. Scenery is flown using counterweight assist winches and also slides from the wings on floor tracks, while automated lighting ladders are lifted up to let them pass. A performer lift enables dramatic entrances and exits and a large bridge is flown down just in front of the proscenium. This heavy scenic bridge is controlled by two BigTow390 winches which were built in situ in the venue's organ loft due to their size.<

South Africa - d&b audiotechnik have appointed Stage Audio Works as a new distributor based in Port Elizabeth, South Africa.

"We started in business seventeen years ago", said Stage Audio Works founder Will Deysel. "Back then there was no one providing a repair service for loudspeaker systems, spares from overseas were just not available, so I started the country's first domestic re-cone and repair company, making everything ourselves."

Deysel, a sound engineer, soon found a ready demand for his business, "It grew and grew, I now have good, well established partners in the three main cities of Johannesburg, Durban and Cape town; the downside is I no longer get much chance to engineer, but I still do bits and pieces to keep my ear in." Keeping his ear in is what led Deysel to d&b audiotechnik, "I'd noticed more and more technical riders coming

Portugal - Built in 1923, Teatro Rivoli is the most important theatre in Oporto, Portugal's second biggest city. The building, which is property of the local government, still has the charm of the last century, but the equipment is ultra-modern. For lighting, the theatre is equipped with 250 dimmer channels that are controlled by a full-size grandMA.

Lighting designer João Guedes explains: "I have known grandMA from the beginning. The evolution it's had over the last few years makes it the best console on the market today! It convinced me, not only because of its many possibilities for every kind of lighting, but also because you get free and regular software updates. MA Lighting's doing a great job and we have a console that we can use for any kind of show."

The grandMA full-size offers real-time control for up to 64 DMX universes (Expansion Mode), extensive networ

USA - Tomcat, 4 Wall and TPUS are holding an industry party on Friday, October 20, 2006. The party begins at 7pm at 4 Wall Entertainment Las Vegas - where there will be food, drinks, swag and a DJ.

The Swinging Johnsons will take the stage from 10pm - midnight. Band members include: Bruce Jordahl of Total Production US, Tommy Hall of Vari Lite, Robert Mokry of Light Parts and Scott Church of Selecon.

Visit booth #271 at LDI for more details.

(Chris Henry)

UK - Northern Light was responsible for the complete production lighting and sound and communications at London's legendary Young Vic - which is due to reopen on 11 October following a major renovation managed by architects Haworth Tompkins.

After winning the tender to provide their expertise in ensuring that the technical aspects of the production lighting and sound were installed to the highest standards possible, Northern Light went on site in January 2006.

In addition to the efforts of Northern Light's drawing office, project management and technical staff, the company's manufacturing division had a tough challenge to face on this project. Due to the performance space and very nature of the Young Vic's artistic direction, Northern Light was called upon to custom make various aspects of the technical requirements.

Simon Cooper, head of projects at Northern Light, said: &q

Australia - On Friday 17 November, Allen & Heath, 3D World Publishing, andSydney's Home Nightclub will present Australia's longest running, biggest and best dance music awards, the Australia Dance Music Awards (DMA's).

"The DMA's are all about celebrating and acknowledging Australia's achievement in the dance music industry. The artists who perform will be reflecting the industry and where it is at today," commented Hayley Conn, producer of this year's Dance Music Awards. "3D World Publishing is really excited to be once again presenting this year's event."

The event will be hosted at Sydney's superclub, Home, and the club's 2500 capacity gives the DMA's the opportunity to open the event to the public for the first time. Home will open its doors at 7:30pm for the 2006 awards ceremony, where fans and industry VIP's will witnessperformances from the co

Latest Issue. . .