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Doughty - Banner - from 6 June 2025

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UK - PSL was on hand to greet the triumphant Jetman Yves Rossy, as he zoomed into the record books last week, flying across the English Channel strapped to a single jet-powered wing, with only a helmet and flight suit for protection.

His 22-mile France-to-England journey took 13 minutes, and ended when he opened his parachute system and floated down to a ploughed field not far from the White Cliffs of Dover.

PSL's production team had turned that field, which belongs to the National Trust, into a veritable media village for Rossy's sponsors, the National Geographic Channel. Handling all the site issues, including the management of the landing site, PSL's Neil Smith and Stuart McLaren had to contend with the extremes of British weather - just like the Jetman. "On our first day of build, we got absolutely soaked; later in the week, conditions were still not right and Yves ha

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UK - Sennheiser's two new condenser microphones, the MKH 8020 and MKH 8040, were given their maiden outings this summer in the company of respected front of house engineer Dave Wooster.

The first mission for the new mics was a sequence of shows with reggae and hip hop-influenced singer-songwriter Jamie T and his band.

"The first two shows with Jamie T were small warm-up gigs in August at very small venues in London and Southend," says Wooster. "Both venues proved to be great tests for the rejection characteristics of the 8040s which I used on the hi-hats and the snare drum. I also used a pair of 8020s to capture the cymbals, close miking the underside of the two crash cymbals.

"The next two shows were at the V-Festivals, playing in large marquees. At both shows the mics really proved what they could do going through a very substantial PA system, producing

Doughty - Banner - from 6 June 2025

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UK - Midas reports strong demand demand for its new PRO6 Live Audio System, the company's second networked digital audio system, which employs technologies developed from the XL8 in a compact package.

Among the first clients to place orders for the PRO6 are Irish rental companies MG Audio and Murt Whelan Sound and Lighting, who have each purchased a PRO6 system from local distributor Sound Communications. The companies are located on the east and southwest of the country respectively, and work closely together on a number of festivals and larger events. Both companies feel their PRO6 purchases will further enhance this arrangement.

Whelan's console inventory is exclusively Midas, offering Veronas, Siennas and Venices for rental. "I've been a Midas user for eight years and have been looking at upgrading to a higher spec console for some time, so it seemed a seamless transi

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Europe - Queen, fronted by Paul Rodgers, have called on Power Logistics to ensure the electrical supply on their current world tour is entirely reliable and smoothly delivered. The tour opened recently at a large charity concert in Kharkov, Ukraine and will have passed through Riga, Berlin, Antwerp, Paris, Rome and Zurich before arriving in the UK on 10 October.

Power Logistics' managing director Pete Wills remains with the band as tour electrician for the duration of the 2008 tour.

"We are delighted to be able to help Queen on their current European Tour," says Wills. "We have a long standing relationship with Queen's production team built on our reputation for making doubly certain the show must go on."

(Jim Evans)

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USA - A Tale of Two Cities, Dickens' epic story of Revolution-era Paris and London, has been brought to life in musical form for the Broadway stage by Jill Santoriello; a Midas XL8 mixing console from New York-based theatre sound design specialists Sound Associates is making its Broadway debut with the show.

Having completed its debut run in Florida at the end of 2007, and having had a stellar preview run on Broadway in August this year, A Tale of Two Cities ...the musical moved to its new home at the Al Hirschfield Theatre, where it opened on 18 September with Warren Carlyle directing. Sound Associates' Carl Casella and Domonic Sack are sound designers for the show; Wallace Flores (Sound Associates) is associate sound designer. Ty Lackey is mixing the production.

Sound Associates' Wallace Flores has been part of the XL8's development since the beginning, working

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UK - Modern in-store radio is instant, flexible, convenient and, according to PEL Music and Media, it works: it helps increase high street sales. PEL Music and Media, owner of the 'Mediainstore' radio system, has been conducting trials with some of the major high street department stores and the results are extremely positive.

What's different about the modern breed of in-store radio is its exceptional flexibility and immediacy. 'Mediainstore', for example, uses the latest foolproof audio scheduling technology, enabling it to transmit radio programmes to every location that is set up to receive the service.

Content can be stored digitally, allowing for regular updates by ADSL, Broadband or CD, making the system far less vulnerable from equipment failure than other broadcast methods, and also making it extremely fast in the case of ADSL and Broadband.

Because of this incredib

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Australia - Showtech Australia was commissioned to deliver six performers on the roof of the MCG, and the AFL Premiership cup, the most prized item in the AFL, for the opening ceremony of the AFL Grand Final 2008.

Showtech was contracted by event organizer Peter Jones Special Events to deliver the two special rigging items for the production. The Engineering and OHS considerations of delivering these two effects were several months in the planning and had to meet the strict guidelines of the Victorian OHS regulations, the guidelines of the stadium management, and the challenges of not impacting on the playing surface. The match begins 20 minutes after the ceremony was completed.

The first effect was six singers appearing high on the scoreboard roof. 50m above the field. The performers, camera operators, audio, and pyrotechnics crews all had to be closely coordinated so as not

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USA - Melissa Etheridge makes no secret about her concern for the environment. For her 2008 Revival Tour, Etheridge's lighting director David Hamilton switched to a new LED fixture that saves energy, yet is so bright that a handful of units can light up an entire concert stage. The new fixture also creates less waste, since its lamps last for 100,000 hours, generating less throwaway for landfills.

That 'green' fixture is the Impression from Elation Professional, a compact LED moving head with RGB colour mixing. Powered by 90 high-power Luxeon K2 red, green and blue LEDs, the Impression produces a light output that's at least as bright as a 575W discharge fixture with no less than a 50% power savings, says the company.

Etheridge's tour manager Steve Girmont first saw the Impression at a trade show and brought it to the attention of Hamilton. "We were wanting to go L

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UK - When the University of Dundee embarked on building a major new teaching facility, it was a key requirement to include induction loop systems. Now, 31 teaching rooms, staff rooms and lecture theatres in the new facility have Ampetronic loops installed.

Consultants White Young Green looked at all the available induction loop options and were impressed by the quality of Ampetronic's approach and products, leading to Arbroath-based Streamtec installing Ampetronic systems in the new teaching block's four main lecture theatres, driven by two Ampetronic ILD1000 loop amplifiers each.

"The lecture theatres provided some challenges," says Streamtec's Ian McMillan. "The biggest (280 seats) is located directly above two smaller 180 seat theatres, so containing spill was very important. We worked very closely with Ampetronic to ensure that the design worked flawlessly.

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UK - White Light has supplied and installed a complete new lighting system St John's, Smith Square. Located in the heart of Westminster, the hall regularly plays host to leading international performers. However, the venue's existing lighting system was a quarter of a century old and in poor condition.

To replace the system, White Light worked with lighting designer Mark Henderson to devise a system that provided the venue's concerts with the lighting they needed while also being versatile, easy to maintain and easy to control.

The new installation is based around a series of small lighting grids installed on winches to allow easy access to the equipment at ground level; the winches were installed for White Light by Unusual Rigging. The grids are fitted with 50 1kW fresnels from Robert Juliat, which provide bright, even lighting for the venue's concerts. "We chose the Jul

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UK - Following their recent agreement to become master stocking distributor for Litestructures, Impact Products invited staff from the Wakefield-based trussing and staging manufacturer to its headquarters to further strengthen the inter-company relationship with a tour of their extensive facilities and an afternoon on the local go-karting track.

Impact's business manager Keith Williams was joined by Lee Brooks, Litestructures' sales director, in presenting the staff with the mechanics of the new deal, which sees Impact distributing Litestructures' product from stock held in its warehouse.

"This is a fantastic opportunity for both parties" commented Brooks. "Impact is a young and energetic company which has already established itself as a leading trade supplier of professional sound and lighting equipment. The addition of our product to its range effectively offe

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Australia - Eight new Robe ColorWash 750AT Tungsten fixtures have been added to The Gold Coast Arts Centre's moving light system. Technical manager Chris Dbais, states: "We needed some new fixtures, and the Robe Tungsten's were the best choice for excellent reliability and great features."

Robe's Australian distributor, the ULA Group, provided the Arts Centre with some demo Tungstens, which were utilised on the Whitlams Orchestral Tour.

The Tungstens are being rolled out in the coming weeks for the Centre's annual in-house production of the hit Broadway musical, The Boy from Oz. Lighting director Scott Allan has included the fixtures in his rig, and Dbais comments that he is "excited" to see what the LD comes up with.

The Gold Coast Arts Centre is a multipurpose facility incorporating the Arts Theatre, art gallery, comedy clubhouse, boardroo

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UK - Style By Solares managing director, Wren Solares contracted TAO Group to design and produce L'Oreal Redken's Tribe '08 Hairdressing Awards, held at Battersea Evolution during London's Fashion Week this September.

Presented by TV's Alex Zane of Popworld, Tribe '08 is L'Oreal's annual awards for the UK's top hairdressers and was attended by over 1,200 hairdressers from around the country.

This year the aim was to achieve a more rock 'n' roll feel. TAO's Andy Cotton designed a production that included two 4mx 3m rear projection screens with Barco SLMR12 projectors, interspersed with 240 panels of stealth screen, supplied and operated by High Resolutions' Peter Canning.

The stage was installed as a three-stage system with a 12m x 10m main stage and a 9m central catwalk protruding into the audience arena. A connecting DJ stage was set at 18 inches higher and occupied

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France - Digigram has announced the launch of its online directory of 'Network Audio Gurus' at www.ethersound.com/guru. The directory is designed to offer website visitors instant access to the right kind of expertise for their projects. The directory is free to register and open to all consultants, system designers and contractors with network audio experience who wish to promote their services via the pages of EtherSound. Interested parties can create their own profile and describe their field of expertise.

According to Digigram's marketing communications manager, Remi Oudinot, this is an opportunity for all network audio experts to increase their visibility within the market place. "We get over 6,000 visitors per month to ethersound.com," he explained. "Many of those will be looking at the site to see how they can incorporate EtherSound technology into their pr

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France - Barco reports that the world's leading car brands have again selected Barco LED solutions to deliver maximum brand impact to their booths at this year's Mondial de Automobile in Paris. Barco LED displays are used on over 70% of the booths at the show.

Held at Paris Expo Porte de Versailles, the Mondial de Automobile is a showcase for over 500 international brands and a celebration of the European automotive industry. This year, the show will be celebrating its 110th anniversary and pays host to over 90 world premières. It runs from 4 to 19 October 2008.

The use of black LED is a major trademark of this year's show with many auto manufacturers choosing Barco's new true black LED displays, the NX-4 and NX-6, as an integral part of their booth design.

"Alongside the trend to black, creative use of LED at auto shows also continues a dominant trend," says Andr

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Spain - The Music and Fashion Sea Adventure is the brainchild of The Wellenreiter, an ambitious team of music and business experts, who, in conjunction with AIDA cruises, have put together the ultimate clubbers dream: eleven decks of paradise for the sun-seeking clubber on board the luxury liner AIDAcara out of Palma, Majorca.

In addition to the pools, bars, restaurants, wellness centres and driving range that form part of the AIDAcara cruising experience, the Music and Fashion Sea Adventure saw an additional five tons of sound and lighting equipment installed over three stages by Live Audio of Braunshweig, Germany. LiveAudio specified Crest Audio-driven Martin Audio systems throughout.

Crest Audio Pro 8200 and Pro 9200 powered Martin Audio mini line arrays transformed the pool deck into a powerful main dancefloor for 800 clubbers, where heavyweight DJs such as M.A.N.D.Y., Moo

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Australia - Gold-Coast-based Con-Sol has recently boosted its audio rental inventory with the purchase of a L-Acoustics' Kiva line source array system from Australian and New Zealand distributor Random Audio.

Con-Sol managing director, Bill Karaitiana said the company had been seeking a system with flexibility and versatility to suit the corporate market.

"We chose to go with the Kiva and Kilo LF extension system because of its incredibly high 'power to weight ratio' without compromising audio quality. We were also sold on the new LA4 amplifier with inbuilt amp and processing power - which takes away the opportunity for curious 'little fingers'.

"Our new Kiva system debuted at the Cairns Convention Centre with an event for one of our national clients. It was a great success and our client was over the moon with the clarity and quality of sound."

(Jim Evans)

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China - Lighting designer Durham Marenghi specified individual i-Pix BB4 LED cells to up-light the performers onboard the special double decker London bus in the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics 'Handover' sections of the 2008 Beijing Olympics & Paralympics Closing Ceremonies.

The two Handover events took place three weeks apart in the Birds Nest stadium, and were integral elements of both Games' Closing Ceremonies.

Marenghi chose BB4 cells - high power homogenized 20 degree RGB lightsources - because they were "efficient, bright and low power". There were 24 individual units bordering each of the two scissor lift platforms either end of the bus, and 20 on the central hydraulic ram lift.

The bus was designed by Stufish, and the BB4s - along with other lighting elements - were integrated into it by Stage One, who customised the whole vehicle for the shows.

(Ji

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South Africa - DWR Distribution has been appointed as the official Vari*Lite distributor for South Africa.

Vari*Lite had been scouting South Africa for some time, and Bob Schacherl, VP of sales visited earlier in the year with the objective of identifying a suitable partner company. Whilst there, he consulted with many industry professionals and "the company most frequently mentioned was DWR," he reports.

He was also familiar with Duncan Riley's history in the industry, and the passion and enthusiasm that drives the company and has carved out its reputation for delivering world class customer service and support - a goal shared by Vari*Lite.

Riley and Schacherl met recently at PLASA 2008 in London and came to a verbal agreement which has now been formalised. Schacherl says he is "very excited" to be entering the South African market.

Riley comments: &qu

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Spain - For the first time in three years DJ Tiësto returned to the Spanish island of Ibiza to host his own weekly residency at Privilege, the world's largest nightclub. Playing accompaniment to the four-hour DJ sets in the form of a dynamic backdrop was a high impact 120sq.mMartin LC Series LED wall.

The event ran every Monday night from early July until the closing party on 22 September and featured new production and effects gear including a customized DJ booth and the state-of-the-art LED backdrop.

"The use of lasers was not an option this year so we took a look into the LED screens on the market," says Bart Roelen, production manager for Tiësto. "We couldn't do lots of rigging in the club so lights had to be hung on a steel layer construction placed upstage. Video is a very important element of Tiësto's show so we needed a system that could be placed on

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UK - XTA processors have played a major part in this year's record-breaking summer festival season.

Audile and SSE Audio are two of the most prominent audio companies that used XTA equipment on many of the main festivals. Between them, they serviced stages at events including Reading and Leeds, both V2008 venues, the Isle of Wight Festival, Glastonbury, Download, Cropredy, Bestival, Camp Bestival, Creamfields, Global Gathering, Latitude, Oxegen, Gatecrasher Summer Sound System, Escape In The Park and Beach Break Live, along with brand new events like Summer In The Park and The Hop Farm Festival.

Audile's festival rigs comprise Funktion One self-powered Resolution 5s with F-221 subs (the latter featuring Funktion One/XTA A6 amp modules) and passive Resolution-5s/4s with F-218 subs, driven by MC2 amplifiers. Control for the systems is by XTA DP448s and GQ600s, with C2 compressor

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UK - PEL Music & Media has installed a comprehensive professional sound system into the new Boffi kitchens and bathroom Showroom in Chelsea, London.

Opened in March 2008, the Boffi Chelsea showroom is the first Boffi owned showroom in the UK and has been designed by architect Piero Lissoni. It occupies 6,500 sq.ft and displays models of kitchens and bathrooms in an absolute minimalist style.

To aid the ambience in the new store, Boffi wanted a professional sound system and went to manufacturer Bose for a suitable solution. PEL Music & Media is a Bose Pro-Partner and was recommended by Bose for the system design and installation.

PEL based the design of the sound system around a Bose Professional System, featuring a multi zoned Bose FreeSpace 3 system driven by Cloud amplification, including an iPod docking station.

Showroom manager Steven Salt comments, "The system wo

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Festival News - Half the tickets for 2009's Glastonbury festival have been sold already, eight months before the Somerset festival is due to take place. Tickets went on sale on Sunday morning and by early evening more than half the 137,500 places were snapped up. Spokesman John Shearlaw said he was "chuffed" so many tickets had gone for the event at Worthy Farm, Pilton. The early ticket sale comes after last year's event failed to sell out on the first day. Despite that, Shearlaw said he had not expected the tickets to sell out so far in advance. "That would have been extraordinary, without a line-up and eight months before the event," he said. "You can look at it from both sides because if they had all sold out, there would have been eight months of turning people away.

Church News - Guitarist Carlos Santana has said he wants to become a church minister when h

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UK - Sustainable events came a step closer to reality with the announcement of the UK's single largest self-funded programme on implementing the new British Standard, BS 8901 Sustainable Event Management.

The programme, which commenced earlier this year, involves every part of the industry sector, from event clients to organisers, and venues to suppliers and features large corporate companies through to small and medium-sized enterprises.

This programme is managed by the Sustainable Events Group (SEG) and is due to run through until the planned review of the new standard early in 2009. Experiences from the programme will feed directly into the BS 8901 revision process undertaken by the British Standards Institution.

"The programme gives the UK event industry a real chance to lead the world in the application of sustainability principles to their activities and events,&q

  1. Coemar De Sisti fits out Swinburne University
  2. Sunbaba freewheels around London
  3. DPA microphones on Stockhausen treble
  4. D.A.S. seminars in Singapore
  5. SPS collaboration for Selfridges launch
  6. Lab.gruppen saddles up in Qatar
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