Business

Details

14 March 2016

Built on the slightly extended footprint of its predecessor, the initial scheme for the new Wexford Opera House was developed by architects and building service engineers from the Office of Public Works (OPW), acoustic consultant Arup Acoustics and theatre consultant Carr & Angier. In 2005, the design team was completed through competitive tendering, with the appointment of Arup Consulting Engineers, Nolan Ryan QS and Keith Williams Architects.

Colin Cuthbert, Northern Light's managing director, said: "I was delighted that Northern Light was selected for the technical installation in this €33m (£25.6m) new build venue. Professionally, the project demonstrates the team's expertise and abilities extremely

Details

14 March 2016

Now a long-standing and well-respected classical music venue, St John's, Smith Square plays host to a varied programme of classical music throughout its concert season, ranging from choirs and symphony orchestras to solo instrumental recitals.

However, the existing fixed lighting grid and its rig of 25-year old CCT Starlet 1.2K fresnels - installed as state of the art in the early 80s - has long been due an upgrade to accommodate the increasing demands put upon them by the expanding remit of performances.

It was August 2002 when Roger Hennigan, technical sales manager of Robert Juliat's exclusive UK dealer, White Light, first met with Lighting Designer Mark Henderson to discuss the redesigning of

Details

14 March 2016

Acoustically, this project posed some major challenges. Designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano, the building took 20 years to construct, and by completion the function of the different rooms had changed. Originally intended to provide stunning acoustics for large orchestras, the Sala Santa Cecilia has been drafted into service as a multifunction concert/convention venue due to Rome's lack of suitably-sized halls.

However its acoustic design, with orchestral use in mind, leaves Sala Santa Cecilia with a 2.5/2.8 reverb - perfect for symphonic music but impossible in a multipurpose room. It was this dilemma that Taglia undertook when contacted by Sonus Audio Services of Rome, a s

Details

14 March 2016

Entec was working for JLP Events headed by Guy Kersey who handled all the technical production for end client, ESA Live.

The show was divided into two sections. The first saw the presentation of a series of Toni & Guy Achievers Awards, and the second part was a highly theatrical catwalk show, designed to illustrate the trends in creative hair design. Special guest appearances by LA based band Iglu & Hartly and hip-hop dance troupe Frank2louise also upped the excitement of the evening.

Entec pulled-in fashion lighting design impresario Simon Tutchener as lighting director. The rig had to light a double tiered set at the stage end, flanked by two sweeping staircases, with a revolve entrance in

Details

14 March 2016

Comeback News - Led Zeppelin are planning to tour and record but without frontman Robert Plant. Bassist John Paul Jones told BBC Radio Devon that a new singer was being sought after Plant ruled himself out. The last time the band performed together was at the O2 arena in London in December 2007. Speculation has since been rife that the surviving members of the band, with Jason Bonham, son of

Details

14 March 2016

PRG CEO Jere Harris said: "We are very excited about the acquisition of Essential Lighting which underscores our commitment to a specialist brand strategy in the UK. The EL business has been driven by an engaged and committed leadership team that will strengthen the management of our UK businesses"

Essential's managing director, Martin Locket commented: "We are looking forward to becoming a member of PRG's group of companies. The resources available to us from a global organisation will help us provide a wider range of products and services within our offer to our customers."

Essential Lighting will be keeping their name, logo and identity, continuing as an independent brand, focussed on the mark

Details

14 March 2016

"The old theatre had no fly loft," said Kathy Burleson, department chair and technical director at American River, a two-year community college with 30,000 students. "We're a teaching institution, and for most of our students, this is their first experience with lighting or rigging. We wanted a system that would enable our training process so the students could learn lighting, and experience both manual and automated rigging in a very safe manner."

The new 360-seat proscenium theatre has a 20 x 40ft proscenium and a rigging system with 42 line sets, Burleson said. "We have music events and lectures as well as full productions, so we have lots of fast changeovers. Our

Details

14 March 2016

CTI's OEM partners have committed to using SHoW DMX technology inside their products and many examples of their work were seen around the show floor at LDI, including wireless dimmers, wireless distributed dimming, wireless DMX transmitters and receivers, wireless lighting controllers, and wireless remote circuit breaker panels.

The newly announced partners include: Applied Technology (USA), Easily LED (UK) , Electronics Diversified Inc. (EDI) (USA), Johnson Systems (Canada), Lex Products (USA) , LynTec (USA), LSC (Australia) and Zero 88 (UK).

(Jim Evans)

Details

14 March 2016

Crossway required a particularly powerful and versatile FOH mixing console, which is what the UMX.96 delivered. Graeme Stevenson and the rest of the team at Production Audio Services (Mitcham, Victoria) handled the sale and worked very closely with Crossway personnel in the choice and design of the system.

"The UMX.96 is very intuitive and easy to operate, which is important for us, as most of our operators are volunteers," stated Peter MacLean, Crossway Baptist Church media pastor. "Adding to that, it has comprehensive features and lots of outp

Details

14 March 2016

The Russian K.M.E. sales partner MixArt Distribution organised the exclusive festival and used as main PA the K.M.E. line array system PANO consisting of eight line array subs QLB 118, plus four line source units QL 906 and two QL 1215 as down-fill per side. The monitoring was made by CLP 320. The CA 7 served as side-fill.

(Jim Evans)

Details

14 March 2016

And ensuring Peggy Sue gets married every night without a hitch are 16 channels of Trantec S5.5 wireless. The system was recently purchased by one of London theatre hire company, Thames Audio, who have had over 17 years experience of providing a custom sound system for this show.

Sound designer and director of Thames Audio, Peter Cox says: "I am very happy Buddy has had another thriving year on tour. The combination of a good crew and first class equipment has proven itself, we get very positive comments about th

Details

14 March 2016

Systems integrators are encouraged to nominate themselves or their industry peers who have demonstrated outstanding success in the past year in various categories.

Submissions are due 31 December 2008. The NSCA Business and Leadership Conference Committee will announce the winners on 15 January 2009.

"Creativity, vision, flexibility, economic security - these are key to the success of today's integrators," said Chuck Wilson, NSCA executive director. "NSCA is pleased to promote and recognise integrators who excel in their day-to-day activities."

Four com

Details

14 March 2016

The rig features over 100 moving lights from Coemar, Martin, Clay Paky, Syncrolite and Vari*Lite, a 49-way Kinesys automation system and some specially fabricated custom trussing commissioned by Bandit. Baz Halpin and lighting director, Trent O'Connor used Bandit's MSD pre-programming suite for one week prior to rehearsals. There were two weeks of production rehearsals at Elstree Studios prior to the first show.

Seven variable length raked 'finger' trusses run upstage/downstage forming an architectural 'roof' over the main performance area. All of the truss moves on Kinesys motors and the centre three have hinge-down sections at the front. Bandit purchased the Lo Pro trussing & custom hinges from Total Solutions with some modifica

Details

14 March 2016

This device produces large flame effects without on stage propane bottles. It produces safe, effective and impressive bright tongues of flame and fireballs up to 4m and is practically smokeless, says the company. Unlike the majority of fire-effect devices the Safex-Flamejett works with an aerosol containing the propellant / fuel mixture.

The 380g aerosol contains enough propellant to produce large numbers of flames and fireballs, ensuring that only a small amount of flammable substance is on stage. For professional use the device is equipped with DMX 512 connections. To operate, three channels are necessary: an arming channel, a firing channel and a flame duration channel. It is equipped with pre-selectable effect programmes and can produce rhythmic tongues of flames

Details

14 March 2016

For the two-hour show's many musical numbers all five members of the comedy team - Julian Barratt (Howard Moon), Noel Fielding (Vince Noir), Michael Fielding (Naboo The Enigma), Dave Brown (Bollo) and Rich Fulcher (Bob Fossil) - are fitted with Sennheiser ew 300 IEM G2 monitors, as are the two-man backing band.

"There are two full-time musicians in the band on drums and bass," explains FOH engineer Ashley Jones, part of the team from sound and lighting specialists Sonalyst. "And at the climax of the show Noel sings, Julian plays gu

Details

14 March 2016

Based in Guatemala and serving the Central American region, CVS Hightech, develops video and audio projects using state-of-the-art technology to create new opportunities in underserved markets.

CVS Hightech has significant experience in the Central American market and covers the surrounding states of El Salvador, Panama, Belize, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, as well as Guatemala itself.

Juan Ramón Echeverría, of CVS Hightech comments: "The Aethra products were selected over other brands for distribution in Central America because of the built-in-streaming capabilities that allow remote areas to participate in distance learning projects, broad compatibility with any other endpoints devices and th

Details

14 March 2016

The amplifier features a 48-bit 96kHz AD/DA converter and a DSP that features system filtering, up to 2 seconds of delay, EQ and limiting functions. Configuring, monitoring and controlling can be done locally or by use of the full Ethernet communications capability. The performance can be monitored and settings changed via a Windows-based computer over a local area network or from the internet, enabling installed amplifiers to be monitored from remote location. The user interface shows the DSP functionality just like an analogue unit with one-to-one portraits of every control.

To complement the DSP amplifier a 2U high 19&

Details

14 March 2016

It will deliver funding for training, with the minimum level of bureaucracy or delay. This will be for subjects such as business improvement techniques or leadership and management, which are proven to provide skills to increase the productivity of individuals and firms. John Denham said:"Small businesses are an important engine of our economy and we must make sure that we support them during tough economic times.

"We are overhauling the training system to make sure that they can

Details

14 March 2016

"I've been familiar with MA products for a long time and have always relied on them for any show. The reliability and operation are second to none. You simply have to love your 'Granny'," says Stirnimann. For this reason he built up a system consisting of a grandMA full-size, a laptop with the grandMA onPC software as backup and two MA 2Port Nodes for local DMX-distribution.

"It was my intention to have an open stage. Therefore I chose triangular trusses which were

Details

14 March 2016

The new company directors are Lisa Tapper, Mike Naish (formerly Stagecraft Ltd production manager), Kevin Hughes (former projects manager) and Simon Sketchley, who has joined the company from AJS Theatre Lighting and Stage Supplies, where he was general manager.

Tapper reports that eight key members of staff have been retained as part of the new operation, while a further eight have lost their jobs.

Tapper was also confirmed that all forward orders on Stagecraft Ltd's books will be honoured by the ne

Details

14 March 2016

Protec is the largest supplier of sound, lighting, audio-visual, hydraulic and motor control equipment in the region, with an investment of over 50 Million Dirhams in the latest equipment. The company has used Camco for many years now, and Edward Ross, Protec's head of audio, continues to be a fan. "These are fantastic amps, very smooth and the quality of the audio is second to none. The Vortex 6 is really reliable, handling the challenging conditions of the UAE climate, which has extreme temperatures and high humidity."

The new Vortex 6 amplifiers were acquired from loca

Details

14 March 2016

Visitors to the show found a variety of sound, entertainment and lighting technology spread over two halls as well as exclusive live concerts hosted by Sennheiser microphones and Pioneer.

Prolight+Sound Shanghai attracted 14,152 visitors, an increase of nearly 4% compared to last year. Of these 13,008 were domestic visitors, a rise of 6% and 1,144 were international visitors. The exhibition saw 308 exhibitors from 10 countries and regions showcasing their products in 23,000sq.m, the organisers say.

(Jim Evans)

Details

14 March 2016

ARX Managing Director Colin Park commented: "EAS's Hubert Overesch and I have been discussing the possibilities of working together in Germany for some time, the EAS sales team felt our range of signal processing products was a very complementary fit with the other lines they currently represent, especially our newer USB and analogue interface and dynamics products.

"Germany has always been important for ARX, along with the UK, it's one of Europe's trend setting markets. We're looking forward to working with Hubert Overesch and his energetic team at EAS to consolidate ARX's position in the German market and to reinforce to their customers the state of the art performance that ARX products can offer them."

Along side ARX, EAS also represent

Details

14 March 2016

Fusion's concept was not for yet another giant video screen suitable for watching football, motor racing or music videos. According to designer Damien Mair: "The vision for the Lantern was to create an experience that would capture the imagination of the city and add beauty to people's lives."

Wrapping more than a thousand square metres of display around a car park building that relies entirely on natural ventilation to clear away the exhaust fumes from its occupants, calls for an unusual screen format. Mair's solution was to construct the display from 754 individual anodized