UK - Over 50 I-Pix BB4s and BB7s were used to great effect for lighting the ITV's new prime time games show, The Colour of Money, presented by Chris Tarrant.

The lighting was designed by Tom Kinane and Svend Pedersen, who made the bold creative move of not including a single moving light or any smoke in the rig. They wanted to introduce a completely new style of illumination for the show, utilising a substantial quantity of digital light sources to match Patrick Doherty's heavily LED based set.

Recorded in Studio 1 of the London Weekend Television HQ, space also restricted which lighting instruments could go where, and budget was also a consideration.

Around the top level of the multi-layered set were 22 BB4s, rigged just above three G-LEC LED screens, defining the top line of the set. They were used to add punch and brightness for accenting stings, and for snaps-to-s

Mexico - Sound production company Serpro Producciones (Monterrey, Mexico) recently provided Electro-Voice sound reinforcement for the first Zero-Fest music festival, which attracted a crowd of nearly 30,000 to Parque Fundidora in Monterrey.

The show local acts Zoe, Kinky, and Jaguares, along with international artists Thievery Corporation, The Mars Volta, and Junkie XL. Renowned Latin American bands Calle 13 (Puerto Rico) and Fabulosos Cadillacs (Argentina) also appeared, with Fabulosos Cadillacs headlining the event.

Zero-Fest required two stages to accommodate its long line-up of performers. The festival's Red Stage featured an EV X-Line system with two main hangs of 10 Xvls and two Xvlt per side, with low-end support via 12 ground-stacked Xsubs. The system was powered by P3000 amps and processed through a NetMax N8000 with FIR filters.

The Black Stage also featured

Germany - Dortmund's Domicil Jazz Club opted to replace its existing sound system with Adamson SpekTrix Series. The fairly new Domicil was recently voted one of the top 100 Jazz clubs in the world by Downbeat Magazine.

The entire club's footprint is about 1500sq.m and includes a café, a clubroom for smaller concerts for up to 100 people, and the main concert hall with 300 seats and standing room for 500. Hamburg based Adamson European Tour Support Jochen Sommer executed the sound design using Shooter v.2.7.0. The new P.A. in the main venue consists of L and R flown arrays of two Spektrix (5 degree) with a two-box Adamson SpekTrix W (15 degree) under-hang.

Two SpekTrix double 18" Subs per side are placed on the floor. The previous system was made up entirely of GAE Panorama speakers and some still remain as near fills and as a delay line for a balcony, as wel

UK - Promoted by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra (SCO), the closing event of the Edinburgh Festival sees a performance from the gardens beneath Princes Street, culminating in a spectacular fireworks display. The concert is broadcast through to several parts of the city, not least the length of Princes Street itself, where thousands of revellers congregate. In terms of audio it has always been an ambitious finale, and as the event has grown in stature, this was SCO's 26th year, so the expectations placed upon the PA system provider have grown with them.

"We've always seen the need for a PA system to deliver to the crowds up on Princes Street," said Cameron Crosby of Edinburgh-based Warehouse Sound Services Ltd, the company contracted to fulfil all audio requirements for the night.

"From the gardens the orchestra faces uphill and across the street, rather than down

UK - No.1 Leicester Square is recognised as one of the most famous clubbing sites in London. The place where Home launched, (prior to the Penthouse moving into the sixth, seventh and eight floors), it has now reopened as the 750-capacity Vertigo, under the new ownership of Alan Dugard's Interguide London.

With Sound Too trading further down the building, the new management team quickly realised that the inherited hybrid sound system was something of a mismatch.

One of the club's experienced DJ's, Southend-based Andy Smith, told marketing and promotions manager Arron Curtis that the seaside town was awash with high-octane KV2 systems, installed by local integrators, Essex Sound & Light - and soon ESL's MD, Mike Glover, was up in Leicester Square measuring up.

The first stage of a phased upgrade has seen him install a KV2 ES system in the main sixth floor clubbing area and the

UK - Storm Lighting used a City Theatrical SHoW DMX wireless system to help them achieve their design for the annual switching on ceremony of London's Trafalgar Square Christmas Tree lights.

They recognised the advantage of having a wireless DMX link from the control position, situated on the terrace level of Trafalgar Square, to a dimmer location situated under the tree itself.

Martin Chisnall of City Theatrical London commented: "This is a classic use of wireless DMX. To bridge a physical barrier which otherwise would have taken a long and time consuming cable run through a public area. SHoW DMX was able to offer a fast, secure and reliable wireless link to replace this cable run. SHoW DMX's patented frequency hopping technology ensured the system worked flawlessly, even though several other WiFi networks were also present in the square."

Dave Knapp of Storm Ligh

UK - United Visual Artists' Constellation is a light-based sculptural intervention which has been designed especially for the London's Covent Garden Market Halls.

For this project, Tarmled supplied a total of 578 2m long, double-sided, LED-strips, and 37 DPDUs (Data Power Distribution Units), to power the installation.

Tarmled's engineers developed double-sided, video-compatible LED-strips based on its Tarmled Strip 25-modules that were premiered at PLASA 2008. The LED strips were incorporated into polycarbonate tubes coated with a semitransparent reflective film, in accordance with UVA's design.

Together with customised Tarmled DPDUs, the tubes are allowed to hang elegantly in the space, as the DPDU's allow for cable runs of maximum 20m from the fixture using a single Cat 5e cable carrying data and power to each fixture. The 25mm pixel spacing of the strips and UVA'

UK - WindowGain, the UK based outdoor media contractor and technology company, which recently launched its Hi Max (High Definition - Maximum Impact) network of strategically located large format digital projection screens in flagship UK shopping malls, has commenced its roll-out of iconic London sites network at the easyInternetcafé on London's Oxford Street.

Supported by AV distributor and custom engineering company, Paradigm AV, they evolved a solution in which two large format HD rear projection screens have been installed - measuring up to 40ft on the ground floor and up to 80ft on the first floor - with full audio capability.

The dual screen site (situated in the heart of Oxford Street, close to Bond Street tube station) has been created in association with Eyeconic Outdoor (the outdoor division of London based Media 7, who specialise in media sales at prominent ci

UK - XL Video UK worked with artist Martin Firrell on a special installation art work to celebrate the 300th anniversary of the 'topping out' of London's iconic St. Paul's Cathedral.

The Question Mark Inside was commissioned by the Dean and Chapter of St Paul's, and involved projecting video texts onto three separate locations at the Cathedral. Outside, this was onto the south elevation of the dome and the West Front at Ludgate Hill, and inside, around the famous Whispering Gallery.

Firrell's text included blog postings from the public plus comments from interviews he conducted with some of the UK's foremost thinkers and his own observations. All were based on the question: "What are the things that make life meaningful and what does St Paul's mean in contemporary contexts to us in 2008?"

XL has worked with Firrell on previous projection projects at the Roya

UK - Curve, the new performing arts centre for Leicester chose White Light to supply the complete lighting rig for the new building, which opened last month.

The new building, designed by Rafael Viñoly Architects and intended to replace the Leicester Haymarket and form the centrepiece of the city's new Cultural Quarter, will provide a versatile series of performance spaces: a principal 750 seat theatre and smaller 350-seat studio theatre with back to back stage, but with the ability to remove the divide between the two stages to create one traverse performance space, or even open the stages up to the spectacular glass foyers and to the world outside if required by a particular production.

Such a building needs a versatile stock of lighting equipment to expand upon the range of equipment which will be moved to the new venue from the Haymarket. Curve's 'wish list' was arrived a

UK - From the production and distribution of live pictures and real time data to operating the largest fleet of satellite uplink fleets in Europe, Satellite information Services (SIS) is constantly reviewing its facilities based on the changing requirements of its customers.

The company recently commissioned two new dual antenna HD trucks, equipping each with 20-channel Soundcraft BB100 production/on-air mixing consoles.

Designed to offer complete diversity and unparalleled transmission resilience, each vehicle contains two fully-isolated/fully redundant SD/HD transmission chains, and comprehensive audio/video test and monitoring.

Dave George, project manager for SIS Live, says, "We looked into the marketplace and found the BB100 to be a high specification desk at a competitive price. It offered an excellent featureset, such as the mix minus facility, and we use the sub

UK - Brilliant Stages once again takes to the high seas designing, building and installing sections of set for the Bill Dudley designed show Once Upon A Dream aboard the Princess Cruises' Ruby Princess.

Once Upon A Dream is one of a number of shows which play in repertoire during the liner's cruise schedule. Brilliant Stages' components for the set comprise of huge moving walls which frame the stage to the side and rear. The side walls each measure 6m wide x 4.1m high, and the back wall a staggering 9m wide x 4.1m high - and all are designed to move at speeds up to 0.5m per second.

The moving walls are used to transform the set into an ever-changing series of different shapes and sizes. The side walls are attached to the proscenium by hinges on which they can pivot, whilst the back wall can be tracked up and down stage to meet with the sides. Side wall ang

Germany - One of Bremen's most popular late night lounges has been equipped from the ground up with Monacor International's IMG Stage Line sound reinforcement systems.

Situated right in the heart of the city, The Loft plays host to a wide international audience and regularly welcomes players from local Bundesliga football club, Werder Bremen.

The venue is owned by Canadian Steve McMinn, who had earlier developed the 450-capacity Paddy's Pit - an Irish Bar situated underneath.

"But Paddy's became so busy that we needed a new place upstairs, with a different concept," says general manager Phil Seling. Thus the Loft was born, specialising in a friendly atmosphere, relaxed lounge music and waitress service.

Opening from 4pm-2am daily, the owners realised that such a long duty cycle would require sound reinforcement components that were not only reliable, but also ver

Korea - The Main Hall of a Korean high school has been equipped with an ILA Installation Line Array system from QSC Audio, who have also supplied all the amplification and network processing.

The rectangular, multipurpose hall at the Daesung High School in Seoul needed a versatile system that could cater for the diverse range of school activities - ranging from its use as a gymnasium/basketball court, to hosting entrance and graduation ceremonies.

The old system had deteriorated badly and Sama ProSound, QSC Audio's Korean distributors, were brought in to respecify the system.

Sama ProSound felt not only that the ILA's compact footprint and attractive external design complemented the interior design of the main hall, but that its vertical array attributes would allow an optimum dispersion pattern from the tightly spaced speaker arrangement. Furthermore, by excluding some of t

Austria - High quality in speech and music, especially optimal speech intelligibility at all seats of the theatre and an inartificial support of dialogues were some of the main demands for the new public-address system in the theatre of St. Pölten in lower Austria.

The theatre includes a large hall for 360 visitors and a smaller studio stage with 120 seats. As music and sound effects are now part of a contemporary play, a flexible, multifunctional sound system is essential. Besides drama, the theatre also presents live concerts and the theatre's premises can be rented; the sound system had to be highly adequate for all these applications.

The new sound system with Alcons loudspeakers fulfils all these requirement profiles. Additionally it was possible to fit the components into the tight budget, which was available for the new sound system. This now includes a DiGiCo D1 mixin

Ireland - The inaugural evenTech Ireland (18-19 November, 2008) has prompted a satisfied response from exhibitors and visitors alike, according to the organisers.

The show included networking events and education in the form of seminars, spread across two-days, enabling key regional decision-makers a chance to see, feel and hear the latest technologies and solutions for the first time in Ireland.

Buoyed by the success of the third regional networking exhibition in the evenTech series, show organiser, Darren Brechin, comments: "Our initial ideas for the format of the show have now been realised through the positive response from our exhibitors and the calibre of the visitors. We reached both our exhibitor and visitor targets and this is a direct reflection of the need for a dedicated show for Ireland."

(Jim Evans)

Norway - The small Norwegian town of Ski provides an idyllic setting for the so-called Skifestivalen, an annual open air music festival held in fall in the town centre. The festival features acts from a wide variety of genres - from rock to hillbilly, from blues to folk.

This year, the technical side of the production was the responsibility of rental company MultiTechnic, ably supported by technicians and engineers from the local theatre, the Rådhusteateret, the centrepiece of whose sound reinforcement concept was an extensive Cobra system from Dynacord.

Hans Erikstad of the Rådhusteateret comments: "The Cobra delivered a transparent, clear and warm sound - but with the requisite capacity to project. It made it possible for us to provide homogeneous coverage throughout the entire square. What also pleased us no end was the unproblematic handling of the system.&qu

UK - When St David's Catholic Church in Mold, Flintshire decided that its entire sound system required an upgrade, the church turned to Apple Sound, the same company that had installed the original system - no less than 30 years previously.

Using Bose Modeler software, Apple's designers created an acoustical model of the church, and were able to predict the performance of the proposed design. As an added comfort to the church, those involved also had the opportunity to 'listen' to the system before it was permanently installed, using the Bose Auditioner playback system.

The agreed solution comprises two stacked pairs of Bose Panaray MA12 line arrays for the nave, plus one pair of MA12s to cover the balcony seating. Bose FreeSpace 3 creates in-fill where it is needed, and Bose Model 32SE loudspeakers complete the system in the foyer.

With amplification from Cloud CXA4 and CXA

UK - Sennheiser Scholarship student Alyssa Bonagura has just released her first commercially available CD, which can now be downloaded directly via iTunes.

Bonagura, a third year student studying BA (Hons) in Sound Technology at the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts (LIPA), was helped on her musical journey by her Sennheiser Scholarship, which began at LIPA over ten years ago and has since supported many students' entries into the highly competitive world of the music industry.

"We're delighted to hear how well Alyssa is progressing at LIPA and in the industry," said Sennheiser UK general manager Phil Massey. "It's important for us that the next generation of performers and audio professionals learn their trade using Sennheiser equipment. That's why we've been committed to the Scholarship programme for over ten years. Artists like Alyssa prove that our inve

Israel - Wireless Solution Sweden AB helped Israel celebrate independence day in style. Israel@60 was a worldwide celebration to commemorate the country's 60th year of independence. While special ceremonies celebrated the event from as far as Washington DC, the biggest festivities were in the Israeli cities of Haifa and Tel Aviv.

The project name for the Israel events was Lighting the Sky and combined multimedia sound and lighting with a laser show and pyro effects, culminating in a spectacular fireworks display. Altogether there were eight different mega shows at various sites, with the two main shows in Tel Aviv and Haifa.

Lighting designer for the events was Bambi (AKA Avio Benyaho) with lighting equipment supplied by Procon Event Engineering and Israel based Gil Teichman.

Because of the massive distances from console to lighting, W-DMX by Wireless Solution

Eurovision Update - Sir Terry Wogan is stepping down as commentator on the Eurovision Song Contest after three decades. Fellow Irishman Graham Norton will take over for the 2009 contest, which will be hosted in Moscow. Veteran presenter Wogan, 70, cast doubt on whether he would be involved in covering the event again following this year's contest. He said it was "no longer a music contest" and that prospects for western European participants were "poor".

The show has suffered from accusations of block voting, which was blamed by some for leaving Britain's 2008 contestant, Andy Abraham, with only 14 points. Wogan said, "I've had 35 wonderful years commentating on the Eurovision for radio and television. From my first, in a small musichall in Dublin, to my last, in the huge arena in Belgrade, it has been nothing but laughter and fun... The silly songs, the

UK - The Stranglers embarked on their recent autumn tour of Ireland and the UK with an Allen & Heath iLive digital system to manage monitor mixing. Comprising an iDR10 Mixrack and iLive-144 Control Surface, the system was specified by the band's monitor engineer, Kev Allen.

"When the band comes on stage they know what they are going to get. iLive not only gives them the same great results every night but it saves them from lengthy sound checks at each venue because of the system's memory recall," says Allen. "I also worked out that I save a third of a ton by carrying iLive and a pair of Cat 5 cables rather than a copper multicore, heavy analogue desk and racks, so it makes load in really simple and there's more room on the tour bus."

Allen has been The Stranglers' monitor engineer for three years and also runs a PA company called Fearless Audio in the south

South Africa - Gearhouse South Africa supplied all technical production - staging, rigging, lighting, video and audio - for Lionel Richie's successful South African tour, with resources pooled from its Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban bases.

Anthony Banks, operations manager for Gearhouse Rigging was head rigger for the tour, which played a mix of indoor and outdoor venues.

In Cape Town they used an 18m wide by 12m deep TFL roof. The PA Towers were done with Layher scaffolding, while the Durban gig was staged on a 20m wide by 14m deep Stageco roof with integral PA wings. The PA wings were at a height of 25m metres. The Johannesburg shows which concluded the tour took place in the Dome, a 13 212 seated capacity venue which sold out for two nights.

The GHSA lighting department was led by Rob Baker, a regular freelancer for the Cape Town branch, who worked with 4 touring crew

UK - Over the years, Maltbury Staging has supplied Shakespeare's Globe with various decks, assorted legs and accessories to suit a variety of performances. But it's not only at their famous theatre that they put on productions, for their 2008 Summer Tour project manager Paul Russell was confident that Maltbury would provide exactly what he needed, on time and at a suitable price.

The Globe chose The Winter's Tale as the perfect play for a summer's evening and Maltbury provided appropriate staging.Metrodeck Ultra, Maltbury's lightest staging system, was chosen. The package was straightforward yet versatile using an aluminium frame with a lightweight plywood top. As the tour made its way around the country, Russell reported how vital it was having flexible and manageable staging. "I would have no hesitation in recommending Maltbury to other companies," he says.

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