UK - Supported by Milton Keynes Partnership, the city's main shopping centre thecentre:mk, Midsummer Place and local newspaper The Citizen amongst others, Light Fantastic was a free public event that featured a lantern parade, French aerialists Transe Express performing a display suspended from a 150ft crane, acrobats suspended from giant balloons, gas jets flaring into the night sky, stunning images projected onto landmark buildings and a futuristic Exploratorium, all set to a bespoke soundtrack.
"We were approached as event producers and asked to come up with a number of different ideas," explains Mark Harrison. "Milton Keynes is set out on a grid system and the city wanted something unique that, when the centre of the city was closed off, would work with the road system, naturally leading people from place to place, with the building projections u
UK - Stage Electrics has purchased 10 new Mercedes Sprinter vans for its national branch network, which will replace the existing branch fleet of vehicles. Each van is fitted with the ECO-Start system which turns the engine off after a two-second waiting period, while the vehicle is stationary. The engine will automatically restart when the clutch pedal is depressed.
The new vans will save fuel, vehicle emissions, noise and engine wear. Such features are especially beneficial for branch vehicles which often spend large periods of time stuck in traffic with the engine running. The vans are due to roll out across the branches from January, with two vehicles allocated to each branch.
Gordon Wells, head of finance, comments: "This significant capital investment highlights not only our fleet growth, but ensures we are actively reducing our corporate carbon footprint."
Canada - The November tour of their homeland by Canada's Sam Roberts Band featured six XTA processors in use at front of house. The tour played theatre-sized venues throughout the country and the band's FOH engineer Phil Hornung was faced with the prospect of using house PA systems in most venues.
In order to maintain consistency of the sound, XTA's local distributor, Sennheiser Canada, supplied him with a package of processing options, comprising a C2 compressor, D2 dynamic EQ, E2 parametric EQ, G2 noise gate, GQ600 dual 30 band graphic EQ and DP324 SiDD digital dynamics processor.
"I was looking for a compact outboard package that would allow me to lend some measure of consistency to the sound," says Hornung. "The XTA package was small, compact and - most importantly - easy to use and interface with local PA systems.
UK - For the second year running, A.C. Entertainment Technologies presented a British Racing Drivers' Club award to 2008 Formula 1 World Champion Lewis Hamilton at the BRDC Annual Awards luncheon. Over 400 people gathered at the Café Royal in London for this year's event. The star-studded guest list included many of motor racing's finest heroes from past and present to celebrate the success stories of the 2008 racing season. Also, the Club welcomed The Prime Minister, Right Honourable Gordon Brown MP, as a distinguished guest.
A.C. Entertainment Technologies product development director, Glyn O'Donoghue, along with BRDC President Damon Hill OBE and Graham Hill's widow, Bette Hill, presented the esteemed Graham Hill Trophy to Lewis Hamilton. The trophy is awarded to the British Driver for the most meritorious performance in single-seater racing.
Iceland - At this year's Iceland Airwaves, Reykjavík-based Exton provided effective and powerful sound reinforcement for five festival venues using self-powered systems from Meyer Sound. Referred to by Rolling Stone magazine as "the hippest long weekend on the annual music festival calendar," the five-day music showcase introduces acts from Iceland and across the globe, including this year's CSS from Brazil; Junior Boys and Crystal Castles from Canada; UK-based Robots in Disguise; and White Denim and Boy Crisis from the US.
As Exton's Ivar Ragnarsson explains, the festival's largest venue, Reykjavík Art Museum's Port Room, was the most challenging. "The room was originally a warehouse," Ragnarsson says. "It's about 10m wide and 45m long, and very reverberant." Ragnarsson adds that aside from the acoustical challenges, the room required a quick set
USA - First Baptist Church in Poplar Bluff, Missouri has re-configured its sound system from a basic two-fader setup with choir and pastor microphones into a complex multi-channel mix with a full live band.
To modernise both its sanctuary and it range of worship services, First Baptist recently undertook a $1.5 million renovation. Unity Pro AV of Jackson, Missouri was contracted to design and install a new $105,000 sound system. The church opted to retain its 24ft video screen, projector with long throw lens and multi-camera setup. "We have been working with First Baptist on small upgrades and maintenance issues for several years," Unity Pro AV's Matt Schwartz says.
In four short months, Schwartz designed both a new loudspeaker system and acoustical treatment using EASE, he gently persuaded the church that wall treatments were the right way to go and installed the co
The Netherlands - Dutch pop star Jan Smit is touring the Netherlands to promote his latest album. Prolyte supplied the complete staging and trussing set, through its distributor Controlled for Triple show Techniek.
The mobile stage was designed as a multi-level stage to enable him to have optimum contact with his audience. Beside the visual aspect, the technical specifications also played an important role. Due to a tight touring schedule, production time to build the stage was limited. Prolyte advised to use the Easy frame C system, as support frame for the entire staging area, which assembles rapidly and without the need for extra tooling of forklifts.
South Africa - Gearhouse South Africa's Cape Town branch swung into action supplying staging, sound, lighting and LED screens to production company Celebrity Services/Maximum Exposure for the annual festive lights switch-on ceremony along Adderley Street, performed by Mayor Helen Zille and attended by 70,000 people.
The show included performances by several high profile artists including headliner Loyiso Bala, supported by Loading Zone, Dr Victor and the Rasta Rebels, Denim and Dozi, all MC'd by comedian Wayne McKay. The event was project managed on site for Gearhouse by Zane Carim.
The main stage was a 22m wide by 14 deep Layher construction, with a Slick Dome roof giving 12m of headroom.
Upstage of this was a Lighthouse high-resolution LED screen. Most of the artists performed before dusk, but it was dark by the time the main ceremony swung into action. This plus three del
UK - Video was used for the first time to project giant images onto the 353ft high Shell Building on the South Bank of the River Thames for the Mayor of London's 2008-09 New Year's Eve celebrations.
E/T/C London created a projection concept and suggested that they harness the flexibility and power of video for the first time on this event, on which E/T/C has worked for producers Jack Morton Worldwide for the last five years. With LG Electronics coming onboard as a new sponsor, they wanted to up the production values, making the show something extra special and more spectacular this year.
E/T/C's Ross Ashton says: "It was another milestone in giant video projection for E/T/C London, and probably the UK's largest New Year video installation to date as well as a great opportunity for us to move the company forward."
E/T/C's Richard Porter designed the technical instal
UK - Following its "unprecedented success and critical acclaim in the installation market" with its new VQ Series sound reinforcement loudspeaker range, Tannoy has now announced a new partnership with Paul Nicholson's Red Square Audio to develop and market a live/touring version of the product.
Having first heard the system at the 2008 ABTT Show, Nicholson had been keeping a keen eye on the product's early success in the installation market and felt there was great potential for VQ as a world class live system. Following some informal discussion of the possibilities, Tannoy welcomed Nicholson's extensive expertise to the table and he began consulting with their engineering team on adapting the existing VQ Series to suit the touring market.
Within a very short period of time Tannoy had responded to Nicholson's ideas, resulting in a new and radical departure for the co
Australia - ARX Systems has announced the appointment of Stockholm based Sennberg A.B as its new distributor for Sweden.
ARX managing director Colin Park commented: " I have been discussing the possibilities of working with Sennberg in Sweden with them for some time, their 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.
"Sweden has always been important for ARX, it's one of northern Europe's trend setting markets. We're looking forward to working with Stephan Segermark and his team at Sennberg to consolidate ARX's position in the Swedish market and to reinforce to their customers the state of the art performance that ARX products can offer them."
UK - HSL supplied lighting equipment and crew to the most recent leg of UK rockers Thunder's Bang tour, LD'd by Ian Bintliff. It's the second Thunder production tour that HSL has supplied, and was managed for the Blackburn-based rental house by Howard Dean.
Bintliff states, "It's always a pleasure to work with HSL - their kit, crew and service is second to none, and they also came up with a very good deal."
The trussing structure comprised of four 5m pre-rigged 'fingers', each fully loaded with 24 PARs, and each length also forming an integral architectural element of the design. The fingers fanned out from a central point at the back, and in between them were three triangular pods. Each pod was rigged with four Robe ColorSpot 575E AT moving lights, four JTE PixelLine LED battens and a string of ACLs.
The impact of the pods was maximised by being moved in an
UK - Last year City College Coventry moved its various technologies departments into phase one of its new, purpose-built £50m Swanswell Centre. In advance of this relocation Mick Dabrowski, head of the college's Music, Multimedia & Computing sections (known collectively as the School of Creative & Information Technologies), set about specifying new facilities.
The new facility includes three identically kitted out broadcast studios, using Soundcraft mixing consoles - these house the College's 'Synergy FM' radio station, operating with an RSL over a restricted ten-mile radius. Meanwhile, on the top floor, two high-end studios for recording and mixing and a flagship commercial studio still to be specified will join four heavily-used project studios (also equipped with Soundcraft). All support a wide range of industry standard software, available on both Mac and PC.
USA - Audio-Technica has been selected as the official headphone supplier for the recently-opened Grammy Museum in Los Angeles. More than 60 pairs of ATH-M30 Closed-back Dynamic Stereo Monitor Headphones have been selected for use in the museum's exhibits.
The 30,000sq.ft facility celebrated its grand opening with a slate of activities last month, the culmination of The Recording Academy's and the Grammy Awards' milestone 50th anniversary year.
"We are thrilled to be working with Audio-Technica," said Robert Santelli, executive director of The Grammy Museum. "The ATH-M30 Headphones will allow visitors to the museum to experience our exhibits in a richer and more exciting way."
UK - Stage Electrics started 2009 in style by lighting the London Eye as part of the Marking Midnight celebrations, broadcast live on BBC 1. An estimated half a million New Year revellers braved freezing conditions in the capital to see in the New Year lighting and fireworks extravaganza on the banks of the River Thames.
This is the fourth year Stage Electrics has worked on behalf of the Greater London Authority to mark the New Year. Stage Electrics supplied MAC 2000 Wash moving lights in each of the 32 pods of the London Eye, search lights on floating pontoons (eight each side) and a wireless DMX control system. Lighting designer for the event was Durham Marenghi, who has previously worked on the lighting of the London Eye at New Year.
As with previous years, the importance of installing lighting units into all 32 pods quickly and efficiently was paramount to the succe
Spain - A ground-breaking experimental project conceived by artist Matthew Ritchie, The Morning Line is a fresh take on the concept of the architectural pavilion, offering a platform for musicians and artists whose work lies beyond normal artistic boundaries and the programming of traditional concert halls. Commissioned by Vienna-based Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary and with equipment support provided by Meyer Sound, The Morning Line is currently being inaugurated at the third international biennial of contemporary art (Biacs3) in Seville, Spain.
The Morning Line's unique structure, outwardly resembling the blackened remains of a cathedral or historic monument, contains a combination of sensors, intelligent cameras, and digital controllers, along with some 41 Meyer Sound MM-4XP self-powered miniature loudspeakers to form a multichannel, interactive sound system. The
UK - The Capital Radio Jingle Bell Ball took place in December at London's O2 Arena with an array of pop performers many of which chose to use Sennheiser microphone and monitoring technology.
Sennheiser's Mark Saunders, Dave Hawker and Sam Davison were all at the O2, offering RF equipment and technical support to the audio team from Wigwam Hire and the show's production company, Production North.
Nearly all of the performers on the night used Sennheiser ew 300 IEM G2 monitors, with The Script, Will Young and Alphabeat using wired evolution vocal mics and the Pussycat Dolls, Sugababes, Anastacia, Lemar and The Saturdays all using Evolution SKM 935 radio mics.
Rihanna used her own decorated Sennheiser SKM 5200 handheld mic with MD 5235 capsule, while the Capital Radio presenters all employed SKM 5200s with Neumann KK 105 heads.
Europe - SAE Institute is incorporating Euphonix MC Control and MC Mix media controllers into 25 SAE Institutes across four continents. The SAE Institute's audio curriculum includes training on the world's leading digital audio workstations to help prepare students for real world production situations.
"SAE is the world leader in audio and creative media training, and we are very excited to have our MC Control and MC Mix chosen for their state-of-the-art institutes," stated Martin Kloiber, Euphonix CEO. "The power and flexibility of the Artist Series is the perfect match for SAE's innovative teaching approach, and provides students with cutting-edge media controllers that can be used with virtually any audio or video application."
"We are delighted to be installing Euphonix MC Control and MC Mix media controllers in so many of our campuses around the w
UK - HD Promotions recently promoted Gatecrasher at Leas Cliff Hall in Folkestone. Gravesend Sound & Light installed the lights for the event which was exclusively Martin professional lighting.This consisted of four LC Panels, 24 MAC 250 Kryptons, four MAC 600s, four MAC 500s, four MAC 550s all controlled with a Martin LightJockey.
Kev Harris of HD Promotions comments, "Our main aim with every event at the Live Nation venue is to push the limits with all lighting equipment and production. Martin was a pleasure to have on board with the Gatecrasher event."
Richard Bishop, MD of Gravesend Sound & Light adds: "This has been one of the most spectacular light shows we have done for a while. It was fantastic to work with HD Promotions and Martin and we definitely look forward to more of the same in the future."
24 of the Martin products were used in the trussin
Eurovision Update - Andrew Lloyd Webber has unveiled the six hopefuls he has chosen to bid for glory at the Eurovision Song Contest. Two male soloists, two female singers, a duo consisting of twin sisters and an all-male quintet will do battle in the BBC One show Your Country Needs You. Lloyd Webber will write the song for the successful act, set to take part in May's competition in Moscow. After a series of live shows, the winning act, which is chosen by the public, will be revealed on 31 January. The first live programme takes place on Saturday 10 January on BBC One.
In The Money - Madonna's Sticky and Sweet show was the highest-earning tour of 2008, taking $281.6m (£193m) worldwide, according to music trade publication Pollstar. It also became the eighth highest-grossing tour of all time in North America, Pollstar said.
USA - The Joint Training Initiative of The ESTA Foundation and the United States Institute for Theatre Technology (USITT) has announced a Control Protocols Workshop to be held two days prior to the annual USITT National Conference in Cincinnati, OH. The registration deadline is 9 March 2009.
This two-day course is designed for entertainment technicians at a basic to intermediate level. The session will be held 16 and 17 March at the Duke Energy Convention Centre. Training will cover current control protocols including Remote Device Management over USITT DMX512-A and Architecture for Control Networks. This course qualifies for ETCP Certification Renewal Credits for ETCP Certified Entertainment Electricians.
The Control Protocols course will be taught by ETCP Certified Electrician and ETCP Recognized Trainer Milton Davis, of Doug Fleenor Design. Davis is a member of the Control
UK - Stage Electrics has specified and installed a new RSS M-400 V-Mixing System into The Byre Theatre in St. Andrews, Scotland. The RSS digital console and two snakes are part of a package of kit supplied this year, which includes Sennheiser radio microphones and RCF monitor speakers.
As its name suggests, The Byre Theatre started life as a semi-derelict cow-shed, cleaned out and set up by a local theatre group, whose audiences sat on cushions on the floor. With the support of donations and local authority funds, a permanent theatre opened in 1970. Its latest incarnation, built by architects Nicoll Russell Studios of Broughty Ferry, was completed in 2001.
Named after its founder, the main theatre in The Byre is the A.B.Paterson auditorium, with a seated capacity of 220. Stage Electrics has installed the M-400 front-of-house console at the rear of the auditorium, with two S-16
South Africa - Lighting designer Tim Dunn used 12 Robe DigitalSpot 7000DT digital moving lights and 32 REDWash 3-192s in his design for the 2008 Miss World Pageant, which was held at the Sandton International Convention Centre in Johannesburg, South Africa.
To date, this is the most of either type of Robe's new generation of digital moving lights to be used on a single show.
When Gearhouse South Africa won the contract to supply full technical production for Miss World and Dunn was asked to design lighting and visuals for the show, the opportunity also presented itself for him to incorporate some of the new Robe fixtures in his design.
He worked closely with set designer Dewet Meyer to develop a big visual picture that stamped a contemporary African flavour on the performance space. The resulting elegant 40m wide, multi layered spherical set was based on an African jewel and
Japan - Martin Professional Exterior Series luminaires are being used to dynamically illuminate the restaurant facade and outdoor garden at the Four Seasons Hotel in the Tokyo area of Chinzan-so. Chinzan-so is a Japanese garden and restaurant located in an historical and scenic area of the city.
On 1 November 2008, in collaboration with the Garden's landscape gardener, an illumination programme, Garden Play with Light commenced. Two concepts define this Japanese style of illumination: 'Static Vision' in which the Garden radiates a dreamy atmosphere, and 'Dynamic Vision', a series of colour changing programmes that shift with the season. Some programmes are synchronised to music and offered as an optional service to customers on special occasions like weddings or birthdays.
Lighting design is by Reiko Chikada of Reiko Chikada Lighting Design. Chikada and her team chose I