Business

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14 March 2016

As a laser production company, ER relies heavily on atmospheric products being in the right place at the right time, and always on cue. This is especially true at festivals, where, given the unpredictable conditions, it is essential to tick all the boxes and prepare for every eventuality. In the past this meant spending many hours of precious load-in time running looms to smoke machine positions all over fields, tents, and staging areas.

"To say we love the LumenRadio wireless DMX is an understatement," says Ryan Hagen, managing director of ER. "It's fantastic in every way possible. The small robust design is perfect for touring, allows for easy and creative set

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14 March 2016

When Mike Compton of Pirates Voyage took on the challenge of bringing the new attraction to life in Myrtle Beach, SC, he turned to the rigging experts from J. R. Clancy. Compton had worked with Clancy on three other recentprojects, so he knew they could help make the technical aspects of this show as exciting as they could be.

The latest attraction from Dolly Parton, Pirates Voyage moved into the building that housed her famous Dixie Stampede attraction for 19 seasons. Transforming a former Dixie Stampede hippodrome into a pirates' show in just five months - from its closing in January 2011 to its grand reopening on

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14 March 2016

The 20,000 attendees witnessed a plethora of music, light, laser effects, and images in the heart of the city. Its water tower was repeatedly bathed in a rash of the most fascinating of colours, while laser beams, split-second synchronized to the music, streaked across the night sky.

Recurrent highlights were a total of 800, various, automobile sounds, such as the slamming of car doors, the screeching of windshield wipers, or the din of wheel rims beaten with drum sticks, played correspondingly to symphonic-orchestra instruments, th

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14 March 2016

The festival is a celebration of light and music, with many events taking place in various venues. A series of live concerts featuring classical, pop and rock music was held in the Piazza Matteotti, which has an audience capacity of over 10,000. The main stage area was exclusively equipped with Fohhn's high quality systems.

Two sets of 12 PT-9 line arrays were flown either side of the stage, with a dozen PT-8 compact line array systems used for near-field and side field areas. Fohhn's X-Series XT-10 systems were also used to provide front-fills for covering the first few audience rows, while XM-4 wedges provided on-stage monitoring for the performers.

Twelve of Fohh

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14 March 2016

The first year of trading has been "phenomenal", says the company. The bespoke in-house workshop has already been extended and the team has expandedsignificantly to meet ongoing demand for the Walling Systems product.

Hawthorn Walling Systems uses a patented tensioned fabric on an aluminium frame system to create seamless high resolution panels for the events and exhibition industry. The product is lightweight, modular, quick to build and easily re-brandable for road shows, multiple brands/languages and also helps clients to reduce their transport costs and enhance their eco credentials.

(Jim Evans)

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14 March 2016

Established in 1989, the company headed by Huw 'Buzz' Evans and Rob Ashton had been running EAW's popular KF750 as its premier system for the past eight years.

In March this year the company invested in 12 of the compact KF730 line array elements, complemented by six SB730 subs, which extend the response down to 35Hz.

But with the busy outdoor season looming they also realised they needed the larger footprint of the KF740 system, with its four phase-aligned 10in woofers, for wider site coverage - and four months later invested in 18 enclosures, along with the dedicated UX8800 4-in/8-out digital system processor to run with thei

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14 March 2016

distribution network in the form of a new distribution partnership with CY-Communications

Ltd. for Hong Kong, China and Macau.

CY-Communications Ltd specializes in providing leading audio and video solutions to enable

businesses to communicate internally with remote office staff and externally with their customers. The flagship product is the V2 Conference System which provides videoconferencing

but also the WowVision, proVeos wireless presentation systems.

"Their prior success with the V2 Conference System and WOW Vision products speaks well for their future growth with our Pan Beam products," says Pan Acoustics.

To complete the AV product line-up, CY has taken Pan Beam on board to fulfill the

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14 March 2016

Townshend said he was "honoured" to be asked to deliver the address, adding that the former BBC Radio 1 DJ had introduced him to bands like The Jesus and Mary Chain and The Undertones before they had signed record deals. "John didn't just listen to music, he played it on air and let his audience decide," the 66-year-old guitarist said. In his lecture, Townshend will pose the question: "C

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14 March 2016

The month-long ballot, in which over 1,000 members participate, will decide places on PLASA's European and North American Regional Boards, together with a single seat on its over-arching Governing Body.

The two Regional Boards are still a relatively new concept for PLASA, having been formally launched at the start of 2011. Their role is to represent the interests of members affiliated to those regions, ensuring that PLASA offers strong on the ground support to members.

Both the North American and European Regional Boards are looking to fill a number of places for 2012. Following the death of the European Chair Rob Lingfield earlier this year, Ed Pagett of Panalux, who served as Vice Chair, is standing for the position of Chair. A number of representative positi

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14 March 2016

Their President, Gary Crawford, is well known for his work as a Special Effects Coordinator, and has worked on such movies as E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, 2010, Poltergeist, Halloween III, Star Trek: The Next Generation, and many more well known films, his first being Camelot. He is also the recipient of the 1997 LDI award for Best Atmospheric Effects for SnoBiz biodegradable snow. They offer a comprehensive selection of products including the popular Dream Teams which encompass larger areas for audience-participation.

Their most popular, the Little Blizzard Dream Team, was the original and first of its kind. It sends snow over a 24m X 15m area, and includ

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14 March 2016

Such is the case at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, NY, where technical director Shawn DuBois oversees a full production schedule using student technicians, and who has found a solution to his lighting control challenge at the Arthur Zenkel Music Centre with the Light Palette Live control console from Philips Strand Lighting.

"The Arthur Zenkel Music Centre is home to the Skidmore College music programmes and 90% of the performances we do are acoustic in nature and classically-base

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14 March 2016

Intrinsic to the project was replacing the church's 25 year-old sound system. Serving as Mother Church to the Diocese, as well as parish church for Sioux Falls and other surrounding parishes, St. Joseph's masses services are well attended by hundreds of parishioners. The new sound system had to provide high speech intelligibility and crystal clear sound to every seat in the house.

The project proved quite challenging, according to Peter Borchard of MuSonics Audio. MuSonics has designed audio solutions for many large cathedrals across the country.

"The church has a lot of reflectiv

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14 March 2016

The stand was never empty with visitors stopping by repeatedly and the upstairs area provided the perfect space for meetings or a chance to chill out with a drink from the strains of the show - perhaps with a pint of UberBrew or a glass of the green GrassHopper, says the company.

As always, the run-up to the show was a busy time with programming, building a house and not least of all with Green Hippo's new brochure finally ready and printed only days before the doors opened. With demonstrations and meetings as well as the usual dinners, parties and entertainment everyone was kept thoroughly busy for the four show-days.

Green Hippo's

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14 March 2016

4J Événements, the company in charge of the lighting installation of the fountain, has chosen with the help of CSI, Griven's exclusive distributor for France, the best solution for this project. After the necessary renovations of the square in front of the city hall, la Fountaine de Jouvence has been sparkling in coloured lights since last July.

A DMX programmable lighting system based on submerged LED fixtures, Griven's Waterled, reproduces every night a series of stunning dynamic lighting schemes highlighting, in alternative appealing sequences of bright colours, the dancing water jets patterns. Blu

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14 March 2016

Following a three-day July vernissage cruise from Venice, the Costa Favolosa (114,500 gross tonnage and 3,800 total guests) began offering Eastern Mediterranean cruises, before being positioned in Dubai for eight-day Arabian Nights cruises in the UAE and Oman for the winter 2011/2012 season.

With its 13 passenger decks, the Favolosa, built entirely in Italy by Fincantieri, is the largest ship flying the Italian flag and offers guests a wide range of leisure and entertainment amenities, the latter including the three-deck Hortensia theatre, featuring a concentrate of cutting edge A

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14 March 2016

The nature of venues like the Hexagon is that they stage a huge variety of productions - ranging from professional comedians, tribute acts, variety shows, choirs, psychics, musicals, pantomimes, dance troupes and TV spinoffs to amateur performances by clubs, bands, schools and talent contests. This means that the mixing system has to be extremely flexible, yet not so complex that it can't be taught very quickly to someone who may not have used a digital console before.

The combination of the M7CL-48ES and SB168-ES stage boxes meets all of these needs and, as a result, is proving extremely popular at regi

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14 March 2016

Clumber's three diverse nights of entertainment for all ages and musical tastes - included Pop Party In the Park on Friday, headlined by N-Dubz also with sets by The Wanted, Chipmunk, Aggro Santos and Parade. It continued on the Saturday with a 'flashback' night featuring some of the best loved sounds of the 1980s with live performances by The Human League, Level 42, Heaven 17, Nik Kershaw and Toyah. On Sunday, there was a concert by classical crossover singer Katherine Jenkins backed by the National Symphony Orchestra, with special Guest Wynn Evans.

Adlib's Peter Abraham project managed, commenting, "It is always exciting working on new projects and rising to their cha

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14 March 2016

Watts explains, "I used PixelPars with 8-degree lenses, the reason being: I really wanted the speed of LED but the brightness of a moving wash. The PixelPar is bright enough for me to use as beam light, blinder or strobe - or all three! Very impressive for a single unit that draws less power than a lamp-based Par 56."

The tour is a prelude to next year's planned US tour and bearing the same name as the recently released album Love Live Life.

(Jim Evans)

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14 March 2016

The lighting and video visuals for this seventh series of Idols SA have been created by Joshua Cutts, one of South Africa's most innovative designers who is working for the first time in this role, having operated last year's series. It is the first time that Idols South Africa has featured a coherent 'visual' design incorporating both mediums, which is going down a storm with everyone, bringing a new fluidity and harmony to th

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14 March 2016

Medieval Times Dinner & Tournament offers guests "ringside seats to a story of bravery and honour set in 11th-century Spain. The spectacular includes a jousting tournament and falconry, all enjoyed over dinner.

Barbizon Lighting Company supplied the Robert Juliat Topaze fixtures as part of a lighting upgrade to Medieval Times' suburban Chicago location.

"I was looking for something different, not the usual spots," says sound and lighting manager Edgar Campos. "Other lighting manufacturers seemed to have the same type of design. I was looking for the sturdiest fixtures with the fewest parts and found them in the Topaze, which combi

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14 March 2016

A total of 1,100m of stage barrier was supplied to each festival, which included Mojo's line-up gate system for the silent disco.

Mojo's BLMS detects and records pressure applied by the crowd throughout the event with its unique pressure sensors. It was first used five years ago at Reading and Leeds and includes CCTV monitoring and personal observation by production and security professionals to monitor crowd dynamics.

As a result of previous years' results analysis, Mojo installed one of its trademark thrust systems into the main arena as a primary stage barrier, a first for the Leeds and Reading

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14 March 2016

The launch itself occurred in the Developer Sessions conference room, for which PF Events were contracted to supply all the audio, video, lighting, staging and technical management. The four-day event featured presentations from some of the leading games developers and manufacturers in the industry and included a combination of speech, HD presentations and on-stage gameplay.

PF Events installed 12 KV2 EX10 speakers and two Noise Control Audio VSB218 subwoofers in a 7.1 surround sound configuration. A Panasonic PT-DZ110X full HD projector was also installed with a 16ft x 9ft Monoblox projector screen. All the video was controlled using a Christie Spyder X20 HD video processor which was ideal for s

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14 March 2016

The intention is to see what an average theatre might expect from LED lanterns. To which end manufacturers have been invited to provide examples ofLED lanterns falling into the categories of - Profile Spots, Acting Area Wash Lights, Scenery/Cyclorama Wash Lights and Beam Lights - PAR equivalents etc. To limit the field, moving lights will not be included.

There will be two sessions, at 10.00and 14.00. Lanterns will be demonstrated alongside the Theatre's own stock of conventional lanterns all running on the house board, a Strand Lighting 530i. There will be opportunities to compare and contrast different lanterns and manufacturers' representatives will be available to

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14 March 2016

BS7827 officially known as a code of practice for designing, specifying, maintaining and operating emergency sound systems at sports venues, was initially drawn up in the wake of the Hillsborough disaster in 1989, and covers not only stadia, but any venue where sport is played such as racecourses, swimming pools etc, it is also applicable to large public facilities such as shopping malls, conference and exhibition centres.

Steve Jones, a consulting engineer specialising in sound and chairman of the EPL 100-2 Working Group at BSI, who produced the revised standard, said, "The origins of this standard are a code of practice produced by a working group within the Sound Communications Industries Federation, which I chaired back in 1989 after