UK - The Barbican, Europe's largest multi-arts and conference venue, has invested in a new 32-channel Midas Heritage 2000 console with 16-channel stretch, all flight-cased and fully mobile. The desk makes its major debut in the main Theatre auditorium for the first shows in the special season celebrating the work of American composer Steve Reich. During the Reich festival, the console will also be used in the Pit Theatre for other events.

Steff Langley, the Barbican's head of sound, ordered the desk from Richard Nowell Sound Services with a brief, "to keep us as mobile as possible. All our outboard is also flightcased, as we move systems not only between the various venues here at the Barbican, but also outside the theatre, to other locations. There's no point in spending £50K on a console, but not spending £1K on a flightcase."

The Barbican's 2006 progra

UK - Marquee Audio have carried out a discrete sound system installation for the new, prestigious Club Bar & Dining, an upscale restaurant and bar in London's Soho, on the site formerly occupied by The Sugar Club.

Situated in Warwick Street, the venue comprises an informal bar and dining room with 80 covers on the ground floor, and a downstairs cocktail lounge bar, with seating available for 100 people.

The operation is a joint venture between successful Soho operator Brenhan Magee, and entrepreneur and Crystal Palace FC chairman Simon Jordan. Magee has worked with The Breakfast Group over the past 11 years and was instrumental in setting up bars and restaurants including Jerusalem and recently Salvador & Amanda.

Having been heavily involved with the Breakfast Group over the years, and worked on the sound system installation at Salvador & Amanda, Marquee Audio tendered succe

UK - Lincoln University's brand new multipurpose venue, the £6 million Engine Shed (so called because that's precisely what it was) opened to great acclaim on 18 September with an inaugural performance from huge UK Indie band, Embrace. In addition to housing the Student Union bar and offices, the Engine Shed is also the newest and biggest student venue in the East Midlands. A venue of this calibre clearly demanded a high quality professional audio system, and so technical systems specialists Stage Electrics were called in to supply and install a complete entertainment system that included a comprehensive EAW loudspeaker system throughout.

According to EAW systems application specialist Steve Badham, the key criterion for the audio installation was flexibility. Comprising three bars and two performance spaces of 750 capacity (1500 capacity when combined) as well as shops an

USA - The Assembly of God's Christ Chapel is housed in a 130,000sq.ft sports facility (it was once an actual professional football team's practice facility) in Macon, Georgia where it holds regular Sunday and Wednesday worship services and sports ministries. Its TV ministry, consisting of Pastor John Wood's sermon from Sunday services, airs locally on Cox Cable and CTN Cable. Entire Sunday morning and evening services are streamed live on the internet; college, youth and children's ministries will soon stream live on the Web as well.

Macon-based Total Systems Audio, Video, and Consulting have supplied vast amounts of technical equipment to the Church; no coincidence as their managing director is also the Church's technical director.

Recently the Church took delivery of a LSC Lighting Systems maXim LP console and are getting ready to purchase a maXim XXLP through LSC's USA dist

UK - tsg have recently completed the installation of a promedia mms hard disk system for Eldridge Pope at their Que Pasa site in Corn Street, Bristol. Formerly one of the company's Toad sites this takes the number of Que Pasa sites utilising promedia mms to 16 nation-wide.

Multi-purpose in use, promedia mms runs Que Pasa's bespoke music and music video profile and controls all aspects of the sites entertainment offer be it scheduling on-screen graphics, programming lighting effects, controlling what is seen on each screen, and adjusting the audio presets throughout the trading week. And in addition to this, promedia mms ably assists the on-site DJ with its integral fully featured touch-screen DJ console.

As well as supplying the promedia mms system, tsg specified and installed a robust screen and lighting system and also tweaked and brought up to date the existing audio system

UK - One of London's leading conference and meeting venues, The Brewery in Chiswell Street, has commissioned PSL to implement an extensive refurbishment of its sound and lighting facilities. Managing director Claire Lawson says that the £500K spend will help The Brewery to extend its advantage over rival City venues.

Having been a preferred supplier of audio-visual services to the award-winning Brewery for the past seven years, the London event services company PSL was the ideal candidate to handle the design and installation of new production facilities. "PSL is familiar with the building, and we're very comfortable with PSL," says Lawson. "They've led the design process throughout but we've been closely involved, especially when it came to the replacement of the sound system."

The Brewery has worked closely with PSL and the Corporation of London on

Singapore - Megachurches are becoming more popular in many regions of the world. Two of these outstanding buildings, the City Harvest Church and the Grace Assembly Church in Singapore, are employing MA Lighting control technology as part of their suitably impressive lighting systems. The City Harvest Church uses a grandMA full-size console, while the Grace Assembly Church a grandMA micro.

The consoles were applied to control conventional fixtures as well as moving lights and are ready to integrate video at a later stage. William Ng of City Harvest church points out: "I got to know grandMA in the US. The possibilities and the powerful performance were very impressive. Back home the recommendation of Desisti Asia, which offered comprehensive project support, and their after-sales service convinced us to invest in MA technology."

City Harvest Church serves as the centre

Spain - D.A.S. sound systems have recently been installed at the Royal Nautical Club of Tenerife - the most renowned sports club of the island, devoted to the development of sports such as sailing, tennis, swimming and basketball. The new sound installation was handled by Oscar Molowny Sonido e Iluminación, S.L, the Canary's based firm that specialises in the supply and installation of sound systems, which has confided in D.A.S. products over the last after 25 years.

The official opening of the headquarters of the Royal Nautical Club of Tenerife took place back in 1905, in an art nouveau building, designed by architect Mariano Estanga, situated in the façade of the Castillo de Pedro. The Club was reopened after the Spanish Civil War during the celebration of the 1941 May festivities on the island. At that early stage the building hosted bathrooms, a swimming pool, dressing roo

USA - QSC Audio are celebrating a summer season which has seen them take full advantage of the massive construction programme taking place in the fast developing Chinese market.

By being able to offer QSC-based solutions from the Californian company's extensive product range, their territorial distributor, Beijing-based Prime Connections Inc (PCI) has successfully tendered for a number of contracts. In particular, they report that QSC sound reinforcement and network control systems have been supplied to a number of conference centres, sports halls and stadiums.

Founded in 1724, Beijing No. 2 Middle School has become the most prominent school of its type in Beijing. With its concept of all-round education, high-quality staff and advanced facilities it has produced many star pupils.

Asked to participate in the provision of a pro audio system for its newly-constructed sports ha

UK - Catalyst Sound & Communication Engineers has completed the installation of a new PA system for the Harlequins' Twickenham Stoop stadium using Community R-Series loudspeakers.

Twickenham Stoop is today home to both the NEC Harlequins Rugby Union and Harlequins RL Rugby League teams. With Rugby Union playing the winter season and Rugby League the summer season, the stadium is in use throughout the year and in all weather.

Catalyst has been handling the installation and maintenance of the public address facilities for the Stoop for over four years and were again appointed to design and install the system for the new Lexus stand in 2006. The system is required for recorded music and live commentary and had to meet the usual requirements for open air sports facilities - very high intelligibility with tightly controlled dispersion to give full audience coverage whilst minimisin

The Ukraine - Komora, the Ukrainian-British Joint Venture and Harman Pro distributor recently installed a 56-channel Soundcraft MH4 mixing console in the most prestigious concert hall of the country - the National Palace of Arts Ukraine.

In this 3,860-seat concert hall the country's most important cultural, artistic, concert and political events take place - which is why the requirements for the main mixing console are extremely high.

Chief engineer of the Palace Ukraine, Mr. B. Klevtsov, says: "We had been considering the features of different manufacturers' mixing consoles but without hesitation made our choice in favour of the 56-channel MH4."

The company says, the clear sound of Soundcraft consoles, their functional capabilities, ease of control, sufficient number of mono and stereo inputs (56+4), 16 Auxes, eight VCA groups are the essential features that will

USA - When the student body at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas first voted to add a fee to help fund construction of the original Moyer Student Union building back in the early 1960's, UNLV had just 5,000 students, and Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack were still performing regularly down on the Strip. Forty years later the city of Las Vegas has grown beyond anyone's expectations and the current UNLV 28,000-member student population has more than outgrown the Student Union. Clearly time for an upgrade.

The new Moyer Student Union is being built in two stages, the first of which opened this autumn. The new 135,000 sq.ft space is bigger and better, offering a dining court, a TV lounge, office space for student advocacy and interest groups, more and expanded spaces for studying and socialising, a 300-seat movie theatre, and a powerful sound system utilising several models of Commu

UK - Specialist production company EVENT was selected to work with artist Carsten Höller and curator Jessica Morgan on The Unilever Series: Carsten Höller Test Site at Tate Modern, London. The piece which opened to the public earlier this month comprises five giant slides which spiral down from the galleries to the floor of the Turbine Hall.

"The biggest challenge was to create a lighting design powerful enough to be effective in broad daylight" said EVENT designer James O'Connell. "With the right kit in place, we were able to project shadow effects against the vast walls and floor of the hall, extending the impact of the installation across the entire space. It was crucial that this effect was able to counter the natural light from the huge glass ceiling."

Once the equipment had been sourced and initial design work done, EVENT began working with the

Italy - For the first time, Nokia Trends, a music, mobility and multimedia arts festival, was staged in Italy. The show, which featured artists such as Gotan Project, Tiga and Timo Maas, was held in the former Stazione Leopolda, in Florence - a railway station transformed into an atmospheric arena for hosting fashion events.

One full-size and one light grandMA console were used to light the two main stages. The video content came from two grandMA mediaPCs with grandMA video. Another grandMA full-size controlled the entrance, meeting, demo rooms and dance floor area lighting. Additionally a grandMA micro was utilised.

On the two stages the artists performed at different times. For this reason each media server was dedicated to a specific stage which had a unique screen composed of a high-resolution Barco LED wall and a low-resolution VersaTube on the top and bottom parts. Light

UK - For the fourth year running, Summit Steel has been involved in rigging London's high profile and popular Frieze Arts Fair, staged in Regents Park, and featuring over 160 galleries of contemporary art.

Working for organisers Frieze Events, the Summit team of up to eight riggers led by Jay Call suspended over seven kilometres of steel wire rope in the ceilings of the four main tented venues. This consisted of catenary wires at two different heights, a lower one to accommodate the false ceiling and a higher one for suspending heating and air conditioning ducts and other elements of plant.

They did the same in six additional subsidiary tents - all supplied by Owen Brown. The work was completed over a two week period, with Summit going in after the construction of each of the tents was completed. The largest tent measured 200 metres long by 40 wide. Summit also installed truss

Belgium/Dubai - Barco reports that it has signed its largest contract ever for a fully integrated, creative LED solution. The contract with Emaar, developer of the world's biggest shopping mall in Dubai, is worth over 24 million euro. The LED displays will be used both to inform and entertain visitors of the Dubai Mall. The Mall will officially be opened in September 2007. Deliveries for the installation will take place in 2007.

The contract for Dubai Mall includes a total of 571 square metres of LED. The Mall will host over 1200 outlets, spanning in excess of 336,000 square metres of retail space, and will also include an array of leisure pursuits, including an aquarium, fashion show arena, gold souk and Olympic size ice ring.

Emaar executive director Rashid Doleh comments, "We have selected Barco as we are convinced that the quality and creativity of their solutions is

Germany - The Index in Schüttorf is one of the ten largest discotheques in Germany. With around 4,000 square metres of floor space, it attracts around 7,000 punters every weekend. It reopened recently after seven months of refurbishment, including the installation of the world's largest ice bar which extends over 850 square metres and composed of 320 tonnes of ice. In addition to the Ice Bar, there are three other sections, named Main, Tender and Goldfish, each with its own ambience.

"We see this as a disco of superlatives," says Index managing director, Holger Bösch. His plan is for the Index to function as a disco at the weekends, whilst remaining available during the week for corporate functions, wedding parties and other events. "We aim to offer guests the optimum experience, so nothing less than the finest equipment will suffice,"

Denmark - Noerrebro Micro Brewery was the first micro brewery to open its doors in Copenhagen. With a combination of a restaurant, bar and lounge, the venue attracts customers who appreciate gourmet food and a range of beers in a cool and rustic atmosphere.

With background music during the day, lounge levels at night and DJ sessions during weekends, the lounge required a sound system that delivers well at background level, but still provides convincing dynamics and involvement when pushed by the DJ's.

A lot of work went in to the visual design and ambience of the venue and the sound system. In order not to compromise the clean visual impression, four aluminium finished Cornered C6TRM boxes were discreetly installed horizontally in the corner between ceiling and walls. Crossed at 80 Hz, the top-boxes only call for a minimum of sub bass support and a customised 8" active su

Sweden - BSS Audio is at the centre of an ambitious new media and music production complex in the centre of Gothenburg. The 70-year-old four-storey Brew House, which at various times functioned as the Apotekarnes brewery and Ethnographic Museum, began its conversion to a creative centre specialising in film and music production back in 2002 - the result of an initiative floated by the Business Region Göteborg.

Designed to encourage collaboration and networking, the facility also incorporates a restaurant, conference room, and the large 600 sq. metre Stena Arena. The complex has been developed at a cost of 50 million Swedish kronor (£4 million) and operated by HIGAB (Hantverks-och Industrihus I Göteborg AB). It already boasts full occupancy, the 60 resident companies from the fields of music, movies, media, entertainment and education all able to interact.

However, it w

UK - When, in December 2005 Utopian Leisure purchased two Newcastle bars, Sam Jacks adjacent to The Gate Leisure Centre and Bar 55, which is in a predominant position at the end of Mosley Street in the 55° North complex, they knew that both venues would need considerable refurbishment.

Sam Jacks was upgraded to include a dance area complete with a new lighting system, enhancements and additions to the visuals, with the installation of three new projectors, and upgrades to the Plasma and LCD displays. Utopian's operations manager Carl Hornsby commented "We must have the greatest number of display units in any Newcastle Venue with a total of 37 displays providing a visual impact to the customer of breathtaking proportions"The sound system needed reinforcing particularly for the dance area and Utopian together with Blaydon Communications chose the KV2 Audio ES system.

UK -Though it is still over ten months away, PLASA07 has got off to an amazing start with applications for space beating all previous records. To date, just six weeks after the 2006 event closed on a massive high, over 60% of the show space has been applied for and further applications for space are coming in daily.

On the back of the success of PLASA06, many companies have increased their stand size and several have literally doubled their space, setting PLASA07 on course to be the major event of next year.

Further new developments for PLASA07 will also bolster its appeal: the full management of the show has been taken on by PLASA - who recently launched an Events Division to support this move - making it one of the few shows actually owned and run by the industry.

Along with the change of management comes a change of look as the show is moving onto one level and expanding

UK - A chic late night style bar has been added to Harlow's hospitality circuit, with the aid of a high-powered Martin Audio sound system. The conversion of the former CM20 music bar in Post Office Walk to Twenty One - a late night venue with a 4am license on two levels - was the brainchild of leisure entrepreneur/owner Paul Mapp (of Greedy Boys Ltd).

Locally-based company, Clarity in Sound, Light & Vision recommended a new Martin AQ system to be distributed throughout the venue, run in conjunction with some of the existing equipment.

Says Mapp, "Everything here revolves around quality. We like to invest in quality equipment and the Martin Audio system is highly versatile, sounding superb whatever we put through it."

The ground floor is divided into split zones, the sound routed via a Cloud zoner. Clarity's Stuart Graham, who also worked closely with interior desig

Russia - The RUK university in Mytischi just outside Moscow has recently taken delivery of an InnovaSON Sy48 digital mixing console for its new multipurpose venue.

The console was supplied and installed by StudiTech, InnovaSON's Russian distributor which, as well as its distribution wing, also has a thriving contracting department that offers engineering and acoustic design, installation, servicing, training and consultancy services.

The university venue is designed to be a truly multipurpose space that will stage concerts, conferences, and AV presentations as well as acting as a TV bridge for video conferencing with other university facilities in Russia. The keyword was flexibility, and that was what dictated the choice of console, explained StudiTech's Nikita Stepanov. It also explained the slightly unusual configuration of the Sy48 where StudiTech opted to house all the I/O

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