Show Time - The lighting, sound and production industries head to Frankfurt this week for ProLight+Sound 2009 and judging by the flood of pre-show product information - and launch party invitations - received by LSI, there will be much new to see and hear. Not surprisingly, then, the organisers are anticipating healthy attendance figures.

Woodstock Reprise - Michael Lang, the co-founder of the legendary 1969 Woodstock festival, is reportedly seeking sponsors for a 40th anniversary reprise in New York City. "The chances that something will happen are probable," he told

UK - Since it was first established the Liverpool Institute for the Performing Arts (LIPA) has developed a diverse and expansive curriculum. With recent advances in technology, particularly on the digital side, there are inevitably, multiple demands and expectations upon any equipment investments it makes. That certainly applies to the recent purchase of loudspeaker systems and digital consoles from TMC based near Bradford.

"There were several demands that led us to choose d&b audiotechnik equipment for the sound technology courses," said John Attewell chief technician at LI

UAE - The recently-opened Dubai Mall is one of the largest malls in the world, boasting 1,200 retail outlets, two department stores and more than 160 food and beverage vendors. The mall's 220-store Gold Souk is an elaborately decorated area used for special events by the UAE Royal Family and other dignitaries, in addition to serving as an impressive entertainment area for mall visitors.

The Gold Souk features a 75ft diameter domed super high-resolution projection screen (designed by Salt Lake City-based Evans and Sutherland Digital Theaters Group) raised 40ft above the floor, which ne

UK - Speed is a dangerous imperative where rigging is concerned, yet there is an ever-growing demand for fast efficient turnover of productions. Echo Arena Liverpool, part of Arena and Convention Centre Liverpool (ACC Liverpool), the most recent addition to the UK's circuit of large-scale indoor events venues, has addressed this demand head on.

"The rigging grid system installed over the stage, and repeated above the centre of the arena floor, is second to none in terms of sheer utility and speed of operation," says David Bond of Star Events Group. "It has the reduction

UK - When the Bird College in Sidcup, a leading training centre for dance and theatre performance, needed to adapt one of their dance studios to allow it to be easily transformed into a performance space and back, it was to entertainment lighting supplier White Light that they turned.

"The college required us to provide a versatile rig that would allow the space to be transformed from a dance studio into a theatre space and back again" notes Matt Stridgen, White Light's projects co-ordinator responsible for the Bird College installation. "This required the installation

UK - A.C. Audio has recently supplied a sound and control system to Blackpool Pleasure Beach for their latest outdoor display, the Spectacular Dancing Water Show. The new high energy, interactive water display is situated at the heart of the beach complex, providing various theatrical showers of shooting fountains over 100ft high. It is choreographed to a wide repertoire of music including classical, pop and even rugby anthems.

Blackpool Pleasure Beach approached A.C. to specify and supply a powerful, durable sound system for the water show. The system needed to be able to with

UK - Wonderworks has created a ghostly hologram within the new £1m permanent exhibition, Uncovering Origins, at Charles Darwin's Down House In Kent. Forming part of the bicentennial celebrations of the great scientist's birth, it was created in conjunction with Paradigm AV.

Wonderworks was contracted by design consultancy, Designmap, who created the exhibition for English Heritage. The Darwin hologram is set in faithful recreation of his cabin on the Beagle. MDM Props (Designmap's build partner on the project) realised the cabin interior. Having partnered Wonderworks many

USA Full Sail University has invested in 13 Audient ASP8024 desks in its Recording Arts department. 12 24-channel Audient consoles have been installed in what is known as the Analogue Mix Lab and the thirteenth is set up in the lecture room.

Greg Griffith, sound foundations course director at Full Sail University, reports, "Each station, including the one in the lecture room has a full patchbay, is loaded with time-based and dynamics processors and a hard disk based multi-track, enabling class demonstrations to be shown on the same equipment that the students will use in the lab.

USA - North Davis Church of Christ in Arlington recently replaced its loudspeaker system with three Renkus-Heinz Iconyx digitally steerable arrays in a configuration designed to complement the church's new video screens as the first stage of a complete sanctuary renovation.

The church's congregation has grown continually since its foundation on a vacant lot in 1907, but a capella vocal music continues to be a strong part of its tradition. Minister of Music and Worship D. J. Bulls, a prominent arranger whose choral and worship arrangements are sung in churches across the country, direc

UK - In order to keep up with the demands of the international business community, seeking ever more sophisticated AV facilities within their premium four- and five-star hotels, the Radisson Edwardian Group is developing extended and technically advanced conference spaces, with provision to show HD content to large groups, and host video-conferencing forums.

Over the past few years its project technical team, including IT director Iype Abraham and technical services manager, Scott Bradley, have been working with integrators, Visual Systems Sales Ltd (part of Myriad Audio Visual Group)

USA - Located on the campus of Oral Roberts University, Tulsa's Mabee Centre is a special events arena that, in addition to serving as the home of the Golden Eagles men's and women's basketball teams, plays host to a broad range of cultural events. With the capacity to seat upwards of 11,300 people in its sports arena layout, the Mabee Centre's 105,000sq.ft floor plan includes two tiers of seats surrounding the regulation basketball court.

Tulsa, Oklahoma-based design/build firm Sounds From Heaven (SFH) Productions, LLC, was contracted to perform the facility upgrade. After extensive

The Netherlands - The concert hall of the ArtEZ conservatory in the Dutch city Arnhem has been supplied with a new Sound Projects DreamLine sound system. The installation was provided by the Arnhem-based Live Music.

ArtEZ originated in 2002 through a merger of the Art Universities of Arnhem, Enschede and Zwolle. The ArtEZ conservatory, with more than 900 students and 260 teachers is one of the larger Dutch conservatories. ArtEZ has worked with Live Music as contractor for years and had chosen Sound Projects systems as reinforcement for different auditoria.

The new DreamLines are bei

UK - PEL Music & Media has been awarded the contract to design, install and commission new sound systems into McDonald's' biggest UK franchisee's restaurants.

Franchisee Pru Naik has 24 McDonald's restaurants, mainly around West London and Berkshire. His McDonald's feature stylish dark bamboo and cream colour schemes, flowers on the tables, free wi-fi in every restaurant and now a new sound system.

Brand & communications manager Rico Pieri investigated the sound options and found Bose to be both quick to respond and helpful. Bose put Pieri in touch with one of its leading Bose Pro-P

USA - The Healing Place Church, listed as one of "America's Most Innovative Churches" (Outreach magazine, Jan/Feb 2008), is a multi-purpose facility that includes a live worship space as well as a complete suite of production spaces for video and audio recording and broadcast. Through the use of extensive technical infrastructure, the production spaces can serve worship in the main sanctuary, or be configured to operate completely independently.

The Sanctuary's main sound system will consist of three arrays of 14 Outline Butterfly C.D.H. 483 elements each, powered by

UK - The CSS installation team has had a busy winter, completing lighting and sound installation at Newent Community School, St Edwards School, University of Gloucestershire's University Chapel and Barnwood Park Arts College.

Newent School wanted to upgrade the dimmer capability to 24 channel, and digital patching unit. A new 63Amp 3-phase mains and a Strand Wall rack 24 to distribute to seven lighting bars, along with four Robe 250AT moving heads was provided.

An extensive sound, lighting and video installation at St Edward's Senior School in Cheltenham. covers two interconnecting

UK - Nestling against the dramatic backdrop of the Cornish coast, almost at Britain's most southerly point, lies the Minack Theatre - a gloriously visual outdoor performance venue. Northern Light has recently completed the upgrade of the venue's house lighting, which included cabling infrastructure, fixture renewal and DMX distribution.

Chris Watts, who had overall responsibility for project management on behalf of Northern Light, said: "It truly has been a joy to work on such an exceptional venue. An open air theatre presents its own unique challenges, particularly in terms of M

China - Lying at the Western end of China's Great Wall, Jia Yu Guan has been a strategic transport nexus since the days of the Silk Road. This historic city, placed at one of the major crossroads of civilisation has added a grand new theatre to its already bustling streets.

It's a measure of the astonishing speed with which complex projects can be completed that the Jia Yu Guan Grand Theatre opened just sixteen months after builders first cut turf. An ambitious project by any measure, the fact that this prestigious arts venue was completed during the final year of China's massive cons

Australia - The Capitol Theatre Tamworth, New South Wales, is a 402-seat purpose-built proscenium arch theatre, located in the new Centrepoint Shopping Complex in the town. The Theatre shares its foyer and bar facilities with Forum6 cinemas.

Theatre consultant Richard Stuart was engaged to plan and oversee the fit-out of the theatre. He explains: "Originally the theatre was going to be a large cinema but halfway through construction they developed the idea of making the largest cinema a live theatre. Consequently the building design was put on hold for a while whilst the theatre

UK - The £15.3m regeneration of The Crucible Theatre passed a milestone recently as the completion of Phase 1 of the project was marked by a series of preview test events from 21 March to 4 April. Theatre consultants Theatreplan LLP have been providing specialist planning and technical design expertise throughout the project.

Phase 1 of the comprehensive refurbishment programme included a new roof, new exterior cladding, additional reinforcement for the building's foundations and redevelopment of the front of house areas. Theatreplan's team of Clive Odom, John Whitaker, Peter Ru

UK - When the new Westfield London shopping centre opened in west London last October, it became the largest inner city shopping destination in Europe - and an immediate hit with shoppers, who thronged to the venue to visit retailers ranging from Marks & Spencer and Debenhams to Apple, Louis Vuiton, Dior, Prada and Tiffany.

The retail outlets are gathered in malls and a village area around a central atrium the size of a football pitch with a spectacular undulating glass roof. To bring life to the atrium, and to offer support to the entertainment events which will often be staged there

Croatia - Adris Group, one of the leading companies in Croatia's tourist and travel sector, chose a Klotz Digital Varizone PA system for its new five star hotel Monte Mulini in Rovinj/Istria. Varizone has been installed by Dicroic, Klotz's Croatian sales and service partner.

Since working with the new PA system, Adris Group has secured a long term contract with Dicroic for the design, projecting, installation and maintenance in the field of audio, video & multimedia solutions and has named Klotz Digital as one of its official suppliers.

"Klotz Digital's remarkable technology al

UK - Landmark London venue The Scala, has upgraded its front-of-house console, replacing its old mixing desk with a new 32-channel Soundcraft MH3 analogue, multi-mode console.

The board was specified by the venue's experienced head of sound, George Gregori, on recommendation from Soundcraft dealer, Pete Brotzman of Crystal Pro Audio, who provided the venue with much of its audio support.

The desk is also used by day to run live sound training courses run by Gregori for his company Live Sound Courses. With many alumni having progressed to great achievements in the professional world

Macau - Having renovated the small auditorium at the Macao Cultural Centre in 2006 with an ARCS system, L-Acoustics' Chinese distributor, Rightway Audio has now installed a new Kudo Line Source System into the venue's Grand Auditorium. One of the first theatre systems to be installed in South East Asia, it will primarily be used for classical and orchestral concerts and was supplied by Rightway to systems integrator, J K Brothers Audio Engineering Co.

The Grand Auditorium, a two-storey space with a capacity of 1,114, has been installed with 18 Kudo cabinets configured in three equal h

Indonesia - The Music Républicain Performance Hall is a part of Music Républicain, the new school for music and image founded by Ivonne Atmojo and Ivana Atmojo in August 2008. Located in South Jakarta, Indonesia, the Music Républicain Performance Hall is a multi-purpose facility, which can be used for different settings including small ensemble, orchestra, theatre, opera, Broadway show and music concert. The Performance Hall was completed at the end of 2008 and is now open for public events. With an area of 126sq.m, it has a seating capacity of 140.

Ivonne Atmojo,

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