UK - After establishing the concept for an upmarket bowling alley, diner and bar at Bloomsbury's Victoria House in January 2006, All Star Lanes' directors Mark von Westenholz and Adam and Charles Breeden this month opened their second site at Whiteleys Shopping Centre in Bayswater.
All Star Lanes has revolutionised the bowling industry in Britain, and the larger, more luxurious Bayswater site has seen the concept evolve into a flexible space, with eight bowling lanes (including two in a private room), a large sophisticated diner /bistro and glamorous American cocktail bar.
To develop the sophisticated switching and routing of audio and video sources, the owners again turned to the Sound Division Group - who first worked with the Breeden Brothers on their award-winning Lonsdale Bar in Notting Hill.
Technology has moved on apace since then, and the new bar would not only require iPod docking stations - but David Graham's company had to make a generous provision of insert points that on the one hand would accommodate party guests in the private room, wanting to plug in a PlayStation, to those interested in corporate hire, needing to fire up a PowerPoint display for delegates. The functionality also had to apply equally to daytime and night-time use.
SDG opted for a Harman Pro solution (with JBL loudspeakers and Crown amplification), assembling a crack site team - with the reliable Jon Carey project managing (and designing the cabling infrastructure), the experienced Martin Barbour programming the BSS Soundweb London digital control and Elliot Patterson leading S
UK - Alcons Audio reports that its fifth PLASA show was again a very successful one, with many new clients and interested potential Alcons users visiting the company's stand.
"We can look back on another very successful event, where we welcomed many new Alcons-interested people and existing clients," says MD Tom Back. "It was good to see that they could find us on the main floor of Hall 1."
Following its presentation at Frankfurt's ProLight & Sound, the Phitom "large-format pro-ribbon sound-reinforcement" design study was also present in London and proved again to be the centre-point of interest and discussion. Besides this, the Q-series pro-ribbon column arrays and the L-series pro-ribbon line-arrays were on show, including the LR16 line-array, as featuring in London WestEnd's Fame The Musical.
Back continues, "With PLASA also attracting a different user group from different territories and taking place in the second-half of the year, the show continues to be an important platform for our international presence."
(Jim Evans)
USA - The annual Behind the Scenes motorcycle raffle at LDI has become a hugely popular event. Because this year's bike is so special, The ESTA Foundation wanted everyone to have a chance to participate in the raffle, even those unable to attend LDI. A limited quantity of tickets will be available for purchase online from October 1-31 at www.estafoundation.org/bts/events/LDI2007_Raffle.htm. Tickets are $50 each or five for $200. Raffle tickets also include the chance to win the 2nd place prize of a $2500 VISA gift card or the 3rd place prize of a $1000 VISA gift card.
Raffle tickets will be available throughout the LDI 2007 show at the Behind the Scenes booth #1245 and in the evenings at the ESTA Annual Dinner, the Rose Brand Party, and LDI's Texas Hold 'Em Tournament to benefit Behind the Scenes on Saturday evening. The drawing will be held at 2pm on Sunday, November 18th in booth #1245. You do not need to be present to win.
All proceeds of the raffle go directly to The ESTA Foundation's Behind the Scenes program which provides entertainment technology industry members with grants for emergency situations, such as serious illness, injury or death.
For more information about Behind the Scenes, to donate, or to apply for a grant, visit the website address below.
(Lee Baldock)
UK - The Reproduced Sound Conference, in its 23rd year, is one of the friendliest and most informative conferences available to audio professionals, providing a great opportunity to mix and interact with people from all sides of the industry, say the organisers.
This year, in addition to the usual format of papers, more demonstrations and interactive sessions have been added, which are expected to inform and challenge even the most experienced audio professional, while being easy to understand by newcomers. The addition of a voting system brings audience interactivity to many sessions, and will provide an immediate indication of audience opinion during listening tests and demonstrations.
Papers cover a wide range of topics, with emphasis on issues relating to live music. Presenters are industry professionals including product designers, consultants, sound designers, researchers and musicians.
Reproduced Sound 23 is at The Sage, Gateshead, 29-30 November, 2007.
(Jim Evans)
Germany - The Weekend is arguably Berlin's hippest house and techno club, and with its high-flying location on the 12th floor of a Soviet block on Alexanderplatz in the former East Berlin, it's easy to see why. The outside might not win any design prizes, but the inside is all geometric lines and minimal chic with breathtaking views out over Berlin - perfect for seeing in the sunrise.
As for the sounds, Atlantic Audio had already put in a powerful, top of the range Crest-driven Martin Audio system into Week12end (on the twelfth floor, naturally), followed by a second system complete with Digitool processing from Peavey into Week15end (yes, on the 15th floor) in February of this year, and have just completed an extension of the system onto the brand new roof terrace on the 17th storey.
Jörg Sandmann, project manager for Atlantic Audio, has specified Martin Audio throughout, (Wavefront W3 for Week12end and W8LM mini line array for Week15end) all driven by Crest Audio CC Series power amplifiers. "If ever there was an amplifier that you can put in your rack and rely on to do its job for ever, even in harsh environments like a club, then CC Series is it," remarked Sandmann.
He took a slightly different approach for the roof terrace, opting for four Martin Audio LE1200 high power, low profile stage monitors which deliver high levels at close quarters that drop off rapidly once out of range, and two Blackline S218 subs powered by three Crest Performance CPX 3800s, the recently launched flagship model of the CPX range. This enables the club to stay within th
USA - Ableton has announced the expansion of its US sales force with the introduction of the team that will be dedicated to serving the entire country's distributors and retailers.
Terry Hardin joined Ableton in August as the new senior account manager. He will help increase US distribution for the company's music production software, Live 6 and Live 6 LE.
"I have been a fan and a Live user for a number of years, and I am amazed by the advances that have been made with Live 6," says Hardin. "Live is the single most musical and intuitive music production software available."
Hardin is based in Santa Cruz, California, and will be working closely with the teams in Ableton's New York and Berlin offices, including inside sales support coordinators Sam Walker and Cindy O'Shea in New York.
Working closely with Hardin are two Ableton product specialists, Huston Singletary and Laura Escudé.
(Jim Evans)
UK - RCF is to present a seminar on the new DXTsystem at Audex 2007 (18 Oct 2007, City of Manchester Stadium, UK - in conjunction with the RCF Open Day), scheduled for 3pm. in the Audex lecture theatre.
The seminar will provide a full preview of RCF's soon-to-be-released new voice alarm and venue management system, the DXT.
RCF's Phil Price comments: "The DXT system is sure to become a standard specification for any number of venues in the very near future."
The seminar, will be presented by Michele Begotti, product specialist for RCF Spa, Michele will give a complete overview of what the system is, what it can do and some basic design and functionality guides and demonstrations. Price adds: "If you are involved with voice alarm in any way then you really must see this presentation."
(Jim Evans)
USA - J. R. Clancy has received the United States patent for its PowerAssist Counterweight Automation System.
PowerAssist technology is new to the theatrical rigging industry in that it eliminates the need to rebalance counterweights on line sets. While counterweight/motor combinations have been available in several forms for many years, PowerAssist uses an innovative padded rope that fits into the existing head block, which works in combination with a roller chain and toothed sprocket to balance the weight of the batten, virtually eliminating the possibility of slippage or accidental release, says the company.
"In our 120-plus years in business, J. R. Clancy has developed many innovative products for the rigging industry - and all of them are designed with safety and security as our foremost priority," said Bob Theis, president of J. R. Clancy. "PowerAssist is not only an entirely new concept, but it is also a way to increase the safety of installed counterweight systems in schools, church auditoriums and theatres around the world. All of these venues can enjoy the security and convenience of automation without making an unscheduled investment in total theatre renovation."
(Jim Evans)
UK - Richard Martin Lighting has recently taken stock of the latest innovation from Martin Professional, the LC2140 Panel.
The LED based video screen has a semi-transparent design with easily connecting panels that allow for area coverage of up to 14m in height and no restrictions in width.
Each panel frame is 1m x 2m with LEDs laid inside an acrylic tube. The pixel pitch of the panel is 40mm which allows for excellent resolution and the design of the panel creates a seamless image, says the company.
(Jim Evans)
UK - Mojo Barriers' services have been enlisted for the current Police world tour. The company installs 300m of its aluminium Mojo Barriers at all European shows. The set-up is a classic front of stage barrier system with a secondary barrier in the shape of an arc, to segregate the audience and decrease loading on the front-of-stage barrier. The system was equipped with eight "line up" gates to safely control the flow of the crowd in and out of the secondary barrier.
Headed up by crew boss Jeroen Tap, Mojo Barriers also installed barriers around the mixing positions and delay towers in the crowd.
Mojo Barriers provided the band's aluminium Mojo Barriers for the shows in the US earlier this year and will continue to supply The Police with their product for the upcoming shows in the US, South America, Australia, New Zealand and Asia.
"Major tours like The Police are always a challenge for Mojo Barriers," says managing director Patrick Jordan. "Crowd management standards are continuously evolving and we, as a company, have to ensure we can offer the very best facilities for these high profile concerts."
(Jim Evans)
Russia - NOUK Autograf based in Moscow, has just invested in two InnovaSON Pro FX Sy80 and Sy48 console packages featuring the new FM-8VB plug-in effects modules. The consoles were supplied by StudiTech, InnovaSON's Russian distributor.
According to StudiTech's Nikita Stepanov, Autograf is one of the most highly regarded rental production companies in the country. "They were the first rental company in Russia to invest in really top-class consoles from internationally recognised brands," he explained. "Everything they do is of the highest quality and it is important to them that they maintain those standards. Hence when it came to investing in a new digital console, they saw and tested absolutely everything that was available."
Autograf decided upon InnovaSON for a number of reasons. "First and foremost, they were extremely impressed by the flexibility of the system," confirmed Stepanov. "The ability to configure the console in any way you please and the ingenious SmartFAD function which enables you to handle large numbers of inputs very easily without having to scroll through endless pages were definite point-scorers.
"Furthermore, the new technologies introduced by InnovaSON this year, all of which figure in the Pro FX packages, have lifted the consoles into a different class without affecting the price, which makes them even more attractive than before.
"I think it's fair to say that Autograf were very happy to buy the consoles from us. We have a long-standing relationship, and they know they can rely on us to p
USA - Nexxus Lighting has announced that it has closed the previously announced merger of LED and fibre optic lighting manufacturer, Advanced Lighting Systems (ALS), with and into a wholly-owned subsidiary of Nexxus Lighting. The newly merged company, Advanced Lighting Systems, LLC, will continue to operate out of ALS' manufacturing facility in Sauk Centre, Minnesota.
In addition, Nexxus Lighting announced that the non-binding letter of intent it entered into with LightWild, LLC in Overland Park, Kansas has expired and will not be extended.
"We are very excited to have closed the merger transaction with ALS. We look forward to integrating ALS as a Nexxus Lighting company and executing our LED product development strategy for both the commercial and entertainment lighting markets," stated Mike Bauer, president & CEO of Nexxus Lighting.
"Our overall strategy for growth in solid state lighting through, among other things, strategic acquisitions is a fundamental part of our core business model and we are continuing to selectively evaluate opportunities that could facilitate expansion of our product offering and penetration into new market segments."
(Jim Evans)
UK - Remo Martufi has joined Tomcat UK in the role of channel development manager. Martufi comes to Tomcat from a well established entertainment background, working for some of the most well known companies within the industry, amongst which are Ampco-Flashlight & Blue Squares. In addition to leading the sales team, Remo will be responsible for Sales & Business Development in the European, Middle Eastern and African markets.
Paolo Dozzo, sales manager for the Vitec Staging Division - Tomcat UK's parent company, commented, "Remo is experienced in sales, marketing, customer support and communications, all of which have built him a lot of respect within the industry. We are pleased to have Remo on the Tomcat team."
(Jim Evans)
UK - The industry reference source, The White Book celebrates its 25th edition with the launch of a new website at the Showman's Show, at the Newbury Showground this month.
With more than 37,000 listings across 470 categories, www.whitebook.co.uk provides the event industry with its first dedicated search engine, claims the publisher.
Group sales manager, Michelle Tayton, said: "The White Book's experience and reputation within events organisation is second to none. With such a strong brand it made sense to launch an on-line resource that supports the directory and provides instant and accurate results at the click of the mouse."
(Jim Evans)
Sweden - Wireless Solution Sweden has announced the release of two new W-DMX Micro products: The BlackBox S-1 Micro Transmitter and the BlackBox R-512 Micro Lite Receiver.
"The Micro line was extended after seeing the incredible response to the R-512 Micro receiver released in 2006," says Niclas Arvidsson, international sales manager for Wireless Solution. "The unit has all the reliable functionality of the full sized W-DMX BlackBox units, but the compact size was appealing to a large number of end users."
The new Micro series builds upon the considerable successes of the full size BlackBox range. Thanks to advances in circuit miniaturisation, Wireless Solution has managed to fit the complete W-DMX system into a compact package with less than half the volume of the usual casing.
Even with the compact size, the S-1 Micro includes a full battery backup system and antenna. The battery backup system in the S-1 Micro can be utilised in two ways depending on the installation requirements and availability of power. Where power is available but not always reliable, the Micro unit's battery system performs the role of an uninterrupted power supply, ensuring seamless operation during outages.
Alternatively, in situations where power is difficult to feed to the Micro unit's location, it can provide up to eight hours continuous independent operation from a full charge. When power is available, the Micro units can accept low voltage inputs in the range 12 to 24VDC.
"We believe that the impressive combination of miniaturisation, toughness, flexib
USA - The Oregon Symphony starts its annual concert season in style at the end of each summer, celebrating popular classics in the heart of the community with outdoor performances staged in Portland's public parks.
Local company Horne Audio deployed Electro-Voice XLC loudspeaker systems for 30 August performances by the Portland Youth Philharmonic and the Oregon Symphony in Tom McCall Waterfront Park, which featured a programme of classical favourites ranging from Copland to Tchaikovsky.
Horne addressed the large bowl-shaped venue with 14 delay towers in 15 time zones, a surround sound system with a circumference of approximately 1000ft.
Spaced up to 75ft apart, the towers were configured to keep every member of the audience in a near-field zone, minimising environmental effects on sound quality. Most of the towers featured three XLC127DVX enclosures, with low-end support via two XLC215 subwoofers. In addition, QRx112/75 boxes provided front-fills and delays at far the end of the venue. A total of 36 XLC127DVX and 20 XLC215 were used for the concert.
"This community event is always a pleasant way to cap off our summer work schedule," says Peter Horne. "We've done this show for a number of years now, and used to use trap boxes; for past three years we've used XLC line arrays, which provide more precise coverage and full bandwidth control. The effect is seamless, and the XLC's characteristic mid-range warmth and smoothness really impressed the organisers, especially with the added boost of the DVX drivers."
(Jim Evans)
Belgium - Introduced at the PLASA Show in London in September, Goboland's innovative black steel gobos have received a positive response from the lighting industry. Each gobo is coated with a black, heat-resistant coating, which does not burn or peel off under extreme heat. The coating minimises internal reflection, producing a crisper image with no halo effect. Encouraged by initial tests and feedback, Goboland has a patent pending on the use of this material for gobo production.
"Lantern optics have improved considerably over the years," explains Goboland's exclusive consultant, Wyatt Enever, "but the basic nature of the gobo has remained the same - until now. Goboland is known for the work it does on glass gobos, now we are extending our development to our steel range as well."
Goboland gave some 'M' size black steel gobos to ETC to try out in the ETC Source Four Revolution fixtures at PLASA 07, where they were in use for the full duration of the show.
"We like to use black gobos in our Revolutions to cut down on internal reflection and sharpen the projection," explains ETC's European marketing manager, Erik Larsen. "Our trials with black gobos in the past have resulted in a lot of smoke with the painted coating being reduced to powder. The Goboland coating, so far, shows only a slight discolouration in the heat but certainly no distortion of the image. They do exactly what I expected them to do - I can honestly say I like the new black gobos."
Martin Professional also recognised the potential of the new gobos as inn
USA - American Music & Sound confirms that Turbosound has joined the AM&S family of brands effective 1 October 2007.
"Turbosound produces the most innovative loudspeaker systems on the market," comments Lynn Martin, president of American Music & Sound. "We are honoured to have them on board, and we look forward to spearheading Turbosound's push into the American market."
"American Music & Sound is extremely well aligned to take Turbosound to the next level in the US," says Turbosound's new managing director, Simon Blackwood. "They have a number of complimentary product lines in their roster to leverage our brand and are in a perfect position to market our products through their existing channels."
"Also fantastic news for us," comments Blackwood, "is that Brad Stephens, who managed the Turbosound brand at our previous distributor Sennheiser, is moving across to AM&S to continue his role as national sales manager and so maintain continuity with the company's client base."
• This month's 123rd AES Convention in New York sees Turbosound introducing to the US market the TA-500DP self-powered, three-way, full-range loudspeaker with onboard, user-adjustable DSP.
(Jim Evans)
USA - Aviom's MH10f Fibre Merger Hub made its high-profile debut moving live broadcast audio at the recent MTV Video Music Awards in Las Vegas.
The Vegas hotel-nightclub that hosted the star-studded extravaganza has a sizeable complement of Aviom Pro64 Series products already installed, including a dozen 6416dio Digital I/O Modules as tie lines. The MH10f Merger Hub allowed MTV engineers and installer Audio Analysts to connect the venue's 12 6416dio modules via fibre to broadcast locations over long distances.
The MH10f Merger Hub is designed to merge and distribute A-Net data streams and provide a host of professional features to make audio networking with Pro64 Series products easy to set up and configure in multiple professional audio environments, says the company.
(Jim Evans)
France - At this year's 60th anniversary of the Cannes Film Festival, Meyer Sound signed on as a sponsor of the Cannes Legend celebration, employing the new, self-powered UPJunior ultra-compact VariO loudspeaker to deliver audio to the esteemed guests and performers. Cannes Legend is an exclusive week-long spree of animation screenings, presentations, fashion shows, and soirees held in conjunction with the festival itself.
Paris-based Dispatch, France's largest audio rental house, supplied the audio equipment for Cannes Legend, including four UPJunior loudspeakers and four USW-1P compact subwoofers for a tented dance floor on the beach, six UPJunior cabinets on the terrace surrounding the tent, and four more UPJunior units at the hotel's seafront garden, where another tent hosted a series of smaller gatherings.
Versatility was of key importance in choosing the Meyer Sound system, according to Dispatch technical director Marc de Fouquières. "The loudspeakers were used for press conferences and spoken presentations during the day, animation screenings in the evenings, and DJ parties all night long," says de Fouquières.
(Jim Evans)
UK - Delta Sound has a reputation for working on unusual projects and one Friday evening in mid-September heralded another atypical job, the UK premier of Alvin Curran's Maritime Rites, which required ingenuity and versatility from both equipment and engineers.
A DiGiCo D5 Live sat at the bankside Front of House position, with XTA digital signal processors controlling two hangs of VDosc loudspeakers. Nothing unusual there, but with a barge moored in the middle of the river Thames as the main stage, that was where convention ended and inventiveness took over.
Commissioned by Tate Modern, Maritime Rites is the first collaboration between Tate Modern and the London Symphony Orchestra and is part of UBS Openings: Live, a series of bi-monthly performance events at the gallery, which is a regular Delta Sound client, and marked a prelude to the start of the Thames Festival.
The free performance, inspired by the sounds of the river and concluding with the Bells of St Paul's Cathedral, was split between the barge, where Curran himself, along with musicians Evan Parker and Melvyn Poore, played keyboard/synthesiser, saxophone and tuba respectively, the north landscape outside the Tate Modern, where the LSO were positioned, and the UBS Orchestra, which brought together UBS employees and administration staff from the LSO performing from the Millennium Bridge.
"The barge was fitted out with a three point dV-Dosc system doing a left, right and mono sum firing to the bridge," explains Delta project manager, Lee Dennison. "All the sounds -
UK - Freelance broadcast sound designer Oliver France, who originally designed the sound for Deal Or No Deal, has replaced the game show's inventory of 23 Audio-Technica Engineered Sound gooseneck contestant microphones, re-equipping the production with the newly re-engineered Engineered Sound Series models, featuring the UniGuard RFI protection circuitry.
The decision to deploy the new ES Series mics, was made to take advantage of the new RFI protection circuitry on set. "There are large numbers of the public to marshal on this show, and some of them do sneak in with their mobile phones switched on in silent mode," explains France, "The new RFI protected microphones provide us with a guarantee against that additional possibility of something else going wrong with a live studio audience. The RFI protection also guarantees against interference from other RF sources in the studio such as IEM systems and production talkback radio, and helps achieve an interference free signal."
The 23 original ES Series goosenecks he equipped the production with last year have been replaced with 22 of the new ES915 with an 18" gooseneck, and a 21" gooseneck model to facilitate contestants using a wheelchair. The ES915 was chosen for both signal quality and aesthetic considerations.
"I've been using Audio-Technica for seven years now, ever since the first Big Brother," he continues, "For Deal Or No Deal, with a large number of contestants placed behind long tables, I needed to use podium mics, but ones that would loo
USA - Following last week's announcement of an AES seminar on the subject of Digital Networking, hosted by Renkus-Heinz, the company has confirmed two further seminars.
The first is titled 'Iconyx Digitally Steerable Arrays: Technology, Applications, Innovations', from 2:45 PM to 4:15 PM on Sunday 7 October.
Secondly, Ahnert Feistel Media Group (AFMG) will conduct two seminars on 'Tools & Techniques for Measuring & Optimising Loudspeaker Systems', and will discuss actual applications of EASERA and the new EASERA SysTune software. The seminars will be held in Room 1E04 at the Javits Convention Center on Friday 5 October.
(Jim Evans)
UK - Blackout has completely overhauled its website for ease of navigation. The site has been given a fresh new look, with seven separate sections in addition to the homepage.
These sections include an up-to-date product listing, which includes information on Blackout's new Rigging Mast and Gabled Truss products; a list of the services provided, from sales and rental to temporary and permanent installations; a look at the people who make the company tick; and an in-depth image gallery showcasing some of Blackout's most recent projects. There is also a contacts page with full details of the company's London and Paris offices, and a recruitment page.
Steve Tuck, Blackout's managing director comments: "The old website was fine up to a point, but we wanted something that any potential customer would find easy to navigate, even if they were from outside the events industry.
"The new site is brighter, fun and more inviting, and I'm especially pleased that we now have an extensive image gallery of recent events such as the BRIT Awards, the Casino Grand Lisboa launch in Macau and the Eurovision Song Contest. These images convey some of the excitement about what we do - the events we help to facilitate and the impact they achieve."
The website launch coincides with the publication of the 2007 edition of Blackout's customer newsletter, which contains a mix of project and product news, and can be downloaded free of charge from the site (www.blackout-ltd.com), along with previous editions.
(Jim Evans)