Soundcraft has announced a new event in its successful series of Going Live seminars.

The ‘Scouser’ Going Live, which will run in Liverpool at the end of April, will feature a panel of engineers who all started their careers in the city.

The formula of Going Live is a simple and proven one. Soundcraft provides comprehensive and professional PA equipment for the students to work on, including a wide variety of mixing consoles for front-of-house and monitoring. All the course tutors are working engineers who tour with the biggest acts in music today. All the usual topics from how to operate front-of-house and monitor consoles, to microphone placement and outboard electronics, will be covered in the three-day agenda. There will also be a special class on digital mixing in a live situation. PA systems and tech support for the seminar will be provided by Liverpool’s Adlib Audio.
Dates: 27-29 April 2001
Venue: Liverpool

The Backstreet Boys are the biggest boy band out there. So it’s fitting that their Black and Blue world tour, which kicked off January 22, is likely to be the biggest show on the road right now - with a lighting package of more than 250 moving lights and a stage overflowing past 100 feet, rumbling across the country in 27 trucks. The equipment list, supplied by lighting contractor Premier Global Productions of Nashville, includes 144 High End Systems products and includes Studio Beams, Studio Colors and Cyberlights all controlled through a pair of Wholehog II consoles. Veteran lighting designer Peter Morse has specified High End gear on a variety of top-name tours including Barbra Streisand, Christina Aguilera, Reba McEntire, Mariah Carey and more.

Mobile phone company Orange has kicked off its largest ever Student Union club tour: ‘Enjoy Music on Campus’ is a high tech clubbing production that transforms student unions into impressive clubbing venues. Orange is employing expertise gained through its extensive music sponsorship portfolio to take leading DJs and the latest technology to universities across the UK. The first event took place in February at the De Montfort Student Union in Leicester and throughout the coming months will visit universities from Belfast to Plymouth, to allow as many students as possible to Enjoy Music on Campus. The line up for the events include the Freestylers, Jon Carter and talent from Grand Central Records. The club nights are designed to support the launch of ‘Orange on campus’, a mobile phone package specially designed for students.

TOA France has installed a new sound system in the Stade de la Meinau, a 30,000 capacity soccer stadium in Strasbourg, and the home ground of FC Strasbourg. The new system not only provides general public address announcements, but also emergency warning broadcasts, interlocked with the fire alarm system. To meet European technical criteria for voice evacuation systems, the SX-1000M Smart Matrix Unit was selected as the nucleus for the system, and features emergency audio signal channels as well as speaker line failure detection circuitry. A total of 56 ES-0871 general use speakers and 20 F-160 Fashion speakers are sited both inside and outside the stadium, driven by 18 2kW power amplifiers. This project was realised with the co-operation of Spie Trindel and CGV France.

PLASA, the VPLT (PLASA’s sister association in Germany) and Trade Partners UK (British Government) have been working together to present three seminars at the Pro Light & Sound Show at the Frankfurt Musikmesse next week with simultaneous German/English translation. The first, on Wednesday 7th March at 12.30pm, covers ‘Cruise Ships and Events Technology‘ with Peter Ed of ETC Europe, Martin Lilly (Airtours/Sun Cruises), and Davey Smalley of BSS Audio. The seminar looks at event technology on cruise ships, revealing what requirements there are and which products and solutions are needed for these less than straightforward environments. The second seminar, on Thursday 8th March at 12.30pm, is entitled ‘German - English Trade’. Paul Robinson from the British Embassy in Berlin and Michael Schneider of Lightronic discuss the difference between the British and the German way of thinking and its marketing. It considers the differences in supply and demand and reviews the development of trade relations between both countries with regards to event technology? ‘Working on DMX, fog, rigging and others - the international standards situation.’Is the final seminar on Friday 9th March, again at 12.30pm.The standards officers of PLASA and the VPLT, Tim Cox and Eckart Steffens, discuss the importance of technical standards and review the various projects underway worldwide.For further details visit the VPLT/PLASA stand - A01 - at the show.

Goodwood has offered Screenco a three-year contract to supply outdoor video screens for the Festival of Speed and the Goodwood Revival meeting. The large-screen visual display specialists return for the ninth Festival of Speed in July, which will be themed The Will To Win, and celebrates 50 years since Ferrari had their first Grand Prix victory. Screenco will be providing two 40sq.m truck-mounted screens for the event, along with production facilities and links. Both screens are linked by microwave, positioned in such a way that one is never far from seeing the action. September’s Revival meeting has become one of the world’s most historic motor racing events, and the only one which recreates in period detail the atmosphere of post-war motor racing. Screenco will be attending with two 40sq.m trucks.

News reaches us that the recent Dome auction turned into something of a bidding war and in so doing laid to rest fears that there would be a flood of cheap second-hand product hitting the market. Word has it that whilst there were some bargains to be had - top end lighting desks normally worth £15,000 upwards going for £7,000 - there were also numerous instances of bidders paying way over the list price for items. A 24-channel lighting control desk, for instance, which you can get for £525, was actually sold for £700, and this before the 10% premium buyers have to pay on all items. We also understand from our mole at the auction that numerous other items were attracting slightly higher or close to list price and one can only wonder at who out there has pockets so deep that price is not an issue. But not everything promised in the auction actually made it to the sale as the NMEC withdrew several items yesterday on the basis that it didn’t wish to prejudice the future use of the Dome - these included the Broadcast and Dome TV Suites and all associated equipment, together with plasma screens.By the time the auction ends at close of play today, more than 15,000 items from the Dome will have been sold and an anticipated £5 million will have been raised for an attraction that cost £800 million.

The Gearhouse Group plc and a large number of its subsidiary operations have been placed in administrative receivership. A legal notice posted on the company’s website states that AR Bloom & AJR Wollaston (Ernst & Young) were appointed joint administrative receivers on 23rd February 2001. Over recent years, the Group, a supplier of professional presentation and event production equipment, for both rental and sale, to the corporate presentation, TV, film and live entertainment industries worldwide, had followed an ambitious programme of growth, acquiring a number of complementary companies and rebranding them under the Group banner. It appears from the notice that most of the companies within the Group are now in receivership - these include all the Gearhouse subsidiaries across the UK, Gearhouse LED Screens, Gearhouse Lighting, Gearhouse Special Projects, Gearhouse Structures, Gearhouse XTC, Impact Rentals, PPL Event Services, Presentation Services, Proquip Gearhouse, Sceneset and Set 'N' Stage.

An institution is coming home, when Crossroads returns to our TV screens in the spring. The soap is planned to fill the gap following the departure of Home and Away. Filmed in Carlton TV’s studio in Nottingham, Crossroads will be the new centrepiece in ITV’s daytime schedule. Second time around, Crossroads has moved up-market, from the original motel to a modern hotel with a beauty salon, bar and restaurant and this time will be lit by a range of . To ensure the perfect lighting, Carlton bought 144 channels of ETC Sensor dimming, supplied by AC Lighting. The returning stars from the Crossroads hall of fame are Jane Rossington (no relation to L&SI’s editor sadly) as Jill Harvey, Kathy Staff, who hangs up the wrinkled stockings of Last of the Summer Wine's Nora Batty and dons the uniform of much-loved laundress Doris Luke and waiting in the wings for a return later in the series is Tony Adams as Adam Chance, Jill Harvey's ex-husband.

The Strategic alliance between Dynaudio, Munro Associates and TC Electronic in June 1999 has been expanded, widening TC Electronic's responsibility for worldwide distribution and marketing of Dynaudio Acoustics to include all larger systems developed by Munro Associates. These include the ultra high-end MA1 Mastering Monitor, the well-known M4 main-monitor systems and the THX approved M3F system. As a result of the alliance, several joint development projects are already in consideration.

Terminal Studios, based in London Bridge, has made a significant investment in Turbosound stock with the purchase of 24 TFM-330 floor monitors, supplied by Marquee Audio. The TFM-330 incorporates a custom designed 4" voice coil, 15" low frequency driver and a high power 2" high frequency compression driver on a custom waveguide in a compact vented enclosure. The studio bought its first Turbosound loudspeakers in 1985 in the form of a pair of TMS-4s and has continually added to and upgraded the stock since that time. The studioshave worked with a host of pop icons since their establishment in 1979 such as David Bowie, Duran Duran and more recently Take That, Robbie Williams and The Chemical Brothers, the quality and sound of the monitors was the prime consideration in the choice, for managing director Charlie Barrett.

Pulsar picked up the ‘Excellence in Training’ award at this year’s LIVE! Awards. The award is recognition of their comprehensive range of both Clay Paky and Pulsar technical seminars hosted at their Cambridge HQ, the joint organisation with DI of both the UK and World Light Jockey Contests, and their latest collaboration with PLASA introducing the Student Lighting Designer Award aimed at colleges.

The recently-established Crystal Leisure is all set to launch its first major project. The company will unveil plans for a new multi-million pound superclub within the next few months. Summit, as the club will be known, will hold approximately 1500 clubbers and will be situated on Nene Parade in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire. The company is currently working with leading sound, lighting and design companies to create the look and feel of the club.

Cause & Effect, the organisers of the 2001 Birmingham Fringe theatre festival, are looking for companies within our industry to collaborate on a range of projects during the 2001 festival.

The idea is to demonstrate the contribution made by our industry to technical theatre. Project director Derrick G Knight told L&SI: "My motivation is to enhance Birmingham as a host city for performing arts. This will be achieved through the development of a network of performance venues in partnership with the performers, venue owners and production companies associated with performing arts."

The initial idea is to include a sound and lighting exhibition alongside the festival, which takes place in July and August, and Derrick Knight is exploring the availability of no-cost exhibition space at a number of venues near the performance spaces. If you are interested in participating call +44 (0)121 622 1771.

Gobo specialist DHA Lighting organised a gobo design competition for members of the ALD at its Waterloo base recently.

The winner, Robin Carter (pictured with DHA MD Diane Grant), is a freelance lighting designer based in Brighton, East Sussex, and his winning design, called ‘Smoke Screen’ (inset) was one he created for a production of The Glass Menagerie at The Northcott Theatre, Exeter. Carter, who began his lighting career in New Zealand where he grew up, came to the UK four years ago, and has been designing for regional theatre productions ever since.

The winning design will now be published in the DHA gobo catalogue, and instead of receiving royalties for his design, Carter has opted to donate these to the Light Relief fund, set up last year to provide help and assistance to freelance lighting designers in times of personal crisis.

Following the re-structuring of the AETTI (Arts & Entertainment Technical Training Initiative) on January 31st 2001, Matthew Griffiths, managing director of PLASA, has been elected as AETTI chairman for 2001. He joins Joe Aveline (secretary) and Henrietta Branwell (treasurer) on the AETTI’s panel of officers. The AETTI was first formed in 1987 at a fringe meeting of ABTT North, and has existed since as an informal body led by a steering committee. The AETTI last year helped to develop the first BTEC qualifications for stage technicians, in association with Loughborough College and with the assistance of funding from the European Social Fund. On 31st January this year, the existing steering committee of the AETTI wound itself up, and a new constitution was adopted. As part of the restructuring, Matthew Griffiths, Joe Aveline and Henrietta Branwell were chosen as the organisation’s new officers.

Furthermore, the newly-restructured body has signed a formal agreement with Loughborough College for a three-year continuation of the development and delivery of BTEC qualifications, subject to annual reviews. In addition, the possibility of running a theatre technician foundation course during the PLASA Show in September 2001 is currently being investigated by the organisation. In order to publicise the new developments within the organisation, and to provide the opportunity for discussion on training issues with the theatre industry and the BTEC Award scheme, the AETTI will be exhibiting at the forthcoming ABTT Theatre Show in London (4-5 April 2001).

TiLE will be the official European Show of The Themed Entertainment Association (TEA). TiLE is aimed at those who have an interest in the future of location-based leisure attractions, whilst TEA is an international alliance of the world's most talented and experienced professionals in the themed attractions industry. The decision coincides perfectly with the 10th anniversaries of both TiLE and TEA and recognises the close relationship that has built up between the two; the European Chapter of TEA (now TEA Europe) was launched at TiLE 1998 in Strasbourg, France, and has become one of the fastest growing chapters of TEA.

Marquee Audio has joined a select band of companies entrusted with marketing Sony professional products with its appointment as approved pro audio dealer for the brand. The portfolio of Sony sound reinforcement products handled by Marquee will range from the popular radio mic series to more esoteric items such as feedback exterminators, and will include the DMX R-100 digital desk. The appointment was confirmed by Sony’s recently-recruited pro audio sales and marketing manager, Alan Johnson.

Pro Audio Systems have launched their new web site, www.pasystems.co.uk. It includes lots of useful industry links, an on line pro audio store and a members' area. Membership allows access to special deals and free used equipment ads. The site is a good information centre, provides a service to existing and new customers as well as being a comprehensive on line store for a full range of pro audio equipment.