Germany - Hamburg's oldest parish church, Hauptkirche St. Petri, founded in the 11th century, has been equipped with a state of the art sound system designed and installed by Cobra sound light. The Hamburg based live event and system design company has fitted church of the Hanseatic city with Renkus-Heinz IC Live digitally beam steerable loudspeakers.

Located in the heart of downtown on Hamburg's major shopping hub, Mönckebergstrasse, the 1,033-seat Hauptkirche St. Petri is considered the 'city church' and opens its doors daily to offer on oasis of calm and a place to meet.

Cobra s

UK / USA - Following on from the critical success of the new Royal Shakespeare Theatre (RST) in Stratford-upon-Avon, the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) has further developed Charcoalblue's and Bennetts Associates' auditorium designs to deliver a 975-seat 'flat pack' travelling performance space.

The new, three-tiered structure has been built inside New York's historic Park Avenue Armory. Here, from 6 July - 14 August, Lincoln Center Festival and Park Avenue Armory, in association with The Ohio State University, are presenting the Royal Shakespeare Company for a repertoire of five of

UK - Already boasting an illustrious following among lounge nightclubs in London's clubland, including Mortons, Raffles, Stringfellows, Vendome, Bungalow 8 and Le Pigalle, Nexo has been given a big boost by new super-club Pulse, which has chosen a Geo S12 system for its primary space.

Pulse, also known as Bankside Vaults, is built into four spectacular interlinked brick arches, right beside Blackfriars Bridge in central London.

Divided naturally into four main interlinked areas, the space can be adapted for any occasion. Its primary space is equipped with a performance stage, recent

UK - CHAUVET, a leading manufacturer of professional lighting recently installed nearly 150 Chauvet fixtures in Troxy, a multifunctional venue for live concerts, corporate events, weddings, indoor sports and more. Lighting designer Dan Sanders capitalized on the dramatic uplighting opportunities of the art-deco style venue with a bevy of LED wash lights specified by JPS Sound & Light based in St. Ives.

Installed throughout the venue are 16 COLORado Tri Tour, 60 COLORband Tri and 10 COLORado Batten 72 Tour, as well as 36 LED PAR 38 wash lights. Sanders specifically sought LED-fitted fi

UK - News of another interactive new feature area at PLASA 2011 has been announced. The Theatres Trust will return to PLASA 2011 with an expanded version of its innovative Ecovenue feature, the area that gives visitors the chance to see how 48 pioneering London theatres are putting sustainability into practice.

Located in Earls Court 2, the feature takes the form of a theatre-in-miniature, complete with 'auditorium', 'stage', 'backstage', 'foyer' and 'box office'. In each area The Theatres Trust will demonstrate proven sustainability techniques, as well as featuring technologies from

UK - Chichester Festival Theatre is one of the UK's flagship theatres, with a reputation for producing a wide range of theatrical productions, from musicals and comedies, to classic drama and innovative new writing. Since opening in 1962, the theatre has established an international reputation as one of the UK's leading regional venues. The Festival Theatre was founded by Leslie Evershed-Martin CBE and its first artistic director was Laurence Olivier.

With 1206 seats, the Festival Theatre was the first modern theatre in this country to have an open 'thrust' stage with the audience sea

UK - Earlier this year The Royal Shakespeare Theatre (RST), along with 97 other architectural projects, won a much-coveted 2011 Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) Award. Six of the 97 projects went on to be shortlisted for the prestigious Stirling Prize; the RST was one of them. The team at Charcoalblue Theatre Consultants, the company responsible for the design and planning of the theatre auditorium and the technical facilities, both in the auditorium and backstage, is delighted.

Managing director Andy Hayles comments, "This is the fifteenth project that the Charcoalbl

UK - The Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury is set to become one of the country's landmark theatres. Following a £25.6m development project, the venue will open on 4 October 2011. Award-winning theatre consultants Charcoalblue was appointed by owners of the theatre, Canterbury City Council, and were responsible for the design, planning and technical specification of the auditorium and backstage areas for both the main auditorium and the multi-configurable Marlowe Studio.

Working alongside architect Keith Williams of Keith Williams Architects was project manager for Charcoalblue, Paul C

UK - At this year's PLASA show, London-based theatre consultancy Charcoalblue will be joining the technical team of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre (RST) and Jonathan Porter-Goff of Stage Electrics to reveal how their designs, and the collaborative work they did with the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), transformed one of the world's most famous theatre auditoriums into a world-class performance space.

Charcoalblue will discuss the design concepts that resulted in this critically acclaimed new performance space for the Royal Shakespeare Company, Stratford-Upon-Avon.

Andy Hayles, manag

Estonia - Dating from 1865, The Vanemuine Theatre in Tartu is one of the oldest and prestigious theatre of all the Baltic republics.

Through the local agent E&T, a variety of LDR double optic condenser profiles , Fresnel , PC and Cyclorama's have been chosen, installed and successfully used in the theatre.

"The Vanemuine theatre was looking to replace and improve the existing lighting stage inventory," says Fabiano Besio. "The installation proved to be successful and I'm proud to know that LDR fits and exceeds the theatre needs - A special thankyou goes to Olev Luhaä

UK / USA - As part of its ongoing merger activities and in response to the end of year departure of Ruth Rossington, executive director in Europe, PLASA has taken the opportunity to restructure its management team to ensure it continues to move the organisation forward while progressing a wide range of projects of benefit to members.

With effect from 1 October 2011, a new company structure will be put in place which sees CEO Matthew Griffiths heading up the association, whilst also temporarily overseeing the Events divisions in the UK and North America. Finance director Shane McGreevy

USA - PLASA has announced the finalists for the fourth annual Rock Our World Awards, to be presented at the PLASA Cocktail & Awards Reception at LDI 2011. The PLASA Rock Our World Awards were created to honour groundbreaking achievement by its members and to acknowledge the genius of both the creator of the technology and the designer or integrator who applies it in a real world environment.

The finalists for the fourth annual Rock Our World Awards are:

83rd Annual Academy Awards - Green Hippo, PRG, TMB

ALEXA Digital Camera System - ARRI

coolux Widget Designer 3.0

USA - More than 25 years in the making, Dallas' AT&T Performing Arts Centre is a cultural nexus in the city's revitalised downtown arts district. The area is home to a number of different entertainment venues, from the Dallas Symphony's Meyerson Auditorium and the intimate Wyly Theatre to the Winspear Opera House and the open-air Annette Strauss Square, making it a busy hub of activity on any given evening.

The 2,200-seat Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House, created by architect Foster & Partners, with theatre design by Theatre Projects Consultants and acoustician Sound Space Design,

Lebanon - Popular open-air nightclub Skybar features a Turbosound-based sound system. Louay Agha of Lebanon-based Thunder Electronics explains his original 2008 system design, "With Skybar being open to the elements I specified Turbosound's TCS-C series of weather-resistant loudspeakers, whose qualities are vitally important."

The system has seen an upgrade this year with the addition of eight TCX-12 two-way loudspeakers and six B-18 subwoofers from the Compact series, powered by Turbosound's latest DSP-based amplifier: the RACKDP-50, which delivers an impressive 1250 watts

UK - A.C. Special Projects (ACSP) will attend PLASA 2011 (Stand 1-D32, Hall 1) to showcase and discuss examples of the many performance lighting, audio and AV system installations provided by the company.

ACSP design, supply and install lighting, sound and AV systems - as well as track and curtains, intercom and show relay. The company's previous installations range from a basic six circuit lighting bar, with a dimmer pack and lighting desk, to full blown theatre systems.

Working alongside designers and architects or directly for the performance venue, the company's fully qualified

UK - Marquee Installations has completed the installation of sound systems and AV infrastructure for the new G Live venue in Guildford, including the FOH Martin Audio W8LM Mini Line Array system.

Replacing the old Civic Hall, which closed in 2004, the G Live venue provides a flexible performance hall, which accommodates 1,000 in all-seat or 1,700 in seated/standing modes. The venue also incorporates a flexible-use 100-seat studio space, substantial foyers, café and bars, kitchens to provide for banqueting, seminar and meeting rooms, dressing rooms plus green room and offices.

UK - The Sage Gateshead has installed a Midas PRO9 live performance system at front of house in its main auditorium.

"We first came across the Midas PRO series almost three years ago, when we used a PRO 6 on a large surround sound opera, Skellig," says The Sage Gateshead's head of technical operations, Chris Durant. "It was obvious that this was a product that would more than meet our needs when we needed to upgrade, and would reinforce our reputation as one of the best sounding music venues in the world."

"Our demands range from small school concerts to lar

Croatia - L-Acoustics' Croatian distributor Dicroic has installed a 12XTi coaxial system into the Hotel Lone, an exclusive new resort on the waterfront of Lone Bay, situated in the protected Monte Mulini forest, Rovinj.

Part of the Croatian Maistra chain of hotels and resorts, Hotel Lone is Croatia's first five-star design hotel, providing a year-round leisure and business destination. Dicroic has installed an L-Acoustics system into the hotel's multi-purpose conference hall, designed to host a range of conferences as well as theatrical and concert events, as well as into the hotel's

USA - Theatre Projects has opened their first office on the west coast. They've been working on the west coast for 30 years and "are thrilled to now have a permanent home in Los Angeles".

Some of their more visible west coast projects include the Walt Disney Concert Hall and Kodak Theatre. But their west coast work represents their practice as a whole, including regional theatres, university work, small-scale projects, performing arts centres, and renovations. Find out more about Theatre Projects' work on the west coast attheatreprojects.com.

Theatre Projects designs and p

Finland - The Kylpylähotelli Levitunturi spa - hotel boasts 220 guest rooms spread across 10 hotel buildings, a generous selection of restaurants, cafes, and clubs, plus a world-class spa and bowling facilities. It also features a new sound reinforcement system drawn from the catalogue of D.A.S. Audio.

Jyti Ålander is the sales director for Espoo, Finland-based Electro Waves Oy, a leading Finnish company with expertise in the fields of sound systems, lighting, and water technology. A provider of innovative AV solutions, Electro Waves, in a cooperative effort with some partner compan

USA - The bird calls, primate howls and other noises coming from the Philips Park Zoo in Aurora, Illinois, are balanced with a new audio system that delivers news, exhibit information, and background music to some 200,000 visitors each year.

Chicago-based systems integration firm AST (Advanced Systems & Technologies) installed a 70-volt system with eight weatherproof Technomad advanced audio loudspeakers to provide intelligible voice and high-quality musical reproduction throughout all seven acres of the zoo. Seven Technomad Vernal loudspeakers discreetly cover the grounds, providing

UK - With preliminary visitor figures of over 12,000, showing a marginal increase over 2010 and strong international engagement from across the world, organisers PLASA Events are "delighted" with the positive feedback to this year's PLASA 2011, which has just closed its doors at Earls Court after a vibrant four days.

This year's event sets the scene for a strong return to Earls Court in 2012. Events Manager Sophie Atkinson commented: "Exhibitors have been enthusing about the high quality of visitors and the rate of sales enquiries, and with hundreds of new products bein

UK - With preliminary visitor figures of over 12,000, showing a marginal increase over 2010 and strong international engagement from across the world, organisers PLASA Events are "delighted" with the positive feedback to this year's PLASA 2011, which last week closed its doors at Earls Court after a vibrant four days.

This year's event sets the scene for a strong return to Earls Court in 2012. Events manager Sophie Atkinson commented: "Exhibitors have been enthusing about the high quality of visitors and the rate of sales enquiries, and with hundreds of new products bei

World - PLASA members worldwide have begun voting in the Association's yearly elections, which commenced this week.

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.

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