UK - Charcoalblue, the UK's newest theatre consultancy, was formed in February of this year by three theatre professionals who had previously worked together at Theatre Projects Consultants - namely Andy Hayles, Jon Stevens and Jack Tilbury. Hayles explains: "We decided that the time was right to branch out on our own. It wasn't an easy decision, but we had a clear vision of what we wanted to achieve."
Each member of the team has a strong background in the theatre. Hayles was previously chief electrician at Richmond Theatre Royal. Stevens has worked at the RSC in Stratford, toured with Opera North and was head of sound at Glyndebourne Opera. He still does lighting design when he gets a chance - most recently The Makropulos Case at the Deutsche Oper in Berlin. Tilbury began his career as a theatre production manager, and went on to project manage for Imagination at the Millennium Dome. "We're all committed to continuing to work in theatre and live events whenever we can: the only way to really understand the problems theatres face is to work in them," notes Stevens.
In September, the team will be completed with the arrival of architect and auditorium design specialist Gavin Green, another ex-employee of TPC. Green's entire career has been spent designing performing arts buildings, giving him an insight into the particular problems they present. Green commented: "Deciding to leave wasn't easy, but it's been very amicable and we've kept a close relationship with Theatre Projects."
That relationship has formed the beginning of Charcoalblue's
UK - Essex-based Xtreme Audio Visual has installed an audio package from Fuzion in The Elbow Room, Notting Hill, part of a highly successful chain of pool bars and club venues around the UK. The system comprises a pair of Nexo PS10 full-range cabinets, three pairs of Nexo PS8 compact cabinets and Crown CE1000 amplifiers. In addition to pool tables, The Elbow Room has a bar and dance floor area which has just been fitted with a portable DJ booth for use at weekends. The PS10s provide the dance floor with enough level, while the PS8s are used around the pool tables.
Commenting on the install, Xtreme's Duncan Baines said: "This bar is in a very densely populated neighbourhood, so potentially there are problems with the neighbours. The PS10s and PS8s provide good-quality sound without needing to be pumped."
Xtreme AV has just been awarded the contract to equip the Elbow Room in Islington.
(Barry Howse)
UK - Corporate and event lighting specialist Colourhouse is enjoying a summer of close collaboration with designers Bluey Design, working with them on projects for General Motors at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, and for British Telecom's Exact Ball in Suffolk. At Goodwood, Bluey Design was continuing an association with General Motors stretching back to 2002, working for Jack Morton in Detroit. The General Motors Orangery is a space used by the executive officers of General Motors worldwide to relax and entertain their guests away from the bustle of the motor-racing outside. By day, the space contains a set creating an elegant and contemporary space; by night, the venue is transformed into a gala dining space.
Bluey Design was responsible for lighting both the exterior and the interior of the Orangery. The interior day set was enhanced with custom-made low-voltage stick lights built into the set tops, with care taken to ensure that all cabling was concealed within custom trunking to make the venue look like a permanent installation. By night, the interior lighting was led by three thousand candles safely installed behind white gauze panels, with yellow floodlights then giving a warm glow to the roof. Outside, over one hundred light fittings ranging from Mac600s to Par38 uplighters were spread around the garden, along with underwater lighting in the central pool.
Bluey Design turned to Colourhouse for many of the practicalities of the installation, with Colourhouse supplying the mains distribution from two 125A three-phase generators, cabling, many strings of pe
Ireland - For about a year now, film equipment rental company Arri has been using a Telex BTR-700 intercom system - most recently on the set of the Touchstone/Bruckheimer production King Arthur. Most of the shooting for the film was done during a six-month period in Ireland, and the BTR-700 played a vital role.
Hans Lehner, one of the Arri technicians responsible for camera and stage equipment, said: "The system was used by key members of the crew - the director, the camera operators, the director of photography and the crane operator. At times, up to five of them were hooked up at the same time during a take, exchanging information and correcting or fine-tuning settings they had tried out earlier - such is the clarity of the system that they were able to communicate in whispers so as not to bleed into the production audio during passages of dialogue. The BTR-700 was much used also on crane shots, where flawless communication is of critical importance to the quality of the overall results."
Arri had originally planned to use a system with only three belt packs and headphones, but the BTR-700 proved so useful, offering high-quality, interference-free communication over long distances, that within the first few days of shooting the decision had already been taken to add further headsets. The BTR-700 turned out to be highly durable in the difficult environment of day-to-day shooting, where the headsets and belt packs were in action up to nine hours a day virtually every day for six months.
Lehner adds: "Every technician knows they will have t
Russia - Exactly 53,212 spectators were in attendance on the 31 July, 2004, beneath the huge new canopy held aloft by 16 supports, as Berlin's Olympic Stadium - four years out of commission for rebuilding - re-opened with a magnificently staged spectacle.
Charged with the installation of a brand-new sound reinforcement system and supported by EVI Audio, the Berlin-based sound and events specialists TSE AG opted for a large Electro-Voice sound reinforcement system and a Dynacord PA. In addition to outstanding sound quality, the new equipment offers reliable and convenient system control and monitoring. In this, Electro-Voice's IRIS software and remote-controlled amplifiers play key roles. Explains Oliver Sahm, project and sales manager permanent installation Europe: "Having to install the loudspeaker enclosures in the roof is hardly conducive to easy maintenance. Thanks to EV's IRIS software, however, you can check individual loudspeaker components for any impedance anomalies with a single mouse click. This warns you of potential problems and allows you replace suspect components before there is any audible breakdown of the system. This level of sophistication in the monitoring of amps and loudspeakers is almost unique and saves the operating company a great deal of money and stress - greatly increasing reliability into the bargain."
Among the components installed were 19 Line Arrays of nine enclosures each EV XLC 127+ (in all 171 cabinets), 38 x EV P1200 RL remote-controlled amps, 43 x EV P3000 RL remote-controlled amps, 2 x EV P900 RT remote-controlled
Greece - The 2004 Olympics are being broadcast to thousands of fans and spectators at the event at numerous locations in and around the historic city of Athens, using state-of-the-art Barco equipment, the company reports. Other regions, such as ancient Olympia, Thessalonica, Volos, Heraklion and Patras, as well as municipalities around Greece, are also involved in the franchised Olympic Celebration sites program. With expected ticketed visitor numbers reaching well over 5.3 million, the Barco LED display and projection solutions used in the various sporting venues and entertainment locations around the country have their work cut out.
Over the last months of the preparation for the games, Telmaco, the main system designer and integrator, in cooperation with Barco, has installed two SLite 22 LED displays at the Karaiskaki Stadium in Faliro Piraeus and the Kaftatzoglio Stadium in Thessalonica. Both outdoor LED display solutions, measuring 48sq.m and 86.4sq.m respectively, are used during the games to entertain fans and spectators.
Jack Morton Worldwide, official producers of the Opening and Closing Ceremonies, chose nine of Barco's XLM H25 projectors for use during the opening event. Delivered by one of Barco's foremost rental parnters, Creative Technology, London, the Barco XLM H25 projector was specifically designed for the demanding rental and staging and large events markets, which require powerful, reliable projectors that deliver outstanding images. The first DLP projector with a native wide-screen aspect ratio, native 2048 x 1080 resolution and light output
UK - One of the world's leading cruise ships, the QE2, has undergone an extensive technical refurbishment of its Grand Lounge, the largest entertainment venue on the ship. A new Martin Audio sound system has been installed to handle the Lounge's diverse programme of events.
The Grand Lounge stretches over two decks of the ship, accommodating 450 people in cabaret-style seating on two levels. Twice a night, the ship's on-board cast present theatrical production shows, and occasionally guest cabaret artists perform, as well as dance bands. Cunard's entertainment technical manager Andy Pygott had to search for a sound reinforcement system that was flexible enough to handle these shows, as well as all the other events that are hosted by the Grand Lounge throughout the day.
"We were looking for a system that would deliver even sound coverage across the whole room, with a particular emphasis on vocal clarity," says Pygott. "The system needed to have the ability to handle all these different types of shows and provide the levels required without feedback for everything from a speech to a full theatre production. We looked at a lot of options, considering also what would be easy to install. We'd used Martin Audio speakers previously, and concluded that this system would be the ideal passive solution for our refurbishment."
With the stage thrusting slightly forward into the audience area, Andy Pygott and Ross Portway, the sound designer, couldn't use a conventional theatre configuration. Either side of the stage is a column where two W2 full-range
UK - The Product Excellence Awards at the PLASA Show has been a popular feature of the event for many years, highlighting the significance of the show as a focus for new developments for the industry. To reinforce this role, the PLASA Awards have undergone an important change for the 2004 event (12-15 September), in order to focus on genuine innovation.
For the re-branded PLASA Awards for Innovation, the judges will be looking for products which advance the industry, demonstrate a new style of thinking, represent a key step forward in safety terms, or improve technical practices. There will be eight Awards for Innovation at the judges' disposal and currently over 60 nominations have been received, with just three weeks before the deadline of Friday 3 September. Exhibitors who still wish to nominate a product are urged to submit their applications as soon as possible. Nominees who have already submitted their entries will be featured in a special PLASA Show preview in the September issue of Lighting&Sound International.
The awards ceremony takes place on Monday 13 September at 6.00pm at the PLASA Central Bar. All award winners will then be featured in the October issue of L&SI.
(Sarah Rushton-Read)
UK - A high-profile vodka bar in Bedford has become a showcase for the latest fashions in LED lighting. Purchased recently by Mark Walker for his girlfriend Deborah, Bar Soviet is equipped with the latest Mood panel and high-power Solar MR16 RGB downlighter technology - supplied by Ian Kirby's Lighting Effects Distribution.
Having finally taken over the premises which he had tried for four years to acquire, the new owner - who also runs the company Laser Light International - wasted no time. First he applied for a PEL (which he hopes will give him a 3am license) and then he contacted his friend, Glasgow-based Nadar Shahzad of Blue Audio. Shahzad reports, "Mark wanted the venue to constantly change colour. Although he hadn't seen the Mood panels, we had been sent a demo unit last year - and I knew this would be the perfect solution for him."
Offering a split screen display, Mood Light Panels can be mounted on virtually any surface, making them perfect for bars and restaurants. At Bar Soviet six panels form a matrix display and throw blocks of colour at customers, surrounding what is Bedford's biggest vodka bar.
Once Shahzad had begun the design everything else fell into place and the Mood panels are complemented by ten of the three-watt and 32 of the six-watt RGB MR16 LED downlighters - with their high-lumen output and 50,000-hours plus lamp life. These are distributed throughout the venue to provide an ever colour-changing atmosphere.
For Mark Walker, whose first bar venture this is, the result is spectacular. "I have spent £200,000 on this ve
USA - Utah's Salt Lake City Olympic Legacy Theatre uses a pair of Jem Glaciator heavy foggers to create a special cloud effect during the opening and closing scenes of a feature movie that is presented several times each day.
Supplied by Las Vegas-based atmospheric and effects specialists Water FX, the Glaciators are used to create a three-dimensional cloud at the beginning of the film, a curved 37ft (11.3m) fog barrier that covers the projection screen. The fog creates a curtain onto which three projectors cast images of blue clouds. The fog curtain is controlled via fans and manifolds, and at one point a hole is blown through the cloud to create for the audience the effect of flying through the clouds.
At the end of the movie, viewers journey back through the clouds. Some 150ft (45.7m) of ducting, plus 120ft (36.6m) of manifold and 100ft (30.5m) of tubing with a large diverter box are used to channel the effect. The fog effect is designed to operate every 20 minutes for 12 hours a day.
Effects Designer Tim Vanwormer of Water FX says that not only have the Glaciators performed well, they have saved money on alternative systems - as well as trouble. "Handling is easier with the Glaciators than with dewar vessels and CO2 would have been hard to handle," he says. "Also, CO2 takes oxygen out of the air and they would have had to install a complete oxygen subsystem and oxygen monitoring devices to make sure they weren't endangering the people in the theatre. They are saving money on the front and backside of the installation - both the installation
Australia. - The newly opened AFL (Australian Football League) "Hall of Fame and Sensation" has made extensive use of ARX's Level 8 Audio Line Balancer. Centrally located on Swanston Street, Melbourne's main CBD thoroughfare, the Hall of Fame features a series of "walk-through theatre-ettes" each showing video clips of Australian football history. Each visual display is accompanied by an appropriate audio track from a bank of un-balanced sources triggered by movement sensors.
As the distance from the sound source to the screen displays is up to 40m the normally un-balancedsignal would be prone to any number of interferences. Installation Contractor DRM Project Audio Visual installed 10 units of Level 8s offering a total of 80 Channels to balance the Soundtrack signals and provided strong clean interference free signal paths.
(Sarah Rushton-Read)
UK - In late April, having received an impromptu visit and presentation of the new KV2 Audio ES system by Andy Austin-Brown, both Phil Soltys and Dave Charman of PSD Electronics in Newquay were impressed enough to invite Austin-Brown back to conduct an "on-site, live Friday night demonstration in the heart of Newquay nightlife."
The venue was the Koola Club, an eclectic mix of club, bar and attached restaurant, feeding the requirements of the resident surf and sand fraternity as well as the hedonist weekend visitors and devout clubbers, situated on the seafront. The owners wanted to invest in a new sophisticated, but discreet audio system that could provide extreme high power with exceptional clarity and finesse. With a diverse range of entertainments from dance to live performances, the system had to operate with the minimum of attention.
Dave Charman explained: "Andy duly came down and set up a simple system consisting of two KV2 ES1.0 mid/high packs, two ES2.5 subs and two ES1.8 subwoofers. All this was driven and controlled by three KV2 EPAK2500 amplifier packs."
A straight feed from the Allen & Heath mixer was then supplied, with no other signal processing or EQ. Charman continues: "Bearing in mind the venue capacity of 750, I was a little apprehensive of the potential for being a little light in the audio power stakes and mentioned this to Andy. He just shrugged . . ."
On the night, being a Drum and Bass promotion, the club was well attended and the system was properly extended and put through its paces. Suffice to say that
UK - As part of a recent refurbishment of Elly's Bar & Restaurant on the Jersey resort of La Pulente, Channel Islands-based Project Audio has installed 10 of the new QSC Acoustic Design AD-S52 loudspeakers.
Purchased from Shure Distribution UK, the AD-S52s are fed from background hard drive computer by day and live DJ playback sources after dark. Each of the restaurant's four zones is addressed by a single channel of a four-channel QSC CX254 amplifier, which occupies just 2U of rack space. Two AD-S52 enclosures are located in the main restaurant, with a further two in the conservatory, two in the smaller restaurant area and two in the bar. The final pair are installed upstairs and run on an independent system.
Project Audio's Dave Findlay, who was introduced to the AD-S52s at last year's PLASA Show, believes he is the first person to install them in the UK. Commenting on the project, he said: "I really had no hesitation. They sound bright and have enormous flexibility, since they can be décor matched and used both inside and out. Being a resort island there is a lot of al fresco activity here."
(Barry Howse)
UK - Sound Division has been nominated Installer of the Year in the prestigious National BEDA Awards, for its AV installation at London's Lonsdale House. The National BEDA Awards traditionally recognize the best individuals, venues and products in the industry, and this year, for the first time, has created a brand new category to honour installers. Lonsdale House has become a Mecca for connoisseurs of high-class London nightlife. Owner Charles Breedan chose Sound Division as a direct result of the company's work for top London restaurant, Momo.
Sound Division managing director David Graham is very pleased with the nomination. "I feel that it's a great achievement for Sound Division," he stated. "We've made a conscious effort over the last two year to focus our energies on the London contracting market, and we are fortunate to be able to count a number of very prestigious and high-profile venues as our clients, including Lonsdale House. And clearly we must be doing something right, because the more we do, the more we are asked to do, which is exactly the result we'd hoped for. On top of that, to be nominated for the national BEDA Awards is great, and I'm proud of the team here that has helped us to achieve such recognition."
Lonsdale House has a Crown-powered Turbosound system throughout, based on the Turbosound QLight range of compact loudspeakers with TSC compact subwoofers controlled via two BSS Soundweb devices. The three-storey venue has Cat 5 cabling throughout, allowing any music source to be routed to any area. The DJ area is also extr
UK - CP Sound has supplied a complete lighting and sound design, specification and installation to the new independent club, 90 Degrees - The Right Angle in Grantham, with the technical work being completed in just four days! CP's Colin Pattenden was approached by the owners after they researched the nightclub trade press to find good options for sound and lighting. Pattenden asked David Linger from Robe UK to supply the lighting, whilst he concentrated on the sound and lighting design.
90 Degrees is located in a cavernous old building above a wine warehouse and consists of several rooms, including a main DJ/dance area, a secondary dancefloor and a seated 'booth' area with rounded, cocoon-like seats. From the outset, the club has been designed to be truly multipurpose. The name '90 Degrees' refers to the owners wanting everyone to have a clear view of the performance area in front of the DJ booth: the booth was therefore built at a 90 degree angle to the main dancefloor, with good site-lines for those seated in the booth areas.
Pattenden specified JBL speakers throughout the venue. The main room features JBL MS125S dual 15" bass boxes, picked for price, power and their appropriate size for the room. The top cabinets are four JBL MP212s - a rarer cabinet in installs, but Pattenden knew its 12" and horn combination would work well in the space. The seated booth area features four JBL Control 29s, while there are four Control 28s in the bar.
Into the DJ Booth, CP installed a Citronic CDM10-4 mixer and a Denon twin-CD player. The amp rack contains a Clou
Sudan - The Ministry of Energy and Mines in Sudan has placed an order for a complete conference system, to be supplied by Brähler ICS UK Ltd. The system is to be installed into the Ingaz Conference Hall by local Sudanese company, Federal Information Technology Co. The Ministry's premises is located adjacent to the UN headquarters offices in Khartoum.
Brähler ICS was chosen as the principle supplier for the project. Facilities will include an 85-user Automic microphone system, linked to an Infracom simultaneous interpretation system with infra-red delegate receivers and a full public address system. A flexible and robust system was required, as uses will include conferences, seminars and training sessions in multiple languages.
The Automic microphone system comes with portable delegate and chairman's microphones, both with gooseneck stems and interfaces with the interpretation system via a single audio patch lead. Delegates are able to listen to their native language wirelessly, using one of Brähler's new IRX infrared receivers.
(Lee Baldock)
UK - Electrosonic was responsible for the overall system design, project engineering, installation, programming and commissioning of the AV systems at the Science Museums's new Dana Centre in London. The stylish, purpose-built venue provides a forum where the international research community and the general public can take part in exciting debates about contemporary science, technology and culture.
The Science Museum has a full time staff engaged in the realisation of interactive exhibits, and has enormous experience of the realities of using AV techniques in the public domain. With the Dana Centre, it was quite clear about its objectives, but it did not have the in-house resources to complete the detailed design. Electrosonic was chosen from among the proposed solutions, not only because its proposal appeared cost-effective, but also because it was clear that it had relevant experience - both in the technical aspects of the use of networks in AV, and in the special requirements of museums.
At the Dana Centre, the public spaces are on three floors, and are very open. This results in the need for a flexible system and close attention to the realities of ambient light and audibility. The basis of the system is an AV network that allows any video, audio or data signal to be routed from any one space to any other space. There are a total of 36 'network nodes' within four principal spaces, with Cat 5 cable plant used for the majority of signal distribution.
The selection of equipment was a collaborative exercise between Electrosonic and the client; with thorough pr
Canada - Strand Lighting has won the contract to supply the lighting system for the new Toronto Opera House. The 2000-capacity Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts will be the new home for the Canadian Opera Company and the National Ballet of Canada. The design team for the project includes Jack Diamond and Gary McCluskie, Diamond and Schmitt Architects, Shaili Patel and Lana MacInnes of electrical engineers Mulvey & Banani International, and Josh Dachs and Richard Hoyes of the theatrical consultancy Fisher Dachs & Associates. The acoustical consultants for the project are Sound Space Design of London in association with Aercoustics Ltd.
Strand Lighting has worked closely with both the Opera Company and the Ballet for over 30 years, most recently at their current home at the Hummingbird Center in Toronto with opera technical director Julian Sleath and resident master electrician Tom Taylor. The lighting system for the theatre includes 500 series consoles with ShowNet nodes and is the largest Sinewave dimming system sold to date, with over 1000 SST Sinewave dimmers. In addition to their silent operation, the SST dimmers also provided an added bonus in the form savings on the building's power feeds from the heavily loaded downtown Toronto power grid. Designers and the electrical utility did not have to plan for the harmonic distortion present in a large conventional system which places additional loads on wiring and transformers. The unity power factor of the system will deliver ongoing savings to the facility.
The traditional, four-tiered European-style hor
UK - Stage Two Ltd, the Watford-based sound and lighting company, has recently completed a project to supply and install a new paging system at the large Watford Sorting Office for the Royal Mail. The Watford Sorting Office covers a large area and following the re-structuring of the postal delivery pattern is subject to significant variations in the ambient noise level within the sorting hall itself when the letter-sorting equipment becomes active.
The project called for some 150 speakers in a combination of ceiling and wall units, together with outside projectors for the loading bay. It was also important to create a zoned approach and Stage Two opted for the Cloud Electronics range of products for the amplification and signal processing equipment, augmented by an ambient noise computer from Symetrix and a telephone interface from Baldwin Boxall. Speakers were selected from Penton Commercial Audio Solutions.
Stage Two has undertaken a number of such projects and clients include H&M Fashions and IKEA.
(Lee Baldock)
Tunisia - Since Marantz' workhorse PMD320 was installed in 'Dar Zamen', a visitor attraction in the Tunisian cultural tourist complex of Dar Cherait, back in 1997, the 20 rack-mount CDs have provided continuous playback over a full duty cycle - without a single aberration.
Situated in the southern resort of Tozeur, the park, which is open seven days a week, recalls 3,000 years of Tunisian history. "To this day, the PMD320s continue to function impeccably over an eight-hour cycle, operating until midnight on a daily basis," says M N Chelli, from Backstage Technology - a company created with the visitor attraction's owner Chérait Jallel back in 2002 to take care of all the Chérait Group's technical requirements.
But times have moved forward and the professional playback device has now evolved into the PMD325. In addition to playing conventional CDs it will handle CD-R and CD-RW discs, as well as MP3 files - and with RS-232 serial port it will accept control signals from third-party devices. And so when Chérait contacted Backstage Technology about a new animation park he was developing in Tozeur, Chelli had little hesitation in recommending the PMD325. Via its RS232 protocol it will be triggered by an Alcorn McBride V16+ (16 x 16) Show Controller - managing the switch-on/switch-off protocols and enabling the PMD325s to operate in real time. It will also lock to SMPTE time code and handle 512 channels of DMX lighting.
Named Chak-Wak, the new geological and prehistoric theme park, situated on five hectares, will recall the history of man's evolution vi
UK - PA Installations has been nominated as 'Installer of the Year' for the Scottish Regional BEDA Awards, for its technically daring lighting, sound and AV project at City nightclub in Edinburgh.The 1,800-capacity sports bar/club/restaurant for Paul and Stephen Smith's Castle Leisure Group is located in the former Scotsman newspaper printworks behind Edinburgh's Waverley Station. Set within a 30,000sq.ft space, the £4.2 million refurbishment features innovative applications of technology including a digital 'backbone' for lighting sound, video and CCTV, which also integrates the cash tills under Crestron touch-screen control, and enables Wales-based PA Installations to remotely access, interrogate and troubleshoot the system online.
Other technicals include a 16-zone, 7.1 sound environment in the Sportsters Bar, also linked to the digital network, which handles routing from eight static sources, four DJ points and two stage points through the 16 volume zones. Lighting includes Coemar moving heads as the main effects, plus Martin scanners and Pulsar Chroma LED fixtures.
(Lee Baldock)
UK - Harman Pro UK has supplied Derby-based sales and installation specialists Pro Technical with a wide range of JBL speakers for various Aruba late-night bar installations around the country. One of the most recent is in Hanley, Stroke-On-Trent, which features a sound design utilizing three different types of JBL Control Contractor enclosure.
The Aruba roll-out for The Dukedom Group, now contains 32 venues around the UK, each one of them different and individually designed. The Stoke site is a single large room with a central bar, designed by Mason Wood Architects - who also do all the Revolution Vodka Bars. Each site's audio design and installation is also unique and specific to that venue. At Stoke, the client wanted both a variable loudness foreground music system, and a punchier DJ-led dancefloor area, operational five nights a week. Aruba Stoke is divided into three sound zones. The dancefloor/DJ zone (the loudest area) uses JBL Control 30 speakers. The bar area is designed to allow comfortable conversation, whilst also getting into the groove, and this features JBL Control 29AVs. The reception and chill-out area is the quietest zone, and here Anderson specified the compact JBL Control 25s.
Zoning is via an Allen & Heath iDR processor which also has a remote, switchable between sources, which includes settings for background music, TV or DJ. The challenge was minimizing the reverb in each area all of which feature plenty of hard surfaces and finishes. Pro Technical worked closely with Mason Wood on this aspect of the design to try and minimize reflections
UK - The Corn Exchange in Cambridge has just upgraded its Front-of-House sound to an Opus AT1000 Array Technology system, supplied by Real Time Audio. When Colin Farrell first joined The Corn Exchange as head of sound he upgraded from the existing Bose loudspeakers to a small Martin theatre system, which covered the theatre's basic needs. Then, about five years ago, Real Time Audio, who were doing the sound for Joe Longthorne playing at the theatre, brought in their Opus system.
"That was when I first heard how a system could really sound", recalls Farrell. "At first I took no notice of these large blue boxes being wheeled in but as soon as Richard from Real Time fired up the system I instantly knew this was something really special."
Farrell continues, "That started my determination that one day we'd have Opus at The Corn Exchange. At this venue we cover everything from solo artists, cabaret, jazz, classical and theatre, right through to full-on rock'n'roll, and I've never heard anything that will handle all of these like Opus. During the last five years we've had every conceivable system in here for performances providing their own sound, so I've had the chance to audition a vast range of systems in the venue, and every time I come back to Opus". He concludes, "I knew it would take time to find the resources to invest in an Opus system, but now we have and The Corn Exchange really does have a system that is second to none."
The new Corn Exchange system comprises of Opus AT1000 3-way active Array Technology cabinets w
UK - Welsh contractor AB Acoustics recently carried out a complete multimedia fit-out at The Banc, just outside Newport, South Wales, with the essential audio power tools supplied by Fuzion plc. Confronted with a tight budget, AB Acoustics' Rob Ashton needed to achieve the best result for the 350-capacity all-day venue. The sound system was configured for dual operation as a background music system during the daylight hours, giving way to a more punchy sound after dark - particularly on the weekend nights when a DJ takes over.
Ashton distributed 12 Work Studio 5 two-way full-range loudspeakers, around the venue - finished in white and powered by Work SV series amplifiers. All were supplied by Fuzion plc, and Rob Ashton confirms that he used a similar combination recently to drive the Taff Bar at Cardiff University.
"I have been using Work products for the past three years. The loudspeakers offer great value for money and blend into these surroundings well, while the amplifiers just never break down," says Ashton. In fact, AB have sufficient confidence in Work amps to deploy them on their proprietary hire rigs.
The highly-specified DJ booth (using industry-standard playback devices and background CD multiplayer) are matched by intelligent mood lighting (featuring colour changers and water and fire effect lights, plus a pair of moving yoke disco effects. Fed a diet of sport and VH1 type music from both satellite, terrestrial and DVD split feeds, are a combination of six 15" LCD monitors behind the bar, a pair of 42" plasmas, and the centrepiec