Belgium - Barco Media & Entertainment has appointed Richard Marples as international sales manager for the Asia Pacific region. Marples will head up the division's Asian sales team, which focuses on servicing Barco's existing Rental Partners in the region as well as further increasing its market-share in the lucrative Asian AV industry.
Marples' career has included 16 years with Phillips Lighting, where he most recently held the position of international account manager. In that role, he was responsible for the reorganization of all existing accounts, in-depth analysis of competitor products as well as the identification of new opportunities for growth. Marples has accumulated a wealth of knowledge and experience in the international AV industry.
Stephan Paridaen, president of Barco Media & Entertainment, stated: "We are very pleased with the addition of Richard to the Barco Media & Entertainment sales team. His knowledge of lighting and digital projection products and expertise in the AV industry will greatly benefit Barco and its esteemed Asian Rental Partners."
"I am pleased to be joining a renowned international industry leader such as Barco," states Marples, adding: "Barco's reputation for producing high quality products is unsurpassed. I am honored to join this prestigious firm and look forward to proudly representing them, as well as working with a team of solid professionals."
(Lee Baldock)
UK - Set within acres of rolling countryside and heritage-listed gardens, the luxurious new Four Seasons Hotel Hampshire (near Hook) has tasked its sound system contractor, Onyx Media, with providing a system to play back a wide programme of ambient, tranquility music through its many zones.
The content is key to setting the right mood to boost the wellbeing of guests in the retreat hotel, and Onyx Media director Richard Studerus turned to familiar audio brands. One of these was Denon - a mainstay over the past 10 years. In the latest Four Seasons - which Onyx fitted out over a three-year period - they have used Denon's DCM-280 five-disc CD-player exclusively.
With its digital output, the player offers excellent performance at an unbelievable price point - while still containing Denon's traditional build quality. It is ideal for delivering the new age music which is central to Four Seasons' operating policy. "There are four wings to the estate - north, south, east and west - and the client wanted these to be thoroughly serviced by CD players," explained Studerus. Two DCM-280's in the North wing feed Cloud mixer zoners, and the restaurants and bar in the West wing contain a further three. Seven further playback devices can be found in the relaxation area of the spa, while another can be found in the main rack servicing the meeting rooms and banqueting suites.
"There are 43 separate sound zones in the spa complex alone," says Studerus. "These are fed by three different sound racks - all playing out ambient music from specialist CDs."
UK - James Thomas's Pixel team continues its collaboration with ground-breaking light-sound-video based atmospheric engineers, United Visual Artists, supplying equipment for UVA's recent performance at London's Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) - part of the ICA's onedotzero season of electronic arts. UVA staged their own newly developed music and visual show at the ICA to a packed audience. The show was created in collaboration with two major technical associates James Thomas Engineering/Pixel range and Creative Technology.
The ICA show is the latest in a long and inventive list of projects to fuse the imaginative talents and enthusiasm of the Pixel team and UVA. It follows work on Massive Attack's 2004 festival tour which featured a horizontal wall of Pixelline used as a giant low-res LED surface - driven by UVA's latest Dragonfly control software.
PixelLine 1044 and the new PixelLine 110 ec battens were used for the show, along with PixelPAR 90s, all driven with UVA's new D3 software - offering integrated music and visual content control. UVA rigged 21 PixelLine 1044 battens in three broken-up lines - stretching from the stage into the audience. These were all treated as one video surface.
Onstage a single PixelPAR 90 was located behind each of the three performers (UVA are Chris Bird, Matt Clarke and Ash Nehru), secreted underneath the stage platform and shooting out a small beam of light. Also behind each performer was a PixeLine 110 ec batten pointing forward into the auditorium. At the top of the onstage Barco I-8 LED screen behind UVA were three addit
UK - Difuzion - the lighting division of Fuzion plc - have designed and supplied the lighting for a major new club on Blackpool's Promenade based around Futurelight fixtures. Graham Barron, who heads up Difuzion (which distributes Futurelight in the UK), renewed his acquaintance with Over Audio's Mike Boylan, who won the contract to provide the complete sound and lighting package for Peter Bowden's 2300-capacity Club Sanuk.
The building - formerly The Waterfront when it was operated by Luminar Leisure - has been completely refurbished at the hands of Bowden - one of the industry's most experienced professionals, and also a long-term acquaintance of Graham Barron. Bowden was previously operations director for Luminar before moving to the Far East as project director for Ministry of Sound, Bangkok, Taipei and then Singapore. He has divided his new venue into four distinct areas (including an R&B Room and VIP/Over 25's areas), with Difusion's lighting dominating the principal club area.
Boylan, who has judiciously worked the budget (and reused some of the existing fixtures) to achieve maximum bang for the buck, said: "Graham has remained at the forefront of the lighting industry over the years and there has always been a huge trust element. Peter had no hesitation in contacting him for the design."
And what Difuzion's man has delivered is a static, skeletal steel frame rig offering a frenzy of Futurelight scanning effects. These consist of six PHS-250 (250W moving heads); 12 PCC-250 (250W colour changers), six PSC 575 (575W scanners) and six CY250 (rotat
UK - Lifting, and rigging sales specialists Lift-Turn-Move launches its new Equipchaine electromechanical chain lifting device into the UK at ABTT 2005. The device has been specifically designed for theatrical applications. The Equipchaine is an electromechanical chain lifting device that has been specifically designed for theatrical applications. Each device consists of several modular elements connected together to suit the structural environment. Several chain drop positions are linked by the same drive mechanism that can be used to lift lighting bars, stage sets and curtains of various lengths.
Equipchaine is appreciated by theatre consultants and architects throughout Europe; it has been installed in a diverse range of over 130 theatres and multi purpose spaces. Existing applications range from single to 40-device projects. Using simplifies any structural problems, as it fits into existing structures, allowing service spaces and back stage areas to be freed up from large lifting machinery, say LTM.
Equipchaine's lifting mechanism is fully integrated within its own slender truss structure - for easy fixing into existing spaces. The length of each Equipchaine corresponds almost exactly to the fly bars that it lifts. The forces transmitted to the supporting structure are all verticalEquipchaine is easy to install; it can be simply placed on a primary structure and moved manually. It also exists in a format integrating a system of trolleys - for quick and simple deployment of one or several Equipchaine units to the required position above a scenic space.
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UK - The new MAC 700 from Martin Professional will be on preview at this week's ABTT show. This fixture is ideally suited to the theatre market, say Martin, as its features include an Animation Wheel, CMY and the option to run in Quiet Mode. Also on show is the newly released MAC 250 Wash, as well as the new Woodroffe Gobo Collection for the MAC 2000 Profile. Martin says it will also be giving two lucky people the chance to win one of its Mania Aqua and Fire Animation Effects at the show.
(Lee Baldock)
UK - Northamptonshire Magistrates Courts Committee has invested in 15 Shure ConferenceONE discussion systems for use in every one of the county's magistrate's courts.ConferenceONE with its innovative, fold-out telescoping Microflex microphone and integrated IntelliMix automatic mixing technology is virtually effortless to set-up and operate and delivers consistently natural, feedback-free audio and speech intelligibility automatically and is ideal for meetings and discussions for up to sixty participants, say Shure.
Each of the court discussions systems consisted of a single chairman unit with varying number of delegate units. The systems also included a Shure Microflex MX412 gooseneck mic at the witness stand and a boundary mic in the secure dock. In order to effectively manage each of the said mics, a Shure SCM410 automatic 4-channel mixer with Intellimix was utilized to increase speech clarity and reduce the risk of feedback. A custom-built switch box was employed to allow the magistrate's clerk the ability to mute either mic. Each discussion system was also linked to an induction loop for the hard of hearing and existing speakers.
Northampton-based Willow Sound Vision demonstrated the ConferenceONE discussion system to the committee with a view to replacing their out-of-date Phillips discussion systems. Following the demonstration, Andy Greaves from Willow then project managed the installation at each of the 15 courts with equipment supplied via Shure Distribution UK. Greaves said: "The ConferenceONE system became the obvious choice for this particular a
UK - Following the Muziektheater in Amsterdam, The Royal Opera House in London is the second theatre of international fame that has replaced all current fly bars, as part of the complete theatrical installation, for an installation based on the ProTrac system from Prolyte.Prolyte distributor White Light brought the two parties together after they were informed that the Royal Opera House was looking for a new fly bar installation.
A regular fly-bar does not have the required strength if the uniformly distributed load needs to be upgraded from 300kg to 500kg and the point load from 40kg to 150/200 kg. Therefore, the single round tube is often replaced with ladder beams, usually made from steel. ProTrac offers a better alternative than these steel ladder beams, being specially designed to meet the demands from a modern theatrical environment and the CE compliance for lifting equipment, say the company.
Prolyte says ProTrac is a combination of an aluminium extruded rectangular profile underneath which a round tube of 60mm or 48.3mm is attached. ProTrac is very flexible in use; several lengths can be easily combined and connected.
The system that is delivered to the Royal Opera House is based on the standard Pro Trac system, but uses a custom-made, high-grade aluminium extrusion to comply with the particular specifications of the theatre. The total installation comprises of 121 fly bars of 24m length, including suspension points, which is over 24 tons of aluminium! The fly bars were delivered in lengths of 12m, where they were coupled to obtain the total required le
Belgium - Sony Professional Solutions Europe has confirmed that it will be a Platinum Sponsor at ISE 2006 which will be held 1-3 February 2006 at the Brussels Expo. Following its successful debut at ISE 2005 in Amsterdam, Sony will demonstrate its "latest array of products that provide new ways to interact with multimedia information in the office and on the move".
"Sony is looking at the major shows to enhance its visibility in this emerging market and ISE is an emerging platform to achieve this." says Ian Collis, VP marketing for Sony Europe.
"We were pleased with the positive response, feedback and general enthusiasm generated by the 2005 show in Amsterdam and are delighted to see that ISE 2006 is already 40% bigger that the previous show. We see ISE as a pivotal event that has gained an important foothold on the Integrated AV systems market and we are happy to see Sony Europe playing a key role in building on its success." Said Mike Blackman, managing director Integrated Systems Europe.
(Jim Evans)
UK - Soundcraft has added a further model, the MH2, to its range of VCA-grouped performance consoles. It is aimed at "touring companies and installations of all sizes".
Alongside its bigger brothers the MH3 and MH4, the MH2 is also capable of dual-mode (FOH/Monitor) applications, and features eight sub-groups, ten auxiliary busses, eight VCA groups and six mute groups, as well as an integral 11x4 matrix. It is available in frame sizes of 24, 32, 40 and 48 mono channels, all with four comprehensive, full function stereo inputs as standard.
As with the the other desks in the series, the MH2 can be switched to a front-of-house or monitor mode, whereby ten 60mm faders can be switched to control the auxiliary outputs instead of the groups for monitor use. In FOH mode, these faders normally control the eight group outputs plus two of the auxiliary sends.
"Our customers asked for a console with the sound quality and ergonomics of our successful MH3 and 4, but in a smaller footprint," comments Andy Brown, Soundcraft's toursound product manager. "The new MH2 delivers exactly that, and will undoubtedly find favour on budget or space restricted jobs both in installations and on the road."
(Jim Evans)
UK - A.C. Lighting will be showing extensions to the Jands Vista and Chroma-Q Color Block product ranges plus a selection of products from its stockholding of leading technical theatre brands at ABTT.
The Color Block accessories range now features new Color Block pixel cap and 30-way power supply products, making the multi-purpose LED fixture suitable for a wider range of effects lighting applications.
The pixel cap is designed for applications under studio lighting conditions, where lens flare can appear on the TV camera image as a result of shooting into a bright light source. Designed to fit over individual RGB LED cells on the front of units, the cap blends together the RGB to show only the resulting colour, and because the light output is diffused, eliminates camera lens flare. Pixel caps can be used on all or any of the Color Block's 4 separate cells.
The 30-way PSU is billed as "a more convenient and cost-effective solution for controlling large Color Block systems" - providing power and effects for up to six times as many units as the standard PSU. It comes with 9 pre-programmed looks and users can store up to 42 custom looks on board. Sixty-four time triggers also make it easy to program real time effects from smooth colour cross fades to attractive chases.
A.C. will also be demonstrating a native Mac software prototype of Vista Offline Editor and will be providing demonstrations throughout the show of the latest Vista software release on both T2 and T4 console models.
Cast Software's full WYSIWYG software range will be on demonstration,
Spain - Barcelona-based Lexon has won the HHB 2004/5 European Distributor Of The Year Award. Presented to José Bosch, general manager, by HHB Communications managing director Ian Jones at the Barcelona AES Show, the award recognises the Spanish distributor's status as HHB's leading European export customer in the period.
"It gives us great pleasure to make this award to our friends at Lexon in their home town, particularly at a time when the market for pro audio products in Spain is so vibrant," said Jones. "José and his staff have worked very hard as our distribution partners in Spain for more than eight years, and we are sure that Lexon will achieve continued success with future HHB products including the new CDP-88 Professional CD Player launched here at the AES Show."
(Jim Evans)
UK - London based events agency GSP was chosen by Red Bull to design its Star Wars party, which celebrated Red Bull's and Star Wars' brand partnership at the 2005 Monaco Grand Prix. Staged in Monaco's Grimaldi Forum, the star-studded event involved an exclusive screening of Revenge of the Sith and an AfterShow party. GSP used two auditoriums in the Grimaldi Forum. While one was deployed for the screening in a 400 capacity cinema, the second was used for the party.
GSP's Director, Emma Gold comments, "This was undoubtedly a challenging event, but one we so enjoyed perfecting. We drew from our experience to create a movie set with a twist that offered the Wow factor that we feel is essential to stand out and leave a lasting impression."
(Jim Evans)
UK - London's QEII Conference Centre, situated directly opposite Westminster Abbey, has undergone a striking application of Colour to its building exterior. To achieve this, the QEII management have embraced the latest developments in LED fixture technology by the integration of Pulsar ChromaFlood200 fixtures into their exterior lighting scheme.
A total of fourteen high-power RGB (Red-Green-Blue) CFLD200 fixtures provide stunning changing colour to the building facade with a maximum power requirement of only 2,500 watts, a figure that is reduced to about 1,250 watts for most of the programmed scenes.
Control is provided by a Pulsar Masterpiece Replay Unit that performs the pre-programmed scenes that are then transmitted by DMX to the fixtures in real time.
QEII production manager, Derek Chalmers who conceived and implemented the project commented, "This is an amazing step forward in technology, the ChromaFlood200 LED fixtures give me a wonderful colour palate, without the need to change lamps or perform regular maintenance. The system has proved to be a great success and our clients love the results."
(Jim Evans)
Portugal - PRG Europe supplied lighting and a G-LEC large scale LED system with video capabilities for the sixth annual Laureus World Sports Awards in Estoril. The event attracted an estimated worldwide TV audience of 460 million. Award winners included athlete Kelly Holmes, yachtswoman Ellen MacArthur and racing driver Alessandro Zanardi,
Designed by Peter Bingemann, the Awards set used video screens and lighting for all the visual elements, with the video content provided by specialists Hello Charlie.
PRG Europe supplied 56 G-LEC ClassicFrames covering some 112m2 with five linked graphics computers. Configured as eight columns of seven panels each, four columns of G-LEC were used as static elements, while the other four were mounted on tab tracks, moving the lightweight screens across the stage as required.
Lighting designer Al Gurdon used a large lighting rig provided by PRG Europe, which included 48 VL5 and 40 VL3000 washes, 32 VL6C and 10 VL1000 spots, 12 Mac 2000s, 12 CityColor 1800, 12 four cell 1000W groundrows, eight follow spots, a Virtuoso control console and all mains distro, cable, dimmers and control.
"Although we had a very tight schedule, everything went very smoothly," said PRG Europe's Mick Healey. "Obviously everything was thoroughly planned and prepped in advance, and that kind of detailed preparation always pays off."
(Jim Evans)
UK - Architectural lighting specialist LTP has commissioned and programmed 130 Color Kinetics iColor Cove EC fixtures for the Twilight Zone at The Deep in Hull - the world's only submarium. The Twilight Zone is a newly opened £6.8m exhibition within The Deep, exploring the life forms found beneath the sunlit zone of the ocean. Highlights include giant Japanese Spider crabs, Pacific octopus, wolf eels and the other-worldly Nautilus.
Lighting for The Twilight zone was designed by DHA's Peter Fordham. He also created the original lighting design for the popular attraction when it opened in 2002, in which LTP was also involved in the supply. Once again, he approached LTP's Terry Reeves to commission and programme the Color Kinetics fixtures once they had been specified and installed.
Dark blues, purples and rich UV hues are the predominant colours in the Twilight Zone. It was important the environment was sufficiently dark both for its exotic residents and also to create the atmosphere, mystery and drama of the bottom of the seas, while still allowing enough light for people to negotiate their way around the room.
The iColor Cove EC's are 12" long RGB colour-changing LED strip lights. Fordham's design includes over 30 slots of light illuminated with these fixtures, ensconced into the display panels around the room. Reeves explains that the iColor Cove ECs were chosen as the most affordable, lower light intensity cove light in the iColor Cove product family, and also because of their additional reduced running costs. The fixture uses Chromasic technology to fu
Switzerland - Following the global launch of the Mercedes Benz M-Class, TLD Planungsgruppe GmbH was again called upon to provide the overall lighting for the debut of the B-Class at the Geneva International Motor Show, which also served as the platform for the European première of the company's M-class, the world debut of its redesigned CLK-Class and the unveiling of the Manufaktur Maybach 57S.
Tasked with making the lighting of an overall area of 2,200sq.m look stunning, TLD pulled out all the stops to ensure that the show was a success for Mercedes Benz' and Manufaktur Maybach's parent company DaimlerChrysler AG. TLD began work four months prior to the show's opening, when chief LD Richard Profe analyzed how the vehicles would look under the different colour temperatures of various fixtures. Profe then moved on to specify the lighting for the service areas, offices and conference rooms, before setting out the emergency lighting.A mock-up of the principal stand elements, including lamps, was built in a huge hall close to TLD's Stuttgart office, and established that the choice of lamps was correct: Jens Probst, one of TLD's regular freelancers, was then able to pre-programme the stand lighting.
"The challenge of a big trade-show stand is to create a new design while staying true to the corporate image of the client," said Richard. "Although similar materials will be used to maintain continuity, no two show stands are ever the same. Building a prototype of the stand saves the client time and money, plus ensured that the concept works as expected. I
Hall Stage will host Swedish company Visual Act at next week's ABTT show in London. Visual Act will demonstrate its Advanced Wagon system, which allows for cable-free horizontal movement of any type of stage element. The wagons use a laser locational system to position loads of up to 600kg - to millimetre accuracy - without any tracks or guides on the stage.
Visual Act recently provided all the stage & flying automation equipment for the Eurovision Song Contest finals in Kiev. The staging for the event, one of the most advanced ever, included 46 separate moving components. VA control was used to create a range of stage configurations and dynamic scene changes during each act.
(Jim Evans)
China - ETC has provided much of the entertainment and architectural lighting for the 50,000m2 Grand Theatre in Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang province in eastern China. The system includes the largest ETCNet2 networked system in Asia. Internationally-known architect Carlos A. Ott and Petroff Partnership Architects (PPA) earned first prize in the International Design Competition for their vision of the Grand, which has been said to resemble a sculpture more than a building.
The 1,600-seat Opera Hall, the largest of the Grand's four theatre halls, premiered in August 2004. ETC Asia equipped the hall with a 4,600-channel Obsession II full tracking console system, which controls more than 300 ETC Source Fours lighting the massive stage. The 600-seat Concert Hall opened in early 2005 and has an ETC Express console for lighting control.
Later this year the Grand will open a multifunction hall. An Obsession II console will control its lighting systems. The hall can be changed into six different configurations, lending the room to a gamut of events. Depending on set-up, the hall can seat from 400 to 600 people.
The outdoor amphitheatre will also open this year, complete with an ETC Expression 3 400 control desk and an Expression LPC (Lighting Playback Controller).
Among the first international acts invited to play the Grand Theatre was the Berlin Symphony Orchestra, making its Chinese debut.
(Jim Evans)
UK - Kave Theatre Services is returning to the ABTT Theatre Show, this year (15-16 June, Royal Horticultural Halls, London). Building on the considerable success of last year's show, the company says that this year's stand will be larger with many products on show. On the stand will be the renowned SFX sound playback software; RentalPoint, the leading asset management software for rental companies; and examples of Kave Theatre Services' wide range of flat kits. ABTT 2005 will also see the launch of KAVE's new webshop, the latest feature of the company's website.
(Lee Baldock)
Worldwide - Kylie's Showgirl tour may have come to a premature close for reasons we are all well aware of, but those that experienced the show will be eagerly awaiting her return. DiGiCo's D5 Live digital mixing consoles sat at both front-of-house and monitors throughout the tour, alongside a Martin W8L line array loudspeaker system controlled by XTA processing.
Kylie's front-of-house engineer Chris Pyne and system technician Tony Szabo have been with the singer for some considerable time. They have used a variety of equipment along the way, but Chris says he would opt for DiGiCo consoles any time. "I've been mixing Kylie for nine years now and she's one of the best live pop acts you could ever see," says Pyne. "I like mixing her on the D5. My personal opinion is, as an engineer, that you want as much information in front of you at any one time as you can possibly have in the live environment. So it's good to be able to look at the board and see all your channels in front of you." Pyne feels that the D5 gives him exactly that. "It's like driving a car, knowing where the speedo is, and not having to go: hang on, I've got to switch this so I can see how fast I'm going. That's a simplistic way of saying it, but it's my personal preference."
Showgirl was what Pyne describes as a far more 'even' show than previous ones. "It wasn't a big explosive start and then every song got bigger and better. It kind of just went up, stayed up and carried on like that to the end, where there was a sing-along bit with the mega hits at the very end.&
USA - Road Ready Cases has launched its world exclusive Cool Cases line, featuring built-in electric cooling and venting fans. Plugged in for power, the cases cool live gear by an average of 12°F (7°C - cooling tested at 20°C / 68°F ambient temperature). "We're constantly looking for new ways to further the life of our customers' gear," says Mike Gerutto, Road Ready Cases president. "With this new built-in safeguard against overheating, we have taken the next step in protecting gear both inside and out."
The first five cases in this new line, specifically designed to hold and cool some of the most popular DJ gear in the market today, including popular equipment from Pioneer, Denon, Technics and Stanton.
(Lee Baldock)
Italy - Continuing a busy year of overseas work for the projects team at Hawthorns, the team recently worked on a five-venue global dealer conference in Venice. A logistical challenge in itself due to the lack of roads! Having off-loaded the artic' at the docks, all the kit was loaded by crane onto a specialist barge then onto one of each of the remote venues and the same in reverse. "Not quite the romantic images that one normally conjures up sailing down the Grand Canal, but still great fun," said Hawthorn's Simon Wood. "We always like a challenge and something a little bit different and this certainly was!"
Hawthorns supplied lighting, sound and rigging and power distribution for the events with in-house personnel on site throughout.
(Lee Baldock)
UK - White Light's presence at ABTT will be bigger this year, with new products from Robert Juliat and Clay Paky and the award winning Digital Festoon System. White Light will also be announcing its appointment as a Prolyte distributor and also exclusive Arri Theatre Lighting distributor in the UK.
White Light will be showing examples of the latest lighting technology, including conventional lighting, automated lighting and LED lighting. Conventional lighting will include the Arri Studio Theatre 1K and Studio Theatre 2K fresnels. Moving lights will include the new, tungsten Alpha Wash Halo washlight from Clay Paky. LED lighting will take the form of the ChromaQ ColorBlock, which has been put to spectacular use on a number of recent projects lit by White Light's events team.
Also on show will be products from manufacturers for which White Light is the exclusive UK distributor, including lanterns and follow-spots from Robert Juliat, DMX distribution products from ELC, colour scrollers from Rainbow and smoke and haze machines from Look Solutions. Representatives from ELC and Robert Juliat will join White Light's staff on stand. The award winning Digital Festoon System will be demonstrated.
White Light's main stand at ABTT will also use another product line for which White Light has recently been appointed distributor - the Prolyte range of trussing.
(Jim Evans)