Events

Biggest Ever LDI Closes in Las Vegas

Details: 14 March 2016

At the close of the LDI exhibition on Sunday evening at the Sands Convention Center, Las Vegas, the show was being hailed as the biggest, busiest and most successful LDI yet. In addition to its regulars, the show boasted no less than 65 first-time exhibitors, while the visitors were out in force. Speaking at the LDI Awards ceremony on Saturday evening, LDI's Jacqueline Tien said that with more than 12,000 visitors through the doors, LDI 2000 had already outstripped last year's visitor total, with a day left to run.

ILMC Unveils Conference Dates and New Team

Details: 14 March 2016

The International Live Music Conference (ILMC The 13th) has announced that it will return to the venue for the 2000 event - the Royal Garden Hotel, Kensington, London - on the weekend of March 9th-11, 2001. A new team has been assembled by ILMC organiser Martin Hopewell to produce the Conference and create both its discussion agenda and the series of social events that surround the conference sessions themselves. Conference producers for ILMC 13 are Alia Dann and Lynn Curtis, with Mike Lethby and Sarah James at Gasoline Media responsible for media and sponsorship. Registration and sponsorship details are available from the ILMC office on 0207 833 8998.

AES, Los Angeles

Details: 14 March 2016

Much of the performance audio buzz at the LA Convention Center at the end of September surrounded the new line array PA systems, but there was more besides. L&SI reports on some of the highlights.

AKG Acoustics launched the PR 81 pocket receiver, a lightweight, durable and feature-packed miniature diversity receiver based on AKG’s WMS 81 wireless technology. The company sees its compactness and plug-and-play operation as ideal for small broadcast and video production houses. AKG also unveiled the WMS 40 UHF wireless system, a fully-featured transmitter/receiver system at what AKG says is a 'breakthrough price' for a product of its ability.

Allen & Heath staged the US debut of the ML4000 dual-function (FOH/monitor) console. Slotting in between the GL400 and the recently-launched ML5000, it's a VCA-equipped 12 aux, eight audio group mixer with eight mute groups, a four-way matrix

New Contract for New Company

Details: 14 March 2016

Circle 8 - the new company set up by former PLASA Show Manager Nicky Rowland - has confirmed its first industry contract in its first week of business. Circle 8 will be managing Theme Magazine’s Bar & Restaurant Awards - a series of regional awards dinners, culminating in a spectacular final dinner in London in June 2001. The North West’s awards ceremony has already taken place and the next event will be taking place on Monday 20 November at Brighton’s famous Grand Hotel to celebrate the best in the South East and Home Counties. Circle 8 offers a unique blend of event management, sales and marketing skills that can be applied to the entertainment industry and beyond.

MOBOs Fly at Ally Pally

Details: 14 March 2016

London-based MJK Productions has helped to open a new era in the long history of legendary Alexandra Palace by flying, for the first time, a substantial sound, lighting and video production from the venue’s vaulted glass roof.The MOBO Awards have grown immensely over the past five years. Increased ticket demand for this year’s MOBO Awards brought about the move to Alexandra Palace, with a show hosted by MTV’s Trevor Nelson and TLC’s Lisa ‘Left-Eye’ Lopes. Live performances included Craig David, Gabrielle and the much-anticipated return of Sade.

The Great Hall at ‘Ally Pally’ was completely refurbished following a disastrous fire in 1980 and a new glass roof installed. However, the roof was never intended to support heavy event production rigging, with a maximum loading of 1500 kilos on each arch and no greater point load than 500kg.

MJK

Las Vegas 2000

Details: 14 March 2016

Lee Baldock and Steve Moles report from LDI, Las Vegas

T his year’s LDI was, we are told, the biggest and the busiest LDI Show to date, with more exhibitors than ever before and record-breaking attendance, topping 12,000 in the first two days alone. The show floor of the Sands Expo & Convention Center certainly seemed very busy for the most part - as did the rest of Vegas, mind-bogglingly over-booked and bursting at the seams.

One of the few really high-profile debuts at the show was from Vari-Lite in the form of the Virtuoso DX console; this brings the for sale option to the Virtuoso control platform family - the daddy of which was launched at PLASA last year. Using the same operating system, the Virtuoso DX supports up to 2,000 luminaires and contains eight built-in DMX universes in a smaller package. Added to this is a new offline programming software package - Visi

Carswell Replaces Cadman at Park Avenue

Details: 14 March 2016

Park Avenue, one of the world's leading brand communications companies, has announced the appointment of its new managing director, Hugh Carswell. He has been at Park Avenue for the last four years during which time he has managed a huge variety of communications projects including the launch of British Airways' new corporate identity - which involved the largest global satellite link-up ever at the time, the British Airways London Eye launch on Millennium Eve, and the Euro-American announcement of the merger of Deutsche Bank and Bankers' Trust. Carswell takes over from Tony Cadman who is leaving to start his own venture consultancy after six successful years at Park Avenue.

Fisher Productions Lights the Great Court

Details: 14 March 2016

Fisher Productions were specially commissioned to organise the recent official opening of the British Museum's Queen Elizabeth II Great Court, in conjunction with the events department of the British Museum. The project involved the arrangement and co-ordination of the entertainment and technical support aspects of the opening, as well as the creation of a spectacular Son et Lumiere. The two-acre inner courtyard of the British Museum, hidden for 150 years and now transformed into Europe's largest covered square, provided an impressive setting for the four-minute Son et Lumiere, which was performed to a revised arrangement of Haydn's 'The Creation', by Stephen Warbeck. The finale involved shafts of light shining through the glass and steel roof from a specially-erected crane outside the building. The Great Court was officially opened by Her Majesty the Queen.

Live! Awards Dinner Moves to Ally Pally

Details: 14 March 2016

After a number of years at the Royal Lancaster Hotel, where the spiralling success of the event has seen more and more people literally squeezed into the hotel's Westbourne Suite, the 2001 Live! Awards dinner will be held in the Great Hall of Alexandra Palace. The change of venue offers the twin benefits of easily accommodating the large numbers who now wish toattend the Awards, while allowing much easier access to exhibitors and visitors to the Live! Show. The Live! Awards dinner takes place on the evening of Wednesday 7th February 2001, the first day of the Live! Show. In addition, this year, for the first time, you can register online for the Live! Show at the web address below, which also features comprehensive Show information.

Lighting Cal IT

Details: 14 March 2016

Stage Light Design supplied creative lighting design and equipment for the Cal IT conference, held in the Fleming Room of the Queen Elizabeth II Centre in Westminster. The company was called in by production company Dynamic Range to light the event, a major symposium for Californian IT companies visiting the UK to promote their products and seek new investment.The event’s fast-moving format allowed for 10-minute presentations to be given by the different companies. They did this on stage, backed by a large central screen, flanked each side by two auxiliary video monitors. Stage Light Design’s Alastair Crooks designed the stage lighting and operated the show using a LightProcessor QCommander console. A front truss was fitted with assorted fixtures including Golden Scans, Stage Color 300s and conventionals. Onstage lighting fixtures included more Stage Colors, Codas and other

ESS Continues Rapid Expansion Strategy

Details: 14 March 2016

ESS (Edwin Shirley Staging), the staging and structure specialist, has created a new joint venture with Pure Group, called ‘ESS Superstructure’ to invest in and service the growing market for small and medium-sized events. This venture is the latest in a series of strategic partnerships that enhances the range of services ESS can offer corporate clients. By combining ESS’ experience in producing highly-specified structures, with the Pure Group’s reputation for managing corporate events, the new venture will be able to provide a highly competitive offer for clients in the corporate hospitality and corporate event market. The new company will be responsible for developing and marketing arch-shaped structures up to 30m in width. Products will include the unique Superstructure mobile venue, as well as Orbit buildings. The Superstructure is ideal for a variety of uses

A Meeting of Worlds - highlights from the Hanover Expo

Details: 14 March 2016

Expo 2000, the first World Expo in Germany, closed its gates on 31st October after running for 153 days. During its brief lifespan, 18.1million visitors attended what was almost certainly the biggest event of 2000 and the country’s first really major showpiece since the 1972 Munich Olympics.

Expos are massive political, logistical, financial and creative undertakings: the host country needs nerves of steel, deep pockets (the Hanover Expo cost $1.65 billion), wealthy friends and a pretty extensive run at it (six years in this case). Still, the Germans were fortunate enough to have a head start, this being the first Expo ever to take advantage of existing trade fair facilities which contributed nearly 100 out of the 160 hectares of exhibition space.

The Hanover Expo took on the theme of ‘Humankind, Nature, Technology’, with over 170 participating countries and organi

Support for Birmingham Fringe

Details: 14 March 2016

Cause & Effect, the organisers of the 2001 Birmingham Fringe theatre festival, are looking at the possibility of holding collaborative projects with entertainment technology companies during the 2001 festival, in order to demonstrate the contribution made by them to technical theatre. Project director Derrick G Knight told us: "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." An initial idea is to include a sound and lighting exhibition alongside the festival, which takes place in July and August 2001, and Knight is currently exploring the availability of no-cost exhibition space at a number of venues adjacent to the reserved performance spaces. For further informati

Car Show

Details: 14 March 2016

Creative Technology crews and communications systems were out in force at the British International Motor Show 2000 - working alongside leading design companies Imagination and Jack Morton Worldwide (formerly Caribiner).

The highlight was the spectacular Ford Motors stand, dedicated to the launch of the new Mondeo, which dominated Hall 4 of Birmingham’s NEC. The centrepiece of their display was CT’s fully-integrated audio-visual installation, designed and programmed by Chris Slingsby, head of Imagination’s Special Projects dept, working alongside CT’s Dave Herd. The presentation combined multiples of 6K PIGI scenic projectors, using double scrollers and rotating double scrollers through 360 degrees, supplemented by eight Christie 7K Roadie projectors. These were mounted onto the circular lighting grid in the centre of the drum, firing out into the 30m diameter

Etruscan Expo

Details: 14 March 2016

Palazzo Grassi is among the most imposing buildings on Venice’s Grand Canal. It was built in the 1700s for a rich merchant family before being purchased by Fiat in 1984, who restored it to its original splendour and equipped it with all the facilities necessary for a large modern exhibition centre.

Currently running until July 1 is a new exhibition covering ‘The Etruscans’. Occupying 36 exhibition rooms with 700-plus exhibits, the exhibition uses cutting-edge multimedia technology to ensure visitors high-impact immersion in the history of this mysterious race of people. The company responsible for these aspects of the exhibition was specialist Turin firm Medialogos/WDM, whose expertise in this area has been gained on other high profile events, including ‘The Future of the Longobards’, the Italian Design Process show in Seoul and the ‘Sinestesia&rsquo

Star Hire Achieves National Standard

Details: 14 March 2016

Following two years of concentrated improvements to its company training programme and the development of individual employees, Star Hire (Event Services) Ltd has just received recognition as an Investor In People. The Investors In People award signifies that Star Hire know where they are going as a company, have imparted this focus to all their staff, and have trained them to move forward in line with that vision. Maddy Sheals, responsible for steering the company towards the standard said: "In the feedback session at the end of the two days, the assessor said how much he was impressed with the calibre of people he interviewed - their honesty, commitment, and individual skills, plus an awareness of what Star Hire is trying to do." Maddy hopes to build on this achievement through a programme of continuous innovation and improvement in the training and development of all Star Hi

Brits Nominated in US Event Awards

Details: 14 March 2016

The UK Events industry has received an important accolade on a world-wide scale, with four companies from the ISES (International Special Event Society) UK Chapter nominated for awards at the ‘Special Event’ to be held this January. Nominees include The Moving Venue (Best Off-Premise Catered Event), The Special Event Company (Best Multi-Day Event), Vok Dams Gruppe (Best Achievement in Technical Support), and The Full Effect has received nominations in an impressive three categories (Best Corporate Picnic, Best Entertainment Concept over $50k, and Best Theatrical Production). The final judging takes place in New Orleans during the Special Event Show, with the Awards and Gala Dinner being held on 13th January. "It’s a tremendous achievement for the Brits to get so many nominations from the 375 entries submitted," said ISES UK Chapter president, Sally Webb. "

Playlight’s Mike McMullan Dies

Details: 14 March 2016

PLASA Publishing has learned of the death from cancer of Playlight founder, Mike McMullan, who died peacefully at home on Tuesday 3rd January, surrounded by his family. A statement from the directors and staff of the Playlight Group said: "Mike was one of life's great characters, and will be greatly missed by all who knew him."

The funeral will take place next Wednesday 10 January at 1.00pm at the Altrincham Crematorium, Whitehouse Lane, Dunham Massey, Altrincham, Cheshire. The family has requested that instead of flowers being sent, donations be made to the following charities: St Ann's Hospice, St Ann's Road North, Heald Green, Cheshire; the Cystic Fibrosis Trust, 11 London Road, Bromley, Kent; or the Lymphoma Association, PO Box 386 Aylesbury.

Glastonbury Cancelled Over Crowd Fears

Details: 14 March 2016

Glastonbury Festival organiser Michael Eavis has cancelled this year's event because of fears about crowd safety. The festival, which was first staged in 1970, had been under fire from his local authority after thousands of fans sneaked into last year’s Festival. The 2000 event has left Eavis facing prosecution over alleged breaches of the festival licence, and he says he hopes his decision will send out a message that organisers are taking the issue seriously. In a statement he said: "After much deliberation and consultation I have now decided not to run the festival this year." He added, however, that he has every intention running the Festival in 2002. Eavis’s decision follows the deaths of nine crowd members at the Roskilde Festival in Denmark last year. Eavis has commented that the Roskilde tragedy has made organisers and authorities more concerned about crowd

IoA Conference

Details: 14 March 2016

The Institute of Acoustics (IoA) held its 16th conference on Reproduced Sound in November - and much of the varied content was relevant to the theatre and live music industries.

Multi-channel sound reinforcement was a topic that generated a large amount of interest, with presentations from David Malham (University of York), Fred Ample (Technology Visions), Robin Whittaker (Out Board Electronics) and Steve Ellison (Level Control Systems). It was clear that the demand for higher-quality audio environments is growing rapidly.

Robin Whittaker explained the theory of source-oriented reinforcement and illustrated its applications from the wealth of theatre, industrial and music productions that Out Board has undertaken. Whittaker concluded by stating that the concept of source-oriented reinforcement has several key benefits; namely, the minimisation of room effects, even distribution of SP

Gearhouse Unveils New Advertising Hoarding

Details: 14 March 2016

A new application for the company’s Optiscreen technology was given its official launch on Friday by AV company Gearhouse. The company is using its modular video screen system to create a new style of advertising hoarding which allows for advertising to change throughout the day. Newly-appointed Gearhouse director John Hemming unveiled the new system at the company’s Birmingham premises.

SPS Launches E-Commerce Website

Details: 14 March 2016

Show Presentation Services (SPS), the audio-visual equipment rental and technical staging specialist, has announced the launch of its new e-commerce website, along with a brand new on-line ‘Budget Estimator’. Robin Coles, SPS managing director, says: "A UK event manager for a multi-national brand with a requirement to take a product road-show to six European cities, should provide the Budget Estimator with details such as audience size, type of event/presentation and location, and they will be provided with immediate on-line staging information specific to their requirements with accompanying pricing."

Brit Row Take MTV Awards with Turbosound

Details: 14 March 2016

Stockholm's Globe Arena played host to November's MTV Europe Music Awards, which aired live to over two billion viewers worldwide. To repeat the audio success achieved in the previous four years, Britannia Row Productions were once again approached to supply the sound reinforcement. Brit Row's Bob Lopez specified a complete Turbosound Flashlight rig, the characteristics of which perfectly complemented the complex environment.

The FOH system comprised 24 TFS-780H, flown eight wide and four deep as a stereo left and right configuration with TFL-760HMs and TFL-760 LMs as downfills. 24 TFS-780L low frequency cabinets provided the low end - due to the space restrictions of the televisation, the cabinets were arrayed within the flown system rather than being groundstacked. The delay system comprised a four wide hang left and right of eight TFS-780H, with four groundstacked TFS-780L per sid

Smoke Factory’s Expo-tise

Details: 14 March 2016

Further to our report on the 2000 Hanover Expo in the last issue, we return as promised to the Smoke Factory’s extensive role in the Planet of Visions . . .

The vast Planet of Visions exhibit - the largest at the Expo - suffered a setback shortly after the Expo opened, when the original smoke effects contractor was removed from the project. In a major dilemma, someone at this point remembered that Hanover was home to a smoke effects specialist - The Smoke Factory.

The Smoke Factory’s Florian von Hofen told us: "This was probably the most complex smoke effects project ever undertaken - not the biggest, but the most complex. It is a vast exhibit, visited by 30,000 people each day. The budgets would not allow for permanent technical personnel, so everything had to be automated."

By the time The Smoke Factory was called in, the set had been built, and there was no

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