Events

Pavarotti & Friends

Details: 14 March 2016

Luciano Pavarotti recently returned to his home town of Modena, to host the annual open-air Pavarotti & Friends charity concert, with funds this year going to alleviate the plight of Afghan children.

The event was held, as always, in front of a packed crowd and transmitted live by Italian state broadcaster RAI’s channel 1. Daniele Tramontani is in charge of sound for the star-studded show. "Initially, it seemed a live recording wasn’t going to be done, but the organizers decided to put together a well appointed studio in a container backstage, so as well as supervising the FOH system, I was also responsible for the realization of the recording and broadcast mixing set-up - in short, everything apart from monitors!"

Sound engineer Stefano De Maio mixed FOH, with a 72-channel Cadac M-type master desk, a Midas XL3 for the orchestra, and a Heritage 1000 for guest mu

The Battle of Trafalgar

Details: 14 March 2016

This summer saw a free concert for 20,000 people staged in the busy heart of London. Mike Mann discovered that such a production has its logistical difficulties . . .

Before even thinking about the problems involved in bringing central London to a standstill, Star Hire’s Roger Barrett realised that the stage design for the Africa Day concert would have to be an unusual one: "We would normally have built a higher stage than this - but a major feature of the design was that the famous lions should be visible on stage." Two of the huge statues were incorporated into the stage, which was positioned just in front of Nelson’s Column, facing northwards towards the National Gallery. Flanked by the South African Embassy (who funded the entire event) and Canada House, the central area of Trafalgar Square itself also needed treatment. "One of the first things we realise

ABTT 2002 Dates

Details: 14 March 2016

The ABTT has confirmed that its ABTT Theatre Show 2002 will be held at the Royal Horticultural Halls on 19 and 20 June 2002. Further details of booking arrangements will be announced shortly. Any enquiries should be directed to the ABTT Office on 020 7403 3778.

Airstar Provides Light for Support Act

Details: 14 March 2016

Oxford-based company Airstar Space Lighting helped illuminate the recent Playtex Moonwalk in Battersea Park in London where more than 7,000 women stripped to their bras to raise funds for cancer research. The world-wide leader and pioneers of the lighting balloon industry used one of their large helium-filled lit Solarc's and several air-filled Crystal's to guide the way for the half-dressed walkers during their midnight charity stroll. On the same weekend, Airstar provided light for 50,000 night-time revellers in Oxford's Cuttleslowe Park during an annual hot-air balloon festival. Airstar's products have been used around the world for a variety of projects including Film and TV productions, festivals and cultural and sporting events. The balloons have also been hired to light the set of the Oscar-winning blockbuster Titanic, for the 1999 Miss World contest in the Seychelles and numerous

Mad Manufacturing at JHS Event 2001

Details: 14 March 2016

Mad Manufacturing will be providing the full lighting rig in the HK Audio demo theatre at the JHS Event 2001, held at the company's Garforth head office. In addition, Mad Manufacturing will be a guest exhibitor at Event 2001, able to both demo their impressive state-of-the-art lighting and effects systems, and to access the large number of trade visitors throughout the busy three-day duration of the show. With a well-deserved reputation for innovation in what is a highly competitive market, one of Mad's recent successes was the launch of the IMP, or Image Marketing Projector. This is a simple-to-use projector system which features an array of onboard programming options designed to give retailers a high-tech but convenient method of in-store product promotion.

Alongside the IMP, Mad's new installation range also includes the popular 250W AXIS moving head, and the IMP Pro series of effe

Mogwai in Shepherds Bush

Details: 14 March 2016

Popular Scottish band, Mogwai, played a pre-launch gig for their second album ‘Rock Action’ at the Shepherds Bush Empire in London. Mogwai, known as the 'no words' band because of their cinematic and instrumental music, played the pre-launch gig prior to embarking on a tour of Japan. The lighting rig for the event featured a host of Martin moving heads supplied by Bandit Lites and specified by LD Nick Jevons. He used six MAC 2000s, 10 MAC 500s and 10 MAC 600s, all controlled via an Avolites Pearl 2000, to create a cinematic and dramatic lightshow which perfectly complemented the various moods of Mogwai’s music. Jevons has been a lighting designer for over 10 years, and in his time has designed spectacular lightshows for bands such as the Super Furry Animals, Reef, Elastica and Skunk Anansie. In addition, he has also designed the lighting for a large number of extreme

Panamarenko Lifts Off

Details: 14 March 2016

Exhibited widely in Europe, Japan and the US, Panamarenko, whose works are immediately recognizable and highly distinctive, has become one of the most famous contemporary artists in the world. Obsessed with flight, Panamarenko calls himself an artist-technologist, producing work that is a cross between art and science.

Belgium’s Museum of Contemporary Art (SMAK) in Ghent recently hosted a three-month retrospective exhibition of his most impressive works, an event that opened with a one-off show entitled Panamarenko by Night which took place on March 23. Martin’s Belgian distributor EVDV proposed giving Panamarenko’s work an additional touch of dynamism for the show so its architectural lighting specialist Duncan Verstraeten took the opportunity to incorporate Martin effects lighting into this rather unusual environment. He contacted lighting specialist Lode van Pee o

Hotcakes Wins Award

Details: 14 March 2016

Brand experience consultancy Hotcakes has won the international award for Best Consumer Products Event at the European IBTM Awards in Geneva (30 May), for its production of Marks & Spencer’s unique ‘Time To Celebrate’ touring show.

‘Time To Celebrate’ has been acknowledged as Europe’s biggest ever touring show undertaken by a retailer and was devised to showcase the retailer’s Christmas/Millennium collections. Taking place in a specially-designed state-of-the-art structure, the show was staged adjacent to M&S’s flagship stores in Bristol, Gateshead, Edinburgh and Camberley. It incorporated a celebrity cooking demonstration, a fashion show and an exhibition of merchandise from the Home & Gifts department, and was seen by 26,000 customers and staff across the UK. The event was managed by a crew of 550, and transported around the country by

ECA2 at Expo 2001, Japan

Details: 14 March 2016

After the success of the multimedia waterscreen shows during the world expos in both Osaka (1990) and Tottori (1996), Yves Pépin and his team at ECA2 have been asked to produce the multi-media watershow for the Yamaguchi Expo in Japan, which runs from the 14th of July through to the 30th of September 2001. For the last two years, ECA2 and its technicians have been working alongside the Japanese Expo team to ensure the success of this night-time spectacular. The show will feature images projected onto four monumental spheres, as well as onto a giant water screen; pyrotechnic and fire effects will complete the impressive show.

£1m Mercedes to Balance On Needle Tower

Details: 14 March 2016

As part of the Goodwood Festival of Speed, Edwin Shirley Staging, the international staging and structure specialist, has built a bespoke 30m high needle-shaped tower, from which a £1 million Mercedes Benz Gullwing car will be balanced to help celebrate the luxury car company’s Centenary. The car will be placed on its nose and will be on display to visitors during the three-day motor show.

The ESS structure has been specially designed by Gerry Judah, the renowned designer behind such projects as the model of Auschwitz in the Holocaust Galleries at the Imperial War Museum and Linkbridge 2000 in the Woolwich Dockyard Estate, as well as last year’s central display at Goodwood. Patrick Woodroffe, known worldwide as a leader in lighting design and whose recent projects include Lord of the Dance II and the Rolling Stones tours, is lighting the structure. The festival, which open

Sweet Talking . . .

Details: 14 March 2016

Showlight 2001 shall never be forgot - Tony Gottelier walks us through the highlights.

After having spent the weekend in Helensborough with friends, and undertaking several outdoor excursions immersed in Scottish mist, as opposed to Scotch mist which is something else entirely (and of which more later), it was quite a shock to wake up to unexpected and blazing heat for the first day of Showlight 2001. However, this weather was certainly appropriate as, in a very literal sense, the sun seemingly bathed this fourth quadrennial colloquium on entertainment lighting, in a golden glow throughout.

Huge credit has to go to the committee for the success that Showlight was once again. Some of the members of this panel will be mentioned in this article, some will not, if only because their roles were more behind the scenes, as it were, but all deserve fulsome praise for their contribution to a

Association News - PLASA AGM Breaks New Ground

Details: 14 March 2016

PLASA held its most successful AGM to date on Thursday 14 June in the stunning setting of Coombe Abbey, near Coventry. Just under 70 Members attended, including for the first time, a number of Associate Members. One Member even made the trip from Europe.

During the AGM, both PLASA Chairman Mick Hannaford and Treasurer Sammy de Havilland reported a successful year for the Association, covering the wide range of initiatives that had been introduced in the past 12 months.

In his keynote speech, Chairman Mick Hannaford reflected on the changes taking place within the industry and the need for companies to equip themselves to cope with a rapidly changing world. He emphasized the role that PLASA had to play in this, and also stressed the need for more training, an ambition that the Association has given a further boost to with the recent establishment of its training and education steering

Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Park

Details: 14 March 2016

Amsterdam’s Museum Square provided the ideal setting for an audition of Meyer Sound’s new M3D system. Mike Mann reports.

The audition in question was a classical concert by the Royal Concert Orchestra of a range of classical music - the first performance of its kind to be streamed live on the Internet in The Netherlands.

The Meyer System came courtesy of Hof Audio - The Netherlands’ biggest Meyer Sound user, and owner Bart Hof regards himself as being part of a team - which means that he’s not afraid to voice criticisms. "I’m a true Meyer fan," he explained, "which means that while I can be extremely critical, I can also understand where the product concepts are coming from." The decision to purchase an M3D line array system was, he added, based on a need for a system that would cope with outdoor events: "I knew that we needed a

Colin Sinclair is pictured at the Keyfest Launch party at Loaf.

Event Associates Key to Festivals Success

Details: 14 March 2016

Manchester’s most comprehensive cultural festival, Keyfest, is being held this summer. Keyfest offers 103 hours of varied events in a range of Manchester venues spanning 17 days. Event Associates created the programme and co-ordinated the production of the whole festival for radio station Key 103.

The co-ordination of the artists, venues and production of Keyfest was managed by the Event Associates team, with director Colin Sinclair overseeing the project. Manchester’s ‘street cred’ as one of the UK’s main cultural cities was once again underlined with the launch of Keyfest on Thursday 21st June at Loaf. Tom Hunter, managing director of Manchester’s radio station Key 103 welcomed a gathering of media and celebrities to the opening party. The festival programme includes a celebrity fashion show, performances from Ocean Colour Scene, Paul Weller and Da

National Space Centre Opens

Details: 14 March 2016

The Leicester-based National Space Centre has opened. The £52million project, part-funded by the Millennium Commission, has a host of visitor attractions, in addition to a research facility for scientists and various space exploration artifacts. Central to the new attraction is the Space Theatre, the latest technology is being used to project virtual reality images onto its dome-shaped roof screen.

You can read a full report on the Centre in the August issue of Lighting&Sound International.

ILMC Crowd Safety Panel Agrees Agenda

Details: 14 March 2016

A panel of crowd safety experts, appointed on March 11 2001 by the ILMC (The International Live Music Conference), has now agreed its agenda. The panel (CSP) has been created in order to increase the focus on health and safety in connection with music festivals and similar larger outdoor concerts. Its main purpose is to assist the government, licensing authorities and legislators with ensuring crowd safety at ongoing or future events.

The panel’s work is highly topical through recent developments in the music and festival culture, and its creation was spurred by a number of accidents and deaths at high profile events including Roskilde Festival 2000 in Denmark and other recent crowd tragedies in Australia and South America. An awareness campaign aimed at educating festival audiences across Europe about the seemingly innocent (but proven dangerous) practice of ‘crowd surfing

National Recognition for UKCMA

Details: 14 March 2016

The UK’s first ever grouping of crowd management companies, the UK Crowd Management Association (UKCMA), has marked its first four months with the announcement of official recognition from two major bodies. The UKCMA was launched in March at the International Live Music Conference in London. Its principle aims are to raise standards within the entertainment event industry and promote awareness of crowd safety issues among legislative bodies in the UK, as well as to foster co-ordination of training and operational standards. The UKCMA, representing the major players in crowd management, aims to achieve this through a continuing educational and networking programme and open forums, targeting all decision makers involved within the crowd management sphere. In the short space of four months, the association has gained recognition from such organisations as the British Standards Institu

Theatrical London 2001

Details: 14 March 2016

PLASA has worked in co-operation with some of London’s leading entertainment venues to offer an exclusive insight into the workings of some of the city’s most famous venues; this exclusive backstage tour immediately follows the close of the PLASA Show in London this September. Theatrical London delegates will visit the world-renowned Royal Albert Hall for a night at the Proms; the Apollo Victoria Theatre to see the upgraded Starlight Express; Tussaud’s Group Studios for an exclusive technical tour, and the Donmar Warehouse for a ‘Divas at the Donmar’ performance. To top it off, you can step back in time at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre . . .

Wednesday 12th September: The experience begins with A night at The Proms, The Royal Albert Hall, featuring Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring. Pre-show drinks will be served in the foyer. Performance starts at 7.30pm.

SBES 2001

Details: 14 March 2016

The 26th Sound Broadcasting Equipment Show (SBES) will take place at the NEC in Birmingham from 14-15 November 2001. The way that audio systems within broadcast environments has changed can be described as nothing less than radical: audio networking is the key to how radio stations and studios will see their future and the expansion of products in this sector is likely to witness rapid growth. Companies such as IBM/Jutel, Klotz Digital, and The Oxford Sound Company have been pivotal in the implementation of substantial installations for the BBC and GWR during the course of 2001. "We can set up a studio without having to be concerned about exactly what it is going to do," commented Tim Donaldson, GWR's Technical Director. GWR have recently completed a move to a new studio that is fully networked using Klotz Digital equipment and dining out on the fact that "this is the larg

ESS Provides Big Screen Support

Details: 14 March 2016

This weekend, 250,000 spectators at the 35th British Grand Prix enjoyed a close-up view of racing heroes Michael Schumacher, Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard, via two 4.8m by 8.1m jumbo TV screens from Screenco, supported by 16.5m high tower structures provided by ESS, the international staging and structure specialist. The 43 tonne screens were located at key spectator spots on the circuit, namely Copse Corner and Chapel Curve and relayed live TV coverage. So far this year, ESS has provided support structures for Wimbledon, the Grand National, the Kentucky Derby and Royal Ascot, as well as the one-day international cricket tests at Lords and Edgbaston, as part of the UK tour by Pakistan. In addition, ESS has also supplied screen supports at Twickenham for various national rugby fixtures. This brings the total number of locations where ESS has provided camera and screen supports to eigh

Sweet Touch From Stage Electrics

Details: 14 March 2016

Cadbury Trebor Bassett hosted its 2001 Management Conference at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham in June, using the whole of Hall 4. The hall was transformed into five Themed Zones, a Central Piazza Area, an Auditorium Theatre and a Reception Area. Stage Electrics’ NEC branch was contracted to supply and manage the events’ lighting, staging, mains distribution and truss screen structures. Delta Sound provided all audio systems, with PSL/PCP completing the technical aspect with a complicated interactive projection system. Rigging was provided by the NEC’s in-house department.

Lighting designer, Ben Holdsworth, utilized 150 Martin Mac Moving lights headed by 42 Mac 2000s. The room wash was provided by 620 conventional lanterns with 12 City Color Wash Lights, while four flown ZR22 smoke machines provided heavy fog for the central area. The space also require

PLASA 2001 Hotline Goes Live!

Details: 14 March 2016

Booking your tickets to the PLASA Show, the entertainment technology industry’s leading event, running from 9-12 September 2001 at Earls Court Exhibition Centre in London, has never been easier. You can now book in any of the following ways:

By Telephone: The Visitor Hotline is now live! Call +44 (0) 870 429 4472 to make your credit card booking or to request an advance booking form.

Online: Go direct to www.plasa.org/show/register to book online.

There are many advantages to pre-registration. Not only will you save £6 on the cost of entry to the Show (tickets on the door are £12) but you will be sent a personalized badge in advance permitting you fast entry into the show. You will also receive up-to-date information on the Show’s Masterclass Programme and how to book your seat at any of

TiLE 2001, London

Details: 14 March 2016

The 10th Annual TiLE Conference was held for the third, but last, time (for a few years) at the Business Design Centre in Islington, London 12-14 June 2001.

For those unfamiliar with the TiLE concept, it is not unlike Showlight in its make-up with a conference and exhibition running hand-in-hand, and an associated social programme gluing the two together. Certainly one of the most important conferences in Europe, perhaps in the world, TiLE is a key ‘networking’ event bringing together major developers, operators, designers and suppliers from the international leisure market. It attracts people from around the world because it is the one place to meet people of all levels and to listen to and debate about the real projects, techniques and problems facing this major industry.

Most of the major players can be found on the show floor - companies like Electrosonic, Farmer St

We Know Where You Live! - Live

Details: 14 March 2016

The 40th anniversary of Amnesty International was celebrated in style at Wembley Arena in a comic cavalcade starring Eddie Izzard, and featuring Paul Whitehouse, Harry Enfield, Phill Jupitus, Jeremy Hardy and many more. Alan Rickman also appeared on the bill, as did Badly Drawn Boy, the Stereophonics and Tom Jones - with a satellite-linked slot from U2 in Toronto.

Called We Know Where You Live: Live! the show was hosted by Eddie Izzard in the spirit of the classic Secret Policeman’s Balls of the seventies, eighties and nineties. The role of production manager fell to John Farquar-Smith ably assisted by crew chief Nick Jones.Izzard is known for his love of performing in an intimate club atmosphere, rather than on television, so a compromise had to be reached to ensure that the light levels were high enough for TV company Initial’s cameras, but not too bright for Eddie’

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Events

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