Robe - LEADERBOARD - Feb 2025
PLASA Show 2025 - Banner - June-Aug 2025

Events

Details
USA - Renkus-Heinz will unveil three major developments for the live sound and installation markets at the 123rd AES Convention starting Friday 5 October 5 in New York. These are: the VERSYS VL3 line array, EASERA SysTune and the roll-out of RHAON (Renkus-Heinz Audio Operations Network) for the entire Renkus-Heinz powered loudspeaker lineup.

VERSYS VL3, the latest generation, high output, fully featured digital line array system is the world's first line array system to come with the fully integrated RHAON package.

It features in-cabinet Class D amplification, new neodymium and carbon fibre-based drivers, full digital dynamics, networked audio over CobraNet as well as loudspeaker monitoring and remote control, all delivered over Cat 5 cable. And despite extremely high output (1200W/600W/250W per band) the all-up cabinet weight is around 200 pounds, and boasts a truck pack-frie

Details
India - Under the direction of Andrew Paul, Paul Movies - a company with almost 50 years of history in India - became a sales partner of d&b audiotechnik in late 2006. Paul Movies has in these few short months begun the process of establishing the brand and will be exhibiting a range of d&b systems at PALME in Mumbai this week (4-6 October).

"We aim to grow this market in the way d&b has done around the world; it will take time for users to learn the value of the products. Engaging known audio specialists regionally gives us the foundation to build the knowledge and training required," says director Andrew Paul.

"We will be talking to audio engineers, as we did in July, when we invited over three hundred rental and installation specialists to a demonstration of the Q-Series systems at the Oberoi Hotel Ballroom in Delhi. We let them hear the systems and decide fo

PLASA Show 2025 - Banner - June-Aug 2025

Details
Germany - 18 October marks the official opening of SAE Institute's new campus in Berlin. With more than 5000sq.m of floor space, SAE Berlin claims it will be the largest state-of-the-art private media campus in Europe.

The newly inaugurated campus will host the third annual SAE Alumni Convention on 18 and 19 October. The two-day event, organised by the SAE Alumni Association, brings together representatives from the local media and arts community, industry, and society at large.

An extensive event schedule features workshops, panel discussions and lectures. Leading companies such as Apple, Sennheiser and Roland will present their newest products at the convention trade show and in their demo suites.

(Jim Evans)

Details
EMEA - Entry for the EMEA InAVation Awards 2008 technology and project categories are now open, the organizers have announced.

Finalists this year will be decided by a judging panel of editors from the leading international and regional industry media resources, whilst the winners of the technology categories will once more be decided by the region's industry professionals, via online voting on the dedicated awards website. The 2007 event generated 7,639 individual technology votes from over 60 countries.

This year's awards programme sees the introduction of French, German, Italian, Russian and Spanish portals whilst the prestigious gala awards dinner will be held in the grand ballrooms at The Hotel Okura, Amsterdam on Monday 28 January, prior to the first day of the Integrated Systems Europe (ISE) exhibition.

(Lee Baldock)

Details
UK - Leading communication company Imagination today announced it has been awarded the contract for Shell's global exhibition programme, after an intense pitch process which involved five eminent design and event agencies.

Imagination will be responsible for ensuring brand consistency, design and content management and the implementation of all Shell exhibitions and trade shows worldwide.

The appointment is a significant win for Imagination, which operates a network of 10 offices worldwide. It has delivered the global autoshow programme for Ford Motor Company since 1999.

Founder and CEO of Imagination Gary Withers said: "This is a very important client for us to secure. We look forward to supporting Shell worldwide, drawing on the resources of our network to deliver a wide range of communication."

Danny Van Otterdyk, Shell's manager for Visual Media, added: "

Details
USA - Eclipse Marketing has announced its sponsorship of D-Tools' 5th annual Design Awards with an electronic newsletter marketing campaign that is personalised for the winner. This exclusive award will be given to a residential dealer who submitted an exceptional project that was created with D-Tools System Integrator 5 software.

Dealers submitted entries to D-Tools' development team and Certified Partners who then reviewed the projects and selected winners. The entries will be judged on a number of criteria, including originality, most thorough use of D-Tools' software functionality, overall visual quality of designs, plans, and schematics. Judges will also look at which projects best communicate the system designer's vision.

Says Leslie Stevens, president of Eclipse Marketing: "It's an honour to sponsor D-Tools' 2007 Design Awards. We know that D-Tools wants to provide

Details
UK - The first of three Hawthorn @ Home events were held a Hawthorn's Leicestershire base last Friday. The event focusing on Moving Lights was a great success with both visitors and exhibitors expressing their delight at the event.

Companies taking part were Robe Show Lighting, Martin Professional, ETC and Clay Paky. Clay Paky's area manager, Emilio Cornelli commented: "This is a great opportunity for us to get our products in front of the users themselves and Hawthorns are always great hosts."

The next Hawthorn@ Home will be held on Friday 26 October. 'Pyro and Effects' is an opportunity to see a pyrotechnic demonstration by Le Maitre, as well as lighting effects from other companies such as Rosco/DHA and Martin Professional.

(Jim Evans)

Details
Canada - The Warped Tour is an ultra-hip vehicle for bringing punk, ska and hardcore metal tempered with a dose of extreme sports to the masses. Now in its (lucky) thirteenth year and sponsored, as ever, by Vans, the über-cool skate, surf and BMX shoe and garment manufacturers, Warped 2007 covered the length and breadth of the United States and Canada, bringing up to one hundred bands per show to legions of adoring fans.

The Canadian dates saw Warped 2007 partner with Union Label Group, a Montreal-based punk record label, who sponsored their own Union Label stage in order to showcase Canadian punk and ska bands. Union Label turned to Sennheiser Canada, long-time distributors of InnovaSON consoles in Canada, for technical support and advice in setting up the stage. Sennheiser Canada's Vaino Gennaro, after discussions with well-known Montreal sound engineer Kevin Holland and repr

Details
UK - On 2 October 2007 the British Olympic Association's (BOA) Olympic Gold Ball was held at London's impressive Natural History Museum. The event was attended by HRH The Princess Royal, President of the BOA and 39 Olympic medallists. Event Concept, accredited production company at the Museum, was appointed to produce the prestigious event. In a race against time, the team transformed the venue and installed a technically complex stage setting in just one hour after the Museum closed to the public.

The Museum was open to the public until 6pm and BOA guests were scheduled to arrive at 7pm. The team installed a sophisticated production design including lighting, set, A/V and furniture in four separate areas of the venue as well as external architectural lighting. Event Concept's installation and rehearsal schedule had to also take into account the needs of the caterer, florist, a

Details
UK - BBC Scotland's new state of the art headquarters in Glasgow, which boasts the latest broadcast technology and is the biggest TV recording space to be built in Scotland and the second largest TV studio in Britain, is to host the 2009 Showlight event.

Set on the banks of the River Clyde, the BBC's new high definition television studio complex was opened by the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, on 20 September and is a bold departure from traditional TV studio premises.

Showlight 2009 will take place from 16-19 May and will be of interest not only to TV lighting directors, but anyone involved with entertainment and architectural lighting design. The BBC's high definition equipment will be utilised to illustrate papers from all genres of lighting, including theatre, film, event, education, architecture and, of course, television.

Organising committee chairman, Ian Dow, said: &q

Details
UK - Kew Gardens is best known as the home of one of the world's leading collections of plants, both for scientific research and horticultural purposes, but to many regulars it's also famous for its evening entertainment in the form of Summer Swing at Kew.

The five day event has been running for the past 23 years, and Bruce Kirk has been working on it for 22 of those. The event began as a promenade concert inside the beautiful Temperate House, once the largest plant house in the world and now the world's largest surviving Victorian glassstructure. Kirk was lighting designer for the second concert and soon became overall production manager. He is now Kew's consultant production manager for this and other major events at the gardens.

"When I first started working on the event, it was for a few hundred people inside the Temperate House," explains Kirk. "Now we have

Details
Turkey - The 21st International Izmir Festival was held this summer at the Izmir Open Air Theatre from 10 June to 14 July. The renowned event hosted a Bejart Ballet and the occasion marked the first appearance of the L-Acoustics Ultra-compact Kiva Line Source Array WST (Wavefront Sculpture Technology) speaker system.

Emre Defne, technical director, ELIT, L-Acoustics distributor in Turkey, comments: "The electro-acoustic simulations we ran with the 3D modeling Soundvision software demonstrated that Kiva would be the most suited system to ensure proper and even coverage of the 3,500 audience. The compact size and elegance of this system was particularly suited for such an application which typically requires the most discreet sound system integration.

"The configuration consisted of two LR arrays of six Kiva elements and two Kilo complementary low frequency extension e

Details
UK - At the recent AV Awards 2007 ceremony held at the Park Lane Hilton, London, Norwegian projector manufacturer, projectiondesign won two awards including the Grand Prix award for the A-V Company of the Year and Manufacturer of the Year.

"We're over the moon to have been acknowledged for our commitment and contribution to the audio visual industry. projectiondesign's growth isbuilt on a solid foundation and reputation for quality products, streamlined manufacturing processes and technical innovation, all of which are backed byquality people who are key to our success," comments Anders L°kke, marketing and communications manager at projectiondesign.

(Jim Evans)

Details
Canada - Now into its second year, Virgin's V-Fest in the city of Toronto attracted 35,000 fans. Braving long waits at the ferry didn't deter the crowds who were rewarded with V's ubiquitous top class line-up including The Killers, Bjork, The Smashing Pumpkins and Arctic Monkeys, and Lighthouse Technologies' LED screens formed an integral part of the action.

Supplied by Toronto-based MVI MultiVision, two R16 16mm screens, measuring 12.4m2 each, were positioned stage left and right with two secondary R16 screens measuring 3m2 each situated beneath the main screen. Processing was via a Lighthouse LIP-SX Interface Processor, Snell & Wilcox Supervisor and Folsom ScreenPro and ImagePro for image scaling.

"The main screens were displaying live images from content supplied from camera positions which were provided by Canadian TV network MUCH Music," explains MVI's vice pres

Details
UK Italy's Show Way 2008 was presented directly to an international audience at PLASA 07. The new show format met with approval both from the audio and lighting manufacturers present at the event and from the associations of the World-ETF (World Entertainment Technical Federation), which considers the initiative an important professional trade fair opportunity in Italy.

Several associations, such as VPLT, ESTA, PLASA, Secartys and JASST, confirmed their support for the show.

The list of exhibitors is growing steadily, say the organisers. At the same time, a programme of meetings and seminars on topical subjects in the audio and lighting sector is being compiled: safety and regulations for stage structures and rigging, technological evolution of light sources (lamps and LEDs), electrical safety regulations for public entertainment premises, and the evolution of lighting in vari

Details
Australia - Over 100 Robe moving lights were in action at the 2007 Melbourne Parklife event - one of Australia's highest profile and most popular dance parties, produced by Future Entertainment. Site wide lighting was designed by Andy Mutton, and all the lighting kit was supplied by Clifton Productions.

The sold out event was attended by 20,000 dance and electronica enthusiasts who grooved the day and night away to an impressive line up of international artists like Digitalism, Shapeshifter, Justice, Scratch Perverts, Riot In Belgium M.I.A. and many, many more, appearing across four stages - Earth, Wind, Fire and Water.

Mutton's primary challenge was in making the lighting as flexible and dynamic as possible across all performance areas, so each operator had enough options for all the acts to have their own unique light-show. They also had to accommodate several visiting LDs.<

Details
UK - Robin Hood Up Close, the recently opened exhibition at Nottingham Castle, showcases the current BBC television series; using some of the actual props and costumes, together with video material and interactive touch screens. This combination of traditional props and modern technology mirrors the programme, which is also a contemporary take on a classic tale. Experience Design & Management, who were charged with creating the exhibition, were keen to maintain this ethos throughout; with atmospheric forests and recreated sets of Nottingham and the Castle being in stark contrast to the behind the scenes area, constructed from modern space-frame structures.

The exhibition demanded a lighting system that was flexible enough to allow distinct colour washed areas, but with the capacity to colour change; creating drama and atmosphere. The team specified Batmink Par 64 LED Cans, a bri

Details
UK - Expanding production company Event Concept will move to warehouses and offices totaling over 30,000sq.ft. The new location is a stone's throw from its existing establishment in Bermondsey, South London. Following refurbishment, the business will move to the new premises in January 2008.

In 13 years, the company has evolved from an event lighting service to a fully integrated design and technical production company. As well as widening the portfolio of production services to include staging, sound and A/V, the company has also continued to grow the lighting side of the business.

Developing new services and extending the production team has meant Event Concept has had to consistently invest in equipment, looking to the latest technologies. As a result of these investments the business is also servicing an increasing demand for dry hire.

Head of company operations Roger De

Details
UK - Manchester-based DBN Lighting is one of the first UK hire companies to stock the new Chroma-Q Color Split multi-purpose LED fixture.

DBN was already a keen user of Chroma-Q's Color Block modular LED fixture, which has proven ideal for lighting its diverse range of client events and is still providing a good return on investment three yearslater, says the company.

DBN lighting director Stephen Page commented: "The Color Split produces the closest light output to that of an asymmetric cyc flood, of any LED product we've seen so far and offers significantly more even colour transmission in this application than conventional LED products.

"Its modular nature makes it flexible enough to be used in a huge variety of applications and, as large stockholders of Color Blocks, we are confident in the consistency and reliability of the product and in thesupport from A.C.

Details
UK - The Event Show, which takes place in January 2008 at Olympia in London, has confirmed that Barry Baker, the Health and Safety Executive's head of entertainment and leisure section, will be present to take questions from event organisers on day two as part of the Access Sessions.

Barry Baker and his team will discuss the changing nature of health & safety for events, includingthe Control of Noise At Work Regulations 2005 which came into force in April last year and how it has impacted on live music events. The team will also cover Working At Height Regulations as well as future trends that will affect event organisers.

(Jim Evans)

Details
UK - Harman Pro UK have announced a training day on 30 November 30th, 2007 forprofessional live sound engineers who wish to get the most out of the Soundcraft Vi6 digital live sound console.

The event will take place in North London, at Camden nightclub and live venue Koko, and will behosted by Soundcraft technical staff and Rob Hughes, an experienced Vi6 user from UK hire company SSE Audio, who were one of the first companies to order the Vi6 following the console's launch in 2006. SSE now own several of the desks, and they are in constant use.

Two training sessions will be held on the day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, each catering for up to 10 engineers. At each session, following an initial technical presentation, the 10 will be divided into two groups of five, each with access to their own Vi6, so that every attendee is assured of some properly supervised

Details
China - The Expo Central China aims to highlight the advantages of Central China, encouraging investors at home and abroad to seek business opportunities. It was held at Zhengzhou International Convention and Exhibition Centre in the Henan Province.

The Expo is jointly sponsored by the Ministry of Commerce and the local governments of six central Chinese provinces, attracting 30,000 business people, including some 10,000 foreign guests from 100 countries and regions. It features business seminars and investment fairs and also includes exhibitions of tourism, animation and automobiles. For its colourful opening ceremony four grandMA full-size, ten MA NSPs (Network Signal Processor) and a grandMA video media server were used.

300 square frames, which were altogether 43m in height and 100m in width, were built on a stage in the Henan Playground. Each square was illuminated by a m

Details
USA - Sennheiser and Neumann products were honoured in two of the 15 categories at the 23rd Annual Technical Excellence (TEC) Awards, which were presented at the AES Convention in New York City this October.

The Neumann KMS 104 cardioid condenser handheld microphone received a 2007 TEC Award in the Mic Technology/Sound Reinforcement category, and the Sennheiser NET 1 wireless systems manager was awarded top honours in the Wireless Technology category.

In addition, the Neumann Stereo Disk Lathe, introduced in 1956, was inducted into the TECnology Hall of Fame at this year's awards ceremony.

(Jim Evans)

Details
Switzerland - Around 800,000 techno fans from all over the world flocked to Zurich in August for the annual Street Parade - one of the undoubted highlights of the techno calendar. In addition to the parade through the streets of the Swiss metropolis, the programme included around 100 indoor events, the biggest of which was the Music 4 Life party thrown by MTV and attended by some 13,000 ravers.

The organisers of the event entrusted production, as they had done the previous year, to MK Badensound of Renchen. A team led by Johannes Moeck deployed a full 280m of cable to connect the entire network of amplifiers and loudspeakers, which comprised 124 Dynacord V-System enclosures in four-point configurations either flown or mounted in the hall ceiling, all driven by 22 Dynacord Power H5000 power amplifiers.

"We used a similar loudspeaker configuration powered by the same amps l

  1. New partnership for Scottish show
  2. Healthy attendance at NSCA Conference
  3. Rock In Japan Festival with d&b
  4. Arena seats a record crowd in Cardiff
  5. AMG to open three new venues in 2008
  6. First Russian show draws crowds
Page 211 of 322
Astera - Large MPU - June 2025
Sennheiser - MPU - June 2025

Latest Issue. . .