ESS Superstructure has secured a major contract to build a vast 2,500sq.m superstructure building for a high profile, blue chip corporate event. The contract is the first for ESS Superstructure following the recent formation of a joint venture between ESS Ltd and The Pure Group. An ESS Superstructure building will be used initially by HP:ICM, one of Europe's leading live communication companies, for a client event involving a global brand. Two thousand delegates are expected to attend a one-day management conference, which will be followed by an elaborate gala dinner to be hosted in the superstructure building. The huge aluminium transparent structure, which is 100m long by 25m wide and 11m high, is based in the grounds of Syon Park in west London. Managed by The Pure Group, the Superstructure will be available for hire as a conference and corporate hospitality venue, in conjunction with

PLASA has completed the first phase of its major industry research project, which will provide PLASA members with an invaluable insight into their industry. As well as being able to estimate the global market size for professional lighting, sound, staging and AV products and services, the research also gives a very detailed picture of the market in the UK. For the first time, PLASA has information about the value of the product sectors, how fast they are growing and the size and growth of the various vertical sectors into which its members sell. The findings enable the Association to say some very precise things about its members collectively and the nature of the industry as a whole.

PLASA plans to repeat the exercise every 12 months, enabling it to build up ever-more accurate trend information. A quick flick through the 119-page report reveals that it estimates the respective size by

NXT has announced that Amina technologies, a licensee of NXT's award-winning SurfaceSound flat panel speaker technology, has supplied speaker systems to the UK’s Houses of Parliament. NXT speakers have been installed in the refurbished Grand Committee Room and as narrow panels along the edge of the windowsills in St Mary's Chapel. A further eight panels are situated in the Public Lobby where they have been painted to look like the supporting stonework. Amina Technologies' NXT flat panel speakers were installed by Sound & Visual Limited and chosen over conventional technology because of their superior sound characteristics when used in open spaces. Unlike conventional speakers, NXT's SurfaceSound flat panel speakers disperse sound evenly across all frequencies. Aside from the acoustic qualities of flat panel speakers, NXT has also been chosen because of the ability to blend flat pan

When brewer Old Monk required a sound, light and video supplier for their latest Springbok site in Newquay - a former swimming pool which has been converted into a state-of-the-art late license venue - they turned to Nottingham based company TTL. With a design brief demanding a system capable of nightclub sound in the evenings yet with an unobtrusive presence for the daytime trade, TTL project manager Andy Hague specified Logic System loudspeakers throughout. Hague explained: "The main area has a 30ft ceiling height and full length windows along one side, therefore to achieve the necessary SPL, whilst minimising overspill, I needed a very accurate and directional cabinet. The Logic System CS1296 proved ideal. The cabinets are flown 25ft in the air, effectively out of sight, yet still control coverage to 150Hz whilst avoiding overspill in the bar areas. With the bass units being buil

Multiple DAS loudspeaker systems have been installed in a refit of 'Bar Ice' in Bexley Heath, south London. Recently acquired by new owners, the venue has received a considerable upgrade to its in-house sound system. Installed by experienced sound and lighting systems company Compa Lighting, the new system replaces the exiting speakers with four DAS Sub-18 sub-bass units and six DAS DS-12 two-way cabinets. Managing director of Compa Lighting, Andrew Matthews, commented: "The 18 inch bass bins deliver superb bottom end that perfectly complements the existing system and are able to cover the entire dance floor area."

The two-way, passive crossover DS-12 cabinets were used to balance the sound in areas beyond the main dance floor and as such they were required to be powerful but compact. The 12" bass and 1" compression drivers of the DS-12s proved perfect for Compa's r

A progressive independent church in South Wales has enlisted Marquee Audio to help upgrade its audio system. Darran Clements, head of sound at the Kings Church in Newport, Gwent, wanted to increase the audio front-end and called in freelance engineer, Matt Creed, who has an extensive background in live sound. "The old mixing desk was eight years old; it was no longer big enough and had reached the end of its life. I was asked to find the most appropriate replacement," said Matt, "and so I called Jimmy Potter at Marquee Audio and he recommended the Allen & Heath ML4000-48."

The church needed greater number of inputs to accommodate its expansion and to ensure some future-proofing. "We wanted a large number of channels on a small footprint, and there was nothing that could touch this for quality, price and features - it’s one of he most transparent desks I h

The Dickson CyberExpress is a 21st century retail concept, first launched in Hong Kong last autumn. The HK$380m investment by the Dickson Group of Companies has resulted in a 70,000sq.ft, high-tech development at Kowloon Station.

It’s a full-on interactive shopping environment, offering a wide selection of the best known brands in the universe. The ‘cybermall’ functions as a complementary intelligent retail centre to Dickson’s e-commerce venture, DicksonCyberExpress.com.

The idea was to create the ultimate consumer experience for cyber-chic shoppers. The team chosen to pull the project together included UK-based design and production company Media Projects International, retail designer JGA Inc from the US, Hong Kong architects Gensler, UK-based AV systems specialists Electrosonic and various LDs and directors.CyberExpress’s seven ‘zones’ inc

Lightfactor has recently supplied lighting and control equipment to St Paul’s Church in Hammersmith. The church is a large 1000-capacity building, constructed in 1880 and the current lighting refit is part of the church’s ongoing programme of events, designed to involve and stimulate participation from the local community. The need for dramatic, theatrical-style lighting is a growing one, with services frequently featuring live music and performers. As part of the technical refit, Lightfactor supplied four LightProcessor Paradime rack-mounting dimmers and a LightProcessor Q24 control desk - now utilised to control the concert lighting system. At the same time St Pauls’ have also purchased three Paradime Wall packs and four architectural remote button plates to control the ‘house’ lights for every day services and functions.

CP Sound has just completed the installation of an innovative new lighting rig, plus a re-invention and design of the sound system incorporating several new elements at The Core in Yeovil, Somerset. The club - formerly known as Duke’s - is owned by locally-based independent operator Terry Clare. Steve Howie from Howie Design was commissioned to produce the interior design, basing his themeing on ideas triggered from the complex and world of the cult 1999 Warchowski Brothers movie, The Matrix.

Audio-wise at the Core, CP Sound’s Colin Pattenden utilised as much as possible of the existing installation, whilst also addressing the previous system’s serious lack of bass. He added four JBL MS125S cabinets to the room, complete with new RSE PFX 1200 clip control amplifiers. CP Sound also added a DJ monitor where previously there was none - plus two JBL top cabinets for infi

A redesign of the playing area at the Royal Shakespeare Company's Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon for the 2001 season meant that a completely new repertoire lighting rig was required. And, when designing that rig, the RSC's head of lighting Vince Herbert and lighting designer Peter Mumford saw the potential for some new lighting opportunities, they turned to The Moving Light Company for advice.

Their plan was to move beyond the increasingly-standard use of automated lighting: as well as having the lights pointing themselves in different directions from fixed positions, they wanted the lights themselves to move! The tracking system for the lights was to be created by the RSC, with the drives and control provided by automation specialists Stage Technologies. Dave Isherwood from The Moving Light Company was able to show the RSC the wide range of equipment held in MLCo's stock. After carefu

When the Science Museum decided to replace the Steel House exhibit with a capsule identical to the ones currently in use on The London Eye on the Thames, it called on the services of Unusual Rigging. The work involved entailed lowering the house, dismantling and removing it, bringing in the capsule, building it and hanging it. Directly below the space where the steel house was hanging was a large beam engine, which could not be moved and also had to remain visible as an active exhibit during the install. The Unusual team had to carry out all the work during nights as any impact on the normal running of the museum was unacceptable.

A large truss table was constructed above the beam engine. Once this was built, the Steel House was lowered onto the working platform and then dismantled. The component parts were lowered over the side of the platform using a chain hoist, suspended from the r

Sarner, in collaboration with the Natural History Museum, is breaking new ground in conference technology and the use of video streaming in an educational environment. Following a competitive seven-way pitch, Sarner has been appointed to handle the design and technical installation for the Natural History Museum's innovative new Darwin Gallery.

The museum chose Sarner for this unique project, due for completion in Autumn this year, having previously worked with them on other projects. Sarner's brief was to conceive, design and install leading-edge technology which would enable academics and businesses who are giving lectures or presentations in the Darwin Gallery to be able to simultaneously transmit these lectures to specific recipients around the world and have an interactive discussion with those not present at the Gallery. Video conferencing, which will include digital audio and vi

Celestion’s new Cxi sound reinforcement cabinets have been chosen for a sizeable concert hall installation in Taganrog in Russia. Located in the city of Taganrog on the coast of the Azov Sea, the venue, which is sponsored by the large Tagmet mining company, has capacity for 850 people and will host a variety of musical events.

The new sound reinforcement system comprises 20 Celestion Cxi 1022P, a 2 x 10" mid-range cabinet with a 2" driver, and 10 CXi1812 bass bins. Amplification is from Yorkville AP4040s, with ART equalisation, and an Allen & Heath GL3300 front-of-house console. Elsewhere in the Russian industrial heartland, another mining company, Yakutugol, has financed a similar venue. In Nerungri, a town in the Yakutia Republic, an all-purpose music and conference hall has also installed a Celestion system. This time, the system is QX Series, mixed with KR2 backgrou

The 12 Bar Club, famously voted the Best Live Music Venue in London by Time Out magazine, has taken delivery of a new 16-channel Soundcraft Spirit LX7. The intimate venue has recently played host to Nigel Kennedy, Lambchop, Mark Eitzel, Billy Bragg and the Jesus & Mary Chain’s William Reid, and with four acts a night, seven nights a week, the new console is already being put through its paces.

Paul Gilbert, engineer and on-line TV webcaster for the 12 Bar Club, knows how well the LX7 is coping with the demands placed upon it. "We’d been using a Spirit Live 3 for years. The longest anyone’s been working here is seven years and the desk was here before he started, so we figured it was time to get a new console. The Club is extremely small and the control room is tiny, so we knew we needed a really small console with plenty of features and outputs. And, as about 40

Kilmarnock Palace Theatre in Scotland has been re-equipped with new Sennheiser radio microphone and infra-red systems as part of a National Lottery grant-funded refurbishment. The Northern Light-supplied audio upgrade includes five dual-channel EM 3032-U wireless RF receivers, 10 SK 3063 miniature bodypack transmitters with MKE 2 Gold tie-clip mics, and a dual-channel, infra-red transmission system for use by the hearing and sight impaired. As a major boost to accessibility in the theatre, the infra-red system has been instaled to privide transmission to stethoset (wireless headphone) and neckloop receivers. The system consists of a Sennheiser SI 1015 two-channel wideband modulator, four SZI-1029-UK large area radiators in the auditorium, and 20 HDI-302 two-channel stethoset and 10 R15/O/L neckloop receivers. Northern Light’s Eddy O’Hare described the system as "a no-com

The United States Institute for Theatre Technology (USITT) has announced that the deadline for submissions to its 2002 Architecture Awards Program will be 2 October 2001. Nominations will be accepted for projects located anywhere in the world, and new construction, renovations, retrofitting or reuse of structures will be considered. Now in its ninth year, the Architecture Awards program was established by the group’s Architecture Commission to bring public and professional recognition to architectural projects chosen for their design excellence and ability to resolve the challenges associated with performance spaces. To be eligible for consideration, project construction must have been completed after January 1st 1992. Among last year’s Award winners were the Severance Hall in Cleveland, Ohio; Theater and Congress Hall in Weimar, Germany; The Lowry Centre in Salford, UK; the

The Broadcasting, Entertainment, Cinematograph and Theatre Union (BECTU) has defeated the UK Government at the European Court of Justice over the UK’s implementation of the Working Time Directive. The UK’s Working Time Regulations 1998, which implements the Directive, entitles workers to a minimum of 20 days paid leave each year. But employees are not entitled to the leave until they have completed a qualifying period of 13 continuous weeks with the same employer. This means that many freelance and contract workers who work for less than 13 weeks have been denied a right to take paid leave.

BECTU launched a legal challenge to the UK legislation and on 26 June 2001 the European Court of Justice (ECJ) accepted the opinion of the Advocate General of the ECJ, which stated that national governments may not exclude groups of workers from the rights that the directive gives them.

Hayden Laboratories has supplied West London-based installation and audio consultants Phoenix Technologies with a large number of Denon multi-play CD players for an innovative North London installation. Their client Richard Abbott has a large house and a colossal CD collection. He was looking for a flexible, cutting-edge audio system that would allow him quickly and easily to locate and replay any CD or track in his vast music archive – numbering over 2000 discs! Richard set Phoenix a demanding brief for a versatile and robust systemThe Phoenix Team set about designing a system, and selected the Denon Multiplay DCM-5000 machines at an early stage in the process.

Phoenix specified the Denon machines because they wanted the most reliable technology available. They have used the Denon brand in a variety of other installs over the years. It was also essential that this system was exp

The latest Jongleurs comedy club has been developed on the site of the former Mash & Air in Manchester’s city centre - in a multi-level building, requiring multiple signal feeds. When Andy Chamley’s Telford-based AC Limited won the contract from Regent Inns plc for the sound and lighting package, they put together a specification based around a pair of BSS Audio’s 9088 DSP networking devices, with two local 9010 ‘Jellyfish’ remotes. Chamley says the success of the installation owed much to the close support offered by BSS Audio’s Dave McKinney. "This was a complex installation, since the venue exists on four floors, and required careful design," he explained.

On the ground floor is Bar Risa - a daytime operation and night-time feeder bar, with a hard disk music system. This is linked by a Soundweb device and Jellyfish, offering satellite a

An elaborate TOA networked system forms the core of the new tone and voice signalling system at the head office and distribution centre of RS Components (UK) Ltd at Corby. Retrofitted by Provoice, the audio division of Burnley-based fire protection and voice evacuation specialists, Protec, the system is based around a centrally-sited, 32-zone SX-1000 audio management digital matrix, powered by a combination of TOA VP240, VP120 and VP60 amplifiers, housed within a suite of five ‘Access Series’ drive racks, manufactured by Wilshire & Quick.

There are 48 amplifiers in total, and since the system is plugging into a pre-existing PA set-up, using branched circuits, Provoice opted to use an impedance monitoring system, specially designed by TOA Germany, and featured for the first time in the UK. Prosound’s Jan Hawrot explained that the system contained four automatic message

Crest Audio Professional series amplifiers, supplied by The Sound Department, will be used to power the sound on a series of school discos with a difference. Provided by Tarsin Entertainments for promoter Bobby Sanchez, matched with ASS scoop bins and JBL Venue series mid-tops, the combination is deemed to deliver the perfect 1970s sound Sanchez is looking to achieve for his risqué nights at Hammersmith Palais and other venues, where his clientèle come dressed in school uniforms. In Hammersmith, the sound is complemented at balcony level by the flown in-house system. "Since he plays 1970s music, he wants to achieve a sound reminiscent of the era," says Tarsin’s Peter Dyer. "The event takes place once a week at Hammersmith and it’s a fabulous night out."

The mobile rig’s bottom end is driven by four Crest 8001s, the mid-section by four 6001s and t

Golden Princess, the newest member of the P&O Cruises fleet, left Southampton on May 16th to spend th summer cruising the Mediterranean, before heading off to the Caribbean for the winter. The ship features three separate show lounges, each of which incorporates Blackout Triple E engineering and equipment. Because traditional fittings are often unsuitable, contractor HMS Italia enlisted Blackout Triple E to develop systems for the particular environment of the cruise ship, including its Austrian curtain mechanisms and Unirail and Unitrack systems for installation in the principal and cabaret theatres. Though the tracks are mainly for curtains, the Vista Lounge uses Chaintrack to carry two 300kg rotating scenic panels, and the main lounge features Unibeam tracks to carry lighting ladders on each side of the stage. Blackout Triple E also provided the control for the safety curtain in the m

Stagetec (UK) Ltd has recently won three major contracts covering a diverse selection of production industry areas. In the theatre market, the company is supplying and installing a complete new sound system at the Orchard Theatre in Dartford. The theatre 3D-modelled the auditorium to ensure optimum coverage and intelligibility, and were demonstrated several systems. They chose a Nexo system, supplied by Stagetec, consisting of eight PS15 mid/high speakers, four LS1200 sub-bass cabinets, plus three PS8 speakers for delays, all driven from Crown Macro-Tech amplifiers. The whole system is controlled via a Crown USM810 digital processor and three Sabine Graphi-Q digital programmable graphic EQs - the idea being to offer a quick, easy and very flexible system catering for the wide range of productions. Stagetec also supplied a Soundcraft K2 mixer, a range of outboard equipment and a Sennheise

The Swiss city of Berne is having the lighting system in its municipal theatre modernized by the Transtechnik Group at a cost of around 425,000 Euros. Due to be completed at the end of this month, the project will bring state-of-the-art lighting technology to this famous theatre. The new system includes two lighting control consoles - a Focus NT and a Prisma NT - each of which is fitted with a moving light controller and connected to the digital auxiliary console via a Transtechnik DMX-Gate protocol converter. The converter converts the DMX signals from the lighting consoles to the Profibus signals for the auxiliary console (and vice versa) to allow the devices to exchange data. The Profibus standard requires only a thin, two-wire cable for transmitting control signals, which means that there is no need for thick bundles of cables to the auxiliary console. Profibus also permits bi-direct

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