UK - CP Sound has completed an audio installation in St Mary & St Nicholas with All Saints Church in Leatherhead, Surrey, after being approached by organist and technical manager David Oliver to submit a sound system design and specification for the medieval building.

It was made clear that they didn't want a conventional house of worship system of 100V line column speakers and radio links. Hosting frequent band sessions and focusing on contemporary evangelical music for in-church entertainment, they wanted a more live music/rock and roll style sound, with 'stage' monitors and infills to ensure those sitting at the sides would also get a good sound. This off-beat nuance of the project appealed to CP's Colin Pattenden, "It's great working with people who are prepared to be experimental to achieve the best result" he comments.

The aesthetic requirement was for speaker

UK - When television star Neil Morrissey was challenged to help a worthy cause for an upcoming ITV series With A Little Help from My Friends, pro audio distributor SCV London and staging and trussing specialist LiteStructures were among the companies he called on to help him complete the task. The voice behind Bob the Builder chose to help children's charity 'Kids Company' renovate a derelict community centre and wanted it to have a stage, so that kids could follow in his footsteps.

Morrissey called SCV London's marketing director, Steve McDonald, and asked him for a Fostex VF-160 Digital Multitracker for free. Steve was more than happy to give the Men Behaving Badly star the equipment to assist the charity, which works with deprived children. The Fostex VF-160 will be used to teach youngsters the elements of sound recording.

Morrissey also put in a call to LiteS

UK - tsg the Sheffield based media programming and systems company have recently installed a novel background music/speech system into Reg Vardy plc's new Vauxhall dealership in Nottingham. The brief from the Sunderland-based retailer, which runs 78 dealerships in England and Scotland, was to provide an 'invisible' background music solution for the main showroom area, whilst also providing a clear intelligible paging facility for the workshop, forecourt and service parking areas. tsg met this brief by specifying and installing Armstrong i-ceiling NXT panels in the showroom area, thus making for a very clean and unobtrusive installation.

Steve Dunn, marketing director at tsg said: "I was very satisfied with the final result, and I am particularly pleased with the i-ceiling's ability to handle both music and speech, especially as the ceiling panels are located relatively high

UK - Sound installation company TASC is supplying a portable DJ system of Nexo PS15 full-range cabinets to Apres in Birmingham, which is opening a dancefloor area for the Christmas party season. Just months before, TASC completed the installation of a full house system at neighbouring Mechu, one of the busiest of Birmingham's destination clubs, which features Nexo PS10s and PS8s.

With an award-winning interior by RAW Design, Mechu is a successful bar/restaurant/late lounge club. Arron Smith of TASC designed and installed an all-Nexo sound system, featuring six PS10 full-range cabinets and three LS500 sub bass units. Compact Nexo PS8 speakers and LS400 subs are located throughout the club, amounting to nearly 30 in total. "Nexo PS cabinets are one of my very favourite products," enthuses Arron Smith. "Sometimes it's a struggle to get a customer to spend more and mo

UK - BBC Radio Resources has commissioned the upgrading of its SCV5 and SCV6 (Stereo Control Vehicle) Radio OB trucks with PMC MB2S-Active monitors. The MB2s were recently installed in SCV5 and are about to be installed in SCV6; the vehicles are primarily used for live broadcasting for BBC Radio1 and Radio 2 OBs, as well as for other BBC Radio networks.

Both SCV5 and SCV6 were built as 24-track recording/broadcasting vehicles in the mid 1980s and have been consistently upgraded since that time. The MB2S-Active is self-powered with PMC/Bryston electronics and low distortion active cross-overs. Among the newly refurbished SCV5 truck's most recent notable outings was at Glastonbury 2003, Europe's biggest contemporary performing arts festival, where it was used for a live to air broadcast from 'The Other Stage'. Senior engineer (audio) Colin Pearson comments: "The speakers prov

UK - The Palace Theatre in Westcliffe-on-Sea, Essex, has been fitted out with a new Electro-Voice sound reinforcement system by Brighton-based installation company, MBI. The 100-year old theatre has a capacity of 600 seats, arranged over stalls, two circles and four boxes. David Howe of Shuttlesound, working with MBI and the theatre's owners, designed and commissioned the system, which uses Electro-Voice RX loudspeakers, driven by EV's new Precision Series remote amplifiers. "The theatre has quite reasonable acoustics," says Howe, "but we were subject to a few constraints as to where we could place speaker cabinets. We were asked not to position them above the proscenium arch, so we've wall-mounted six EV RX112 full-range cabinets, three speakers either side of the stage."

With a pair of RX218 subs built in under the stage, there are two RX112s for the stalls

USA - Hempfield United Methodist Church in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, USA have installed a new sound system, controlled by Allen & Heath's iDR digital signal processing system and a GL2200 analogue mixing console, in its former sanctuary. The combination allows the multi-purpose room to switch quickly between a variety of worship services and other activities.

Dave Marks of Hempfield UMC's Youth Technical Ministry explains: "We needed a system that could be turned on and operated without technical assistance and that would meet the rigorous needs of our youth program, we contacted Dale Shirk of Shirk Audio, who had helped us with previous projects. Dale presented us with a design using an Allen & Heath iDR DSP for the aerobics and simple meeting events and an Allen & Heath GL2200-24 for the youth programs."

The audio system must handle a variety of events during the co

USA - The Actors' Playhouse at the Miracle Theatre in South Florida has installed a 48-input Allen & Heath ML5000 27-buss live sound VCA console in its 600-seat main-stage auditorium as part of an audio system upgrade. The Miracle Theatre, a private/public partnership with the City of Coral Gables, is a performing arts facility that also includes the 300-seat Balcony Theatre and 100-seat Black Box Theatre.

Head audio engineer Alexander Herrin, who has been at the theatre for a year and a half, explains: "This summer we decided to upgrade our sound system. We were replacing a three or four-year-old console that had just fallen to pieces. They asked me what I thought we should get. I'd worked with the GL4000 in the past and told them that I really like Allen & Heath. Phil Mester from StageTech, who installed the system, brought us a console to try out, a 32-channel ML5000.&qu

Sweden - Stage engineering specialist Visual act has installed a unique set of four lifts for the new production of Lee Hall's Spoonface Steinberg set to open on 31 October at the Jewish Theatre in Stockholm. The four lifts are set on a rotating stage which is placed 3m under the stage floor. The lifts can be raised from 1m below the stage surface to 1m above while the revolve is moving.

Visual act's battery-based servo amplifiers are used to allow all of the equipment to be installed on the revolve - no slip rings or special cable arrangements are required. The operator desk communicates with the system over a radio link. The lifts are all lit from within and all visible surfaces are translucent, while the framework is designed to reduce shadows so that the lifts appear as boxes of coloured light.

Spoonface is directed by Pia Forsgren who has worked together wit

Malaysia - An iDR-8 has been installed in Berjaya Times Square, a new multi-million dollar development in the heart of Malaysia's capital city, Kuala Lumpur. Measuring 2,100,000sq.ft, it is the largest shopping/leisure complex and houses the largest indoor theme park in the Asia Pacific region.

Allen & Heath's iDR-8 unit, with an iDR-out expander, has been installed as a zone controller in the indoor theme park, where a resident DJ pumps out the music. The signal from the DJ mixer is distributed to 16 zone loudspeakers. An event schedule has also been created using the DSP system's programmable patches, whereby at 2.30pm daily the zone volumes gradually increase with a 10 second crossfade; similarly at 10pm the volume automatically decreases with the same crossfade effect. There is a dedicated PC at the DJ booth for remote control of the iDR-8 & iDR-out over Cat 5 cable.

Malay

UK - Earls Court Ltd and Unusual Rigging Ltd have been fined a total of £100,000 at the Old Bailey following a Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecution into the death of 26-year-old David Mott at Earls Court, London. The prosecution follows an HSE investigation into the incident in which Mr Mott fell 35m to his death at Earls Court Exhibition Hall 1, on 23 June 2000. Six months prior to the death of Mr Mott, another worker had also been killed in a similar incident. Earls Court Ltd was subsequently fined £70,000 in a prosecution taken by the London Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.

Mr Mott, from Brentwood, Essex, fell through fragile, false ceiling tiles while dismantling mobile platforms as part of a refurbishment project. He was taken to Charing Cross hospital but was pronounced dead on arrival from multiple injuries.

Earls Court Ltd pleaded guilty to breaching sect

UK - West London's trendy Ladbroke Grove has seen the reawakening of the acclaimed Subterania club, which was closed earlier this year. The new venue, christened 'Neighbourhood', is owned by Ben Watt and Alan Grant, partners in the famed Cherry Jam club. UK AV designers Blue Box created the club's sound system, featuring a mix of four QSC PowerLight PL 2.0 and four PL 4.0 amplifiers driving a four way Funktion One system with six F218 bass boxes and six Res4 mid-high enclosures. The club also uses several QSC PL230 amps to drive the Funktion One F88 cabinets in the ante area and on the mezzanine.

The spacious DJ booth, designed by Ben Watt, is centered on a Rane MP44 mixer. The booth is also equipped for live sound mixing, with a Midas Venice 32-channel board. Effects and dynamics are courtesy of Yamaha, BSS and Drawmer. QSC PL236 amplifiers drive monitors in the booth and on st

Singapore - Richard Lim from ARX's Singapore distributor Bell & Order Engineering Pte Ltd has recently completed two major installation contracts involving ARX products. The new sound reinforcement system Bell & Order has installed throughout the four-storey New Assayfaah Mosque located in Sembawang Road, Singapore caters for the reproduction of both prayers and speech, and includes two EQ60 graphic equalizers, five EQ 15 graphic equalizers, eight ZR 350C constant voltage power amplifiers, one ZR 550 power amplifier and 16 of the company's new Climate weather-resistant loudspeakers.

Bell & Order has also completed the installation of audio-visual systems at the new DSTA (Defence Science Technology Agency) Building, located at Singapore's Science Park #3 complex. The six-storey facility now includes four ZR550 power amplifiers, two ZA400 multi-channel power amplifiers and six ZR3

UK - The Cross Keys in Yarm, Cleveland, recently under new ownership, has emerged from a comprehensive refurbishment as one of the most stylish and contemporary pub/club venues in the north-east. The Grade II-listed public house has been given its technical make-over by Music Marketing Services, which has installed new lighting and Martin Audio sound systems throughout.

Pete Varey of Music Marketing Services, who installed a Martin Audio Blackline PA system upstairs in the Cross Keys' nightclub, explained: "It was entirely the client's choice; they'd heard a system at a club in Middlesborough and wanted one for themselves." Four F15 high-performance compact two-way cabinets are flown above the new flashing dancefloor, with two S218 sub-bass bins built into the walls below the mid/high cabinets. Eight ultra-compact EM26 boxes provide infill.

Downstairs in the Keys Bar

Germany - The 'Deutsche Oper am Rhein' in Düsseldorf has modernized its lighting equipment with transtechnik Lichtsysteme. Düsseldorf Opera House used their summer break this year to realize phase two of their modernization process and expand the lighting control system in both the stage and front of house. With moving lights, colour changers and dry-ice machines now an established part of theatre life - no longer confined to the traditional realm of rock concerts - Düsseldorf's goal was to have as much flexibility as possible in their Ethernet/DMX control network. At the heart of the new lighting control system lie two transtechnik Lichtsysteme Prisma NT consoles and the intuitive Libra operating system controlling the moving lights and colour changers. The new solution also features a 24.3" TFT channel monitor and a Digiplus digital auxiliary console for the programmable

USA - The Benjamin and Marian Schuster Performing Arts Center in Dayton, Ohio recently opened its doors to rave reviews, both for its architecture and for its superb acoustics. The $130 million complex includes a rehearsal hall, a condominium and office tower, and a restaurant, but it's the 2,325-seat Meade Theatre - new home to the Dayton Opera and the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra - that is the major masterpiece.

The Meade Theatre is a proscenium theater modeled in the style of a European opera house. Seating is arranged in the orchestra main floor, along with three tiers of loge and balcony seats. The theater expects to run a wide range of programming, from the Philharmonic and Opera shows to nationally touring Broadway productions to community-based performing arts groups.

Jaffe Holden Acoustics (JHA) of Norwalk, Connecticut served as the acoustic design consultants on the

UK - Leading manufacturer Trantec has recently supplied its innovative PT1 UHF wireless Personal Trainer system to Pennyhill Park Hotel and Country Club's brand new luxury Health Spa, the Pennyhill Spa, which is the home to many celebrity and VIP guests including the England Rugby team.

The Exclusive Hotel Group - owners of Pennyhill Park - commissioned Installation Technologies Ltd (ITL) to design and supply a sophisticated personal audio system, which would provide broadcast quality sound offering background music as well as access to all broadcast media from anywhere in the Pennyhill Spa, without any visible or audible speakers. John Matcham of Installation Technologies specified Trantec's PT1 wireless system and collaborated with Trantec's engineering team from the outset. Configuring the system to meet The Exclusive Hotel Group's exacting specifications, together they overc

UK / Japan - Le Mark's new flame-retardant natural gaffer tape, which won the PLASA Show's 2003 Environmental Impact Award, continues to expand into new export markets. Following its September launch, Gaf-Fire was sampled to one of Japan's most respected lighting distribution companies, Tokyo-based H. Ito, and Le Mark was thrilled to see H. Ito place its first order for the new product in October.

Gaf-Fire has seen seen as a breakthrough tap and an important addition to the company's consumable accessory range. Gaf-Fire not only meets the stringent requirements of BS 5867 Part 2 Type B, but also, as the PLASA award reflects, is manufactured using natural elements and environmentally clean processes. Gaf-Fire was seen as the first matt-black non-burn tape with a clean adhesive to be offered to the arts and entertainment industry.

(Lee Baldock)

UK - HRH Queen Elizabeth II has formally opened The Capitol, the community arts centre in the Sussex town of Horsham, which has been extensively redesigned and refurbished, with Martin Audio cinema and theatre sound systems installed throughout.

Sound Associates provided an integrated design approach to the new audio and projection systems, including projection equipment, theatre PA, cinema sound, a combined PA/VA system and general communications. The building had been substantially reconfigured, its new layout featuring a small studio cinema, a larger 160-seat cinema, and the main 450-seat auditorium which is set up for dual use as a theatre and cinema.

For all three cinemas, Sound Associates chose Martin Audio's Screen Series of loudspeakers. "Martin has been making great inroads into the cinema sound market in the last couple of years," explains Graham Lodge of S

UK - Eight years after the idea was first proposed, a consortium comprising Wrexham County Borough, Wrexham Arts Association and Yale College of Wrexham is about to give Wrexham a new theatre. The momentum for the new theatre facility came from Yale College wanting to extend its successful National Diploma in Technical Theatre. It therefore donated the land for the build, and will pay the salaries of the technical staff and offer financial and management services, in return for the use of the theatre.

Yale will also employ the technical director and chief technician, and crew the theatre with students undertaking a Foundation Degree, giving them a thorough grounding in lighting, sound and general crewing, while a partnership is also being sought with a large-scale producing house to accept second year students on six-week placements. The essence of the Wrexham Project is to deli

Italy - Teatro La Fenice ('the Phoenix'), Venice's celebrated opera house which was almost entirely destroyed by fire in 1996, is now set to re-open. The 1996 fire was a devastating blow, coming just days before its scheduled reopening after a much-needed major refurbishment, and echoing a previous fire which destroyed the theatre in 1836. The newly restored theatre is now scheduled to open in December 2003.

While the style of the venue is identical to its predecessor, its lighting and sound systems are being brought right up to date with a lighting and control system from ETC Teatro, including an ETC Emphasis control system, an Express console, Sensor dimming, a Unison architectural lighting control system and an extensive Ethernet and DMX installation.

Believed to be the first Italian opera house to install a sound reinforcement system, La Fenice has opted for a d&b audiote

UK - The PAI Group has recently installed a MegaMedia Wall at Virgin's flagship Oxford Street Megastore, to a design brief from Keane Design's Concept Designer, Tim Merrifield. The brief called for a cost-effective, but innovative audio-visual vehicle for presenting dynamic promotional material to customers entering the store.

PAI manufactured and installed a bespoke 5500mm x 5000mm steel frame onto which nine screens, comprising 42" plasma and 30" high definition LCD units, were incorporated. The whole assembly is designed to automatically rotate towards to the store interior during daylight hours, to avoid light intrusion, and then traverse back to face Oxford Street in the evening to broadcast promotional material to the public outside of normal opening hours.

Divided into four video zones, the nine screens broadcast the same material, but have been designed to op

UK - It's just over two years since Stage Electrics moved to its new HQ in Bristol. Since then, the business has grown, becoming more streamlined and diverse, the latest addition being a rehearsal space inside one of its warehouses, initially developed for Belinda King Productions to rehearse three shows for the Royal Court Theatre on board the new cruise liner, The Queen Mary 2.

The facility has enabled Belinda King Productions to rehearse the shows working with all the relevant scenery from the start, a crucial part of the process considering most of the show's scene changes are either automated or executed by the performers themselves. With limited rehearsal time once on board, it seemed logical to get the productions as close to the finished article as possible prior to embarkation. The rehearsal space at Stage Electrics has given both companies an opportunity to iron out t

UK - Originally built over an eight-year period then opened in May of 1899, Brighton Pier is arguably one of Britain's most beloved waterfront attractions. Its 1800ft span hosts a pavilion, numerous eating and drinking establishments, a 1500-seat concert hall and further attractions. Rich in history, the pier enjoyed its original heyday in the 1920s and 1930s, slowly falling into disrepair after the Second World War, a victim of both mankind and the elements. The sea's erosion has taken its toll, as have the annual winter rains.

In 1984, the pier was purchased by The Noble Organization, which has invested over £30 million in its restoration. Recently, in March 2003 an arson attack gutted most of the pavilion, followed by a smaller fire in May, which caused minor damage to the concert hall and the Ghost Train ride, which housed the audio amplification system. Brighton-based aud

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