Installation

EAW at Ruby Skye

Details: 14 March 2016

USA - Rarely is absolute perfection a goal worthy of the effort required to achieve it. But in the case of San Francisco nightclub Ruby Skye, the quest for perfection has not only pushed the limits of club sound, but it has also fostered a more profitable business. A large, visually stunning nightclub converted from a Victorian-style theater in the heart of San Francisco, Ruby Skye routinely hosts world-class DJs, and has even received top venue honors from DanceStar magazine. Yet co-owner George Karpaty begrudgingly admits that audio has been the club's Achilles heel. "I shouldn't have scaled back on the original sound system," Karpaty laments, explaining how certain budgets were shuffled during the massive renovation project.

His pet peeves? Patrons were shouting over each other, and leaving with ears ringing after only a few hours, and DJs were commenting that the s

Teatro Solis technical director, Ricardo Mazzarelli.

Robe at Teatro Solis, Montevideo

Details: 14 March 2016

Uruguay - Teatro Solis in Montevideo, one of Uruguay's leading opera houses, recently re-opened following an extensive refurbishment programme and decades of closure, complete with a Robe moving light rig. The restoration project - led by architect Eneida De Léon - included the construction of a new and larger stage, and the installation of a complete new state-of-the-art technical infrastructure. This has made Teatro Solis a premier venue for hosting all types of 21st century productions.

The moving lights - consisting of 12 Robe Show Lighting ColorSpot 1200 AT fixtures were specified for the theatre by Hoffend Argentina via Nemiler, their- Uruguayan representative. Hoffend & Sons is the Robe distributor for both Argentina and Uruguay, and it was they who spec'd Robe fixtures onto the project after extensive discussions between Hoffend Argentina's Jorge Escudedro and Robe Show

Brähler ICS system for Northampton Council

Details: 14 March 2016

UK - Brähler ICS UK Limited, working with AV installation specialist Willow SoundVision, has completed the installation of a new integrated discussion and voting system in the main council chamber at Northampton Borough Council. To bring the chamber up to 21st century standards, Brähler supplied its standard microphone and electronic voting system, built around their reliable stalwart CDS-200 conference management system. The flexibility of the system is further enhanced by the power of Brähler's CDS-VAN virtual audio network, a DSP-based audio processing environment.

The DV200 delegate units incorporate voting buttons, microphone, ChipCard reader and loudspeaker for voice-raising, while the Chairman's unit includes a priority button for remote control of speaking rights. The units are portable and can easily be moved to various locations, depending on the layout of the room.

black light at Historic Town Hall

Details: 14 March 2016

UK - Scottish lighting specialist black light has been at the heart of a major but delicate installation in Rutherglen, South Lanarkshire. Rutherglen's Town Hall is Grade 1 listed, which meant that the £12.5 million refurbishment project had to be undertaken extremely carefully and use some innovative techniques. As the main sound and lighting contractor for the venue's Grand Hall, black light had to achieve the difficult task of providing a 21st-century installation, but working around the stringent restoration requirements of an historic building.

One of the first major hurdles to be overcome was in the Hall's back wall. For historic reasons, traditional lath and plaster had to be used, the plaster takes literally months to dry. Therefore all the cabling had to be installed a year ago in order for the plaster to dry. Once the plaster dried the cables would be inaccessible, he

Blushes all round for CP Sound

Details: 14 March 2016

UK - Creative sound design and installation specialists CP Sound has completed its latest installation - at 'Blush', the newest venue to open in central Cheltenham. The club is part owned by Glendola Leisure and part by operator/manager Stuart Hunt. The space - previously a club - has been completely gutted, re-fitted and installed with new sound proofing, aligning the building as a stylish downtown 'chameleon' venue.The key to running this specific type of operation is its ability to have the facilities to react quickly to the diverse demands of a dynamic and mixed clientele, all of whom may want slightly varying elements out of the same space. CP Sound's Colin Pattenden is well experienced in chameleon installations, and has an extremely good ear for the acoustic properties that the different ambiences within it might require. Colin comments "The disco needed to be powerful

Adlib: putting education in context

Details: 14 March 2016

UK - Adlib Audio's Andy Dockerty is passionate about many things in life. One of them is stimulating young people to take an early interest in the art and science of production and technical 'backstage' elements at a practical and professional level. "Schools very much target 'the performer' in their courses," he says. "But for every performer, there's probably six or eight backstage and technical staff engaged in making their performance happen."

Dockerty is still frustrated by drama and music departments' lack of priority regarding the technical skills needed to support a production. He's adamant that it's unfair that young people without the acting, dancing or singing skills still rarely have the opportunities available to explore the performance environment. Adlib is determined to do its bit in the local community (Merseyside and beyond) to ensure that th

Midas at Emirates Palace

Details: 14 March 2016

UAE - A Midas XL4 console has been installed into one of the world's first seven-star hotels - the Emirates Palace - situated on the beachfront of Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates. The opulent establishment opened in February at a rumoured cost of over $3 billion. One of the many facilities the hotel offers is a conference centre, and the Midas XL4 was chosen as the centrepiece of the 1,200 capacity auditorium, where a programme of live entertainment runs alongside conferences and corporate events.

The sound, lighting and stage engineering systems were designed and specified by Theatre Projects Consultants, with Bond Communications winning the tender to engineer, supply and install the sound and communications systems.

"As analogue desks go, the XL4 is superb," says Mark Clay from Bond Communications. "It is normally situated in the control room, b

Bamboogie for LED

Details: 14 March 2016

UK - An LED solution to an unusual interior design challenge has been devised by three experienced nightclub industry professionals - lighting specialist Ian Kirby (of Lighting Effects Distribution), project coordinator Shaun Doyle and interior designer Graham Taylor of Easy Design Solutions. Collectively they have devised a brash, stylised 1970s/80s interior for The Nightclub Company's new Bamboogie music venue concept, annexed to their Creation nightclub in Brighton.

Doyle invited both Taylor and Kirby, with whom he has worked many times in the past, onto the project - and the latter has delivered an intelligent LED solution, which was installed by Ken Morgan of K Morgan Electrical Ltd. "When the Nightclub Company were outlining their idea for the new concept, I told them the only guy they needed to talk to for the lighting was Ian Kirby," declared Doyle. "He wo

The dramatic stage backdrop in the Sky Bar.

Sound Division on the Town

Details: 14 March 2016

UK - Sound Division used their conceptual experience of lighting and staging to help transform the Sky Bar at the London Coliseum into a 1950s style jazz cocktail bar for a star-studded Tribute To Leonard Bernstein. The party, hosted by Jerry Hall, followed the Sky and Artsworld presentation of the English National Opera's On The Town, and was dominated by a stunning New York skyline - designed by Ed Thorpe and design director Adrian Harrison from the Special Projects team in Creative Services at Sky Television (Sky are season sponsors of the English National Opera). This formed an exhilarating backdrop, which was subtlely brought to life by Sound Division, working through the event's public relations agency Premier PR.

With little space to operate behind the black drapes, the company chose to integrate LED lights into the set itself, providing a twinkling night sky via t

Denon in La Banque

Details: 14 March 2016

Italy - One of Milan's most popular clubs is planning to expand its universe: this summer, the classic La Banque restaurant and nightclub will open a unique outdoor venue, La Banque Estiva, located just a few miles north of central Milan. This new venture by La Banque's owners, the Maiorana family company Progemir, is a contrast to the original venue, which inhabits wood panelled marbled premises in an old city bank: with the large restaurant and lounge bar on the first floor, the disco is downstairs in the old bank vault, and the whole venue is elegantly furnished with deep red curtains and fittings which attract a diverse crowd of all ages. Footballers, politicians, stars of TV and the nearby La Scala opera house can be found alongside fashion models and businessmen.

Franco Maiorana expects the same crowd to follow him to La Banque Estiva, or the 'summer bank', where the cuisi

XTA in Amsterdam's latest music venue

Details: 14 March 2016

The Netherlands - XTA Electronics has supplied 12 of its DS800 mic/line distribution units to a new centre for live music in Amsterdam. Continuing the current vogue for building new concert halls on waterfront locations, the Muziekgebouw aan't IJ has risen from the industrial wasteland of Amsterdam's former docks area, a 10-minute walk from the city's central train station. Designed by the Danish architecture partnership 3XNielsen with interior devised by Christian Bouma, the building takes full advantage of its position, offering visitors spectacular views of Amsterdam from its public spaces.

The main hall of the Muziekgebouw, which is due to open on 15 June, is an 800-seat auditorium featuring an electrically movable ceiling and rear stage wall, removable ground-level seating, and colour-changing, LED lighting built into its interior walls. All this provides a suitably unpredi

Intellivox for St Peter's, Belfast

Details: 14 March 2016

UK - DL Electronics, Duran Audio's Northern Ireland dealer, has installed two AXYS Intellivox Digital Directivity Controlled loudspeaker arrays in the recently refurbished St Peter's Cathedral in Belfast. The interior of the Cathedral has been completely restored and as part of this D.L. Electronics was employed to install a new sound system that would ensure a high level of speech intelligibility within this marvelous interior. The AXYS Intellivox units are used to cover the main area of the nave.

"This is the fourth Cathedral that we have installed Intellivox arrays in. The units were chosen by the design team, which included Northern Ireland based Acoustic Consultant Peter Lloyd, for many reasons," said David Dalzell from DL Electronics. "The system is more intelligible, thanks to Duran Audio's Directivity Control technology, than conventional solutions and it

EV solution for Brighton Metropole

Details: 14 March 2016

UK - At the Hilton Brighton Metropole, the increasing popularity of the hotel's exhibition halls for different types of events has meant that the risk of noise disturbing local residents has also increased. Loading and unloading of vehicles for exhibitions is strictly controlled to certain hours of the day, but evening functions, with either DJs or live bands, have caused complaints from some local residents. Local acoustic specialists 24Acoustics and Big Sky Audio were called in to work with the local authorities and sound installation company Xtreme Audio Visual to find a solution.

Following analysis, it was concluded that the only way the hotel could ensure absolute control of the noise within its largest exhibition hall was to install a house PA system. Future calculations for sound isolation within the structure could then be based on a known and predictable system with bui

Sound Division with Itsu

Details: 14 March 2016

UK - Since its opening in 1997, Itsu has become synonymous with chic yet accessible Japanese eating. Owned and run by the same duo responsible for the Pret A Manger chain, Itsu currently has four sites across London. The flagship restaurant in Chelsea boasts an enviable location in the heart of Brompton Cross. When the decision was taken to upgrade its sound system, restaurant manager Dan Levine turned to AV specialist Sound Division.

Sound Division's David Graham explained that the brief was to refurbish and upgrade the existing Bose installation and reconfigure it into a multi-zone system. "Stage one of the project was to replace and zone the upstairs level which comprises three sections; the main lounge bar; an intimate 'Cocoon' bar for 6-8 people which can be hired out on a private basis; and a walkway which connects the two." The system is based on the Bose Freest

Adamson gets into Petit Palau

Details: 14 March 2016

Spain - An Adamson SpekTrix system has been installed at Petit Palau, a small concert hall that was recently completed as part of the renovation of the Palau de la Música Catalana in Barcelona, Spain.

The Petit Palau is situated below street level, with audience seating for 538. The room is primarily used for recitals by choirs and chamber ensembles. On either side of the stage three SpekTrix enclosures are installed above a SpekTrix Sub. Power for the installation is via two Lab.Gruppen FP3400 and two FP6400 amplifiers, with two Adamson DX6000s used for processing. The sound system package, supplied by Lambda/2 of Barcelona, offers the possibility to extend the system further using additional enclosures. The contractor for the project was Barcelona-based FM2.

A UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Palau de la Música Catalana is considered to be one of the world's most magnificen

Sound Division in Hoxton

Details: 14 March 2016

UK - Sound Division has installed audio systems for the newly-opened Nuevo Latino themed Cube & Star restaurant in Hoxton Square, London. The venue is run by Mark Turner who also operates Malecon in Dubai.

The three-zone system at Cube & Star has been designed to showcase the music from contemporary Latin jazz musicians, brought over from Cuba, and lounge DJ's from across Europe.

"The right music is fundamental in setting the scene when you're having dinner and drinking a Mojito," says Turner, who will present a crossover of genres - from salsa to Brazilian samba and Cuban son, in an Oceans 12-style soundtrack pastiche, delivered from multiplay CD and computer.

Sound Division provided a DJ input point (and customised DJ booth) and used the dbx ZonePro 1261 - a 10 x 6 Digital Zone Processor - to store different gain setting feeds, which are routed to J

VDC supports Fisher Marine

Details: 14 March 2016

UK - Fisher Marine has recently completed a major overhaul of two Thomson cruise ships, Destiny and Celebration. The six-month project involved the complete transformation of nightclubs, casinos, lounges, piano bars, restaurants and deck systems on board both ships. New sound, lighting and video equipment was installed throughout as each area was redesigned to bring it up to the latest technical and esoteric standards.

In conjunction with audio specialists Delta Sound, Fisher Marine installed thousands of metres of cable - all of which was supplied by UK-based cable company VDC Trading. "These are big ships," says Fisher Marine's head Ken Fisher, "so there was certainly a lot of cable involved."

Van Damme Ecoflex range of Low Smoke Zero Halogen cables is claimed to be particularly suitable for marine installations where low hazard cable infrastructure is re

Bose gets into Royal Box

Details: 14 March 2016

UK - Guards Polo Club has selected a Bose audio system for the Royal Box enclosure at Smiths Lawn in Windsor Great Park. Installed by Show Connections, the system is designed to "give an even balanced coverage of the live commentary during matches, whilst leaving clear sight lines from the Royal Box onto the polo field".

The white two-storey building is a well-recognized feature of the ground, commanding excellent views of the field of play from the upper and lower balconies. With eight loudspeakers mounted under the canopy on the lower balcony, and four on the upstairs balcony, the sound system has four zones of audio level control, allowing changes to be made for different occasions. There are also two interior Bose speaker systems for low level commentary or background music.

Bose recently signed an agreement to become a Corporate Partner of Guards Polo Club and h

Midas goes to Church in Brighton

Details: 14 March 2016

UK - The Church of Christ The King in Brighton has undergone a refurbishment of its audio facilities, including the installation of a new 32-channel Midas Legend console that also operates as a foldback mixer.

Live music plays a prominent role in the Church's services, and a number of touring Christian music bands perform there, so technical expectations are high. After extensive discussions with Shuttlesound, the Midas distributor in the UK, the Church selected the Legend with 32 mono plus 4 stereo channels, supplied to Modern AV by Autograph Sound.

The Church is based in a large modern building that was previously a warehouse but is now home to one of the New Frontiers group of churches. Its services are held in a large meeting hall on the upper floor with regular congregations of around 900 worshippers.

"The layout of the building didn't provide space for a permanent

Dallas Church benefits from DSA

Details: 14 March 2016

USA - Northway Christian Church in Dallas, Texas, has a new sound system based around EAW's DSA Series line arrays. These were introduced when acoustical panels had been removed during a general refurbishment and reverberation problems were encountered.

The Church enlisted the services of Fort Worth Electro Acoustics & Video consulted where president Chris Jordan comments: "At first, I was pretty certain the church would have to reinstall the acoustical panels to achieve a more desirable reverb time. However, I'd heard about EAW's DSA Series line arrays, which can steer the output directly at the congregation, and away from the troublesome reflective surfaces. This proved to be an elegant and practical solution to the problems at Northway."

Jordan continues, "The DSAs are incredibly compact and unobtrusive for all the sound they put out, but we made them even le

dV-Dosc at NY's Webster Hall

Details: 14 March 2016

USA - Long-established Manhattan nightclub Webster Hall has installed a new live sound reinforcement system, including a full L-Acoustics dV-Dosc loudspeaker rig, in its 1,400-capacity Grand Ballroom.

In recent years, live concerts at Webster Hall have been a rarity, with only a handful being promoted by media giant Clear Channel, and the venue's focus has been almost exclusively on dance music. Now, The Bowery Presents (TBP), a local concert promotion company that also owns and handles shows for the Bowery Ballroom and Mercury Lounge, is bringing live music back to the 120-year-old venue.

Designer Matt Kasha's newly-installed sound system comprises twin dV-DOSC/dV-SUB line source arrays hung to the left and right of the Grand Ballroom stage. Each array has a single dV-SUB with 12 dV-DOSC cabinets flown below and three additional dV-SUBs hung at show trim. To augment the syste

Tyco wins Tunnel contract

Details: 14 March 2016

UK - Tyco Integrated Systems (TIS) has been awarded a £1m plus contract by Transport for London (TfL) to provide a new generation integrated emergency communications system for the Rotherhithe Tunnel.

Radio public address will provide information and advice during emergencies by voice break-in direct to car radios via FM, MW, LW and DAB channels. The Rotherhithe Tunnel is believed to be the first tunnel in the UK to provide DAB radio rebroadcast with emergency voice break-in. The DAB voice break-in facility ensures future-proofing as digital radio replaces analogue and DAB vehicle radios become standard features.

Under normal circumstances, 21 analogue stations and all available DAB stations (five multiplexes) will be rebroadcast throughout the tunnel. Listeners in the tunnel will not have to take any action: the break-in announcements will simply replace all the normal progr

LED's Solar Light at Christian Centre

Details: 14 March 2016

UK - TMC Ltd have devised a tricky design solution for the Birmingham Christian Centre - an Elim Pentecostal church situated close to Birmingham's Broad Street - with the help of architectural effects provided by Lighting Effects Distribution. Commissioned during the late 1980s, the building's ceiling is split into awkward asymmetric segments within a polygonal building shape. But the infrastructure had now become tired, and the visual and sound mixing aspects were in need of upgrade.

TMC's hire department had enjoyed a long relationship with the church's events department over the years. The contract sales team were consequently introduced to the project, and invited to work with the client to develop the scheme. It was evident that the existing low pressure sodium lighting, with its familiar yellow hue, was inadequate and TMC were asked to design a concept in which the moods c

Stardraw Control supports new brands

Details: 14 March 2016

UK - Stardraw.com has welcomed Aurora Multimedia, Rane and Vity to the ever-expanding family of manufacturers whose products are supported within Stardraw Control. Stardraw Control generates customized standalone control applications and has been engineered to support any device using any protocol - if a product is remotely controllable or remotely monitored, Stardraw Control can be used to control and monitor it. Support for a product or product family is implemented by the creation of a driver which means that manufacturers do not need to change or add any hardware or software for existing products for them to be supported. To ensure the easiest transition into full support within the Stardraw Control platform, Stardraw.com currently undertakes all work required to add support for products at no cost.

The rapidly growing number of manufacturers supported in Stardraw Control in

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