UK - CBS News recently decided to move its London studio from Knightsbridge out west to leafy Chiswick and upgrade the studio's lighting rig in the process. CBS called on the services of consultant Alan Bermingham to assist with the specification. His brief was to design the lighting system - including the suspension system, the control system and the luminaire package. he also oversaw the installation, set up the lighting and trained the staff to operate the system.

Bermingham, who spent over 20 years providing training in television lighting at the BBC and is the author of several books on technical TV production, worked closely with David J. Fairweather, CBS' director of operations for Europe to ensure the new studio was capable of meeting all the needs of a live 24-hour television news service. After initial discussions, Bermingham specified an ETC SmartFade compact lighting

Russia - Nearly 100 Robe Show Lighting fixtures of various types have been installed in Moscow's Crystal Casino - one of the largest casinos in Eastern Europe - as part of a major technology upgrade aimed at providing a visually stimulating environment as part of a high quality guest 'experience'.

Crystal has three restaurants, several bars, a nightclub and dancefloor, and offers nightly onstage entertainment including a variety of singers and bands. The club also has its own permanent cabaret/musical show once or twice a week, and the dancefloor is in use five days a week. The new installation was designed by Sasha 'Eagle' Vasilyev - the club's chief LD - and Slava Savin, LD and desk programmer/operator, and undertaken by Moscow-based Light Sound Contractor (LSC), one of Russia's leading installers.

Robe fixtures were chosen for the primary moving light elements of the upgrad

UK - The 2005 PLASA Show opened its doors at 10 o'clock this morning, and the crowds streamed in to the show floor, which looks better and brighter than ever. Sunday at PLASA is DJ day, of course, and the annual Gemini DJ competition will once again prove a big draw for budding mix artists, with the contest taking place in the DJ lounge at the rear of the hall, and the final taking place at 4.30pm. There's plenty more going on as part of DJ Sunday, supported by iDJ magazine, offering all kinds of opportunities to learn about the art and practice of DJing.

Appropriately for DJ Sunday, seminars today include a session on Digital Turntablism and Mixing, chaired by David Eserin, editor of the Technoscan section of DJ Magazine, the session features world-renowned DJs Chris Liebing and Jonathan Lisle, and Eitan Zilkha of Sapphires. Following the session, Jonathan Lisle will be perform

UK - The winners of the PLASA Awards for Innovation were announced last night during a well-attended awards ceremony hosted by PLASA CEO Matthew Griffiths on the main show floor at Earls Court. The Awards, which focus on the best design and development work going on across the industry, came at the end of a day that reaffirmed PLASA's reputation as a forging ground for future innovations.

The Awards, which are judged by a panel of professionals, attracted 66 nominations, leading to eight technical awards and an additional award for environmental impact.

The winning products were:

  • Artistic Licence's Visual Patch is going to prove the ultimate time saver for converged lighting and video applications. It creates an on-screen geographic map of two or three-dimensional pixel array, whilst automatically also assigning DMX512 start addresses. Described by the judges as anot

UK - There have been significant changes to the technical infrastructure at the Ministry of Sound, where the famous London club has recently replaced its sound set up with a premium Martin Audio system. The criteria for an undertaking of such magnitude had to be based on preserving the Ministry's reputation as the number one club in the world, and head of production, Dave Bradshaw knew from the beginning that his criteria needed to be based on sound quality, reliability and back-up service.

Dave has used Martin Audio for DJ monitoring in the Ministry of Sound's main room (The Box) for some years, and had received many plaudits from top DJs, who had remarked on how clean and powerful the system was. The club's resident DJs, Marc Hughes and Nick Bridges, used the same system in Singapore recently and said: "The Martin Audio sound gives us just what we want, really phat and pu

UK - The PLASA Show has again proved itself one of the most influential events in the industry calendar. Around 13,000 (subject to ABC audit) key industry people visited London in early September to participate in what is now the major international gathering-point for the entertainment, event and installation industries. The emphasis was very much on business, with exhibitors not only generating significant leads, but also reporting an unprecedented number of orders being placed.

As in previous years, the Show had a strong international profile with a third of exhibitors based outside the UK, and an increasing international visitor attendance, which is now nudging the 30% mark.

One of the key reasons for the Show's continued momentum is its focus on new developments and its ongoing investment in interactive feature areas, awards that recognize the best design work in the indu

Malaysia - Ten Lake Contour Pro 26 Digital speaker processors have been integrated into the installed and mobile sound reinforcement systems at the newly opened Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre.

Six Lake Contour processors are integrated into the audio system in the main Plenary Hall, a two-level, tiered seating venue that accommodates 3,000 people and is intended for concerts, opening ceremonies, conferences, and product launches. The processor system, controlled by a wireless touch-screen tablet, is being used to optimize a Left-Center-Right (LCR) speaker system. In addition to advanced sound, lighting, and audio-visual systems, the hall incorporates state-of-the-art conference facilities, including an interactive microphone system and built-in multilingual interpretation systems.

The smaller Plenary Theatre on the convention centre's third floor is outfitted with three Lake C

UK - The new Revolution series of user control panels from Dynalite incorporate an innovative clip-on cover fastening system, providing "the ultimate in aesthetic design flexibility".

Incorporating a button depth adjustment facility, the panels can accommodate covers of practically any flat architectural surface medium from 1.2mm to 6.5mm in depth. "The possibilities are endless," says Dynalite.

To complement the panel face, button caps are available in silver and charcoal grey, providing a wide range of décor matching possibilities. Designed both for commercial and residential settings, the Revolution series panels are available in a range of configurations from single column, catering for one to eight buttons, through to double or triple column designs featuring up to 24 buttons.

Smooth action buttons with LED indicators provide tactile and visua

UK - Both Dromore Cathedral and Portglenone Presbyterian Church in Northern Ireland have installed discreetly placed and precision-tuned Meyer Sound self-powered loudspeaker systems.

The Cathedral Church at Dromore, serving a parish of the Anglican-connected Church of Ireland, was built in stages over several centuries. Major portions of the existing structure date back to 1661. "It was a nightmare, really," explains Robert Andrews of Andrews Audio (Portglenone), who designed and installed both systems. "They rebuilt and added on to (the building) to the point where there is absolutely nothing symmetrical about the church. The seating goes off all different ways, so there was no way to use a main cluster with delays in such a reverberant space."

Andrews' solution for Dromore's architectural mélange employs five UPM-1P compact wide coverage loudspeake

Europe - The Tyco Fire group of companies are joining forces under the new brand, Tyco Fire & Integrated Solutions. The goal is to simplify customer access to the companies' comprehensive range of fire and safety solutions.

Tyco Fire & Integrated Solutions' European MD, Ardy Azhir commented: "Our integrated fire and safety businesses in Europe have long been market leaders. Our position today is built on the credibility of these legacy brands - including Mather & Platt in France, Total Walther in Germany, Wormald and Tyco Integrated Systems in the UK and the rest of Europe.

"We chose to rename ourselves because our customers wanted to deal with one name but trade through the same local contacts. This change represents an excellent opportunity to strengthen the image of our business and take us into the future with far greater visibility."He continued, "We a

UK - London's new Absolut Icebar - a joint venture between Absolut, Icehotel and Below Zero London - is a unique environment at -5°C, where everything, from the walls, bar, and bar stools, to the artwork and the 'glass' that holds the Absolut cocktail is made from crystal-clear Nordic ice.

Finding a loudspeaker system that would blend seamlessly into the glacial interior of the Swedish concept provided a challenge that was met by Martin Audio. The UK manufacturer had already produced 'invisible' customized perspex floor monitors for the Eurovision Song Contest in Latvia several years ago, and now they turned their attention to their classic EM26 - which formed the centrepiece of a complete audio fit-out of the four-zone, £1.5m development.

Icehotel partners, Below Zero London, had originally been looking at two loudspeaker options for the overall sound reinforcement via

UK - One of the big successes of the Home Counties is the Vanilla Bar in Windsor, where owner Mark Sansom, formerly of Bagley's Nightclub in Kings Cross, has created a stylish and accessible lounge bar and dance venue, complete with restaurant facilities. Paul Knight of Ascot Audio has designed a sound system for the 400-capacity venue which is critical to its clubby ambience. Since he's been installing Electro-Voice sound reinforcement gear for over 20 years, there was always a good chance he'd choose products from the EV catalogue for this project, especially given the system requirements of the venue. But the all-white EViD full-range loudspeaker models that he's specified are an uncommonly good match for the light interior of the Vanilla Bar, he says.

"These little speakers have a great design, they're trendy and they look good, but they also sound fantastic; they're am

UK - One of London's flagship cultural venues Riverside Studios has undergone a major technical refurbishment program facilitated by a UK Arts Council grant. Featuring as a key element, a new Logic Systems sound rig has been supplied and commissioned by theatre sound specialist Orbital Sound.

Orbital's head of sales collaborated with Riverside's technical manager, Barbara Egervary, to supply a system that met her specifications to augment the theatres capacity to host a variety of advanced productions, including an expanding repertoire of international work. The system supplied by Orbital comprises four Logic System LS15 Tops and two Logic System B1Subs, which is run through a 24-channel Allen & Heath FOH mixing console with BSS EQ and speaker management.

The Logic LS range is designed and built from the ground up for installation use and delivers a large sound from a small bo

UK - Baldwin Boxall Communications is well-known for being at the forefront of the emergency voice communication market. As such the company acted quickly upon learning about the new Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) by providing disabled refuge systems from September 2001 - some three years prior to the DDA coming into effect in October 2004.Listening to input from leading outside sources and from their own research, Baldwin Boxall developed Vigil CommuniCare and then, more recently, Vigil CommuniCare Advance.

Vigil CommuniCare Advance is a disabled refuge system which is easy to install and use, says the manufacturer. The special features of the CommuniCare Advance include raised luminescent script, Braille and a built-in induction loop - making it suitable for the majority of applications. Upon occupation of the specified area, a single button press on the unit is all that

Spain - With the development of three major commissions in the last few months, the Barcelona- and Madrid-based audiovisual service company Unitecnic, part of the Mediapro group, has become the year's most successful RTS / Telex distribution partner in Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

Eumóvil is a production company with one of the largest fleets of outside broadcast vans in Spain; just under thirty Eumóvil truck can be on the road at any one time, gathering news from all over Spain. The nerve centre of each of the three newest outside broadcast vehicles - which will be utilised at the 2006 World Cup Finals in germany - comprises a system from RTS / Telex - whether an 96 x 96 Advanced Digital Audio Matrix (ADAM), as is the case in two of the vans, or a Cronus.

España Directo is a flourishing Spanish news production company that now communicates by means of RTS / Telex KP-3

UK - London's latest major live music club KOKO picked up the Best Live Venue Award at this year's British Dance and Entertainment (BEDA) Awards at the recent awards dinner, held in the Birmingham NEC Metropole Hotel.

The 1500 capacity venue in Camden Town features an integrated Harman Pro audio reinforcement system, incorporating JBL, Crown, BSS, and dbx brands, and providing all speaker cabinets and arrays, signal control, processing and amplification throughout. At the heart of the system is a 28 kW front of house JBL Vertec Line Array system.

Famous throughout the 1980s as The Camden Palace, the venue was reopened by the Mint Group in September last year as KOKO, after undergoing a major refurbishment, which saw the former Victorian vaudeville theatre restored to its full former glory and lavish style.

A major part of the work involved designing an integrated sound syste

Ireland - Cork, Europe's Capital of Culture for 2005, has launched a brand new visitor's attraction to the public - a sustainable city campus entitled 'Lifetime Lab'. Lifetime Lab was opened by the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government Dick Roche T.D., who unveiled a plaque and had a tour of the facility as well as meeting some of Cork's school children.

Set on the banks of the River Lee, 'Lifetime Lab' has been created by design and communications company Imagination Ltd. Built on the old Waterworks site, which Cork City Council decided to restore and revitalise, the campus facilities include: a schools resource centre, information centre, conference suites, an interactive visitor exhibition and a future adventure playground. Following a procurement process Imagination was invited by Cork City Council to participate in a multi disciplinary project, which w

Spain - Pro3&Co supplied the sound system for the newly refurbished Casa Bonaventura Ferrer in Barcelona. Built in 1905 as a family house, this six story building was later bought by Deutsche Bank. It has now been completely restored, with the top three floors as offices. The large ground floor is now a reception area for functions, while the basement area has been transformed into a private bar and nightclub.

RCF Monitor speakers were specified for the project. In total, they used 34 MR55 and 14 MR88 in white plus 4 MSW subs. The designers had specified a lighting system that would "literally shed a new light on the building's interior" so any loudspeakers were required to blend in with the environment.

Pro3&Co's Xavi Oliver commented "We were very proud to be involved in such a prestigious project. In bringing the building back to life, the design team had set

Poland - Located in the heart of Warsaw, the InterContinental Warszawa hotel provides an architectural landmark as one of the highest buildings in the city. It has 326 guest rooms and suites, and 75 residential suites, all of which fully equipped with the latest technology. In addition, there are three restaurants and two bars, and eleven banqueting rooms with room for 700 guests.

The hotel has installed the Bosch Praesideo Voice Alarm System. Most of the installation work was carried out by local reseller, ANB which has been operating in Poland since 1992. A spokesman for Bosch said: "IEC60849 certification and compliance with the even more stringent Polish regulations underscore Praesideo's high standards.

Praesideo demonstrates flexibility and user-friendliness in several ways. It allows the hotel to route messages to one or more zones, depending on the emergency situa

Sweden - Long-time DPA user the GöteborgsOperan (Gothenburg Opera House) in Sweden, has purchased a further eight DPA 4011 cardioid microphones, taking their inventory of this product to a total of thirty. All have been supplied through DPA's Swedish distributor Arva. The 4011s are mainly being used for orchestras, and according to the venue's technical supervisor Lars Olsen, are proving to be equally suitable for woodwind, brass and even timpani.

"We are somewhat different to most traditional opera houses as we produce not only operas but also ballets, operettas and full-scale musicals," says Olsen. "We have found all DPA mics to be of outstanding quality as well as being flexible enough meet our different needs. The versatility of the mics means that our technicians can work with one kind of equipment regardless of the type of music, and this makes their job ea

Switzerland - Butterfly line-arrays played a key role at the St. Jackob stadium in Basle, on the occasion of an ecumenical mass attended by 5,000 people. Blackburn Productions deployed 24 CDH 483 Hi-Pack modules, backed up by eight Victor Live subwoofers. H.A.R.D. 212 monitors were used for the musicians and choir and Bomber systems on side-fill chores. Amplification was courtesy of T series power amps and the system was controlled by new Genius 26 DSP, also by Outline.

Christof Mäder, owner of Blackburn Productions, commented: "The area to be covered in the stadium was 140 metres long, but I didn't need delay systems. The VIP software, as always was very precise and reliable. It would be no exaggeration to say that the sound was wonderful and intelligibility really high."

(Jim Evans)

UK - Automation specialists Kinesys provided all the control equipment for the new grid arrangement at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.

The Millennium Stadium wanted the option of reconfiguring the stadium space as a smaller, arena style venue, enabling the staging of a greater variety of shows. Kinesys were asked onboard to deal with this specific area of the project by lead contractors Blackout. The two companies have pooled skills and resources on several other large ventures.

The largest section of the project is a moving mother grid system that has been installed into one half of the Stadium's opening roof. It consists of 18 five tonne Liftket motors permanently fixed to hanging points in the roof. Kinesys installed all the wiring, designed a complete cable tray system and designed and built all the required control cabinets into the roof itself. All equipment is specif

UK - Thirteen Ampetronic induction loop systems have been included in a brand new hostel at St Evelina Children's Hospital, London. Installed by regular Ampetronic client Scanaudio, the hospital features 12 ILD20 and one ILD252 loop amplifiers.

At the hospital's main reception, two ILD20-driven base station loops ensure the communication process is as clear as possible from the moment that visitors arrive. Ten further ILD20 loops are installed at nurse stations and in the wards throughout the hospital, ensuring visitors with a hearing impairment can discuss anything they need with the staff, while not disturbing patients. They also have the additional benefit of helping any of the patients who may have a hearing impairment.

A perimeter induction loop is also installed in the hospital's main meeting room, powered by an ILD252 and including a condenser microphone for presentatio

USA - St. Joseph's and St. Patrick's Church in Escanaba, Mich, has a new sound system installed by Eagle Communication and featuring EAW DSA series loudspeakers. The system was installed by Eagle's co-owner Tony Rogalski who has installed systems in more than 1,200 churches. The long-established church was having problems with noise reflection from its shiny gloss-painted surfaces.

"The church described the exact problem I had just solved for a massive old church in downtown Detroit," explained Rogalski. "With hard surfaces like marble, wood and stained glass, old churches frequently battle reverberation when it comes to the spoken word. At the same time, these same churches often reject traditional damping methods, such as acoustic panelling, because they don't want to cover or in any way mar the traditional and well-loved aesthetic of the old buildings."

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