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UK - Cloud Electronics has reinforced distribution throughout Australia and New Zealand with the appointment of Victoria-based National Audio Systems (NAS).

NAS serves the MI, professional and commercial audio markets via an extensive dealer network. Paul Turner, commercial audio division manager, comments, "The addition of Cloud to the NAS commercial division adds significant desirability to the commercial range from NAS."

Turner adds, "At NAS, we are extremely excited to be appointed the Australian & NZ distributor for Cloud. With a product of such high reputation and reliability, NAS is honoured to represent Cloud in the region. It is a fantastic step forward for both companies and the start of a very long - and fruitful - relationship."

(Jim Evans)

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Taiwan - Fantasy Sound International and Proel have provided the sound at Kaohsiung Arena, which will be one of main stadiums for World Games 2009.

Located in the Kaohsiung City in south Taiwan and constructed in 1998, Kaohsiung Arena is one of the biggest domes in Taiwan. Currently occupying an area of 56,000sq.m, the multifunctional sports arena has a seating capacity of 15,000.

On 28 September 2008, the Kaohsiung Arena was officially opened after a lievely traditional Chinese Lion-Dance and all the guests saw the Proel Speakers making their debut at the Arena.

The City Mayoress, Ms. Chen welcomed all the guests in the grand opening ceremony and stated, "This arena will be a place not only for sports but also for concerts, speeches and even arts exhibitions in the near future. Apart from that, the sound system in this building is terrific."

Proel Sound Reinforc

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UK - Gareth Collyer has been appointed as Nexo's new sales manager for the UK and Ireland, spearheading a new distribution programme.

Nexo is exhibiting at PLASA in its own right for the first time in nearly 20 years, marking the recent strategic move away from third-party distribution to direct manufacturer support for the UK market. As Nexo's regional manager, Gareth Collyer will take charge of a network of elite dealers, with a brief to expand and consolidate Nexo's profile in the UK and Eire.

Collyer is well-known to the pro-audio industry, having spent the last four years bringing Harman's professional brands to the UK's installation and tour sound markets. He has an extensive track record, having spent his formative years in sales and market development with Bose UK and Lamba plc. He joined Harman Pro UK in 2005, where his career trajectory through the company and its pr

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Indochine X PixMob Fan Immersion

It's a bird! It's a plane! It's - 40 thousand LED pixels on a ceiling!!! Indochine's whirlwind tour transports fans to another level of the live experience - immersing them from floor to ceiling with PixMob's X4 wristbands, and an LED ceiling made entirely of its NOVA Minis! With the vision of Indochine's creative team, PixMob used its LED fan-technology to turn attendees and venues into an ocean of effects, and a starry sky of LED magic. Très très cool!

Read more about the Indochine tour in the latest issue of LSi

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UK - Triple E's new website (see below) enables the user to visualise effects and, when you have decided what you want, the Quote Tool section will provide an immediate cost and complete list of component parts.

The system is equally useful for both international and UK customers, who can visualise with ease each of the seven Triple E tracks that are sold on an individual parts basis. Simply select the shape or effect that best matches your facility, and an animated movie then demonstrates your chosen effect. Once you know the effect you want, fill in the details of size, preferred suspension type and drive where used, and the Quote Tool will quickly and obligingly compile your shopping list, plus give the total cost in pounds sterling.

The new site gives details of all Triple E products, including the other track systems, Chaintrack and Chainbeam, Variable Acoustic ban

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UK - XMOS announced today (Monday) that it will provide support for Gigabit Ethernet AVB networking. The XMOS Gigabit endpoint implementation supports AVB applications including high speed streaming of up to 72 channels of audio traffic over Ethernet to networked electronic devices.

As demonstrated at PLASA09, the XMOS Ethernet AVB solution consists of XCore event-driven processors, open source AVB software, application notes, prototyping board schematics, gerber files and documentation with general availability planned for Q4 2009. XMOS AVB systems are programmed in C using freely available development tools, providing unmatched design flexibility.

XMOS provides a cost-effective way for designers to implement Ethernet AVB with professional levels of quality of service. Applications that are enabled with XMOS AVB products range from consumer audio equipment such as home theatr

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UK - The digiLED team has brought its latest LED display surface, digiTILE to the live events and fixed installation markets.

The digiTILE range is officially launched at PLASA09 although it is already in production for clients in the UK, Norway, Belgium, France, Lebanon and Austria, with more prestigious projects in the pipeline.

The digiTILE range uses a standard mechanical platform for all pixel pitches. Each tile is 400mm wide, 300mm high and 82mm deep making it the slimmest conventional LED product on the market today (although digiFLEX from the same manufacturer is only 7mm deep).

The digiTILE housing is moulded using a high pressure injected reinforced polymer contributing to the low weight of 23kg per square metre for indoor and 28kg for outdoor products. Each tile is capable of front or rear access for service and can quickly be installed into a digiFRAME, measuring

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UK - On Wednesday 14 October the Royal Albert Hall will open the doors to a new venue, the transformed Elgar Room.

The Elgar Room will now incorporate built in technical facilities and the flexibility to "match any event requirement". From late night and intimate gigs to after show parties, comedy nights, cabaret and theatre performances, the redesign has created a versatile room in which a variety of events can be accommodated. The new room already has a number of events lined up to take place ranging from after show parties for Elton John and Monty Python's Not The Messiah to a comedy night with Patrick Monahan and the next instalment of the Royal Albert Hall's HUSH series.

The £1million renovation sees the original floor to ceiling windows restored as the room's raised flooring is removed to create one large space - increasing its maximum capacity to

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Polished Performance - Sir David Attenborough brought the 115th BBC Proms season to a close on Saturday night by playing a floor polisher as a musical instrument. Sir David was joined on stage at the Royal Albert Hall in London by pianist Stephen Hough on the vacuum cleaner. Comedian Rory Bremner also took part in the performance of Sir Malcolm Arnold's piece A Grand, Grand Overture. The eight-minute work has parts for two other vacuum cleaners, four rifles, an organ a and full orchestra.

For the first time, the Proms finale was screened via satellite to cinemas on every continent of the world. The BBC said the two-month classical music festival had been the most successful yet with a 32% increase in under-16s attending. Proms director Roger Wright said the event had included "outstanding and inspiring music-making".

Goodnight Vienna - The tribute conce

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Sweden - More than 50 vessels have sailed in the fleets of the Viking shipping companies since regular ferry traffic began in the Baltic Sea in 1959. Today, Viking Line's award-winning fleet of seven vessels, with an eighth under construction, combines the luxury of modern cruise ships with high-capacity vehicle decks. Viking Line has been using Lab.gruppen amplifiers for almost 15 years and has just added a further 10 4-channel C Series amplifiers to their inventory which are to be installed into the new vessel.

Viking Line has become one of Lab.gruppen's best customers for C Series amplifiers, due in large part to the enthusiasm for the brand of Viking Line's AV Coordinator, Jouni Sironen, and his 16-strong team of technicians. The total inventory across the six ships currently fitted with Lab.gruppen and the new vessel to be delivered in early 2010 numbers around 200 and incr

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UK - Crown yesterday announced the latest update to its Macro-Tech i series of amplifiers, featuring increased power and new dual port capability. Comprised of three models, the MA-5000i, MA-9000i, and MA-12000i, the Macro-Tech i series features Class-I circuitry, which delivers greater power while reducing the amplifier's weight by more than half.

The new Macro-Tech i series also features dual-port capability. An additional network port now allows a user to daisy chain the network control down the rack of amplifiers instead of having to run a separate cable from a switch to each individual amplifier.

"The professional sound reinforcement community knows what to expect from the Macro-Tech i series. They are getting the best sounding, most reliable analogue power amplifier in the world. The best just got better with these updates. The upgraded power and features reflect t

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UK - In a break from its traditional base, Optocore, the worldwide pioneer of digital optical fibre network systems, has unveiled what it calls as "a revolutionary new technology" at the PLASA Show in London.

Receiving its worldwide launch at PLASA09 (13-16 September, Earls Court), SANE (Synchronous Audio Network plus Ethernet), is a new digital audio networking protocol using ring network topology: it claims to offer the first fully-synchronous Cat5 network solution for streaming uninterrupted media in real time.

This new low cost and high efficiency system, based on proven Optocore technology, has evolved from the German company's new AD/DA X6R and V3R converters launched earlier this year; these offer split AES-EBU ports, sample rate conversion up to 192kHz, and five different card options.

SANE offers a unique solution, the company says: it transports recognise

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UK - Hearing conservation company, Advanced Communication Solutions, has appointed a new managing director, Mathew Jones.

ACS was established in 1994 with a mission to supply, develop and manufacture products that protect the hearing of people with livelihoods depending on working in dangerously high sound levels. ACS, which has offices in both Harpenden and Banbury, now provides viable hearing protection and communication products that are designed to help anyone from, musicians, DJs, sportsmen and music lovers to enjoy sound safely.

Jones has been appointed to ensure continued growth in the key sectors of music, industry and motor-sport, through a variety of new systems and processes, which will allow ACS to capitalise on new opportunities in these rapidly expanding markets without compromising the high standards of quality and service, says the company.

Mathew Jones comm

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UK - Soundcraft is releasing a range of small multipurpose mixers, some with integral digital FX, bearing the name of the Notepad series. The new Notepad 102, 124 and 124 FX models boast Soundcraft audio performance with the acclaimed GB30 mic preamp and EQ technology in a compact and solid chassis.

Each 124 model has four mono mic/line inputs while the Notepad 102 has two mono mic/line inputs. All models boast four stereo line inputs, and suit a very wide range of applications where simple yet high-quality mixing is required, such as in home recording, small band/cabaret PA systems, AV presentation systems, small broadcast edit suites, educational environments and general contracting.

The Notepad 124FX also has an integral digital effects processor which has a feed from every input and over 100 effects, including a pink noise and test setting. The FX control can also be used

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The Netherlands - This summer, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and the Dutch Royal Family unveiled the Hermitage Amsterdam, a multimillion-dollar museum complex designed to bring awareness to its world-famous parent in St Petersburg.

Transformed from a 17th century nursing home, Hermitage Amsterdam fuses aesthetic elegance with modern audio technology to offer a heightened experience as visitors journey through the remarkable art collection of Russian heritage. Using Meyer Sound's compact loudspeakers, Duivendrecht-based audio provider Audio Electronics Mattijsen (AEM) has given life to a pristine aural environment while preserving the architectural integrity in Hermitage Amsterdam's main church hall, auditorium, and ambient Neva Restaurant.

"The Hermitage is an exceptionally dynamic and interactive gathering place," says Eric Mattijsen, CTO and system designer at

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UK - Orbital Sound has unveiled its latest training programme to take place in October, focusing on practical sound techniques for theatre with hands-on, application-based training. Scheduled to run on 26-27 October, Developing Sound Skills for Theatre is intended primarily for students wanting to extend their operational expertise in theatre sound, and will take place at Orbital's purpose-built 225m2 seminar facility in Brixton, south London.

The course is free of charge, offering students the opportunity to benefit from a wide cross-section of technical disciplines, including communications, networking, loudspeaker system set-up and control, and mixing practices.

The course will be led by Orbital's training manager, Theo Holloway, who explained the rationale behind the autumn training programme, "The popularity of our annual courses underlines the appetite among

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USA - Audinate reports that its Dante networking solution was used on the Oasis tour and multiple live events at Hyde Park in London by Britannia Row. Taking advantage of the low latency offered by Audinate's Dante, high quality audio was distributed around the network at these events using the newest addition of Dante enabled products - breakout boxes from XTA.

Dante offers a complete networking solution and provides users a no-hassle, self-configuring digital audio networking experience using standard Internet Protocols over 100Mb and/or Gigabit Ethernet.

The NXBoB8 and NXBoB16 breakout boxes from XTA with 8 and 16 output channels respectively leverage the tight synchronization and very low latency offered in Dante. The breakout boxes easily connect to other Dante-enabled devices such as processors or mixing consoles over either 100Mb or 1 Gigabit Ethernet.

"Dante was

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UK - Based acoustically on the AKG Blue Line Series, the Architectural Microphone Series (AMS) allows users to customize the microphone by easily adjusting the length of the gooseneck module as well as selecting various designs for the shape of the capsule housing unit. The self-designed microphone can be personalized with any colour as well as a shiny gold, chrome or a nickel finish for professional settings. In total, the entire microphone series are available in more than 6,840 customizable settings.

Beside the three different polar patterns to match different room acoustics, the AMS showcases a diverse range of capabilities, such as flat frequency response for acoustic performance, gold sputtered ultra-low mass diaphragms, switchable bass cut filter and preattenuation pad. The series also offers an extremely high resistance to RF interference for extended versatility.

Addi

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UK - Eat To The Beat has rounded off a festival filled summer with a successful and sunny Bestival on the Isle of Wight.

This is the first year that ETTB has catered for the production team and artists at the event, but the island was familiar territory for Anne Crawford, ETTB's team leader, who said: "The Isle of Wight is a great place to source local ingredients, from meat, the world champion Isle of Wight Blue cheese, to sweetcorn straight from the farm adjacent to the festival. Fresh ingredients make for tastier food and a reduced carbon footprint for the catering operation."

DJ Rob da Bank started Bestival six years ago, with just 2,000 people on site. This sixth Bestival attracted a capacity audience of 45,000, with production management undertaken by Loudsound, who's Festival Director Jim King commented, "Having Eat To The Beat join o

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USA - Exhibiting at the PLASA09 exhibition in London, Italian manufacturer RCF has announced the appointment of Frank Loyko as President of RCF USA Inc. In his new position, Loyko will be responsible for defining and directing all US sales and operations for RCF and dB Technologies.

One of the founding members of loudspeaker manufacturer EAW, Loyko has more than 30 years of professional audio sales experience. Most recently, Loyko served as Director of Live Sound Sales for Avid Technologies / Digidesign and, prior to that, as senior vice-president of sales at Loud Technologies Inc.

Arturo Vicari, managing director of RCF Group commented: "Frank has a very solid track record for building professional audio brands and is extremely successful in leading high-performance sales teams. He has broad experience in all aspects of live sound sales as well as extensive connections w

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Hungary - Pleasing 390,000 people is a difficult task. It is especially challenging when many of those people are musicians. At Budapest's 17th annual, five-day Sziget Festival, audio engineers not only kept 200 performances on 15 stages running smoothly but they kept headliners like Faith No More, Prodigy, Fatboy Slim, and Placebo more than happy.

"The Sziget system exceeded my expectations of what Meyer Sound speakers are capable of," said Ian Nelson, Placebo's sound engineer. "In fact, I found that I needed to do an almost unheard of act: turn the subs down. I've worked with most of the current speaker systems over the 2009 festival season. Mixing on Milo (line array loudspeakers) again cemented our decision to carry a Meyer system on our forthcoming autumn arena tour, again."

A critical component to making this high-stakes festival run smoothly i

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Japan / Italy - Exhibiting at the PLASA09 exhibition in London, Midas and Klark Teknik have announced the formation of Midas Consoles Japan and Midas Consoles Italy - both of which take over as exclusive distributor for their respective countries with immediate effect.

Based in Tokyo the new, brand-orientated division of Bestec Audio is dedicated to the sales and after sales support of Midas and Klark Teknik products in Japan. General manager Takayuki Ozaki joins the company from EVI Audio Japan, where he worked with Midas and Klark Teknik products for 13 years.

"I encountered the Midas XL3 in 1993 when I was involved in the concert sound industry, and I still remember how very much I was impressed by it then," he says. "I joined the EVI Audio Group to sell Midas and Klark Teknik products in 1996 and from that time on, I have been the product manager for the bra

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