USA - Continuing its close relationship with the house of worship market, Aviom has signed on as a Gold Sponsor of Fits and Starts Production's popular 'How to' sound workshops church tour. Designed specifically for to raise the audio proficiency and knowledge level of church sound personnel, praise team musicians and ministers of music, the two-day hands-on workshops offer the latest in gear and techniques, and are taught by live sound and recording engineers who have decades of experience in these fields.

As part of the sponsorship, Aviom has provided the workshop tour with its Pro16 personal monitor mixing system. In addition to being covered as part of the instructional portion of the program, workshop participants will experience using the Aviom personal mixers during a live performance of a local praise team during the second day.

"There's no better way for church s

USA - Sennheiser has sponsored the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum, which celebrates the essential contributions made by generations of talented musicians in all genres of music. The company has outfitted the complex with a broad selection of Neumann and Sennheiser microphones for the performance space.

The Museum is the brainchild of Nashville songwriter Joe Chambers, who also owns a chain of guitar stores in the area. The 30,000sq.ft. complex, located in downtown Nashville close by the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, the Gaylord Entertainment Centre and Ryman Auditorium, includes a 5,000sq.ft performance hall, a 1,100sq.ft. screening theatre, music instruction rooms and a state-of-the-art recording studio.

Renowned audio engineer TC Furlong of the Illinois-based professional audio company, TC Furlong Inc. provided system design and supervised the installation of the

UK - UK mixer manufacturer, Allen & Heath, has introduced a new finance scheme for its UK operation, whereby the company is able to offer finance to UK dealers and customers.

"As technology becomes more sophisticated, many of the small and medium sized PA and installation companies are finding it financially difficult to adopt this new technology," explains sales director, Bob Goleniowski. "We have devised a flexible scheme in partnership with Barclays Asset Finance, which is open to any of our UK dealers or their customers. Barclays can assist companies undertaking large projects, and can help to finance the entire venture, not just the Allen & Heath part."

Customers will be offered competitive rates for projects worth over £5000, and finance packages can be tailored to meet customers' individual requirements. Barclays Asset Finance is already active

UK - Blitz, the UK's leading technical staging specialist, has aided in the return of the British International Motor Show to London by supplying audio-visual displays for General Motors, BMW and Saab.

Blitz has risen to meet the challenges posed by designing and implementing a distinctive AV display for the General Motors stand that works within the constraints of the Excel Exhibition Centre environment. Other challenges included the constraints posed by the stand itself and sound level restrictions in the vicinity of the stand.

Blitz has worked with General Motors for over seven years and was selected in February as the preferred supplier of audio-visual equipment and display at this year's Motor Show which returns to London for the first time in thirty years. In order to maximise impact while working within the limitations of the stand environment, Blitz specified and provi

USA - Production services provider Big Mo Pro (BMP) of Parsippany, NJ, recently brought out its L-Acoustics Kudo rig for a pair of events at Liberty State Park on Jersey City's waterfront.

With Ellis Island, the Statue of Liberty and Lower Manhattan as the spectacular backdrop, BMP provided sound and lighting for the big LibertyJAM concert on Sunday 25June, featuring a line-up of artists, including Cheap Trick, George Clinton & Parliament/Funkadelic, Los Lobos, Patti Smith, The Smithereens, Fab Faux, John Eddie and Exit 105. Celebrating the park's historic 30th anniversary, the purpose of the event was to raise funds to benefit The Friends of Liberty State Park, a non-profit volunteer organisation dedicated to preserving and improving the park for free public use.

For concert sound reinforcement, BMP chose to fly a twin pair of 15-box Kudo arrays. "Kudo was perfect for Li

Norway - Oslo-based sound rental company Lyd Partner A/S has purchased a number of Nexo's Geo D tangent-array cabinets as part of a new system, which has made its first appearance in Norway on an outdoor concert featuring Deep Purple.

Lyd Partner already has experience of Nexo products, being a supplier of Geo S, Alpha E and Alpha systems. With confidence in the Nexo brand, it was natural that Marius Ryen and his colleagues would turn to Nexo to meet their requirement for a line array system, and their timing coincided with the launch of Nexo's Geo D cabinets. After demos of the loudspeakers at the Spring AES, the deal was sealed by an irresistible offer from PSS/FotoPhono, Nexo's Norwegian distibutors, to purchase a matching 24-box system for its own inventory, thereby increasing the possibilities for Lyd Partner to assemble larger rigs or several smaller ones.

Lyd Partner ha

Israel - Since appearing as Israel's entrant to the 1990 Eurovision Song Contest, Rita has established herself as one of Israel's most popular singers ever. She is currently performing in a series of spectacular shows called One staged in Tel-Aviv's Fair Grounds.

One is the largest multi-show production ever produced in Israel, an extravagant performance that showcases Rita's talents. The format of the show was taken from such shows as Cirque Du Soleil and Celine Dion's A New Day in Las Vegas. One features acrobats, high wire acts, fire, water, 70 dancers and a huge 30m x 7m black projection screen. The stage spans over 33m wide by 20m deep with a lighting rig that includes 50 Mac 700 Profiles, 60 Mac 600 washlights, 24 Mac 550 profile spots, eight Mac 2000 Performances and four Atomic 3000 strobes along with 350 dimmers and 42 scrollers. Several DF-5

Japan - The new Blast II tour of Japan uses customized set electrics engineered by City Theatrical from designs by Mike Baldassari. This all new version of the hit New York show makes use of LED technology controlled by City Theatrical's WDS Wireless Data System.

CTI created custom chasing LED circuits inside of Z shaped twirling batons; gauzy "bed nets" worn and carried by performers while lit by battery operated Color Kinetics iColorCoves with PDS-50 LED power supplies with built in WDS receivers; two drum walls of eight bass drums each filled with Color Kinetics ColorBurst 4s controlled by battery powered City Theatrical PDS-375-TRBs with built in WDS receivers; and a unique gong drum with a perimeter lighted with Neo-Flex LED Tube controlled by a battery powered City Theatrical WDS Personal Dimmer.

City Theatrical's head of engineering Larry Dunn says: "We w

Hungary - Audiovisual systems specialist, Interton, has completed a project in the Hungarian city of Debrecen. The new Kölcsey Congress Centre is the country's second largest facility of its kind and forms a multifunctional centre for Debrecen's unique cultural life.

The Kölcsey Centre includes three buildings, a Congress Centre, a Hotel and a Museum. The Congress Centre, in which Interton designed and installed all of the sound and video systems, contains a large auditorium with seating for 1,100 people, a ballroom, eight partitioned rooms and a multifunctional ballroom / exhibition space as well as a small AV studio and an impressive entrance foyer. The complexity of the project was summed up by Dr Géza Balogh, technical manager of Interton, "The building 'ate' more than 30km of AV cabling. We installed more than 350 loudspeakers driven by over 40,000W of

UK - Projected Image Digital has supplied the first Element Labs' VersaPIXEL installation - featuring over 3000 point-sources of light - in the UK, at the newly opened Grosvenor Casino, on Bury New Road Manchester. The PID team worked closely with Cadmium Design's Paula Reason and Tina Chetnik, who specified the VersaPIXELs.

Reason is well known for designing light features into her innovative architectural and interior schemes, and recently incorporated other Element Labs products into high profile installations at the Hard Rock Café venues in London and Barcelona and for casinos in Leicester and London. Reason had wanted to use VersaPixels ever since she was inspired by watching a 'product in action' video of the massive O2 exhibition stand at CeBit.

VersaPixels' distributed architecture gives designers complete freedom over pixel shape and placement - including intri

China - Prolight + Sound Shanghai, the Frankfurt fair's younger sibling, will make its fourth showing in China from 18 - 21 October 2006, alongside the international MI show Music China. As of June around 170 exhibitors have signed up to take part in the fair, from the pro-audio, lighting and entertainment technology sectors. A special 'Premier Contractor Seminar' running in conjunction with the show is expected to attract hundreds of event contractors, specialised engineers and technicians from across China.

Pro-audio, specialist lighting and entertainment suppliers from around the world can find a strong and growing market in mainland China. Companies from China, Germany, France, Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore, Sweden, Taiwan, the UK and the USA have already signed up to be a part of Prolight + Sound Shanghai.

Prolight + Sound Shanghai will feature a Taiwanese Pavilion fo

Germany - Sennheiser electronic GmbH & Co. KG concluded financial year 2005 with an almost 15 percent rise in sales, the company reports. The Sennheiser Group had sales of € 300.4 million over the year, with all geographical markets and all business sectors contributing to the growth. Particularly interesting was the development in the consumer electronics and professional wireless technology sectors, as well as in the joint venture Sennheiser Communications.

"The continuously successful work performed by development, marketing and production as well as the untiring commitment of our sales subsidiaries and partners in the individual countries have made this good result possible," said Rolf Meyer, president of marketing and sales and speaker of the Executive Committee, on presenting the balance sheet at the company's press conference.

"We have completed our anni

USA - D.J. Willrich Ltd (DJW), the audio visual and multi-media specialists, has produced a virtual viewer for the new Jamestown Archaearium in Virginia. It provides a live view of the Fort site as it is today, however, it also presents the Fort as it would have been in 1607, in scale and in perspective superimposed on the live view to the point that visitors do a double take to make sure the Fort only exists in the virtual view.

DJW were invited by Haley Sharpe Design to help deliver their vision of virtual interpretation at the Archaearium, which is a 5000sqft interpretation centre on the archaeological discoveries at Jamestown Fort, the site of the first British Settlement in Virginia.

David Willrich, managing director of DJW says: "We were very excited to be involved in this project. The idea of a virtual viewer is not new, but the marriage of 3D graphics on a live vi

Norway - Camco is delivering a substantial consignment of its flagship amplifier products to Norway this month, as the country's leading rental companies (Frontlite, FotoPhone and LydPartner) upgrade their audio inventory, with renewed emphasis on the principles of system power and system flexibility.

The largest customer is Oslo-based Frontlite, which has chosen 30 Camco Vortex 6 and 14 Camco Vortex 200V amps to power its new Nexo Geo T system. According to Frontlite's head of audio, Stuart Kerrison, the reason for buying so many amps was the extra flexibility he gained from the system.

"In Norway, we cater for audiences ranging from 50 people to 20,000 people, so we need a really versatile system. We want to be able to break up our Geo T system into three smaller systems, or to split it in half with each system being capable of handling a festival for 5,000 people or go

UK - Cheshire-based VME Ltd. used a selection of Allen & Heath mixers for theseventh annual Wakestock festival, which took place in July in North Wales. With a record sell-out crowd of 20,000 visitors, and three arenas of top DJs and bands, Wakestock has become Europe's largest wakeboard music event.

VME managed all of the festival's technical requirements, supplying Kling & Freitag speakers, Lab Gruppen amplifiers, Mac lighting, and a selection of Allen & Heath's live sound consoles and DJ mixers.

Over the two day festival, the new open air arena - Glastonbury's "Other Stage" - hosted Feeder, The Automatic, and Carl Cox, whilst the Main Tent included live performances from The Zutons, the Delays, the Cuban Brothers, the Freestylers (live), and Adam Freeland. The Beach Arena hosted DJ sets throughout the weekend from popular artists including Lisa Pin-Up, High Contra

UK - The Pet Shop Boys have even made squares cool with the help of the team at Specialz. Rockdrops Gary Cooper-Burrows said, "After discussions with Joe Sanchez (production manager) and Es Devlin (set designer) as to the requirements and uses of the cube for the forthcoming PSB 2006 tour, there was no choice in my mind as to whom I should use for the engineering and manufacture of the cube. After working with Dave Smith and Keith Owen on the Franz Ferdinand tour last year, I knew It had to be Specialz."

Specialz were commissioned to provide a multifunctional cube for use on the latest Pet Shop Boys 'Live' 2006 tour. The cube, which is internally illuminated, functions as a giant projection screen, a band prop, and dancer platform. The cube subdivides into four (4m x 4m) separate parts which are moved around the stage during the show.

Whilst these unique items look s

USA - Durell L.L.C was tasked with providing a high quality sound experience for American Football team the Cleveland Browns. Durrell, which has ongoing relationships and is responsible for the sound systems at the Kansas City Royals (MLB), Kansas City Chiefs (NFL), Tennessee Titans (NFL), Cincinnati Bengals (NFL), Bristol Motor Speedway, Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Conseco Fieldhouse (NBA), and the Nashville Predators (NHL) has also designed and built many recording studios and has extensive experience in television broadcast.

The result is a new, "state-of-the-art" distributed public address system at the Cleveland Browns Stadium, completed in July 2006. As a special feature, four custom-made large rolling field carts were made, each as a self-contained high-powered PA, using D.A.S. self-powered Aero Line Arrays and dual 18" Subs to enhance extreme low frequency d

Germany / China - The biggest shipment of Cohedra and Cohedra Compact cabinets has left Germany at the end of May with a destination of China. Smart Target, exclusive distributor of HK Audio in China, will be applying more than 100 cabinets of the Coherent Dynamic Response Array in fixed installations.

"One and a half years ago, we started introducing Cohedra actively in China and we have been able to achieve great success already in this short time period. The high product quality of HK Audio as well as the scalability and last not least the excellent sound quality of Cohedra and Cohedra Compact convinced many of our customers to invest in this system," explains Mengxun Shen, co-owner of Smart Target. "The great feedback from our customers as well as the quick and reliable support of HK Audio make us feel optimistic to increase the popularity and the sales of Coh

UK / Argentina - David Hopkins OBE, owner of ADSworldwide in Stockport - a firm that specialises in commercial sound systems - is leading the team behind an exchange visit of young professional men and women, organised by Rotary District 1050. The Rotary district covers from Central Manchester to Biddulph in the south, Tarporley in the west and to Glossop and Buxton in the east. The visiting team from Argentina will arrive in the area in October 2006 and a team from District 1050 will visit Buenos Aires in March 2007.

The visiting team comprises a dentist, an electronics engineer, an English teacher and a chemical engineer and Rotary is still looking for companies representing these disciplines to offer the opportunity for vocational visits. The outgoing team will be chosen from applicants who are UK citizens and either residing or living in the Rotary District. The whole trip w

USA - D-Tools Inc, the specialist in system integration software, has announced that Gefen has joined the D-Tools Manufacturer Vantage Point (MVP) program. Gefen delivers advanced hardware with multi-platform extension, switching, distribution and conversion capabilities, and detailed information about its complete line of solutions is now available to users of D-Tools' award-winning System Integrator software.

"We are excited to partner with D-Tools," said Hagai Gefen, president and CEO of Gefen. "The MVP program provides a direct channel for us to get our product information to AV companies around the country so we can offer just-in-time solutions for their installations, ranging from the humble home theater to the most challenging presentation venue."

D-Tools' Manufacturer Vantage Point (MVP) program is designed to help provide system integrators with th

UK - RF specialist Trantec was commissioned by Kingston based Plus 4 Audio to design and supply a bespoke version of its award-winning S6000 radio mic system for Celebrity Love Island.

Handling all the RF requirements of Love Island with the S6000 for the second time Plus 4 Audio needed a ground breaking systems solution that would push boundaries and further streamline operations on-site.

The TV show is filmed on a Fijian Island and with the celebrity stars diving in and out of water on a frequent basis, the system needed to be waterproof and able to cope with some testing operating conditions.

Trantec 's head of R&D Richard Ganley collaborated with Plus 4 Audio's Stewart Chaney to ensure that system met his exacting specifications. A powerful 'burner circuit' amplifier was added to a standard S6000 transmitter to boost output to 150mW, both were then packaged in a special

UK - The Blitz Charter Group recently embarked upon a technical showcase tour starting at the BBC Studios in London, where it demonstrated the latest in hire technologies available from Charter Broadcast and Blitz Communications. The technical showcase focussed on HD acquisition, playback and display.

During the BBC showcase event, Blitz presented its new HD digital wireless camera systems; which provide a unique industry offering from the Blitz Charter Group. It also boasted the latest in HD graphics and caption generation as well as the most recent advances in hard drive playback/record devices and brand new HD video projectors. It extended its portfolio further as it demonstrated the latest digital audio mixing consoles for use in the broadcast and live events industries, as well as high resolution LED display technologies. The day presented a unique opportunity for customers

UK / Germany - As part of a worldwide brand refocusing programme, Dynacord has appointed beyerdynamic UK to handle its products in Great Britain and Northern Ireland with effect from 1 August. The change in distribution, which follows similar successful refocusing exercises in North America, Asia and other European countries, is intended both to make use of beyerdynamic's proven abilities selling complementary product ranges in the UK and to free up Shuttlesound, Dynacord's previous UK distributor, to maximize its "already excellent" performance with Electro-Voice, Dynacord's sister brand.

Three years ago the company had identified the need to have separate teams working on - and even competing on - sales and marketing for Dynacord and Electro-Voice, in order that each brand, with different qualities and strengths, reached its potential. The results of that policy have

UK - With less than six weeks to go before PLASA06 opens its doors at Earls Court, the finishing touches are being made to the show's biggest-ever line-up of features, seminars and star industry speakers.

The expansion comes as PLASA Show organisers Clarion Events report the highest ever number of pre-registered visitors - up by 13% on 2005, with technical and creative teams from major venues and high-profile projects among the first to register.

The show's track record of hosting major international product launches, and wide interest in this year's new features, have helped drive the pre-registration increases. The new features are led by the new Integrated Systems Area; a greatly expanded PLASA Seminar Programme with a dedicated Technologies for Worship programme; the first PLASA appearance of NEET (National Exhibition of Entertainment Technology); and new features for DJs.

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