Germany - Since the introduction of Allen & Heath’s dLive mixing systems, many of Germany’s top artists, including Nena, Xavier Naidoo, Joris, Brings and Van Canto have taken S Class systems on national and international tours.
"The launch of dLive S Class has been a complete success and we are supporting a lot of satisfied customers and users,” comments Markus Sinsel, Allen & Heath’s German brand manager. “The unique design of the user interface, the FX processing, and the easy integration with Waves and Dante are especially appealing to users.”
Singer songwriter, Joris, has toured with a dLive S5000 Surface and DM48 MixRack with Waves V2, and plans to use dLive on his 2017 tour. FOH engineer, Daniel Lauer, says, "I use the integrated audio matrix switcher. This feature, and the possibility to integrate Dante, Waves and MADI, is perfect for Joris

USA - In a world where churches are popping up in spaces that once served as anything from a bank to a department store, First Baptist Church of Los Angeles is a throwback to an earlier time when houses of worship were built to be just that. Until recently, the audio system there was a throwback as well, until the congregation turned to CCI Solutions to design and install a new system centred on Kiva and X Series enclosures from L-Acoustics.
Built in 1927 and modelled on the Palace of Ducal in Italy, the historical landmark is reminiscent of a European cathedral - deep and narrow with soaring 60ft ceilings. And, in addition to services for a number of congregations, it regularly serves as a shooting location for films and TV shows. All of this created a unique audio challenge.
“It’s a cavernous space and really multi-use for a church,” says CCI Solutions’ Duke

Europe - The SD9 is one of DiGiCo’s most compact, lightweight consoles, but with 96 channels and a full range of features, it is the perfect choice for Scott Humphries, Front of House engineer and production manager, and Rory Mulligan, monitor engineer, for British folk rock band Bear’s Den.
Supplied by SSE Audio, the two SD9s have spent five weeks touring with the band around Europe, starting in Scandinavia and taking in Germany, France, the UK, The Netherlands and finishing in Belgium. The choice of console was Scott’s, and both he and Rory couldn’t be more pleased with them.
“Scott suggested a complete DiGiCo system from the outset,” Rory explains. “I was all for that. I hadn’t worked with DiGiCo consoles for any meaningful length of time before, so I saw it as a good opportunity to learn. I knew they sounded great, which would be a big plus for our

Canada - The Hershey Centre is a multi-purpose sports and entertainment complex located in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. Home to the Ontario Hockey League's Mississauga Steelheads and the NBA Development League's Raptors 905, the facility also hosts a wide variety of events, ranging from live music and internationally-televised figure skating championships to boxing and indoor rodeos.
In response to guest feedback on its nearly two-decade old distributed sound system and concerns that it might fail during an event, an extensive upgrade brought "major-league" sound to the Hershey Centre.
Design specialist Dave Clark crafted a sound system based on Fulcrum Acoustic CX1265 12 inch coaxial speaker clusters. Sixteen double CX1265 clusters hang above the playing surface perimeter to cover the arena's upper and lower bowl, with additional clusters deployed into each of the l

USA - Sensaphonics has presented Toni Sheree of Los Angeles with a new 3D-U AARO in-ear monitor system valued at $1500. As a purchaser of Musicians Earplugs during the NAMM show, she was entered in the end-of-show drawing, and her entry came up as the winner.
Sheree is vocalist for the LA-based electro-funk duo, Toni & Ash, and can’t wait to get her hands on the new 3D-U AARO. “I was so excited to hear from Sensaphonics that I won,” she exclaimed. “We just released a record, OK Cool, and I can't wait to use my new in-ears in our show. Ambient sound in an in-ear is going to be amazing! Thank you, Sensaphonics.”
The 3D-U AARO is billed as the world’s first universal-fit Active Ambient IEM system. Sensaphonics performed a constant stream of live demos during the NAMM show, showing how 3D AARO provides full access to ambient sound on stage through it embedd

UK - Britannia Row Productions Training is running its core 12-week Live Sound Technology Course (LSTC) from early April. The 2017 course will be primarily delivered from South Thames College in Wandsworth, with some sessions being held at Britannia Row’s main headquarters in Twickenham and others on-site at Britannia Row shows. The tutors delivering the course will, as usual, be Britannia Row staff and freelance engineers and technicians.
Britannia Row Productions Training’s managing director Mike Lowe said: ‘We have missed running the popular LSTC. Last year we ran six 16-week part-time courses, held on Saturdays and Sundays at Twickenham, as well as bespoke courses tailored to the specific needs of companies in the industry who send their employees to us for training but just did not have the physical space to run the LSTC. Unfortunately, we were unable to run the

The Netherlands - Integrated Systems Europe is over for another year, and 2017’s record number of visitors return home with the best of the industry in mind. At the d&b stand the company’s latest amplifier monitor and control plug-ins for Peavey MediaMatrix, Beckhoff, AMX, Crestron and the update for QSC Q-SYS attracted plenty of interest, as the German loudspeaker systems manufacturer continues its drive towards ever easier third party integration.
For d&b, whose System Reality principle is found on the convenience of integrated system components, complete interoperability now comes as standard.
The show was also a first for the d&b Soundscape which was given a special preview in the d&b demo room. Here d&b introduced the thinking behind the next evolution in loudspeaker system design in which the concepts of sources and spaces are fully explor

Russia - Opened in September 2016, Vegas City Hall is a multi-level, multi-function concert hall in the North West of the Russian capital of Moscow. Owned by the Crocus Group, the venue has been designed to be highly flexible, with different configurations accommodating a variety of events.
This flexibility needed to be reflected in the design of the audio system, with L-Acoustics loudspeakers providing a solution that delivers high quality sound system that can be reconfigured in under a half hour.
The audio system was designed and installed by Theatre Techniques and Technologies (TTT Group, Moscow), together with Sonoruss, certified provider of L-Acoustics products in Russia.
Vegas City Hall’s auditorium spans three levels in the form of an amphitheatre. In its standard configuration, used mainly for rock, pop and jazz concerts and children’s events, the ha

Nepal - When Lucy Peckham, co-partner of Anchorage-based Both Ears Live Sound, was contacted by Greg Mitchell, a design professor at UC Santa Barbara, she knew she would be a part of something special. Mitchell was looking for a sound engineer to go to Nepal to work on the first opera ever performed in that country. Peckham recognized early that she would also need equipment capable of performing under Kathmandu’s less than forgiving environment. Peckham found the solution she needed in DPA Microphones’ d:screet 4061 Necklace Microphone.
Peckham first heard of DPA after attending a Live Design conference in Las Vegas. “I started receiving Live Design’s online newsletter and DPA kept popping up in the articles I found most interesting,” she says. “One article in particular caught my attention: DPA microphones were used to mic the entire cast and orchestra of a San

Europe - The new Acoustical Simulation Tool (AST) software from NEXT-proaudio is an acoustic simulation software for 2D modelling of either single subwoofer sources or sub-arrays. IT will be unveiled at ProLight & Sound in Frankfurt.
With an intuitive and easy to use interface, AST, acoustic simulation software, has been designed to help NEXT-proaudio users when setting up the subwoofers enclosures into a venue. Based in a very fast and accurate algorithm, this tool is capable of predicting the acoustical performance of the subwoofers, helping the user to find the best solution for a given venue with a multiple sound sources. The simulator allows the user to simulate in 11 different ISO 266 spacing frequencies (20Hz~200Hz) with a single click.
AST includes a NEXT-proaudio’s subwoofer models database, containing sensitivity, Max. Power and subwoofer dimensions. Af

Italy - Staged since 2006, Nextech is one of Italy’s longest lasting electronic and visual arts festivals, drawing top international EDM artists to Florence and enabling fans to discover suggestive locations in the Tuscan ‘capital’, creating a sprcial atmosphere with its mainstream and trendsetting sounds.
For the last four years, Nextech has been held in the Cavaniglia hall, in the conference hub hosted by Florence’s spectacular Renaissance Fortezza da Basso, and headliner at the December 2016 edition, Nextech Legend, was Germany’s Chris Liebing.
Liebing has dedicated the past 25 years of his life to the performance, production, distribution and broadcasting of Techno at global level. He has run a club and held residencies in many of the most prestigious venues worldwide, playing for established nights like Cocoon, Carl Cox and Music On in Ibiza, he now has

UK - A substantial EM Acoustics HALO-C system has recently been supplied and commissioned into the main performance space at Dorking Halls in Surrey by Autograph Sales & Installations. Opened in 1931, the handsome inter-war facade of the Halls conceals a vibrant, contemporary entertainment and conference complex in which three separate spaces variously host live music, cinema, corporate events, comedy and theatrical productions throughout the year.
The new system resides in the main hall which has a capacity of 791 seated, rising to over 1000 when part-standing. Comprising 22 HALO-C compact line-array elements plus a single MSE-218 subwoofer per side and four EMS-61 modules, the entire system is powered and processed by just two EM Acoustics DQ20s and one DQ6 advanced system amplifiers.
According to Autograph’s sales engineer, Peppe Mallozzi, one of the first con


Keeping Music Live - London mayor Sadiq Khan has welcomed government proposals to safeguard live music venues by strengthening the ‘agent of change’ principle. It comes weeks after the mayor’s office announced the rate of small music venue closures has slowed, with numbers in the capital staying the same for the first time in a decade.
In its Housing White Paper, released this week, the government outlined plans to amend the National Planning Policy Framework and strengthen the agent of change principle. This means that developers must take into account existing venues when building nearby and be responsible for ensuring their properties are adequately soundproofed.
Implementing the principle was one of a number of recommendations made in a report published last year on how to tackle the decline of grassroots music venues. Welcoming the step, Khan describe

UK - Donny Osmond’s recent Soundtrack of My Life arena tour has given the entertainment icon not only a chance to promote the album of the same name (his 60th), but also take a trip down memory lane to cover five decades of material.
The fact that Donny-mania is still alive and well can be measured by the constant screaming of fans, drowning out the mainly arena auditoria, which in normal circumstances would threaten to envelop the sound from the stage.
In the case of Martin Audio’s award-winning MLA, Osmond’s tour manager (and FOH engineer) Chris Acton found so much headroom under the bonnet that this never became an issue.
Capital Sound, who supplied the rig, first worked with Acton on Donny & Marie’s tour of the United Kingdom two years ago. Introduced by UK event production company, LarMac LIVE, the relationship has blossomed - and Acton was highl

USA - At NAMM 2017, Blue announced the newly updated and enhanced Essentials Series now featuring Spark SL, Bluebird SL and Baby Bottle SL.
Taking their most popular microphone line one step further, Blue advances each mic with a new streamlined build and refined sonics, along with a versatile 100Hz high-pass filter and -20dB pad. The enhanced Essentials Series provides the flexibility to track a wide variety of sound sources with nuance and power. The newly updated Essentials Series is now available at Guitar Center and Musician’s Friend, and coming soon to Sweetwater, Sam Ash, Long & McQuade Canada and other authorized retailers worldwide.
“We’re excited to take the legacy of Baby Bottle, Bluebird and Spark one step further,” said John Maier, CEO of Blue Microphones. “These very popular and trusted mics serve creators in every situation, from the home s

USA - Purpose Church, located in Pomona, California, 30 miles east of Los Angeles, recently installed a new Eastern Acoustic Works (EAW) Adaptive sound reinforcement system to provide their church community with a more complete worship experience.
After the church decided to upgrade the 25-year-old system, Peter Wilson, audio tech director for Purpose Church, and Jeremy Rynders, audio/acoustic system designer, began to research their options.
The fan-shaped church sanctuary, with seating for 1,800-2,000, features a wrap-around balcony that necessitates 180-degree coverage. And, because the space is made up primarily of hard, flat surfaces – with little or no acoustic treatment – the room would benefit from sound reinforcement with custom-tailored coverage, easily defined by the user. Lastly, the church was interested in a system with the ability to vary the cover

USA - Located right outside Fort Hood, Texas - the largest military installation in the free world - the Christian House of Prayer was founded in 1980, and from its main location in Killeen and a satellite location in Copperas Cove serves a ministry that reaches across the country and into Europe.
As the need to improve the sound at the main sanctuary increased, Chris McKinney, the church’s head audio engineer and production manager, began researching the best way to go about modernizing the system there. His inquiries led him to the Focusrite RedNet suite of Dante-networked audio converters and interfaces, which he recognized as the perfect bridge from the church’s existing analogue sound system to the Danley PA system they intend to install later in 2017.
Supplied by Sound Productions of Irving, TX, a system comprising the following RedNet components provided the

Scandinavia - Swedish PA company, Parashoot, flew out its new Allen & Heath compact dLive system for the world’s northernmost festival, held in Longyearbyen, Svalbard, located on a Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean.
Running since 1998, the Polar Jazz festival is a unique event, which year on year attracts well-known artists from across Scandinavia to perform. Parashoot managed audio requirements for Swedish singer, Ane Brun, for her headline performance, using their new dLive C Class C1500 rack-mountable Surface with CDM32 MixRack.
“This must be the furthest north a dLive has ever travelled!” comments Parashoot owner and engineer, Oscar Söderlund. “Our new compact set up was so easy to transport and load in/out, which was very important given the temperature was -13°C.
“We have several dLive S Class touring systems but for unusual or fly

India - Community Professional Loudspeakers has announced the appointment of New Delhi based Acoustic Arts Pvt. Ltd as its distributor for India.
Established in 1999 by Siddharth “Sunny” Chhibber, Acoustic Arts is focused on the distribution of AV products from leading brands, including Biamp, Powersoft, Audix, Televic, Beyerdynamic, AMX and Christie. Effective 1 January 2017, the entire Community product range will now be included in this line-up.
Siddharth Chhibber, managing director, stated, “Prior to distributing the brand we had used Community products when they conclusively offered the best solution for applications. We are pleased to now be appointed as distributor so that we can offer Community’s entire range of outstanding products to our customers.”
Mr. Chhibber continued, “Community is, of course, a market leader in large scale all-weather

Europe - EM Acoustics selected ISE 2017 as the launch forum for their new ESP Series of compact, self-powered, multipurpose loudspeakers for a variety of live applications. The range currently comprises three models: the ESP-8 and ESP-12 loudspeakers, both with coaxial designs for true point-source performance, and the ESP-15S compact reflex subwoofer.
The ESP-8 is an 8-inch, 2-way coaxial loudspeaker whose powerful performance belies its diminutive size. The coaxial drive unit arrangement provides a uniform 100-degree conical dispersion pattern with very smooth off-axis response and none of the parallax effects that would be generated with separate HF and LF drive units. The result is a compact, fully self-contained loudspeaker system that delivers excellent performance across a range of applications from small FoH duties to speech reinforcement, front-fill or compact stage

The Netherlands Nexo has unveiled the new Geo M10 line array, a high-output sound reinforcement system for long-throw theatre and live music applications. Nexo has produced an exciting contemporary design using a single 10” driver, delivering “an unprecedented ratio of LF response to cabinet size for this class of mid-size line array”.
The Geo M10 system is a true power package, twice as more powerful as its sister Geo M6 compact line array, launched two years ago. While the M10 design aesthetic is comparable to the elegant new-generation silhouette of the M6, the larger M10 cabinet draws on structural and acoustic innovations first released in Nexo’s ground-breaking STM Series modular line array, in particular the STM M28.
The M10 takes its name from the single 10” neodymium LF driver, paired with a 1.4” HF titanium diaphragm HF driver. With a footprint of

UK - Ever the travelling troubadours, Two Door Cinema Club are currently touring the UK with sound engineer Ian Laughton at the controls of a Britrow K2 system. “I first met the band two years ago,” he said. “They have loads of talent, excellent musicians; I’d always liked them and wanted to work with them. Listen to their latest third album Gameshow, and I defy you to find a song you don’t like.
“The first shows at the Manchester Apollo was my initiation to Britrow’s L-Acoustics K2 system with the new’ish KS28 subs. I don’t really need the low end weight – I’m not looking to flap trousers, but I do want that low frequency information to be present. The PA gives me the room to put the full character of what is a very musical band into the mix, neglecting nothing.”
Craig Ross (aided by Steve Donovan on stage) looks after the system for La

USA - Back in 1996, an original rock musical by a little-known composer opened on Broadway and forever changed the landscape of American theatre. A re-imagining of Puccini’s La Bohème, RENT follows an unforgettable year in the lives of seven artists struggling to follow their dreams without selling out.
Twenty years later, the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning masterpiece is still selling out theatres around the country and around the world. The 20th anniversary edition of the show began its run last September and carries with it an L-Acoustics sound system that conveys all of the power of its music and message of hope while keeping touring logistics and costs at a minimum
According to associate sound designer Mike Tracey, the touring sound system for RENT comprises two main left/right towers of 11 Kara enclosures per side, as well as two SB18 subw

UK/USA - Focusrite is debuting two new Scarlett OctoPre mic-pre units: the standard Scarlett OctoPre and the Scarlett OctoPre Dynamic. With eight channels of Focusrite's second-generation Scarlett preamps and built-in Focusrite precision 24-bit / 192 kHz conversion, Scarlett OctoPres present an ideal way of adding eight extra mic/line inputs to a DAW or digital console, says the company. And there are eight analogue line outputs too, perfect for stand-alone use in a live sound environment.
The preamps feed precision 24-bit Focusrite A-D converters that operate up to 192kHz sampling with 109dB dynamic range, making the OctoPres suitable for hi-res audio recording. Dual ADAT ports enable eight channels to be used at sample rates up to 96kHz, while four channels can be transferred at 176.4/192kHz sampling.
The Scarlett OctoPre Dynamic model adds eight channels of 24/192kH

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