Sound

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PLASA is now just two days away and it looks like this year’s event will be the best ever. PLASA is where you get to find out what over 400 of the industry’s leading players have been doing in the past few months. It’s got to be better than leafing through hundreds of product brochures or trawling the internet for information. Aside from the exhibition, there are plenty of things to catch the eye, including the DJ Competition on the Sunday, the newly-introduced iDJ Talk Zone offering advice to DJs, a comprehensive seminar and workshop programme, the PLASA Awards for Product Excellence, the various Feature Areas, and the many events, press launches and on-stand receptions organized by exhibitors. If you still haven’t registered for the event, don’t worry, you can register on the day. All you need to do is turn up at Earls Court 1 and register on the door. See

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"I thought that after eight years it was time I turned up and had a look," and this from a man who hardly needs instruction in the use of consoles. Graham Blyth, along with Phil Dudderidge, is the creator of all things Soundcraft, having founded the company 28 years ago.

Nevertheless he was there, attended all sessions, and was indeed attentive. While Blyth might not need the ministrations of Andy Dockerty, Chrys Lindop, Dave Kay and Andy May, he was not alone; there were four engineers from the British Forces Broadcasting Service (BFBS), and plenty of others with more than a passing knowledge of what all those thousands of knobs are for.

‘Going Live’ is in its ninth year - Blyth was just slightly off - and continues to be heavily subscribed. "We’ve always been over-subscribed," said Elizabeth Gates. "There’s over 100 this year. We&rs

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In mid-July, Showsound hosted a demonstration of a new sound technology known as the Audio Spotlight. The device, which was demonstrated by inventor F. Joseph Pompei, represents what the company believes to be the first successful development of a truly directional loudspeaker. Whereas a traditional loudspeaker produces a large field of sound, the Audio Spotlight emits a narrow beam of sound - as little as just 3° at 3m.

In practice, the Audio Spotlight generates a beam of sound that can be accurately pointed at specific locations. People within the field of the beam will hear clear audible sound, whilst others standing just outside will not. The sound can be aimed directly at targets or reflected off almost any surface in a method known as Projected Audio.

Joseph Pompei has developed this innovative new system at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Media Laboratory.

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DJ equipment manufacturer Pioneer caused a stir on the show floor today, when they presented their special guest, top DJ Roger Sanchez. As you can see from our pictures, the presence of Sanchez did not go unnoticed by one or two of the show’s DJ visitors . . .

Pioneer were busy highlighting the introduction of new products including the CMX-3000 next generation twin-CD player and the CDJ-1000 digital deck.

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This morning, AKG unveiled its latest Emotion Series Microphone C 900. This is a high quality condenser microphone for vocalists, and provides many unique features at an excellent price/performance ratio. Features include a 24-carat gold-plated transducer case for optimum protection from corrosion and humidity (the entire transducer element is shock-mounted in a special elastic ring). The microphone is also extremely insensitive to handling noise. The supplied Presence Boost Adapter can be installed to boost the 5 - 9kHz range by 2 to 4dB for improved high-frequency sound and better intelligibility.

AKG has also added to its best-selling WMS 40 system, a series of miniature devices that offer perfect solutions to various wireless miking problems. The new products are small enough to fit in a shirt pocket and have been named ‘microtools’. Microtools provide maximum flexibili

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The doors have opened at Earls Court for Day 1 of the 24th PLASA Show, and the first visitors are now filling the show floor, where over 370 exhibitors are displaying their latest innovations to the industry. Over 400 products are making their first appearance at a PLASA Show, with the cream of the crop entered into the PLASA Awards for Product Excellence, and displayed in the New Technology Gallery on the Top Deck of Earls Court, which is this year sponsored by Lighting&Sound International magazine.

Throughout today, and for the duration of the show, the team from PLASA Media will be bringing you all the latest news and pictures from the show floor. To follow events as they unfold at PLASA 2001, visit our dedicated news section at the address below:

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Sennheiser today announced to the industry press the introduction of a number of new products at PLASA 2001. New to the evolution range of products is the ew550 live touring receiver, a completely new design comprising two independent UHF true diversity receivers in a 1U 19" rack-mount unit, designed specifically for multi-channel operation. Each receiver offers 16 channel memories and 1280 programmable frequencies within a 32MHz switching bandwidth. Other enhanced features include an advanced RF input stage for optimum multi-channel systems operation in hostile sound touring environments.

Also new to the evolution range, the e664 adds to the company’s dedicated instrument microphones. Designed for applications such as drum kit overheads, or highly accurate acoustic instrument miking, the e664 features low noise electronics, high output and a highly sensitive capsule that dr

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The 56 products nominated for this year’s PLASA Awards for Product Excellence are currently available for visitors to view on the Top Deck of Earls Court, in the Lighting&Sound International-sponsored New Technology Gallery (pictured). The Gallery allows a one-stop view of all the latest product innovations in the categories of Lighitng, Sound, Stage Engineering and Audio-Visual. Judging for the Awards will take place during the show, by a panel of experts from each respective field. The winners will be announced at a special ceremony at 9.30 on Wednesday morning, at which time PLASA will also present the money raised from the Awards entries to a number of charities.

To view the complete list of products entered for the PLASA Awards for product Excellence, visit the web address below:

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Announced today at PLASA, leading live sound company Britannia Row Productions, has purchased a range of power amps from high-end touring and installation manufacturer, Chameleon Audio, which will form part of Britannia Row’s comprehensive touring set-up. Since the beginning of this year, Britannia Row has been reviewing the specifications of amplifiers currently available and decided to put the Chameleons through their paces. They were particularly impressed with the sound quality and size-to-power ratio, and are further assessing them on selected shows over the summer.

Tests were initially undertaken in June and July at indoor and outdoor venues with capacities spanning 2,500 to 25,000 respectively. The trials culminated in the Route of Kings concerts in Hyde Park with the Beach Boys, Status Quo, Andrea Bocelli, Tom Jones and Michael Flatley's Lord of The Dance. Of the 40 amps

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Wembley Loudspeaker’s appearance at PLASA marks its 30th year in the industry. The company, which was launched in 1971, supplies a range of equipment to musicians, churches, schools, theatres, clubs and cinemas, and is still creating new products at the fore of the audio marketplace. Wembley also offers Europe’s largest repair refurbishment facility for nearly all makes of professional and studio, units including a comprehensive range of parts for many vintage and rare speakers. On the stand at PLASA is the 15-400 Pro Cabinets launched earlier in the year, along with the range of B-Line 18" 800 and 600 bass drivers which have proven highly popular since their introduction to the market.

Wembley can be found on Stand G36.

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TJ Livehouse, one of Singapore's newest and more popular nightclubs, has had an all-Apogee system installed to provide sound in its 20,000sq.ft venue. The nightspot is a disco, but also hosts live entertainment including band performance, DJ and dance competitions, pageants and game shows. TJ Livehouse, which was converted from a movie theatre, needed to project uniform sound to the entire area, which includes a balcony. Before making the choice, the venue’s management had each potential vendor come into the club and set up a live demonstration. An Apogee system, featuring nine ALA-9 linear array loudspeakers, six FH-18 quad-subwoofers, and 28 DA-800 amplifiers, was then selected for permanent installation.

Silas Rabi, owner of Emaginex, the company which installed the system, said: "Apogee's line array speakers provided the sound quality TJ Livehouse was looking for, normal

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Cork-based lighting, technical design and production specialists LDPS has further expanded its team with the addition of two new project consultants - Joe Stockdale and Michael Hurley. Their specialist areas are stage technologies and mixed/multi-media respectively. Stockdale and Hurley join LDPS founder Grant Collie and will be based in the company’s new premises in central Cork. The appointments will strengthen LDPS’s position as a market leader in the field of creating practical technical solutions based on hands-on experience.

Stockdale’s role will include venue technical design, specialising in stage systems, site installation supervision, special projects, client liaison, training and recruitment. His diverse background includes the teaching of theatre studies, set design and construction and event production. For the last nine years, he worked as technical stag

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Young, talented DJ Scratch-Mo astounded music industry judges and the crowds to win the Extreme V DJ Competition yesterday at the PLASA Show 2001, Earls Court. The annual competition, sponsored by Gemini Sound Products attracted queues of young hopefuls from across the country to its stand for a chance to audition at the UK’s biggest entertainment technology show of the year.

22-year-old DJ Scratch-Mo (real name Angelo Tun) from Derby performed two superb sets to beat off stiff competition in his heat and the final winning £500 worth of Gemini DJ equipment. The music mad Media Technology graduate who has been DJing for seven years was thrilled to win and hopes that it will lead to a career in DJing.

The competition took place on the opening day of PLASA, DJ Sunday and is just part of a programme of events which included a guest appearance from super star DJ, Roger Sanchez at t

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Formula Sound has unveiled its latest modular mixer- the PM-100 - at PLASA 2001. This mixer replaces the award winning PM-90 and is proving to be as popular. One important feature of the PM-100 is the single universal input module which can be configured to accept virtually any type of input source. Also featuring VCA controlled crossfade with punch; contour control and inserts at either end for connecting external signal processing equipment. With its many other facilities and its combination of sizes, layout etc. the PM-100 is the most versatile small production mixer around.

The full range or products for mixing and noise control is on show on stand E26.

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Sennheiser's annual 'Industry' Golf Challenge Trophy competition, at Mill Ride Golf Club near Ascot, proved more successful than ever before, this year raising more than £25,000 for Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital in London. Held on 6 July, a good turnout of keen, though not exclusively proficient, golfers entered into the spirit of things. This year's winner was once again Ashok Patel of ASK, just pipping Richard Bleakley from Diamond Stylus for the Stableford competition. In third place was Praful Patel of ASK who took consolation as winner of Nearest The Pin.

The day's longest drive came from LMC's John Ridley and The Texas Scramble was won by Mark Austin of Wycombe Wanderers, Andy Streets and John Hine of Synergy for the front nine, with Charles Smith, Chris Cress and Sennheiser managing director Paul Whiting on the back nine. Martin Sheehan represented Great Ormond Street

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The PLASA Exhibition marks an exciting period for SkyTronic and Adastra as they launch their third catalogue in as many years. The 300-page catalogue contains over 4,000 products including 650 which are new for 2002, covering the entire consumer electronics spectrum.

SkyTronic prides itself on bringing new and exciting products to the marketplace backed up with a sales and customer care policy of which they are equally proud. The rapid growth that SkyTronic has achieved and continuing customer loyalty are testimony to this. Adastra Electronics Limited offers a comprehensive range of commercial audio Public Address products. Incorporated in 1949, Adastra has a long history of quality, performance and reliability.

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After six years' absence from the pro audio sector, Hans Freytag, former co-owner of C Audio, is joining high-end touring and installation manufacturer Chameleon Audio on a freelance basis as European distribution development manager, with a brief to expand the company’s continental distribution network. Chameleon is no stranger to Freytag - it used to make transformers for C Audio - and he is relishing his new role: "I'm looking forward immensely to working with Paul Houlden and raising further the profile of the company's products on the continent."

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Hear’Say are currently part way through their highly successful UK arena tour. The set and lighting was designed by Pete Barnes, with the lighting operated on tour by Graham Feast. In an unusual move, all the lighting gear was supplied by French Company Cote Scene. The audio elements of the tour were provided by Wigwam with rigging by OTT.

The tour’s live video requirements are supplied by XL Video. The 32 square metre central screens - which open like curtains at the start of the show to allow the band to enter - are constructed from Barco DeLite 7 LED systems. Two left and right screens are fed by Barco ELM G10 projectors mounted on the truss, and are predominantly used for the live relay images. PCM was commissioned by Mark Wade from OTT Rigging to build the customised movement system for the video screens. The resulting system, an amalgamation of a Gis tracking system

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The Audio Engineering Society has announced the postponement of next week's 111th AES Convention at the Javits Convention Center, New York, until early December. The Javits is being used as an emergency services co-ordination centre in the aftermath of the recent events in New York. The organizers have issued the following statement. "We have just returned from the Javits Center where we had a meeting with their top management. We learned that the New York City Mayor's Office of Emergency Management and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) have taken over large portions of the Javits Center for use in coordinating emergency services. We also learned that FEMA will have complete control of these spaces and any others that they need, for an undetermined period. This obviously makes holding the event as planned impossible. However, we have been able to reschedule the conventi

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Tripath Technology Inc and Alesis Semiconductor, both from the West Coast of the United States, met at this year’s PLASA Show to finalise their new distribution agreement with European audio component distributor Profusion plc. Keith Persin, managing director of Profusion told PLASA Media: "Tripath have excellent patents covering the class T switching amplifier technology, which produces true hi fi quality." With big names such as Sony using these parts and receiving awards, many companies are now looking at the class T designs. Steve Tomlinson (MD of Tripath Europe) continued: "Our parts often require application support as the technology is so different from traditional amplifier designs. Appointing Profusion was a logical choice as they have applications engineers and the facilities to offer good technical support."

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Cardiff-based Theatre Vision (a Stage Electrics Group company) has kick-started its busy corporate season by providing production lighting services for the recent WHAT HI-FI? Sound & Vision Awards 2001. Hosted by the irrepressible Clive Anderson at the Hilton in Park Lane, the show is produced by Head to Head Communications on behalf of Haymarket Publishing. Theatre Vision was called upon by busy awards lighting designer Matthew Evered to provide dynamic lighting for the event. A mixture of Strand SL cool-beam profiles, parcans and Martin Mac 300 moving lights were used to help jazz up the event, now in its 25th year, and all controlled and programmed by Tim Routledge on an Avolites Pearl. Also provided were a number of low voltage lighting kits for various branding and reception areas. Truss and rigging was provided by RoadRunner while sound was sourced from Tone Ferne from Dobsons.

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Apologies to the Stereophonics, but this is going to be an unsung heroes review. Unlike other shows, I’m going to concentrate attention on the peripherals, everything other than light and sound.

Following the appalling tragedy at Roskilde, crowd management has ridden to the top of all festival organiser’s agendas. This was the first big show at Donnington since the demise of the annual Monsters of Rock five years ago, and security arrangements were uppermost in many minds. Showsec, the contracted party, has much experience of Donnington, not least from Monsters, so in many ways choosing them was a given. Company founder Mick Upton managed a team of 250 Showsec staff from the control room, which he shared with local emergency services and licensing officials, monitoring events by radio and CCTV. Mike Harding, group operations director, was at the sharp end of crowd control,

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After many year's absence, the ISCE led range of mini seminars which took place during the recent PLASA Show, attracted over 100 people across the three workshops. Doug Edworthy, Events chair told PLASA Media: "I think everyone attending benefited from the variety of relevant subjects covered in the audio field, and many are now booking for ISCE's extended one day programmes scheduled throughout 2001/2."

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Sky's broadcast coverage of the 2001-02 football season sees Audio-Technica AT835ST microphones called into action to convey the thrill of the crowd to the watching audience. The introduction of the AT835STs follows a series of successful tests carried out by Sky Sports audio consultants, Video Sound Services, during last year’s FA cup final and play-off games. Joint VSS owner and BAFTA-winning sound engineer Robert Edwards explains: "As technologies such as surround sound become widely available, television audiences expect to be transported to the stadium with realistic audio coverage delivered to their armchairs. We are constantly evaluating new equipment that will help us to keep pace with this changing demand and the AT835ST helps by providing a really strong ambient crowd noise. Traditionally we have used two closely matched mono microphones mounted onto the commentary b
  1. PLASA 2001 Shines in the Eyes of the Industry
  2. Korea-based Avix is Tannoy’s Best New Distributor
  3. Community Adds Two to CPL Family
  4. Audio Refit at Watersmeet
  5. Graham Hendry Returns to Tannoy
  6. Mackie's HR824 Wins DJ Mag Award
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