Sound

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A coveted TEC (Technical Excellence & Creativity) Award, presented during the AES New York Convention in December, rounded off a record year for the Sony DMX-R100 digital console. With over 1200 worldwide sales and a hat-trick of major pro-audio awards, the console has carved out an enviable reputation for itself.

Notable for being voted for by a large number of magazine subscribers, the Mix Foundation TEC award for best product in the Small Console Format Technology category is regarded internationally as one of the key accolades for technical professionals. The 48 channel DMX-R100 also scooped both the Studio Sound Award in the UK and MIPA (MusikmesseInternational Press ‘High End Digital Mixing Desk’ Award) in Germany earlier in the year.Sony has recently launched a Version 2.0 software upgrade for the desk, and there are plans for a forthcoming MADI implementation and op

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ARX Systems, the Australian based manufacturer of professional audio products has appointed Tonart-Audiotechnik as its new exclusive distributor for Switzerland. ARX MD Colin Park told us: "ARX is delighted to have Rudolf Schenker and his team at Tonart-Audiotechnik on board as our new exclusive distributor. Tonart are well placed to introduce the new products ARX is bringing to market in 2002, as well as continuing the high level of support our Swiss client base has come to expect over the years.

(Ruth Rossington)

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Stagecraft has recently been involved in a major development at the New Theatre Royal in Portsmouth. The company supplied lighting and sound equipment to the venue and is also planning a programme of disabled workshops at the theatre.

In 1972 a fire destroyed a large part of the backstage of the Victorian theatre and the refurbishment provided an opportunity to re-design the theatre to provide greater accessibility for all theatregoers. One of the key areas to be developed was the lighting and sound systems and thus Stagecraft supplied a range of technical equipment, including Martin intelligent lighting, Selecon Pacific luminaires, Compulite Luna moving yolks, Zero88 lighting control and dimming, and a range of audio equipment, including Tannoy speakers, Shure microphones, QSC amplification and Allen & Heath control.

Grant Bales-Smith of Stagecraft worked closely with the New Theat

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The Wembley studio building that used to house CTS Studios is back in business as a recording facility after industry veteran Pete Fielder secured a lease on the premises, which he has re-opened under the name of Phoenix Sound. The substantial studio building is located close to Wembley Stadium and was due to be redeveloped as part of the overall scheme to rebuild the stadium. However, when the plans fell through, Fielder approached Wembley plc with a view to acquiring the lease and securing the site's future as a recording studio.

Fielder, a respected engineer and APRS board member who has extensive knowledge and experience of the studio industry, told us: "This is a large site that is already very popular with musicians and has plenty of potential as a studio complex. Although we are re-equipping from scratch, the actual studios and control rooms are already in place and will si

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Philips CSI has moved to an impressive new corporate facility at Heathrow, located on the Bath Road adjacent to Heathrow airport. The facilities at the new site will allow the company to expand its operations especially with enhanced sales, training and demonstration facilities for customers and installers.

According to Reg Nicholls, the newly-appointed UK general manager for Philips CSI: "Our move into this building allows us to continue to strengthen and develop our UK operations. We have opportunities to further promote the Philips brand name by providing all the services required to make us more customer-focused and responsive." he added. The new Philips CSI centre at Heathrow will also offer a much faster response and turnaround on both warranty and non-warranty repairs, plus a new 'swap-out' service on key products that effectively gives customers a free replacement pr

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PLASA Media has learned the sad news of the death of Bob Salt, who died yesterday while on holiday in Jamaica. Although early details are vague, it is understood that Bob died of pneumonia, following on from a chest infection.

As founder and managing director of RW Salt Communications, one of the country’s leading distributors of PA, pro audio and communications equipment, Bob was very well known to many in the industry. In a statement issued today on behalf of the company, Richard Lyon, chairman of RW Salt Communications, said: "Bob loved this company and its success was his continuing dream. It is my wish to preserve his dream in the best possible way, as do the loyal people who have worked for Bob over time."

He continued: "Everything is in place for the company to continue in a professional way. There will be no delays to supplier payments and our customers c

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The AXYS range of products is now being distributed and supported within the UK by Duran Audio UK. In addition to supplying the successful AXYS Intellivox range, Duran Audio will also be actively promoting the Arena System, Scope System, Stadium System, Source System and Flex range. The company’s new Target System, which has been through extensive Beta testing, will also be available for sale in 2002. Sales of AXYS in the Republic of Ireland will now be handled by Sound Productions of Dublin.

(Lee Baldock)

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A vibrant new South African production has recently arrived on the West End stage. Umoja - The Spirit of Togetherness opened at the Shaftesbury Theatre to rave reviews thanks to a cast of 33 singers and dancers, four African drummers and a five-piece band.

Conceived by Todd Twala and Thembi Nyandeni, and brought to the stage by director Ian von Memerty, the task of 'sound designing' the story of African music fell to Trevor Peters. With FOH engineer, Tanja Somers, Trevor recommended that the show turn to both BSS and Trantec as the most effective and economic way of setting the delays and correcting the sound imaging, and supplying the requisite number of radio mic channels.

"I did the original sound design using more conventional equipment which I was familiar with, but then someone suggested I look at BSS’s Soundweb," said Peters. "Although I first saw S

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West London-based pro audio distributor Ampekko has recently supplied the Institute of Contemporary Arts, situated on The Mall in London, with an integrated SLS Loudspeaker system. As the official sponsor of Climax 01, SLS teamed up with the ICA and The Musicians Union to stage a ground-breaking season of music and talks which looked at the highlights of indie, acoustic and dance music over 2001. Its resounding success inspired the ICA to permanently install a SLS integrated sound reinforcement system into their main Theatre.

Andrew Missingham, director of performing arts, explained: "We were so impressed by the SLS system that Ampekko supplied for the week-long Climax 01 season, that it made total sense to replace our old system and upgrade to SLS. It will allow us to fulfil our objectives in 2002 to revive live music performance in this venue. It has already worked to enhance ou

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The ATI Group, parent company of Audio Toys Inc, API Audio and Uptown Automation, will consolidate manufacturing and corporate offices for all three brands in a larger facility as of January 14. The changes come in response to ATI's steady and considerable growth over the last decade. In addition to providing the company with a much needed doubling of space, the consolidation will improve manufacturing efficiency. ATI, API and Uptown Automation products will all be manufactured at the new Jessup, Maryland, location under the direction of general manager Gordon Smart.

Audio Toys Inc manufactures the Paragon II monitor console and the newly introduced Paragon II production console, along with the successful 8MX2 mic pre/mixer. The Paragon II has recently been seen on tour with Britney Spears, U2, Tim McGraw and many other top acts. API remains an industry leader in analogue recording equ

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Fujitsu Ten Limited Japan has announced the formation of its joint venture company, Eclipse TD (UK) Ltd. The company has been founded to distribute and market the Eclipse TD range of monitor speaker systems in the United Kingdom.

The Eclipse TD 508 and TD 512 monitor systems, based on Time Domain principles, were launched in Japan in April 2001 (where they received a Japan Industrial Design Promotion Organisation award) and shown publicly in Europe for the first time at the Hi-Fi Show in London in September. Following the immediate success of the speakers in Japan, public reaction at the Hi-Fi Show, and recording industry response at a number of private studio demonstrations, the board of Fujitsu Ten Ltd, Japan took the decision to establish a UK operation. Based in west London, Eclipse TD (UK) Ltd is headed by managing director Hiroshi Kato.

Commenting on the new venture at a recep

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ARX has recently completed shipping one of its largest individual orders received in 2001 for the new multi-million dollar Crowne Plaza Hotel project in Beirut, Lebanon. ARX's Lebanese distributor Doummar Freres Sarl has the contract to design, supply and install the fully-integrated audio-video system for the new hotel's banqueting and conference facilities which also includes stage lighting, conferencing and simultaneous translation systems, lighting and dimmers, and mobile band equipment. The projects Audio systems include over 40 PowerMax Series loudspeakers and various quantities of UltraSubs, Micro Max 1s, Ambience 5s and AmbiSubs powered by 15 ZR 850 and 350 Power Amplifiers and SX 1500s, ZA 600s PowerDrives and AmbiDrive Power Amplifiers.

Signal Processing comprises 12 EQ 60 equalisers, 11 AFW 1 anti feedback workstations and quantities of Maxisplit line splitters, Mixxmaster

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Trantec’s award-winning UHF radio mics have been supplied to a new studio facility in Kennington - set up to produce the latest Richard & Judy series. Six channels of Trantec S5000 beltpacks, with a pair of auxiliary S4000s, were recommended by Nigel Gates, along with Trantec S5000IEM personal in-ear monitors to Cactus TV, the production company for Richard & Judy, which is now being produced at the studio in South London for Channel 4 transmission. Four receiver racks were supplied with the order.

Sound supervisor Oliver France installed the equipment at the Cactus TV studio in conjunction with facility providers, Roll To Record, following a fast-track contract to develop the brownfield site (a former polystyrene depot). Oliver confirmed that Nigel Gates had long been an advocate of Trantec radio mics. "And on occasions when I have used them I have found them to give a good

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JBL’s new VerTec system was used on New Year’s Eve at the highly successful SchoolDisco.com event at London Docklands Arena. The sold-out event was attended by 11,000 revellers in school uniforms. JBL audio was specified by SchoolDisco.com founder and guru Bobby Sanchez, who has used the brand for years. He loves the ‘classic’ JBL sound which is perfect for SchoolDisco.com’s musical style and ambience.

Sanchez insists on using JBL at all SchoolDisco.com events. He says it brings out the best of their musical policy which is based on the pop and rock anthems of the 70s, 80s and 90s. The fast forwarding SchoolDisco.com phenomena currently includes a weekly Friday detention slot at the Hanover Grand in central London and regular extra curricular events at Hammersmith Palais (Po Na Na) - utilising their own 4-stack JBL sound system - plus weekly club nights at

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MC2 Audio’s distributor in Latvia, GaCo Skanu Un Gaismu Serviss, has now completed the installation of a conference system for the Latvian Council of Ministers, the contract for which they won last summer. In their bid for the contract, GaCo included only top-end equipment by well known manufacturers. The company had previously purchased MC1250 amplifiers for their rental department, and so felt confident about the performance of MC2 Audio amps for this project.

The sound system in the Council of Ministers installation is driven by the MC450 amplifier and consists of four TCS-20 Turbosound speakers, with the main signal coming from 10 beyerdynamic MCS series digital conference system microphones, mixed by the MIX 10 beyerdynamic mixer.

(Lee Baldock)

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With two distinct divisions, Liverpool-based Adlib Audio are equally at home in the installation arena as they are on tour with some of the world’s leading bands. Their own-branded equipment keeps company with some of the top commercial names in pro audio, and running kit in their rental fleet enables them to evaluate its suitability for fixed install.

Which is how the company became familiar with the BSS FDS-334 and FDS-336 Minidrives. Adlib have long been devotees of BSS’ famous Omnidrive family and so when they won the contract to fit out a series of Living Room bar/restaurants for fast-expanding Living Ventures Ltd, the proprietary digital loudspeaker management system went straight into the specification.

As the latest Living Room opened on Birmingham’s burgeoning Broad Street leisure strip this month, Adlib managing director, Andy Dockerty, told us that their

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Sennheiser UK is to take on sole distribution of Lab.Gruppen’s market leading range of power amplifiers and loudspeaker processors, with effect from 16 January. The Swedish manufacturer enjoys an enviable reputation for the quality and performance of its range of power amplifiers; and particularly for its revolutionary high efficiency switch mode technology models, first introduced in 1987. These provide exemplary sound quality and long term reliability, as well as exceptional power-to-weight ratios, offering significant cost savings and operational advantage in both touring and fixed installation applications.

Commenting, Sennheiser director of sales Alan Johnson stated. "Sennheiser has grown its sound installation and live sound reinforcement business significantly over the last four or five years, particularly expanding the market for the range of DAS speaker products. Th

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Music Control and Technical Services, the sales, installation and technical support divisions of the FX Group, has recently completed the creation of a recording studio and edit suite at the BRIT School for Performing Arts & Technology, the only free performing arts school in the UK.

The Brit School were keen to ensure that the entire studio project was taken on by one organisation as opposed to a variety of contractors, which led Declan Cunningham, Music Technology Teacher at the Brit School, to contact Music Control, part of the FX group of companies. The Studio project involved a specialist team made up of members of the two relevant divisions of the FX group of companies, namely Music Control and Technical Services. The studio equipment was supplied and fitted by Music Control with additional re-wiring and cabling of patch bays and outboard undertaken by Technical Services.

Equi

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During an intensely busy year Britannia Row has managed the complete upgrade of its stock of Turbosound Flashlight PA, road tested, proved and embraced the latest X-Line system from EV and joined the V-dosc Network.

"We were the biggest UK user of V-dosc in 2001," commented Brit Row director Mike Lowe."Dave Bracey got stunning results for the Robbie Williams tour, ranging from the Swing While You’re Winning concert at the Royal Albert Hall to the summer stadium shows Oasis and Offspring also toured with large systems. Becoming a Network member was a natural progression. The fact that Brit Row now offers what we consider the two best Line Array systems available should not be seen as a conflict of interest. Their own manufacturers will be the first to say that the two systems are distinctly different, something we saw very early on. Several sound engineers with who

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Trius, the official L- Acoustics Distributor for Germany, has just completed an installation at one of the country’s most popular multi-functional arenas - the Olympia Hall in Munich - together with a local installation company called IES.

The 13,000 capacity Olympia Hall was built in 1972 for the Olympic Games and hosts a range of events such as rock concerts, musicals, sport events and corporate functions. Due to the variety of formats, the main audio installation requirement for the hall was to have uniform and coherent coverage of both the stands and the infield. Furthermore, a modern system was required which would be acceptable to visiting production companies.

The installation includes 76 L- Acoustics dV-Dosc cabinets, divided into eight arrays (two of 12 cabinets for the north stand, two of 10 cabinets for the south stand, two of eight cabinets for both the west and eas

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Interest-free credit on the design, production and hosting of websites is being offered to audio companies under a new initiative. Backed by Leeds-based marketing agency FL42, the scheme is designed to help companies working in the pro-audio and MI sectors reap the benefits of promoting and selling through the Internet, without a large initial outlay.

Ross Brown, managing director of FL42, says: "Everybody recognises the power of the Internet, with everybody from pro and amateur musicians to hire companies using it to promote services and research products, yet many companies have yet to take their first steps online. For some this is because of the techno-babble from so-called experts and for others it is the initial outlay required that is off-putting. This scheme aims to remove these barriers, dealing in plain English, providing clients with exactly what they need and using a v

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The Clapham Grand, which re-opened three years ago under the management of Howard Spooner's Leopard Clubs has changed its Crown-powered Nexo Alpha system for a new Crown-powered Nexo Alpha system . . .

So what prompted the change? Howard Spooner explained: "The original system we put in three years ago was perfect for the requirements at the time, but since then our music policy has changed to include a more house and dance night as well as our traditional 70s and 80s nights. Also, the dispersion of people through the club has changed. As a result we needed more sub-bass to beef up the low-end, as well some infills for the upper levels. Basically I just felt that our customers deserved an upgrade."

Spooner approached Peter Dyer at Tarsin who enlisted the help of Fuzion's technical director, Gary Ashton, to specify a new Nexo system. Dyer pointed out that although it's only

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Inter-M, the Korean based manufacturer of professional and public address audio products, began 2002 with the announcement of their move to new purpose-built premises in Seoul. "While manufacturing resources remain at the newly extended plant in Kyungki, Inter-M’s new offices in Seoul have been designed to develop our marketing department and increase productivity in the company’s extensive research and development division," said Mr Y J Yoo, Inter-M’s senior managing director.

Inter-M, whose products are sold in over 80 countries, have significantly increased output facilities to develop their latest range of pro sound and digital audio products, together with a new CCTV range to be launched later in 2002 at the ISC Show in Las Vegas and IFSec in Birmingham. The new Seoul offices also include a purpose-built 180sq.m three part showroom divided to exhibit In

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Soda in Derby is the latest club to choose a Nexo Alpha E system, installed by Ivor Green Associates. According to Green, Nexo was "the only choice" for his clients who were committed from the very beginning to the highest quality system they could afford. "I was impressed by their enthusiasm and professional approach," he said. "Although it's not the sort of job we would normally undertake, having seen the venue and met the clients and realised that we were of like minds, I agreed to take on the contract."

The club operates on three levels with the Soda bar on the ground floor, a quiet chill-out area with no music at all on the second floor, and the dancefloor itself, home to the new system, on the third floor. Green specified two stacks of Alpha E comprising four Alpha B1-18 bass bins and four Alpha E-M mid-top cabinets each. Crown MA Series amplifiers p

  1. Martin Provides Ministry with Happy New Year
  2. Louis Teo Starts New Distribution Company
  3. Soundwebs Network New Shanghai Media Centre
  4. Rock Muse-ic . . .
  5. AES New York
  6. RFH Transformation
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