FX Music Control, the equipment sales arm of the FX Group, has appointed James ‘Woody’ Woodburn as its London sales manager. Woody joins the company from Serious Audio where he was sales manager for two years until the company’s closure at the beginning of 2002. He is now based at the FX Group’s headquarters in East Acton and is responsible for handling all recording and post production sales enquiries in London and the South East.

FX Music Control’s managing director, Emma Brown, told us: "Woody is highly regarded within the pro audio industry, particularly for his expertise with Pro Tools, which is an increasingly important part of our business. In recent months we have witnessed a large increase in orders throughout the country and we wanted to ensure that all customers received the same high level of service regardless of where they are. By appoin

Proel (International) has been appointed sole UK distributor for the highly regarded QUBE PA range. Following the takeover of international responsibility for distribution by FBT Electronica, QUBE (a joint venture of the USA’s Renkus-Heinz and Italy’s FBT) now has a network of distributors with the UK passing to Proel (International), in London.

The QUBE range comprises professional-level systems from small packages to full touring rigs and has won many press accolades and users from across the board, including bands, clubs, hire companies and installers. Proel’s Managing Director, Paolo Burocchi, told us: "We’re very excited to have added QUBE to our growing range of pro audio equipment. It’s a good product with a great reputation and we intend to work very hard developing it in the UK market."

(Ruth Rossington)

Roy Lamb has been Bryan Adams’ production manager for the past three years, ever since Val Dauksts finally decided to wave the road goodbye.

Lamb, himself a contemporary of Dauksts, is rumoured to stick at the job for the love of rock ‘n’ roll and the huge variety of golf courses this career affords him. Which just leaves Adams himself - why does he keep doing it? "This tour has been running pretty much continuously since ‘98, two weeks on, two weeks off," said LD Mac Mosier. "He just loves touring. He said it to the crowd at the last show - I don’t have an album out, I’m not promoting anything, I just enjoy being here."

Beyond my own personal like for the artists’ song writing and his live performance, this proved heartening news. As with Travis, which I’d seen the week before, I polled the audience; for a middle a

Navigator Systems Ltd have come up with a solution which will ensure that companies who own ‘demo’ stock achieve the best possible return on their investment. Following several months of discussions with sales representatives, Navigator discovered that for some keeping track of the ‘demo’ stock had turned into a logistical nightmare. Items such as mixing desks, projectors, plasma screens and lighting consoles had either been forgotten or simply gone missing.

By adding several new features to its rental management software system RentalDesk, Navigator Systems have now made it possible to search quickly and easily for the ‘First Available Date’ for the ‘demo’ item required. Thus, if a company requests a mixing desk for a five-day period in June, the sales rep can check whether it’s available for that period and if it isn't, give the

Gearhouse Broadcast have purchased five Soundcraft B800 multi-bus broadcast mixing consoles and ten BSS 9088 Soundwebs from Harman Pro, as part of a massive investment in their audio rental stock. A key factor in this investment are the requirements of Host Broadcasting Services (HBS) and German broadcasters, ARD/ZDF, for the 2002 Football World Cup, as well as ongoing commitments to Tennis Properties Limited (TPL) for the Tennis Masters Series coverage over the next three years.

"Having made large investments in video equipment, we recognized the need to upgrade our audio mixers to higher specification units in order to cater for the increasingly complex audio production requirements of our clients, and the scale of the events," remarked Kevin Moorhouse, technical director of Gearhouse Broadcast. "In particular we required compact, but powerful units in order to make sh

CP Sound, the creative audio design and installation specialist, has completed two major projects in Manchester. Both are new build venues within a few hundred metres of one another, and both now feature sound systems designed by CP’s Colin Pattenden, featuring a variety of JBL speakers powered by RSE amplifiers.

At Waxy O’Connors, part of The Printworks complex, the acoustic challenge was to produce a clean multi-layered system. The Waxy’s site is a busy, good looking labyrinthine complex of passageways, spaces, snugs, small meeting/drinking rooms and several bars, spread across four floors. A stunning stripped wood, sculptured tree stretches up through a high atrium space slicing vertically through all four floors. Pattenden - who has also designed and supplied sound for the very successful Waxy’s sites in London and Glasgow - has used a mix of JBL speakers, i

The very first Midas Legend 3000, sporting serial number 001, has been shipped to EML, one of the largest rental companies in Europe. Headquartered in Brussels, EML also has offices in Stockholm, Madrid and Amsterdam and a busy summer season ahead with tours, shows and festivals all over Europe.

Ampco Belgium, Midas's distributor in Belgium, sold the console to EML. "EML is one of our biggest customers," said Ampco's managing director, Karel de Piere. "They already have two XL4s, two Heritage 3000s, a Heritage 1000, an XL3 and a couple of Venices, so it was only right that they be first in line for the Legend when it started production." By the time Midas's David Cooper went to Belgium shortly after the console had been delivered, it had already gone out on tour with Dutch band Bløf. Indeed EML was so taken with the desk that within two weeks the company’s p

Software provider Stardraw.com has promoted Rob Robinson to the position of marketing director. According to managing director David Snipp, Robinson's appointment was "a natural progression of his duties and reinforces an already strong management team at Stardraw.com.

"Rob has been doing a great job over the last year," continued Snipp, "and it was a logical step to have executive representation of the marketing function at board level. As well as many years experience in this field, Rob also has comprehensive knowledge of the company, our products and the markets in which we operate."

Robinson’s new role will see him involved in new business development. "In addition to building on the established successes of our existing design and documentation products, I'll be growing the new business sectors which arise from our introduction of new internet

London-based sound, lighting and video installation and consultancy company, Live Business International, has just added a new member to its team and re-united the duo that ran the sound at the Millennium Dome.

Almost a year to the day after completing his contract at Greenwich, Gerry Logue has joined technical director Roland Hemming to become Live Business International’s technical project manager. Hemming comments: "I’ve been trying to get Gerry on board for ages, but distractions such as his consultancy for the Commonwealth Games and work managing a large video conferencing project have prevented us from working together until now. I'm glad he has finally seen the light and come home."

During his 20-year career, Gerry has established himself as one of the best audio-visual project managers in the industry. He coordinated the sound at Madame Tussauds and Rock

Iemke Roos Audio b.v., Nexo distributor for The Netherlands, has sold a complete Nexo Alpha system to Alpha Audio & Light b.v., a Dutch rental company based in Apeldoorn. In a joint venture, Alpha Audio & Light and Iemke Roos Audio have invested in a number of Nexo Alpha cabinets in order to offer a complete system, with a total number of 32 cabinets, including all flying hardware and completed with system racks with Nexo NX241 system controllers and Crown MA5000VZ and MA3600VZ amplifiers. For larger configurations, Alpha Audio & Light will be working closely together with other European Nexo partners.

The system will be used on many of the ‘in house’ productions of Alpha Audio & Light. The system will also be available, in combination with the complete range of FOH and Monitor equipment, as part of the ‘Alpha summerrent’ programme. This is a concept in which Al

Stardraw.com has announced that its complete range of ‘shrink-wrapped’ products, comprising Stardraw Audio, AV, Lighting 2D and the recently launched Stardraw Radio, is now available in Italian. This brings the number of language versions up to five with English, French, German and Portuguese already available. All language versions can be downloaded from the Starsraw website.

Thanks to the system architecture employed by Stardraw, translation into any language is a relatively simple task as all of the text in the program is held in an external file that can be edited using any word-processing package, even one as simple as Notepad.

(Ruth Rossington)

When faced with the need for real audio flexibility, Anders Heftye and Arild Egeland, technical designers for ABC Audiovisuell Teknikk AS, turned to Biamp’s recently released Audia Digital Audio Platform.

One project included two 8 x 8 AUDIA units installed in Innovasjonssentret, Oslo, a conference facility with a main hall seating 250 and a smaller meeting room seating 100. Another AUDIA installation was the Quality Hotel Conference Center in Tønsberg, Norway, which has three rooms that can be reconfigured in a variety of combinations. According to Ian Hodgkinson, Biamp’s European manager, "these are the ideal applications for AUDIA. The product was designed to be economical and easily interfaced with all of the other equipment being installed."

In Innovasjonssentret, Heftye and Egeland needed a system solution that featured multiple inputs and outputs, a

CIE-Audio, the UK supplier of installation audio equipment, has announced the addition of another market-leading brand to their portfolio - the revolutionary new ‘i-ceiling’ from Armstrong. A brand new concept in integrated acoustic ceiling systems, the ‘i-ceiling’ is the latest development from the world’s number one manufacturer of ceiling products.

i-ceiling utilises flat panel speaker technology to provide a unique loudspeaker system which exactly matches Armstrong’s market-leading range of ceilings, to combine their existing aesthetic and sound absorption qualities with the acoustic benefits of NXT flat panel speaker technology. This allows for ‘invisible’ loudspeaker solutions which benefit from greatly increased sound dispersion, providing incredibly even levels of sound reproduction compared with the ‘hot and cold’ spo

Nady wireless microphone systems are experiencing something of an explosion - up in the Granite City. And it has earned Bruce Millers, Aberdeen’s premier music shop, the appointment of specialist Nady dealers, by UK distributors, Lamba plc.

In particular, home recording/project studio enthusiasts at the 100-year-old department store have started turning on to Nady drum mics, according to instrument buyer, Shawn Skinner. "Everyone was doing radio systems and we needed an entry level mic. We were turned on to Nady by the rep and immediately picked up on the balanced outputs of the Encore GT instrument series. We have done particularly well with the DMK-5 five-packs and CM85 cymbal condenser mics for the overheads." The multiple package includes four DM70 tom/snare mics, a DM80 kick drum mic and case. DM70s are ideal for miking snares, toms and percussion with no bleed thr

Hire company Yorkshire Audio recently evaluated Audio-Technica's AT4054 vocal condenser microphones during the UK leg of the James Brown international tour. Keith Birtwhistle, front of House engineer for the show, carried out the trial employing the mics on keyboard and main vocal positions and was very impressed with the results. "We are always on the look out for new products which improve sound quality and add to the artists’ performance, and I would certainly put the AT4054s into that category. They provide a powerful, clear sound and are a dream to mix."

(Ruth Rossington)

Tascam has introduced a new range of professional DJ scratch mixers. The XS-8, XS-4 OESuper Analog Series and XS-3, are affordable, two-channel scratch mixers, offering high sound quality and a range of features. These follow Tascam’s successful entry into the DJ equipment market with the advanced CD-302 DJ CD decks and flagship X-9 digital performance mixer.

The XS-8 is the top of the range ‘Super Analog Series’ model. As well as exceptionally high sound quality, this "advanced" scratch mixer features fully adjustable and reversible crossfader and channel fader curves, three-band EQ on each channel, as well as dedicated EQ control on the microphone input. Balance controls and cut switches and switchable Master and Cue monitoring are featured, and an effects loop, for connection of an external effects processor, with effects level control and in and out swit

Marquee Installations have carried out the latest audio-visual fit-out for Six Continents, in their roll-out of the Edwards brand. In Swindon, they have again chosen the combination of Mackie and EAW components, following the design model originally created with Orritt Electronics.

Marquee Installations' Mark Brown says that all the installations include multiples of Mackie Monitor 8s and 5s, underpinned by MSW8 subs, providing the environmental sound on both the ground and first floors. "We choose these because they are compact and discreet, produce a good sound and have a wonderful tonal balance."

On the dance floor, they specify EAW speakers in the form of JF290Zs, reinforced by FR250Z subs. The four mid-highs are flown while the pair of bass bins are ground-stacked. Brown adds that correct speaker positioning is vital in achieving the transparency of sound that Six Cont

Turbosound Ltd, the British manufacturer of live performance and installed-sound loudspeaker systems, has recently appointed a new exclusive Austrian distributor - dBLuX Vertriebs GmbH, based in Dornbirn. Located close to the Swiss and German borders in Western Austria, dBLuX is already reporting major successes for Turbosound's QLight and Impact series, which are proving particularly popular with specialist bars and clubs located in the ski resort areas.

dBLuX was established in 2001 by Thomas Feuerstein and Johannes Sorgo to fill a perceived gap in the local market. Thomas explains: "We could see that there was a need for a new kind of sound and light distribution company that provided an excellent product range, supported by a comprehensive, responsive after-sales service. Turbosound products represent a perfect match for our target market, and in the few months since our appoi

SSE Audio Group launched its new sales department at the ICC in Birmingham recently, at the same time as giving the UK market its first demonstration of the GEO Tangent Array loudspeaker system. Also on display was the range of InnovaSon digital consoles for which SSE has recently been appointed UK distributor. SSE’s new dedicated sales department is headed up by Julian Ward in the role of equipment sales manager. The company has been selling equipment for many years, based on the sale of its large ex-hire stocks, and the new department will capitalize on this, offering both new and used equipment for sale, as well as undertaking key installation projects.

Invited guests at the ICC launch represented all sections of the industry, including hire companies, theatre management, corporate and event production people, and freelance sound engineers. SSE used the full scope of the 3000s

The Audio Post-Production Studio sector of the APRS is launching a specialist handbook called Audio Post UK at Cannes this year. The handbook focuses on the audio post production facilities and services provided in the UK and is being targeted at producers and audio-post supervisors involved in commercials, film and TV production throughout the world.

Over recent years the UK's audio post facilities have acquired a reputation for excellence throughout the world with high profile movies including the Star Wars series, Harry Potter, The Mummy 2, James Bond and Tomb Raider amongst those productions choosing the UK for their audio needs. UK audio facilities and the strength of music composition and score recording have all contributed to this reputation which Audio Post UK is promoting.

Supported by the DTI through Trade Partners UK, it is hoped the directory will introduce new clients

Switchcraft has launched two new video patchbay ranges to meet the needs of broadcast studios, OB vehicles and post-production facilities. The standard size range has a rated bandwidth up to 2.4GHz (SMPTE292M) and can be supplied in 1U and 2U formats with 24 or 26 jacks, 75ohm or non-terminated, and normalled or non-normalled jacks.

Switchcraft's mid-size range provides a bandwidth of 3.0GHz, 32 jacks within 1U and 2U rack panel heights for higher density, the choice of 75ohm or non-terminated, and normalled or non-normalled jacks.

(Lee Baldock)

BMN Music has joined the growing ranks of high profile studios investing in the new Yamaha DM-2000. The DM2000 will complete BMN’s state of the art equipment roster at its High Barn Studio. Purpose built in 2001, utilizing part of an 800-year-old barn, the studio is located in the historic Essex village of Great Bardfield and provides a unique and relaxing setting.

Iain Court of BMN explains: "The main reason for the acquisition of the DM2000 console is that we have a number of albums waiting to be mixed and without the extensive features of the console (particularly its automation capability) it would be near impossible to get the standard required." The DM2000 console provides full recall of almost every setting on the desk at the touch of a button and features 100mm precision touch-sensitive motorised faders. Even during automated mixdown, a fader can be touched to m

Audium SRL, the long-standing Italian distributor for Australian pro audio manufacturer ARX, has passed on news from Rome detailing the recent Installation of ARX products into new audio systems at St. Peter’s Square and several other locations within the Vatican.

Five ARX Maxisplit line splitters are used for signal routing and zoning to the 33 Crown Comtech 1610 high-voltage amplifiers feeding 30 EAW KF 900 Series loudspeakers. The complete audio system is managed by a CROWN IQ Control System. Another five ARX Maxisplit Line Splitters were installed as part of the audio system at the Nervi Hall, the 7,000-seat auditorium within the Vatican. In the audio systems at the Blessing Hall and San Damaso Court, ARX Mixx 4-channel microphone mixers and further ARX Maxisplits have been utilized for microphone mixing and zoning.

(Lee Baldock)

Bob Geldof’s current UK tour landed at the Guildford Civic Hall last month, with XTA’s SiDD (Seriously Intelligent Digital Dynamics) ensuring that Bob’s distinctive, gravelly voice was done full justice.

Sean Busby-Little has used SiDDs as in-ear monitor control processors in the past, but working as FOH engineer on the Geldof tour needed a different approach completely. He explains: "I use each channel of the SiDD on Bob’s voice and guitar. Not only is his voice unusual, but he also plays a right-handed guitar upside down, so when he hits the top string first you can get too much top end. The SiDD gives the dynamics to get rid of the bits that I don’t like. Also, on the vocal, the compression gives warmth and depth and the limiter is great for when he plays the harmonica. I’m using everything that SiDD’s got on Bob’s voice - he has

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