The Netherlands / Germany - After a successful launch of the new Alcons brand at the Frankfurt Pro Light+Sound exhibition in March, Dutch sound system manufacturer Alcons Audio has expanded into Germany with the founding of Alcons Audio Deutschland GmbH.

The move involves an agreement between Alcons Audio and Carsten Albrecht, with Albrecht to act as sales and technical support manager of Alcons Audio Deutschland. In this role, he will be responsible for client contacts, technical support and project management. Alcons Audio Deutschland will be operating from Kassel.

Albrecht, a musician at heart, worked for Stage Accompany Germany for almost nine years, providing service, installation and application support. "Advanced technology, teamwork and a unique sound are for me absolute necessities in my work," he says. "Therefore I’ve decided to take this very im

UK - Arbiter Pro Audio has supplied installation company The Music Room with a large quantity of JBL speakers for an innovative project at a massive new Chinese restaurant/noodle bar - Hong Kong City - in new Cross, south east London.

Hong Kong City’s owner, Mr Su, acquired the site - formerly a dusty old pub - and had it completely gutted and transformed it into a lively, bustling new venue seating 300-plus people. Packed to the gunnels throughout the week, Hong Kong City is capitalizing on the current community-wide trend for Asian fast food and haute cuisine.

A high quality sound system was an essential element of the mix: Su turned to Gordon Gapper from the Music Room to produce a system appropriate for the environment, in which karaoke is also a key element of the evening’s entertainment. Music Room’s Dean Watkin then produced the sound design and specif

UK - Drapes and rigging specialist Blackout was recently appointed by London-based Production House PAV, to help realise the dramatic set for a sensational one-off club night - The King of Clubs - for brand giants Budweiser.

Staged at London’s famous Old Billingsgate market, the event concept was inspired by the Budweiser King of Beers’ commercial, and King of Clubs was the culmination of a point-of-sale campaign by the company. Re-igniting the spontaneous party spirit of the late 1980’s rave scene, over 3,000 invited guests met at a central London location, before being whisked away by boat to Billingsgate - the first time the venue has been used as a club.

Blackout’s Project Manager, Chris Brain collaborated with Paul-Ant Viollet of PAV Productions, to realise his design, which took references from the ad campaign. Blackout provided massive quantiti

USA - Apogee loudspeakers were used for the first time to provide live sound at the Independent Film Producers' (IFP) Independent Spirit Awards ceremony. The event, held March 22, hosted 1,300 guests and 350 members of the international press in a large tent on a beach in Santa Monica, CA. Twenty Apogee AE-5 loudspeakers and eight Apogee SSMs were used to provide sound for the audience.

"Providing quality sound in a tent can be difficult," said Bruce Burns, sound designer and audio co-ordinator for show. "We couldn't use trusses, so special mounting brackets had to be fabricated to affix the Apogee AE-5s to the tent poles. This arrangement could have compromised coverage, but with the AE-5s, the coverage was excellent."

Since the 1990s, the veteran Hollywood sound designer has selected Apogee for large-scale events including the Grammy Awards, Golden Glob

UK - Building on the success of his former company ISE, Glen Smith has launched Glen Smith Audio. The new company will offer select, high quality, new and used equipment, as well as acting as a specialist brokerage service.

"GSA will select a portfolio of niche products, rather than present products just to fill inventory gaps," said Smith. "We will concentrate all our efforts on our targeted customers, who we believe will appreciate a more dedicated and professional approach. By limiting the product range, we can concentrate wholly on support and promotion to clients.

GSA will also offer an equipment valuation service, thereby capitalizing on Smith’s established reputation with finance houses and audio companies, as a valuer and consultant for pro-audio equipment. Smith’s third string is alliances - Smith has already forged a partnership with Midas

Switzerland - Geneva-based Skynight and Nexo's Swiss distributor Zap Audio have completed the installation of a Nexo GEO S sound reinforcement system at the Geneva Stadium in Switzerland.

Nexo's pedigree in sports stadia is well-established, with venues such as the Stade de France in Paris and the Ataturk Olympic Stadium in Istanbul, using different Nexo loudspeaker products. Drawing on the success of a stand-alone GEO S system in the commercial village outside the Stade de France, the 35,000-capacity Geneva Stadium has become the first to use Nexo's flagship GEO technology as the main SR system.

The original specification followed very conventional lines, calling for 120 x 15 degree loudspeakers spread under the roof, with 60 amps located in one position. Cabling runs were enormous, and the project called for two people to spend three weeks, just hanging the loudspeakers. The

UK - Spring is upon us and we are told it is no more keenly felt than in Osiers Road where Britannia Row Productions is enjoying an extremely fertile season. Neil Young and Bryan Adams are touring with Brit Row’s two leading Line Array systems - the L-Acoustics’ V-dosc and EV X-line respectively, and the ever popular Turbosound Flashlight system is out with both Simply Red and Alison Moyet. In addition, Brit Row’s expertise is also being applied to tours by Peter Gabriel and S Club (V-dosc and X-line), both of whom, together with Simply Red, are using Yamaha PM1D consoles. Midas Heritage and XL4s are the control for Goldfrapp, Whitesnake, Death in Vegas, and The Vines’ tours.

An eclectic mix of corporate and one-off events are interspersed with all of this touring activity, using a selection of Turbosound, d&b, DV-dosc and X-line XLC. Brit Row’s Br

The Netherlands - Anyone interested in tracking Alcons’ product initiatives can watch the development of the company’s new line array system on-line. The building block of the new system is the recently-introduced Alcons RBN 601 ribbon driver, a highly efficient driver, with ‘real90’ horizontal dispersion, which has a natural cylindrical wave front, the main ‘ingredient’ for a good working line-array system. The current acceptance of line array technology and the development of the high-power RBN 601 has led Alcons to develop a ribbon-loaded line-array system for high power applications. This first system will be a compact, multi-use system, complete with dedicated processing and control. Visitors to the Alcons’ website can ‘witness’ its development online.

(Ruth Rossington)

USA - Turbosound's QLight products are making a difference to the sound quality at San Francisco's high profile W Hotel. Installed by local specialist Zebra Sound, the hotel's new loudspeaker systems were supplied through Sennheiser Electronic Corporation, Turbosound's US distributor.

The project involved the installation of various Turbosound components in several public areas of the W San Francisco, a hotel located close to the city's Moscone Centre and Museum of Modern Art, in the downtown South-of-Market neighbourhood. Part of the Starwood Hotels and Resorts group, which also includes the Westin, Sheraton and Four Seasons chains, the W hosts entertainment events in the Atrium, XYZ Bar and Restaurant.

"We had an arrangement with the W to provide sound reinforcement rental services," Megerssa elaborates. "They handle major events attracting up to 1,500 people.

Portugal - ARX Systems is pleased to announce the appointment of Engineering of Imagination Ltd (Engenharia da Imaginação Lda) as its exclusive distributor for Portugal. Engineering of Imagination Ltd is a new company formed by three well-known figures in the Portuguese pro audio market, Miguel Lourtie, João Salgueiro and Renato Gomesto to distribute ARX and resell Meyer products in the Portuguese market.

Miguel Lourtie told us: "As our company name indicates we’ll be making use of existing partnerships with leading experts in all areas of the Industry, providing complete solutions for the most daunting ideas and challenges in the theatre, installation and sound reinforcement markets."

"Our company’s philosophy is total dealer support with project and technical sales backupwhich will allow us to better train our partners, to give them the edge ove

France - The business of Master Europe, the France-based loudspeaker manufacturer, which had gone into receivership, has now been taken over by Hortus Audio. Hortus Audio was set up on April 1st 2003 in the form of an SAS (simplified joint stock company) with capital of €100,000 to take over the design and manufacture of speaker series Granit, Promann, Contract and NSX under the Hortus Audio brand, along with dedicated amplifiers and controllers.

Hortus Audio is the result of the determination of Silvère Davoust, former audio product manager at Master Europe, to continue the business and save the jobs of the employees. The mission of Hortus Audio is, the company says, to offer its partners reliable high-quality products that are designed and manufactured in France, in such a way as to achieve rapid return on investment. Hortus Audio is driven by the commitment of a dedicated t

USA - Michigan-based Thunder Audio Inc recently used the new Klark Teknik DN9340 Helix digital equalizer and DN9344 Helix digital slave equalizer at the Phillip Morris ‘Altria Invitational’ corporate event in West Palm Beach, Florida. Guest artists included Elton John, Gloria Estefan and Michael Bolton.

Thunder’s head audio engineer Scott Minkley described the event and how the fully programmable Helix and Helix slave units were able to meet the EQ requirements of each act’s FOH engineer with seamless transitions from set to set. "We brought a whole PA system down for the various acts’ engineers to use. The Helix was particularly useful because there were 10 zones of audio and numerous engineers to work with, so the units were definitely put to task and proved themselves extremely versatile. The event took place at the PGA National Resort and S

UK - Roxy Music’s live enhanced CD - Roxy Music Live - which will be released in the UK in early June - was compiled from a marathon of recordings made by producer/engineer Rhett Davies during Roxy’s recent world tour, encompassing Oceania, North America, Asia and Europe. Davies recorded 45 of the 51 shows betaking direct feeds from 72 outputs in the FOH mixer to three Mackie Hard Disk Recorders, synced together for each show.

Davies said: "The Mackie HDRs were all flight-cased and rack-mounted and we all had to do was connect the multicore, press the record button and we were away. It was as simple as that. We didn’t have a lot of opportunity to listen back to the recording on the road. But when we finally did, the results that came out of the Mackies were phenomenal."

However, sifting through all material recorded from 45 shows was not quite so ea

UK - Trade Partners UK has appointed an export promoter to work with the music industry to help develop its export potential in overseas markets. Bringing with him over 25 years of experience in the music industry, Phil Patterson took up the post with Trade Partners UK on 23 April 2003 following an open competition. He has been seconded until 1 October 2004 from the Association of Independent Music (AIM).

His long-term experience will prove invaluable: after graduating from Newcastle-upon-Tyne College of Art and Design, Patterson worked initially as a musician and DJ and then for a number of record companies including Chrysalis, Pye, RCA and Polydor in promotion and public relations. In the mid 1980s, he moved into international marketing with Chrysalis and eventually became Director of EMI Music UK in 1992. He told us: "I am delighted to be offered this position and believ

The Netherlands - Ampco Pro Rent (APR), one of the leading audio rental companies in Europe, recently purchased four Allen & Heath ML5000 consoles from local distributor TM Audio. According to Ampco, the ML5000 was chosen because of its flexibility, excellent sound quality and value for money.

Due to the variety of jobs APR is involved in, there was an increasing need for versatile multi-purpose consoles. Some of the applications will be monitor and FOH use on festivals, tours and one-offs, and as an all-purpose console in broadcast, corporate and theatre productions. With the ML5000 the rental company will be even better equipped for meeting the rising demand for flexibility and the ever-increasing use of in-ear monitoring.

(Lee Baldock)

UK - "The Aqua 30 is the best underwater speaker currently on the market in the UK," comments John Selley, the Amateur Swimming Association’s music controller, following trials at the National Championships in Wigan last year, and during the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester. Subsequently, the DNH underwater loudspeaker, the Aqua 30 (pictured) has been successfully used by many Amateur Swimming Association affiliated clubs.

DNH World-Wide Ltd, the UK subsidiary of the Norwegian industrial and commercial loudspeaker manufacturer DNH A/S, recently sponsored the medals for the ‘Four Cities Multi-National Synchronised Swimming Competition’ held over Easter at Farnborough. Two Aqua 30s were submerged to a depth of around 1.5m in the 25m pool and were powered by a 24VDC power amplifier, isolated from the main pool power supply. This arrangement gives ex

UK - Metropolis AV has completed a cutting-edge sound, effects lighting and AV installation in Manchester at Lucid - the first of a new genre of multimedia concept venues.The unusual concept was developed by the Canadian-owned MagicCorp Group, and is expected to be subject to a selective roll-out. Metropolis was asked onboard by Lucid’s technical director, Nick Meacham, to implement the technical infrastructure that he’d helped design.

Metropolis’s brief also included the design of an integrated operating system for all things technical in the venue. The Metropolis team was headed by Simon Harris, and included site manager Stuart Clowes, technical director Shane Winterbourne, design project manager Martin Geraghty and installation engineers Shane Stanley and Ian Benstead.

The open plan venue has three levels, including a 1200-capacity Function Room/Showroom;

UK - CIE-Audio and Armstrong World Industries have announced the launch of the ‘i-ceilings Sound Systems Approved Installer Network (iSSAIN) initiative - the latest development in the i-ceilings (intelligent ceilings) initiative.

A new concept in integrated acoustic ceiling systems, i-ceilings is the latest development from Armstrong, the world’s leading manufacturer of ceiling products. i-ceilings utilizes flat panel speaker technology to provide a unique loudspeaker system which exactly matches Armstrong’s market-leading range of suspended ceilings, to combine their existing aesthetic and passive acoustic qualities with the audio benefits provided by NXT.

Announcing the launch of the i-ceilings Approved Installer Network, CIE-Group marketing manager Chris Edwards explained: "The partnership between CIE-Group and Armstrong World Industries has brought t

UK - Liverpool-based Adlib Audio has supplied a rocking sound system for The Coral’s first production tour. This was the latest UK leg of an ongoing world tour by one of the hottest bands of the moment. The tour has been somewhat elastic in nature as has extended several times to keep pace with the rise in the band’s popularity.

Adlib’s Dave Kay has been onboard as FOH engineer with the Liverpool-based outfit since last summer, when they supported Oasis at Finsbury Park. The Coral are a unique-sounding band, with musical influences from reggae to rock, Motown to country and western, and Kay naturally jumped at the opportunity to work with them. He describes mixing each song "like it’s a different gig" - from dreamy ballads to hardcore guitar thrash.

With six band members, four of whom sing, it’s vital that the vocals have are prominent i

UK - London’s City of Westminster College students are to produce a showcase sound and lighting event ‘see the sound’, engineered entirely by students on the BTEC ND Sound Engineering Courses and the C&G 1810 Theatre Electricians Courses.

Students on these courses are training to be sound recording or lighting engineers respectively; they will be in charge of every technical aspect of the event from pre-production to rigging and operating the show, staged at the college’s professional theatre venue, the Cockpit Theatre. "We want to give the students an opportunity to produce, rig, light, record and operate a major event of this type," commented music technology course Tutor Steve Hepworth. "This is the only way you can give students a feel for what happens at a real event, and give them an opportunity to receive invaluable experience. We ha

UK - With German pro audio company HK Audio having made huge inroads into the UK & Eire pro audio market in recent years, the JHS Event 2003 (which takes place at JHS’s Leeds’ facility from 15-17 June) will present the perfect opportunity for HK Audio to demonstrate the versatility and power of its range.

The main outdoor stage at Event is traditionally flanked by 12 boxes of HK’s stadium-friendly R Series, offering a total of 7.2kW. An HK Projector system will additionally be positioned infield of the main stack, representing a good chance for show visitors to find out what these systems sound like when run at something approaching true outdoor SPLs. Elsewhere on the JHS site, a dedicated HK Audio demo theatre will feature many pro audio systems and components from the HK catalogue, including the successful L.U.C.A.S, E.L.I.A.S and A.C.T.O.R self-powered activ

UK - Theatr Clwyd’s rolling policy of equipment upgrade to service its growing roster of tours, has continued with the purchase of its second Yamaha DM2000 digital mixing desk from Shepperton-based suppliers, Marquee Audio.

The theatre is Wales' major drama producing theatre company and arts centre, and is the home of a highly-acclaimed company. Head of sound, Kevin Heyes, says it was always the plan to buy a second DM2000, to add to the desk they bought from Marquee late last year. The high performance digital console offers 96 (24-bit/96kHz) audio input channels, extensive surround production features, integrated digital audio workstation and ProTools control, providing more than nine times the processing power of the Yamaha 02R.

"With 50-60 inputs on some of our big rock ’n’ roll pantomimes, we were filling our 02Rs to capacity," admitted Kevin.

UK - Many people are referred to as industry veterans, but few musicians can boast a career as illustrious as the latest member of the Audio-Technica endorsee family, jazz legend Acker Bilk.

Bilk’s long career has seen many milestones including the 1960 hit ‘Strangers on the Shore’ - the first recording to simultaneously top both the UK and US charts, a collection of gold and platinum discs for record sales, and the MBE he received in 2001 for services to music. 50 years at the top of his profession have not dimmed Bilk’s enthusiasm for live performance and during preparations for his 2003 UK tour, Bilk’s tour manager and front of house engineer for the past 30 years, Les Squires, called Audio-Technica to see if he could put a couple of microphones which had been recommended to him through their paces.

"Every time A-T put a microphone in fro

Finland - LA Audio has recently appointed Noretron Audio as the new distributor for Finland. As a result, LA Audio has already been included in the regular Noretron Pro Audio/Installed Sound Seminar scheduled for 19 and 20 May.

Noretron Audio distributes a range of professional audio equipment, including Audient, AKG Acoustics, Genelec, Turbosound and Lab.Gruppen to a diverse range of customers, including installation, PA hire and broadcast companies, recording studios, post-production suites and theatres. When looking for a new signal processing range, Jyrki Mäkinen, marketing director of Noretron Audio, knew what he wanted: "We try to avoid taking on new lines which are competitive to our current product range - LA Audio offers excellent products for live, studio, broadcast and especially the fixed installation business, with very little overlap. This is very important

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