UK - Theatre sound specialist Orbital announced a hugely successful ABTT Show across both its hire and installation divisions. Following their recent appointment as a Premiere Yamaha Commercial Audio dealer, the company debuted the new Yamaha PM5D on its stand. The PM5D was subsequently awarded Best New Sound Product at the annual ABTT awards. Orbital believes that this award reinforces that the PM5D is set to follow in its big brother's (the PM1D) footsteps and dramatically augment the potential of theatre sound, be it for sale or for hire projects.

Combining the features of Yamaha's DM2000 and the PM1D, the PM5D is similarly designed and engineered. As a mid-priced digital console, complete with a true third generation operating system, it fits into Yamaha's range as a robust workhorse for all but the largest of sound reinforcement projects.

Orbital's sales and installations

UK - Sennheiser endorsees, Super Furry Animals, continue to tour with the company's evolution microphones and in-ear monitoring. Promoting their new Phantom Power album, the Furries completed a full US tour in February and March, followed by 11 dates across the UK during April, taking in Scotland, England, Ireland and Wales and ending with the London Hammersmith Apollo. This summer will also see them playing at the Reading and Leeds festivals.

The band's monitor engineer, Craig Donaldson, comments: "I would say that establishing the relationship with Sennheiser is one of the best moves I ever made. The IEM systems are fantastic and the back-up from Mark Saunders at Sennheiser is even better."

Donaldson says of the microphones: "The e604 and e609 are familiar to any engineer and continue to do a great job for us. The real bonus for me is the e845 vocal mic

UK - Rental and production company Skan PA Hire is once again supplying a complete audio system to The Other Stage at this years Glastonbury festival. 15 years on from the company's debut, Skan is as excited as ever to be involved in arguably the world's most famous annual outdoor musical event.

A major change to the equipment list this year sees the arrival of Skan's L'Acoustics V-Dosc system. According to Skan's Chris Fitch, the decision over which speaker system to use is not a reflection on either L'Acoustics or the Turbosound system used in previous years but came down to availability. He commented: "We have achieved some stunning results with the Turbosound in previous years and are confident in our ability to get the best out of the L'Acoustics." The reinforcement will be used in conjunction with two Midas Heritage 2000 mixing consoles and monitoring via a pair

UK - A wireless PA system by German manufacturer Fohhn is available in the UK from Oswestry-based Systems Workshop Distribution. The battery-powered EasyPort FP1Pro and FP1CD systems provide 40W of continuous power for up to 20 hours. The package (about the size of four standard office box-files) incorporates a three-channel mixer, optional CD player and a slot for any brand of half-rack radio mic receiver.

According to SWD, the two-way speaker design offers a maximum volume of 114dB SPL, wide dispersion and a clear, natural sound ideal for both voice and music applications. The FP1pro/CD is suitable for any application requiring compact and portable solution for sound reinforcement, quick preparation and easy, safe, wireless operation.

The FP1pro/CD, together with its larger sibling the FP2 and the new X-Perience range of self-powered PA systems are now shipping around UK and

UK - RF specialist and manufacturer Trantec has recently supplied its award winning S6000 miniature radio mic system to OB specialist Roll 2 Record (RTR). Deployed on location for Endemol UK Production's fifth series of Big Brother, it enabled the live broadcast of one of Channel 4's most successful and highest rating series in its 20-year history.

RTR's experienced team, headed by MD Pete Webber, has worked with Endemol's production team since its first series, supplying all the technical television facilities for the show's live broadcast across nine platforms. Using Trantec's S6000 for the first time, it proved invaluable as an intuitive wideband system, says Webber. Webber collaborated with the Trantec team to specify the 16-channel S6000 system, which was used in conjunction with numerous channels of Trantec IEM's and other radio systems.

The S6000's miniature transmitter

UK / World - East Anglia-based sound rental specialist, AudioLease, has just completed three major arena dates with Sean Paul, supported by Big Brovaz. For each of the concerts, at G-Mex Manchester, Wembley Arena and the NEC Birmingham, AudioLease used its Lab.gruppen-powered Adamson Y-Axis Y10 line array system.

The three UK dates form part of an international tour for the infectious young hip-hop-flavoured dancehall reggae star, Sean Paul. Over a three-month period, from May to July, he will have taken the tour from the Middle East to the US and 11 European countries, ending in Montreux on 10 July.

The Adamson Y-10 system, supplied by Sennheiser UK, is a full-range, medium-format three-way line array featuring a single patented Adamson mid/high drive module. The system uses XTA DP226 and DP224 digital loudspeaker processors and is powered by Lab.gruppen 6400 amplification.

UK - John Hornby Skewes & Co Ltd recently staged its annual JHS Event, a firm and popular fixture on the MI calendar held each June at the company's four-acre head office in Leeds. The event provides an opportunity for exclusive UK and Eire HK Audio distributor, JHS Ltd, to demonstrate the full HK Audio range to the UK and Eire trade visitors attending the show, held over a four-day period this year.

Offering a selection of the latest additions to the JHS product catalogue, the event presented a number of special offers plus the chance to mix business and fun with shuttle helicopter flights around the local countryside. For those seeking more terrain-based thrills, an onsite simulator offered a variety of high-speed virtual experiences, plus the chance to unwind with some good food and drink.

HK Audio's fully-rigged Cohedra (Coherent Dynamic Response Array) system was certainl

UK - MC2 Audio has appointed Melody Development Co Ltd as its exclusive distributor in China. Melody is based in Shanghai and operates within the digital conference system, touring and fixed installation markets in mainland China, Hong Kong and Macao.

Chen Ziqian, Melody's technical director, commented: "After more than 10 years of healthy growth, our company had established a strong sales network covering major parts of the market in China. As well as our headquarters in Shanghai, we now have branches in Beijing, Shenzhen, Changsha, Wuhan, Nanjing, Xian and Shenyang. We have a good customer bas, which includes the Beijing Show Company, CCTV touring group, Henan Sports centre (50,000 audience capacity) and Wuhan Sports centre (60,000 audience capacity).

Ziqian continued: "We didn't have a high quality power amplifier in our product range and we felt that MC2's ampli

UK - SEOS will be demonstrating images with the help of JVC D-ILA (Direct Drive Light Amplifier) projection technology on its booth at the International Planetarium Society (IPS) conference and exhibition in Valencia, Spain, from 4-8 July 2004.

The booth has been built specifically for IPS and features four of JVC's DLA SX21 projectors displaying images onto an 24ft (3.6m diameter) tilted dome. When used in combination with SEOS' ScorpionRT system, multiple real-time sources can be presented across the dome. In addition SEOS' Chameleon provides the distortion correction and edge blending required to achieve a 180ºH x 160ºV field of view. The booth design gives visitors the experience of feeling like they are looking up into the night sky when walking on to the booth.

The JVC DLA-SX21 incorporates three high performance SXGA+ (1400 x 1050) 0.7" D-ILA devices (1.5M pixels

Denmark - Mach Speakers has launched a new installation series of speakers, and the first in the new range are ready to hit the market. The new series, the C-Range, embraces more than just incomparable sound quality however. Co-designed by contractors for contractors, the C-Range is a breakthrough in installation speaker design and extraordinarily easy installation.

Mach says the new range has improved sound quality, as well as other improvements such as reduced speaker size, improved functionality, ease of installation, reduced service time, increased flexibility, and improved speaker strength. Advances have also been made in range and distortion levels, say Mach, and overall speaker design has been updated, while the cabinets are available in a wide range of colours.

The CN-7 and CN-8 have been specifically developed for natural sound reproduction in near field applications

UK - Corporate sound rental company Audio Alliance's extensive range of stock has been further expanded by recent purchases of new equipment. The company became the first UK recipient of Sennheiser's Evolution G2 radio microphone system and, following the success of these first 20 units, has confirmed an order for a further 10 systems.

Other recent acquisitions include a selection of mixing consoles from Midas, Soundcraft and Yamaha, a range of Meyer loudspeakers, XTA compressors and graphic equalizers, Telex BTR radio talkback systems and a Yamaha DME32 digital processor.

Some of this new equipment was put to good use at the recent Marketing Manchester promotion in Manchester Square, London. The aim of the three-day event was to highlight all that the rejuvenated city has to offer. Chris Wright, production manager from Constellation Worldwide, praised Audio Alliance for their

UK - Furman Sound has moved its UK distribution arrangements to Kelsey Acoustics, having approached the Surrey-based cable and accessories company earlier this year. As a result, all the 240V models in the American company's extensive range will be stocked by Kelsey Acoustics.

Kelsey sales manager, Tony Torlini, says the company was initially attracted by the new lightweight products in the power distribution range. "Furman have vastly improved their new range of products, with LED lights and better power conditioning," said Torlini. "For example, their new power distro units come with non-sacrificable surge protection - which operates by absorbing the energy and dissipating as heat."

He also pointed to the compatibility between the Furman and Kelsey range of accessories, making the two brands an ideal fit. The new products will be on public view for the f

UK - AuviTran - Audio Video Transcoding - the technology company formed in March 2003 by former Digigram employees, has appointed Marquee Audio as its distributor in the UK. AuviTran designs and develops innovative audio and video networking and computer-based solutions and products. As a full EtherSound licensee, AuviTran is exploiting this technology with its own EtherSound-based products, as well as offering services to other companies in the professional audio industry.

Marquee Audio will be focussing mostly on the AuviTran products that provide audio distribution and networking using the EtherSound protocol. In particular, Marquee's Andy Huffer expects success with Auvitran's AVY16-ES cards, which bring EtherSound compatibility to Yamaha digital mixers and other professional audio products featuring the 'mini-YGDAI' interface.

"The Auvitran card effectively brings Ya

UK - Pure Distribution, a division of Stirling Audio, has recently supplied theatrical productions around Europe with the 1788 eight-channel remote-controlled microphone preamplifier, manufactured by Aphex Systems.

Chris Full, from rental company Autograph Sound Recording, chose the 1788 microphone preamp for its reliability, features and multi-channel capabilities. Several units are in use on the UK and European tour of Fosse, the Tony Award-winning musical. The Aphex 1788 are in addition to the original system design by Jonathan Deans, and have been specified to accommodate all orchestra microphones, offering extra mic inputs on the front-of-house mixing desk. Another critically-acclaimed musical, We Will Rock You, also made use of the Aphex preamp. This time the 1788 was on the Madrid production, working with four Neumann microphones in an off-stage vocal booth,

Germany - MTV's Rock im Park, held each year in Nuremberg in conjunction with Rock am Ring, is one of the biggest open-air events in Germany, with three separate stages. At this year's event in early June (2004), German rental company Pave Veranstaltungstechnik from Nuremberg, one of the newest members of HK Audio's Cohedra User Network, provided the sound at the Suzuki Alternastage.

Among the international bands appearing on this stage were Moloko, Black Eyed Peas, Seeed, N.E.R.D., Bad Religion, Ben Harper, Turbonegro and Starsailor, together with German bands Wir sind Helden, Sportfreunde Stiller, Beatsteaks, 5 Sterne Deluxe and Max Herre. The acts played to crowds of up to 20,000 covering an area of over 100m by 75m.

Earlier in the year Pave had invested in a 'double-12' Cohedra system consisting of 12 CDR208T and 12 CDR208S mid/high units, plus 24 CDR210 subw

Germany - In May, a delegation of Canadian pro audio specialists and dealers visited the Telex Communications Academy in Straubing. Although Telex academies have been held in almost all corners of the globe, the company's European headquarters in Straubing remains one of the most popular venues for this trade seminar formats. Franck Fabry, director of export sales for America, who played host along with Gilles Elhadad, Greg Hansen, Mark Kulas (Canadian sales representatives) and Telex Communications Inc. president, Mathias von Heydekampf, drew the following conclusions from the four-day trip: "This academy was highly successful. The participants were committed and interested. We all had a great time as well."

The centrepiece of the series of seminars was the detailed presentation of new highlights of the EVI Audio range such as the EV SxA360, the EV Plasma, the new EV

UK - Corporate a/v and theatre supplier, Blitz Sound, has substantially increased its Sennheiser 3000 series hire stock with the purchase of a further 24 channels, including 3072 handheld and 3063 pocket transmitters.

Blitz Regional Manager, Chris Jordan commented that a key factor in the purchase is the ability of the 3000 series to meet the increasing demand from the corporate market for very high quality sound. He also said the extensive use of radio mics at events means that there is a greater need to avoid conflict in venues, which the 3000 series achieves by the use of channels 35 and 62, in addition to 69. It also means that site specific licensing can be provided for the client.

(Barry Howse)

Italy - A new Class-H topology style technology has allowed RCF to manufacture the ED series of amplifiers using SMD technology which greatly reduces the number of components used, whilst still offering top class performances. The Ed series produces slew rates of 50 V/µs and high-end extended dynamic sound. The high efficiency of the ED series enables maximum efficiency with low heat generation.

The 2U amplifiers at 2 x 300W for the ED 600 or 2 x 550W for the ED1100 respectively into 4-ohms are equipped complete with temperature-controlled fan cooling, all common protective circuits such as over-temperature, short circuit, RFI and soft start. The integral soft clip limiter protects against damage to the connected loudspeakers, the activity of a protective circuit, signal and limiter are shown for each channel by LED's. Connections are provided as follows: Inputs are with two X

USA - American sound contractor, Reid Sound, Inc., has installed a pair of Allen & Heath iDR programmable DSP audio systems at the Lockheed Martin Commercial Space Systems facility near Philadelphia. Two iDR-8 mixing processors - each integrated with an eight-channel iDR-in expander unit - have been installed in two conference rooms at the 420,000 sq.ft. facility, located in Pennsylvania.

The first installation, completed earlier this year, was in a product development review room that is approximately 100 x 40 feet wide, according to Darren R. Sussman, chief engineer and owner of New Jersey-based Reid Sound, Inc: "They specifically wanted to have remote control of the sound system for the person at the front of the room." Sussman researched what was available and found that the Allen & Heath iDR system, with its PL Series of remote controllers and wall plates, fit the

Australia - Cochlear Ltd, the innovative manufacturing and research company responsible for the development and manufacturer of the Nucleus Cochlear Ear Implant System, has chosen ARX ZA 600 six-channel power amplifiers as its amplifier reference source at its Sydney, Australia research headquarters.

Two ZA 600s power its standard seven loudspeaker array system, which is used for the development and testing of its hearing aid products, and also offer the extra channels required for its special 12 loudspeaker "audio circle" aural location testing.

Cochlear Ltd is listed on the Australian Stock exchange, and has offices in the USA, UK, Switzerland, Germany, China and Japan. Over 50,000 Cochlear ear implants are now in use worldwide.

(Lee Baldock)

Italy/UK - RCF UK has announced the details of its UK distribution network for Commercial Audio and Installed Sound products. The UK regional distributors have been strategically appointed with reference to individual market penetration and geographical positioning, plus the ability to provide strong support.

"With RCF's new European centralized warehousing facility it is important to work with the long-established UK PA distributor channels in order to provide more immediate inventory support for installation contractors," explained Phil Price, adding: "All the companies involved are able to provide excellent pre and after sales support including System Design Quotations."

The companies are as follows:
Leisuretec Distribution Ltd - Central UK: RW Salt Communications - The North: Blaydon Communications Ltd - North East: Louis Grace Electrical Ltd - Scotl

Denmark - Whilst in Catholic countries, the carnival season is generally the week before Lent, the Scandinavian begin looking out their red noses at the end of May. Such at least is the case in Aalborg, scene of northern Europe's biggest carnival and place of annual pilgrimage for children of all ages. This year's theme was 'Atlantis' and the oganizers of the event relied upon the skill and equipment of DBlux, with Ascon, the Danish EVI Audio partner.

The DBlux team had their work cut out: they were tasked to provide the ideal sound system, not only for the highly varied programme of musical events, but also to ensure high quality intelligibility for the announcements, speeches of welcome and any urgent messages that might need to be conveyed. After consultation with Ascon, the DBlux technicians opted for a mixture of Dynacord Cobra-4, Electro-Voice X-Array, Delta-Max and RX-sy

UK - Blitz Sound has purchased a quantity of iP2100 Lab.gruppen amplifiers, selected for the show Songs My Mother Taught Me for sound designer, Mike Walker. The show opens at the Savoy Theatre on 6 July.

Following its Broadway success, Songs My Mother Taught Me is a one-woman show featuring Lorna Luft, daughter of Judy Garland, who reminiscences about her childhood with a number of her mother's most famous songs including Come Rain Or Shine, I Can't Give You Anything But Love, The Trolley Song and, appropriately, For Me And My Gal. The show also features tributes to famous figures in Judy Garland's life including Harold Arlen, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr.

This follows other recent purchases of Lab.gruppen for theatre shows by Blitz. Specified by Martin Levan, Lab.gruppen iP1150 amplifiers were used for Phantom of the Opera in Madrid and,

UK - Deafblind UK, the charity to assist thousands of deafblind and dual sensory impaired people throughout the country, will this year benefit from a generous support package care of CIE-Group and Armstrong i-ceilings.

Following the launch of the new Peterborough-based National Centre for Deafblindness, CIE-Group (UK representatives for leading brands such as Inter-M, Armstrong i-ceilings, Switchcraft, EverFocus, Chauvet Lighting, IC Audio and Euromet) were approached to enhance the sound reinforcement system for the Centre's in-house conferencing facilities, with the additional requirements of improved voice clarity for the hearing impaired and SPLs capable of producing vibrations which would allow deafblind users to 'feel the sound' in music appreciation sessions.

Through specialist disability services provider 'DDA Installations', CIE-Group donated a multi-zone combined vo

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