Sound

Details
USA - ATI was recently commissioned to custom-manufacture a 64-input Paragon II Production live sound mixing console for the Grand Ole Opry House, home of performances of the world-famous Grand Ole Opry. The new PII replaced a 64-channel Paragon P40 that had served every Opry show for the past 11 years.

The flexibility and functionality of the ATI Paragon PII Production includes state-of-the-art dynamics, including ATI's patented compressor, plus four-band parametric EQ on each input channel. The console can generate eight stereo subgroups, eight mono aux sends, four stereo aux sends, eight stereo matrix outputs, two mono main outputs and two stereo main outputs, allowing it to fit any application. Each channel also provides two variable direct outs. Onboard scene automation utilizes the company's Distributed Intelligence design for improved performance over traditional systems.

Details
USA - DPA Microphones has appointed a new exclusive distributor in New Zealand by Amber Technology (NZ) Ltd. Formed in 1987 as a result of a management buy-out of the audio and film divisions of Rank Electronic, Amber has become one of Australasia's leading professional audio, multimedia and audio-visual distributors.

Amber's New Zealand office has a national network of offices to provide distribution and support across the country and is active in markets including broadcast, recording, live sound, post-production, education and government. A third of its technical staff work in technical support roles, and the company takes advantage of factory training for support staff wherever possible, communicating with the technical/engineering staff of suppliers to establish strong working relationships. Its central warehouse and logistics system, which maintains over 3,500 individual p

Details
UK - Stand-up, sausages, a shindig and the support of Stage Electrics, marked the first ever fund-raising event at Battersea Art Centre. Stage Electrics donated the use of sound and lighting equipment to support BAC's contribution to developing theatre arts on a local, national and international level. BAC's programme structure helps new work to grow by showing it at unfinished stages to an audience. The collaborative approach this fosters means that BAC is a creative breeding ground for the next generation of theatre makers, not just actors and directors but for lighting designers, sound artists and technical staff.

Stewart Lee, comedian and long-term fan of the trailblazing theatre, organized an extraordinary line up of comic talent in aid of BAC's fundraising campaign. Lee is also the co writer of Jerry Springer The Opera, the breakaway smash hit that began its life at BAC. H

Details
Germany / Malaysia - K.M.E., the German manufacturer of professional audio systems, will exhibit at the PALA exhibition in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia between 15-18 July 2004, marking its first appearance at an Asian trade exhibition.

Products on show will include the 2-I, 6-out digital controller, DAP 26; a switch-mode power amp, the SMA 2000, featuring 2 x 1000W at only 7.5kg; the active CA 6 system with plug-in modules DDM and MM2 and various other active and passive installation systems of the Prestige series, also incorporating a TCP/IP-remote control module.

PT Multi Audio Perkasa in Jakarta already represents K.M.E. on the Indonesian market, where the quality of the products, which are entirely manufactured in Germany, is particularly appreciated, say K.M.E. Systems of the Cluster and Prestige series among others have been installed in various churches and used for the Lotu

Details
UK - Event company Logistik co-ordinated and produced the Athens 2004 Ball - a high profile charity live event staged at London's Battersea Park Marquee, for Sparks, The British Olympic Association and The Sir Steve Redgrave Charitable Trust.

Over 1,000 people enjoyed the event during an evening of entertainment hosted by Radio 2's Jeremy Vine and Sir Steve Redgrave - an official 'send-off' party to wish the GB Olympic team success at the upcoming Athens Olympics. Leeds and London-based Logistik were called in to oversee the event's creative and technical production including the design, graphics, dressing and venue themeing for the event.

The night culminated in live performances by international artists including Gabrielle, Mike & The Mechanics and Amy Winehouse. It was recorded for broadcast by Radio 2, and a post-event DVD will be produced by Logistik Vision, the company's

Details
UK / Japan - Asahi Kasei Microsystems Co. Ltd. (AKM) a leading supplier of audio ICs for professional and consumer markets, recently introduced a new Class-D two-channel modulator generating 110dB signal-to-noise ratio. The AK4730 marks AKM's first entry into the high-power amplifier world and is aimed at both professional and consumer products.

AKM's AK4730 exceeds Class-AB performance with Class-D efficiency. The input to AK4730 is digital and supports two-channel, 192kHz sampling. The chip combines a two-channel PWM modulator with pre-driver circuitry for external MOSFETs. Unlike other solutions that use two voltage levels for modulation (H-Bridge), AKM's Class D products utilize an advanced multi-reference E-Bridge architecture that achieves higher linearity and SNR performance for audio playback with fidelity closer to the original sound.

With an integrated driver, the AK

Details
UK - When Club Euphoria's Chris Davidson decided to open a new high-impact dance venue in Hull, the loudspeaker recommended to him by Euphoria colleagues, Del Blewitt, Eddie Short and Dan Donnelly, was Cerwin Vega! "Having frequently experienced the Cerwin sound in clubs throughout the world, they said it was the best they'd ever heard," said Davidson. "As I had worked for them as tour manager their recommendation demanded respect."

And so they suggested Davidson talk to Paul Marston at Black Box London, the largest independent stockist of Cerwin Vega! Intense Series PA systems. He, in turn, alerted them to the imminent arrival in the UK of the new Vision series. Cerwin Vega! is distributed in the UK by Lamba plc but what Davidson hadn't realized is that Lamba also handle the Stanton product range (including Final Scratch).

What he has ended up with is a ra

Details
UK - Selfridges recently held a series of Brazilian carnival events at several of its main department stores around the UK. 'Brasil 40' offered a taste of Latin America in the form of Brazilian music, art, fashion and food.

The sound system for the Manchester branch events was provided by ACE PA Ltd, in conjunction with Manchester City Council. ACE used its Allen & Heath ML3000 VCA console to manage sound reinforcement for all the diverse forms of entertainment on display. Other equipment included a 7kW JBL speaker system, Camco PA and monitoring amps, Yamaha SPX990 and 900 effects units and Klark Teknik DN360 graphic equalizers.

ACE PA's Gary Jones commented that, once again, the ML3000 delivered clear and clean sound with the VCA system making the job easy.

(Barry Howse)

Details
UK - American hard-core metal rock band Korn played a sell-out gig at the London Apollo using an unprecedented EV X-Line system which utilized a 1:1 ratio of line-array cabinets to subwoofers. The system was designed by Chris Marsh of Major Tom, who described it as "phenomenal!". He added, "Korn is predominantly about strong low-end frequencies, so they used every bit of the energy in the subs, but this was the first time I'd put together a system like this. It was incredibly loud."

With 10 EV Xvls high-output cabinets and 10 X-subs per side, Marsh admitted that he was glad that Korn had their own sound engineer to mix the show. "That kind of level hurts," he said.

Major Tom has also been using X-Line at the Belfast Odyssey Arena, where the annual indoor festival is being headlined by the legendary Bob Dylan. Marsh has set up a very different s

Details
UK - Manufacturer and installer HIQ Sound has refurbished the sound in a Sleaford bar/restaurant, close to its headquarters in Lincoln. Using a combination of products from its own, and the Wharfedale Pro catalogues, the company has injected a new lease of life into the Barge & Bottle.

As system manufacturers, HIQ partners Mark Hudson and Tony Hopkinson are discerning audiophiles, and they did not take the decision to specify Wharfedale's Programme 50Ts and Class AB MP1800 amplifiers lightly.

Said Hudson: "The existing system was awful and so I worked alongside the proprietor (Frank Graves) to redesign the sound. It was singularly pointless building our own loudspeakers for the background areas when the Programme 50s are so well turned-out and sensibly priced. Overall, they are nicely finished and very satisfying. "They provided the perfect solution for delivering th

Details
USA - Promedia Productions, a leading provider of audio-visual production for corporate clients, has expanded its capabilities by doubling the number of EAW KF730 boxes in its audio inventory, making a grand total of 24 in all. Promedia, based in Orlando, Florida, services a clientele consisting mostly of fortune 500 companies, as well as the occasional 'shin-dig' for a high-profile client. The company offers full staging, lighting, and audio services for over 150 events every year throughout the nation.

Most recently, Promedia used their capable KF730 rig at a star-studded birthday celebration for pop music icon, Lou Pearlman. Pearlman is most notable for launching such acts as Backstreet Boys and N*Sync. For this event, the system consisted of 12 KF730 full-range boxes with eight SB730s providing the low-end. The party featured various performances by many of Pearlman's up-and

Details
New Zealand - Allen & Heath's New Zealand distributor, Jansen Professional Audio & Lighting, has provided the PA system for The New Zealand Schools Tour (NZST), an annual showcase for emerging bands to inspire and motivate high school students to enter the music industry.

Now in its third year, the nationwide tour is championed by pop punk outfit, Goodnight Nurse, who will visit 95 secondary schools over a period of 19 weeks. The band performs a lunchtime concert at each school, followed by a two-hour music clinic, providing students with an opportunity to meet the band and learn about the music industry and live performance. Jansen selected Allen & Heath's portable PA28 stereo live mixer for the tour, which features an internal FX unit and an optimized four-band parametric output EQ. The mixer is complimented by Proel TFL series speakers with fold back from Phonic powered speak

Details
UK - Following extensive evaluation, SSE Hire in Birmingham, UK, has purchased a pair of Lake Contour speaker management processors for system zone control, along with the new Lake SMAART Controller plug-in to provide full SMAARTLive integration on the Contour's wireless LAN PC tablet. SSE's Chris Beale commented: "We have been impressed by the control versatility and sonic quality of the Contour product and, coupled with Lake's intuitive SMAART integration, we felt it would be a step forward in overall control for our touring and festival systems."

The first outing for the Contours is with the current Metallica tour, engineered by Mick Hughes: Chris Beale also deployed Contours for front-of-house system EQ and delay management on the Pyramid Stage at this year's Glastonbury Festival.

Other tours featuring Lake Contours recently include Westlife and Radiohead, both o

Details
Canary Islands - At the end of May, 2004, Aplicaciones Acusticas Musicals S.L., the exclusive HK Audio distributor for the Canary Islands, held a successful demonstration of the Coherent Dynamic Response Array (Cohedra) from HK Audio. Over 70 sound engineers, owners and managers of sound reinforcement rental firms took part in the one-day presentation, which included lectures about line arrays in general and Cohedra in particular, as well as a live demonstration with two different bands.

AAM general manager Javier Ramirez Vega commented: "The Cohedra presentation further solidified the professional image of HK Audio here in the Canary Islands. The T-Series and R-Series from HK Audio's Concert Sound range are practically a standard here; especially since they have been installed in the 32,000-seat Estadio de Gran Canaria. The large number of people who came to the presentat

Details
UK - Wharfedale loudspeakers have been used throughout a new vodka bar, which has opened on one of Portsmouth's main drinking circuits. Peter Young, who built up the successful Hong Kong Charlies restaurant chain, came out of retirement in order to open HKC Vodka Bar on the site of the former Madisons Restaurant. Young wanted a multi-room sound system to match his multi-flavoured vodkas, and Ben Cleary at local suppliers, Portsmouth Sound & Light, remembers: "The inquiry for an integrated system came out of the blue."

The venue is divided into four essential sound zones - the main bar, middle lounge, back lounge and pool bar - and Young wanted to be able to route CD, DVD and satellite sources - with an auxiliary input allowing a Karaoke DJ to plumb into the system. Four Wharfedale 3190s are mounted on Powerdrive brackets in the main bar, the 350W speakers are purpose-d

Details
UK - Adlib Audio was out in force again at Glastonbury 2004. Fielding 19 engineers and audio technicians, they serviced seven stages - the Cabaret Tent, The Circus Big Top, Outside Theatre, Outside Circus, the Theatre Tent, the Albatross Stage plus a mobile system.

The 3,000 capacity Cabaret Tent was the largest Adlib audio system, featuring Nexo Alpha speakers and a Soundcraft Series 4 console at FOH and SM20 onstage, complete with ADLIB monitors. Marc Peers, Tim Dalton and Paul Roberts looked after this. James Coates, Chris Smethurst and Dave McKenzie using an Adlib FD system with Allen & Heath control at both ends of the multicore coordinated the Circus Tent sounds. The Outdoor Theatre was overseen by the multi-skilled Hassane, Paul Dakin and Graham Smith, who ran another Adlib FD system with Allen & Heath control.

On the outdoor stage were Richie Nicholson and Carl Billing

Details
UK - London-based PA specialists Capital Sound Hire supplied an entirely XTA driven PA system for 50 Cent's first outdoor UK performance this year, at Rockingham's Days of Thunder events. Each thrilling race day has 170mph-plus racing and The Smash Hits Rockingham Stage, which plays host to a variety of top pop acts.

On 6 June, Europe's hottest rap DJ Tim Westwood played a half-hour set, followed by a ground-shaking performance by 50 Cent. To cope with the heavy amount of sub bass the rapper puts out, Capital employed a 16 per side Meyer Milo line array system with 12 of Meyer's new 700HPS sub-bass - its first use on an outdoor show in the UK. This would normally be more than enough, but on this occasion they added another 12 Martin W8L subs because, as Capital's Paul Timmins explains: "50 Cent's type of music is very sub-bass heavy, so we needed to have a huge amoun

Details
UK - Engineers, producers and pro audio suppliers joined together at Kore Studios in West London for the much-anticipated listening comparisons of the Audient ASP008 8-channel mic variable impedance mic pre and the public unveiling of the soon-to-be-released Sumo high definition analogue summing amplifier.

Kore's owner and chief engineer, George Apsion was at hand to ensure that all of the mic pres had a fair hearing. Units from Millenia, Avalon, Focusrite and Amek, all kindly donated by FX Rentals for the day, were compared directly with the Audient ASP008. Audio professionals were then invited to pass comment on the sound quality of each, with source material provided by an excellent female vocal and acoustic guitar duo.

Luke Baldry, sales and marketing director for Audient, comments: "The most interesting aspect of this test was that there was little evidence of the di

Details
Germany - Besides boasting a great and growing tradition, the Jazz an der Donau (JADD) festival, now in its 18th year, is one of the eight biggest jazz festivals in the world. With a world-class line-up again this year, it's a status JADD is in no danger of losing.

In securing the services of blues legend B.B.King for the opening night, the organizers have pulled off a real coup. Rarely seen these days in Europe, the heavyweight blues hero with his trademark semi-acoustic, 'Lucille', joins an illustrious list of jazz and blues legends that have graced the JADD festival over the years. King's presence will further enhance the cachet of the festival, to which not only the exuberant atmosphere but also the superb staging and sound equipment contribute in large measure.

For EVI Audio, who again this year will be providing the sound reinforcement equipment, the Jazz on the D

Details
UK - For the second year running, Out Board's Dave Haydon and Robin Whittaker have given a seminar on Source-Oriented Reinforcement to degree students studying Sound Technology and Theatre and Performance Technology at The Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts, coordinated by lecturer Chris Layton and technical manager Andy Waddell.

Using a TiMax Audio Imaging delay matrix and multi-channel speaker system set up in the college's Paul McCartney Auditorium, students were able to hear how control of relative arrival times between audio wave fronts affects accuracy of panoramic and surround imaging, essential in theatre and live presentation to maintain authenticity and intelligibility. The demonstrations included the delay-time boundaries that create undesirable comb-filtering and echo-perception, and how combining delay localization with conventional level panning can significan

Details
Denmark - Nordic Rentals A/S, one of Denmark's leading rental and production companies, has taken delivery of a further five Klark Teknik DN1248 Plus active signal splitters from KT's Danish distributor, Ascon Trading. Nordic Rentals now boasts a total of 10 units, giving them the capacity of a full split up 120 channels of audio.

Nordic's chief engineer and head of sound, Jens Elsborg, invested in the first five units late last year specifically to handle the broadcast splits for the Junior Eurovision Song contest hosted in Copenhagen in November. He was so impressed with the sonic quality and ease of use of the DN1248 Plus that he opted to take another five pieces in order to handle the demands of the gruelling summer festival season. It also gives him the capacity to handle even larger broadcast events.

"We used to buy our splitters from another manufacturer, but the p

Details
UK - Proel's NEXT range of speakers, launched earlier this year, has now arrived in the UK and is starting to cut a significant slice of the cake for portable PA speakers, Proel (International) recently reorted.

The NEXT series represents Proel's first move into the plastic enclosure market, using sturdy polypropylene boxes fitted with the sort of quality loudspeakers usually found in more expensive ply enclosures. The result, the company says, is an exceptionally clean and dynamic sound. The speakers used include a 12" neodymium custom-designed and manufactured LF unit, fitted with an aluminium diecast basket, which enables exceptional power delivery. High frequencies are handled by a 1" compression driver mated to a 900 x 600 horn.

Powered models in the NEXT range are fully bi-amped and fitted with custom crossovers and electronic protection. They also feature onbo

Details
UK - Bradford-based Pro Audio Systems have carried out a complete sound and vision refurbishment for Kents Health & Fitness Centre in the Yorkshire city. A dealer for Wharfedale Pro systems for a number of years, it has chosen its loudspeakers judiciously from across the company's range, to fulfill different functions in the multi-zoned health and fitness centre.

The installation has been developed in several phases, according to PAS director (and project manager) Brian Lumb. After supplying equipment on a piecemeal basis over the years they have now been tasked with carrying out a complete integration of the spinning and aerobics studios, cardiovascular, weights and reception areas (which are divided into six zones). In the two studios, PAS have specified two identical stand-alone systems, with Wharfedale Twin 12's fed from a Marantz PAC-750 cassette/CD/mixer combo, with Samson

Details
UK - Sound Division continues to build on its reputation as London's premier supplier of entertainment services and systems to restaurants, clubs and bars with the installation of a new DJ system into acclaimed London restaurant, Shumi. Based in St. James's Street, Shumi is the second concept restaurant (after Hush) of Geoffrey Moore (son of Roger) and Jamie Barber. In addition to supplying the DJ system for Shumi's sophisticated basement cocktail bar, the Calma Lounge, Sound Division also undertook a complete refurbishment of the existing system to incorporate the new elements.

The DJ system comprises two Technics SL1210 Mk2 turntables, Ortofon cartridges a Pioneer DJM300 professional DJ mixer and a Denon DND400 twin CD player all complete with aluminium flightcases as the system is designed to be portable. Sound Division also supplied four JBL Control 28 loudspeakers and an SB

  1. BSS changes distribution in Holland
  2. Marquee supplies DM2000 for orchestra tour
  3. Elton John performs with Yamaha
  4. Rise nightclub, Denver's Tropical Paradise
  5. Steve Gerrard with Allen & Heath
  6. DPA mic kits selected for Czech Tour
Page 652 of 1372

Latest Issue. . .