UK - Kylie Minogue, Travis, The Strokes and Liberty X are just some of the artists who have benefited recently from the touring combination of Van Damme Cable and Capital Sound Hire. "When you're putting together equipment for a major artist's tour, the three key elements you look for are quality, reliability and flexibility," says Capital Sound Hire's Simon Barron. "Van Damme's Black Tour Grade cable fits all three criteria perfectly, which is why we specify it for just about every tour we handle."

London-based Capital Sound Hire, incorporating Capital Sound Design and Capital Productions, is responsible for hiring sound equipment, freelance technical crews and transport to the entertainment world. Touring artists make up a large percentage of its business - and their tours may involve anything from a few UK dates to major international events incorporating

UK / Germany - UK manufacturer Allen & Heath debut additions to its portfolio of live sound mixers at the Pro Light & Sound exhibition in Frankfurt from 6-9 April. Exhibiting on stand B22 in Hall 8.0, the company will unveil the new products on the first day of the show, including the latest design from its award-winning Xone range of DJ products, to be launched later in the year.

The Xone:3D is a new DJ control concept allowing the user to manipulate and manage any source - such as MP3, CD, video and vinyl - from a central interface. The Xone:3D is an amalgamation of a fully-featured high performance DJ mixer, a top spec multi-channel USB soundcard, and a comprehensive control surface with MIDI and PC connectivity. This versatile product has 14 stereo inputs and 10 stereo outputs, and can simultaneously mix up to 11 stereo signals.

The Xone VF-1 1U rack universal analogue

Germany - Mega Audio, the German distributor for InnovaSON digital mixing consoles, has supplied an Sy80 to the Estrel Convention Centre in Berlin, part of Europe's largest convention, entertainment and hotel complex, boasting 1,125 rooms and suites, five restaurants, two bars and a beer garden. The Convention Centre itself offers a total of 15,000sq.m of event space including the 4,800sq.m convention halll - which can be partitioned as required -as well as four galleries, a VIP area and a range of further conference rooms and foyers. The InnovaSON console, which replaces an old analogue board, is configured with a stagebox, seven SI8D3 mic/line input cards, two XO8D2 processed output cards and a set of digital in and output cards.

Thomas Herzberg, head of the Estrel Convention Centre's technical department, chose the Sy80 for its flexibility and easy handling. "Since we a

The Professional Snake Reel offers 16 gauge steel construction and individually jacketed and shielded multi-pair cable in an integrated cable reel/stage box design. Standard Snake Reels come in two lengths - 100ft and 150ft - in 16x4 or 24x4 configurations and a customer choice of returns. Custom lengths and channel options are available to order. The Snake Reel also includes rubber wheels with locks for smooth rolling and safety.

USA - The Black-Eyed Peas, helped "get it started" at this year's 47th Annual Grammy Awards show with fellow Shure endorsers and Best New Artist award winners, Maroon 5. The Black-Eyed Peas performed 'Let's Get it Started', which won the Grammy for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group, using Shure U2/58 microphone systems, while Maroon 5 opted for U2/Beta 58 systems to sing their hit, 'This Love'. "This year was an incredible showcase of talent across every genre of music from hip-hop to country to rock," said Shure artist relations team member Ryan Smith. "Bono said it was the best Grammys ever and I would agree."

Several other Shure endorsers walked away with Grammy awards on Sunday night, including:John Mayer, who won Song of the Year and Best Male Pop Vocal Performance for the song 'Daughters' from his album 'Heavier Things'; Ozomatli receiv

Aviom introduced the A-Net Pro64 ASIC, a new technology now supported by a new division within the company, the Aviom Technologies Group. Pro64 is an upgrade to Aviom's proprietary A-Net audio networking protocol.

A year after unveiling the Verona console at the same exhibition, Midas launched Siena (see above). Verona is said to have shifted 1,400 units worldwide, with Midas console sales up a reported 57% since that launch. Siena is pitched at a similar price-point to Verona and is similar in build, but with 16 aux sends has extra appeal to monitor engineers while remaining suitable for FOH use.

UK - Located in the heart of the capital on Trafalgar Square, Albannach is one of the hottest openings of the year. A brand new contemporary Scottish bar and restaurant Albannach is offering the best in food and drink along with the latest technology in sound and lighting to provide an unusual location for corporate meetings, events and product launches.

AV systems integration specialists, The Sound Division Group was called in to design, specify and install the audio visual system throughout, which includes LCD screens for laptop presentations, a 12ft projection screen with a powerful Mitsubishi projection system on the lower ground floor, and a 50" plasma screen in the VIP room. All are equipped with the usual DVD, CD and VCR facilities along with terrestrial and SKY TV feeds.

The brief was for a fully integrated and zoned audio visual system with the ability to route a

Corporate audio on the rise as it is, we couldn't have a NAMM show without Behringer signalling its ambitions in the marketplace, and you sometimes get the impression that the company is willing - and able - to rival the conglomerates already mentioned with its single brand. In the press room, Group CEO Michael Deeb gave a timely summary of Behringer's corporate developments, following the announcement of a head-spinning 78 new products, and confidently cited the benefits of establishing a wholly-owned R&D and manufacturing base in China - which the company did in 2001.

"The internalisation of manufacturing operations has brought about faster time to market and cost-effectiveness in production, and product design and development," he said, and anyone with lingering doubts as to whether better products are going to cost even less in the future was obliged to go outside for a q

Meanwhile RCF used the platform of the NAMM show to cement the re-launch of the RCF brand in North America, following original MD Arturo Vicari's return to the driving seat a year ago. A convivial reception presented new RCF Inc president Hans Radda, who has already ushered Vicari's other brand, dB Technologies, into the territory with some success and who will be expected to do the same with the new generation of ART speakers, the new 4Pro range and the rest.

"Over the past year, we have had great support from our distributors, who have helped us to reintroduce RCF to the market," Vicari announced. "We now find ourselves with strong distribution in most of the key areas of the world. As a result of this we can now begin work in developing RCF in North America."

Radda himself added: "We know that it is difficult for a European company to launch in the States,

The Crest Performance division of Crest Audio launched the CPM 24-4 and CPM 32-4 mixing consoles for studio or live audio applications; the CPM 2462, a 16-channel desktop/rack-mountable mixer; and the mono I-Pro I and stereo I-Pro II microphone and line input intelligibility processors. The units are designed to optimize audio signals in recording, broadcast and live applications by processing input signals via a parametric EQ section and a compand/limit dynamics section.

One thing NAMM also demonstrates annually is that there is still plenty of life in all manner of analogue consoles, even as the digital ones proliferate. Ever ones to celebrate technology properly, Midas continued a long tradition by unveiling a mid-size, versatile analogue console and treating its dealers and guests to blues-influenced hospitality at every opportunity. With the smooth glissando of a bottle-neck, and at least 12 bars to go, the Siena console was rolled out as the Verona's highest complement - available in six frame sizes from 24 up to 64 channels and featuring 16 dedicated aux sends.

Brand development manager Richard Ferriday was on hand to place the desk into precise context. "Siena and Verona are both dual-purpose consoles," he told me, "but the Verona is a FOH console that can also do monitors, while the Siena is a monitor console that can also do FOH

The Netherlands - The second Integrated Systems Europe, or ISEurope, or ISE'05 ("we want to give you flexibility" quipped show director Michael Blackman) - took an enormous leap forward from its inaugural mixed reception in Geneva last year, when it was a case of 'right idea, wrong city'. Clearly, with 220 exhibitors taking part this year compared with 120 last year, and an even greater proportioned increase in visitors (7,400 in 2005), this show has established itself remarkably quickly.

With a good portion of the exhibition's content (some 40-50% according to Blackman) geared towards residential applications, there was still much for the professional commercial and architectural markets. So what would you have seen there? Well, lots of systems . . . display systems, projection systems, sound, video, lighting, conferencing and broadcast monitoring systems, among other

With Telex-EVI Audio, Loud Technologies Inc and Harman Pro all quoting strong financial performances, backed up by an anecdotal mood of confidence among dealers, it was tempting to feel optimistic. But Anaheim's annual NAMM show should be treated like all that glitters. The sun's out, but it's still only January and back home they're scraping ice off the windscreens. Jon Anderson and Rick Wakeman of rock dinosaurs Yes make personal appearances, but they're not in the charts - explaining why only six people turned up, perhaps. And the perfect, fun-caked streets of Downtown Disney are as real as the gondolas of Las Vegas.

Mackie announced a redesign of the SR Series active PA speakers. The new SR models are two- and three-way loudspeakers in Baltic birch cabinets with integrated active electronics, while retaining characteristics of the original SRM 450. These models share the broad integration of electronics of the higher definition SA Series also launched at NAMM.

Also new were the S200 Series and C Series passive loudspeakers, and updated versions of the CFX range of live sound effects mixers. Scheduled for release later this year, the new CFX.mkII Series mixers have gained Onyx Series knobs, new graphics for better visibility in dim lighting conditions and impact-resistant rubber side panels - at a lower RRP than the original CFX Series. The mixers are available in 12, 16 and 20-channel configurations, and all feature four subgroups, nine-band stereo graphic EQ and Mackie's trademark EMAC 32-bit dig

The new Opus Series of microphones is aimed at drums, percussion, instruments and boundary applications. The percussive series includes the Opus 53, Opus 83, Opus 88, and Opus 99 - both for percussion itself and percussive-sounding instruments generally. The Opus 51 is the acoustic boundary microphone.

P-LS8695 is a powered version of SLS's LS8695 Compact Line Source Array (pictured right). The addition of power amplifiers into the design is said to allow for greater installation flexibility for both fixed and mobile applications.

The P-LS8695 incorporates a 24-bit, 96kHz DSP processing engine developed from the same acoustic performance algorithms used in the original LS8695. Two digital amplifiers have been incorporated to power the LF and HF drivers independently, sharing one high-voltage, high current power supply.

The LF amplifier provides 1,000W to drive the lows and mids, while the HF amp provides 500W - said to be optimized for today's 24-bit, 96kHz digital format. The input to the amplifier section is fully balanced with adjustable sensitivity, and a balanced transmitter is included for looping multiple P-LS8695 systems.

The Vertec line array range gains the self-powered DP Series, also inaugurating HiQnet but debuting JBL's DrivePack too - integrated DSP power modules co-developed with Crown and dbx (see main copy).

Rapco International is a leading manufacturer of audio and video interfacing and cable equipment, and showed the Blox Series (pictured right) of audio connection and testing boxes in Hall B. The series includes 12 different audio tools for a multitude of audio requirements, from continuity testing to pro/consumer level conversion.

In among Harman Pro's grander announcements (see main copy), Crown ushered in two entry-level BGM, paging and zoning devices: the 180MA and the 280MA.

Mackie-associated brand Tapco has come up with the 'Blend' family of simple-to-use, affordable, compact mixers. First is the Blend 6, a six-channel analogue recording and live sound mixer designed by the Mackie engineering team.

Tapco also introduced the first in a new family of audio accessory products, the DI-1A and DI-1P active and passive direct injection boxes. These boxes provide signal and impedance matching for the direct connection of instruments to amplifiers and mixers. In addition, both feature a Thru/Out jack to allow a clean signal to be sent to any amplifier in addition to a mixer for greater control during live performances.

The DI-1A active model offers the option of power via a 48V phantom from a mixer or internally via two 9V batteries. The DI-1P passive model comes complete with a filter for enhancing bass and guitar sounds.

Finally, Tapco announced updates to

Not to be left out, Aviom Inc announced a new ASIC for A-Net with claims for increased data capacity and signal control, in a package designed not only for live sound applications but also recording, broadcasting, production and post production. A-Net Pro64 has been developed by the company specifically for complex audio transmission, and has built upon the original protocol's relatively limited functionality for stage monitoring - namely, a uni-directional 16 channels to the stage.

A-Net Pro is bi-directional and increases capacity to 64 channels on a single wire pair in a Cat 5 cable, while maintaining 24-bit resolution. This is expandable to 256 channels in custom networks, but the company is also keen to emphasise that using the system has not become a more complicated process as a result, and that its core values of uncompressed, low-latency audio through a 'plug-and-play' system

UK - Reynolds of Raphoe, directed by Liam and Declan Reynolds, was responsible for the sound installation of D.A.S. Audio products at the Quaywest Restaurant and Winebar located in Derry, Northern Ireland's second largest city. This unique space situated on the Foyle River offers an attractive ambiance spread over two floors. Good food and great music both play a part in the experience of a visit.

To differentiate the sound in the dinning area and the bar, Reynolds of Raphoe created two zones. For the restaurant area, located on the second floor, the system is based around the D.A.S. Factor 5W in white, providing the high quality background music required for a locale of this type. The bar area, requiring a more predominant sound, was fitted with white D.A.S. DS-8 two-way systems. These high-output, compact enclosures are ideal for a wide variety of installations requiring a hi

Part of the HiQnet cavalcade but a significant launch in its own right, the DriveRack 4800 is the next generation DriveRack. Familiar processing functions have been extended with new algorithms, including Advanced Feedback Suppression, 96kHz processing and an optional CobraNet card. Ethernet control is also available.

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