Sound

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UK/USA - Brian Auger is touring with a pair of Allen & Heath MixWizard mixing consoles. The desks - one based in the U.S. and one in Europe - provide onstage pre-mixing and monitor processing for Auger's multiple keyboard set-up.

"These mixers are one of the best investments I've made in a long time. They've done quite a few miles on the road and I couldn't be more pleased with them," says Auger. "I don't need any DI boxes, I just plug the keyboards straight into the WZ and use the main outputs to feed the PA system."

Whether Auger is touring North America or Europe, the MixWizards are available to pre-mix his Hammond B3 organ and a Korg SG Pro X piano, as well as a rack-mount Korg X5DR module.

The consoles also allow the keyboard player to add reverb to his monitors as a performance aid. "In bigger halls, I use some reverb on the keyboards," he

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USA - Peavey has made a number of key improvements to its Messenger Series enclosures. Both ST models now offer additional power with the aid of a new 1" compression driver, lifting the performance of the 12" model from 125 to 175W RMS, while the new 15" model increases the power from 150 to 200W RMS. With the price remaining the same, Peavey has also added Neutrik connectors.

Additionally, the non-powered 12 and 15" Pro units are now being fitted with more powerful 3" voice coil woofers and a 1.75" titanium diaphragm HF compression driver. This has resulted in increased power handling from 200 to 250W RMS in the 12" model and from 250 to 300W RMS in the 15" model. The non-powered Pro Sub unit has had its power raised to 300W, again with the addition of a 3" voice coil woofer. Prices remain the same.

Finally, the UL range has benefi

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UK - Ms. Dynamite used a range of TL Audio gear for both the recent Live8 concert in Hyde Park, London, and several live appearances - including an exclusive live set at Abbey Road studios and her appearance at the tenth annual MOBO awards. The performances are all building up to the imminent release of her second album.

The singer's band have been thoroughly enjoying using the TL Audio gear for their performances, especially at live 8. Trevor Axeman McKinley commented, "They [TL Audio products] were great for us at Live 8; we were doing a cover of a reggae classic - Redemption Song by Bob Marley and the sound had to be right to take on such a well loved and respected song. The set was an acoustic one sandwiched between two rock bands. It was major play for us and we needed to stand out. TL Audio gear enabled us to do that and [we] stood out strong!"

(J

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UK - Absolute Music Solutions will be hosting an expo on 12 November. Music technology equipment from across the industry will be on show and available for demo, including Mackie's Digital X buss mixer, Roland V-drums and Ion electronic drum kits, M-Audio's new stage piano the ProKeys 88, Digidesign's MBox 2 and more.

Ableton will be officially launching the already popular Ableton 5 software, whilst other leading manufacturers will also be there to demonstrate their latest products.

Absolute Music Solutions will be joined by demonstrators from Apple, who will be running a series of Logic demonstrations and workshops in Absolute's new custom built studios, aimed at both new and seasoned Logic users. There will also be the possibility to sign up for further in-depth training on specific gear and for specific applications.

Full details of the event have yet to be confirmed. Mo

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UK - A.C. Lighting was the recipient of dealer awards from both lighting and audio manufacturers at PLASA 2005. Zero 88's Graham Eales, creator of Frog, presented A.C. northern sales director Jonathan Walters and northern sales manager Adam Beaumont with their UK Dealer of the Year 2005 award.

Grant Bales-Smith, UK market manager for Zero 88 commented: "A.C. thoroughly deserve to receive this award, which is in recognition of the support and dedication their sales team has put into promoting the Zero 88 brand over the past 12 months, seeing a significant upturn in their overall Zero 88 sales."

A.C.'s Jonathan Walters commented: "I'm delighted to receive this award on behalf of the whole sales team. A.C. places great importance on being able to provide customers with a quick delivery turnaround, a team of highly trained staff and a full technical backup service,

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UK - Among the many new products launched by Harman Pro UK at PLASA 2005, is the WMS 40 PRO, the latest generation, entry level wireless microphone series from AKG. The WMS 40 PRO provides new features and professional performance derived from the technology of the premium WMS 4000 and WMS 400 systems.

Offering professional performance and a range of system options, the WMS 40 PRO is aimed at low cost, fixed installation, sound reinforcement, and conferencing and presentation applications. New features include frequency selectability - WMS 40 PRO FLEXX - full multi-channel capability, with the ability to use up to nine WMS 40 PRO systems together on intermodulation-free frequencies (up to seven simultaneous channels with the Single and Dual systems), license-free UHF operation on ISM frequency systems, single AA battery operation for transmitters, and dual transmitter operation

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UK - Autograph Sound is gearing up for a hectic few months in the West End, around the Country and in North America. Along with Nick Lidster, Andrew Bruce is, once again, designing Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Having had its final flight at the London Palladium on 5 September, it starts previewing at The Empire, Sunderland, in early December, taking in Manchester, Birmingham, Liverpool and Edinburgh next year. My Fair Lady - designed by Paul Groothius - is gearing up for a for a five-week stay in Manchester before heading out on a UK Tour.

Meanwhile, back in the West End, Simon Baker is busy transferring Ducktastic! into The Albery Theatre after a successful three week run in Newcastle, closely followed, with the assistance of Alan Lugger, by the new Tom Stoppard play, Heroes at The Wyndhams. Baker then goes to Canada to work on the musical version of

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UK - Kasabian recently returned from the US to home turf and played to a 10,000-strong audience at the Nottingham Playhouse. For sound reinforcement, they utilized a Meyer Sound MILO array system loudspeakers supplied by London-based Capital Sound.

"They are a great bunch of lads," remarks Capital's Paul Timmins, who also serves as Kasabian's production manager. "They are having an absolutely meteoric rise at the moment, and it's great to be able to give them such a fantastic sound system."

The system design was anchored by main left and right arrays of 16 MILO cabinets each: 14 MILOs covering the long throw and mid-floor and two MILO 120 extended coverage high-power curvilinear array units splayed underneath providing downfill for the near field. Two side hangs comprising six MICA compact high-power curvilinear array loudspeakers each covered the stage-sid

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Scandinavia - Paul Whiting has been appointed to the Board of Sennheiser Nordic, a newly formed company that will largely replace the independent business partners who have represented Sennheiser in Scandinavia in the past.

From January 2006, this Copenhagen based organisation will represent all Sennheiser activities in Denmark, Finland and Norway and will provide customers with even closer relationships to Sennheiser. Sweden will continue to be handled by the independent partner Sennheiser AB, Stockholm until further notice.

In a further extension of their global business strategy, Sennheiser has created the Northern/Western Europe Group which will include the new Sennheiser Nordic organisation, Sennheiser Netherlands, Sennheiser BeLux, Sennheiser UK and Sennheiser France. In addition to his board membership of Sennheiser Nordic, Paul Whiting has also been appointed vice-pres

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Germany - The EVI Audio team has been strengthened by the arrival of Klaus Heitzenröder. A graduate in musicology, he has been appointed sales manager (EAME) for Electro-Voice and Blue microphones. In recent years, he has worked as a product manager with an established microphone manufacturer, as well as helping to establish a flightcase business.

"I want to make our products even more successful in Europe, Africa and the Middle East," says Heitzenroedeer. "And I'm confident I can do it, because Electro-Voice and Blue are at the cutting edge of microphone technology and built to the very highest professional standards. Their market potential, therefore, is enormous."

(Jim Evans)

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UK - Both Dromore Cathedral and Portglenone Presbyterian Church in Northern Ireland have installed discreetly placed and precision-tuned Meyer Sound self-powered loudspeaker systems.

The Cathedral Church at Dromore, serving a parish of the Anglican-connected Church of Ireland, was built in stages over several centuries. Major portions of the existing structure date back to 1661. "It was a nightmare, really," explains Robert Andrews of Andrews Audio (Portglenone), who designed and installed both systems. "They rebuilt and added on to (the building) to the point where there is absolutely nothing symmetrical about the church. The seating goes off all different ways, so there was no way to use a main cluster with delays in such a reverberant space."

Andrews' solution for Dromore's architectural mélange employs five UPM-1P compact wide coverage loudspeake

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UK - London rental company, John Henry's Ltd. (JHL), is employing a new Allen & Heath GL2400 live sound console for the current series of Channel 4's weekly music programme, Popworld. The 24-channel mixer is used to manage the live, broadcast and recording mix for all the artists featured in the new series, which is aired on Saturday morning.

The diverse catalogue of artists featured on the show includes the Doves, the Subways, the Sugababes, McFly, Razorlight, the Scissor Sisters, Justin Timberlake, Beyoncé Knowles, the Zutons, the Black Eyed Peas, Lee Ryan, Bloc Party, and Athlete.

"The GL2400 is my board of choice - it's so flexible and has an extraordinary amount of functionality for a mixer of its size. The matrix offers a great variety of feed options, such as IEM and delay fills," comments JHL's sound engineer, Simon Panos."I love the fact t

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UK - For the staging of its annual Quality Awards ceremony and theatrical entertainment, an NHS Trust has called upon the services and expertise of PSL for the fifth year in a row, taking full advantage of the one-stop event production shop, project-managed by PSL's Mark Solomons.

The South Essex Partnership NHS Trust, which provides mental healthcare to its local region, hosted its annual awards show at the Towngate Theatre in Basildon. PSL supplied all production design, sets, lighting and dedicated lighting designer John Montague, sound, vision mixing, a 2-camera DVD shoot plus a confetti cannon for the show finale.

Set designer Oliver Stewart comments: "I have to balance the musical elements with the fact that it is an awards ceremony in a theatrical space, and the design has to work in a multi-tiered theatre."

Video as shown on-stage on two 10ft x 7.5ft

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UK - London's new Absolut Icebar - a joint venture between Absolut, Icehotel and Below Zero London - is a unique environment at -5°C, where everything, from the walls, bar, and bar stools, to the artwork and the 'glass' that holds the Absolut cocktail is made from crystal-clear Nordic ice.

Finding a loudspeaker system that would blend seamlessly into the glacial interior of the Swedish concept provided a challenge that was met by Martin Audio. The UK manufacturer had already produced 'invisible' customized perspex floor monitors for the Eurovision Song Contest in Latvia several years ago, and now they turned their attention to their classic EM26 - which formed the centrepiece of a complete audio fit-out of the four-zone, £1.5m development.

Icehotel partners, Below Zero London, had originally been looking at two loudspeaker options for the overall sound reinforcement via

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UK - London-based event services company PSL has expanded its sales team with the appointment of David Hudson as head of sales. Hudson brings heaps of experience to the energetic PSL task force, having spent the last two-and-a-half years working for George P. Johnson, the world's largest event marketing company. As business development director, he was instrumental in establishing GPJ's new UK operation; prior to that, he spent 10 years working in the event production industry, always in a sales and marketing role and usually in the live environment.

Hudson says he welcomes the opportunities offered by PSL's wide-ranging skill-set and its massive inventory of technical equipment. With the mainstream corporate sector in his sights, he plans to co-ordinate the company's sales approach, emphasizing the 'one-stop shop' capability that is unique to PSL.

(Lee Baldock)

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USA - Austin, Texas-based based SR provider Big House Sound has augmented its stock of Soundcraft consoles with the addition of a 40-channel MH3 and two new 32-channel GB8s. Aside from already owning a Soundcraft Series FIVE:56, SM20:48 and another MH3:40, the company has also been responsible for putting Soundcraft consoles into several of the city's best known live music clubs.

According to Rod Nielsen, president and co-owner of Big House Sound, the first outing for the MH3 and one of the GB8's was the Shiner BASH in Dallas, featuring Dwight Yoakam, Aaron Tippin, Chris Cagle and Darryl Lee Rush.

"When Spoetzl Brewery originally booked the concert with us, it was supposed to be a much smaller event with lesser-known acts and a smaller crowd," says Nielsen. "Under normal circumstances we would have chosen to use our Series FIVE and SM20. But even though w

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Europe - Digidesign has named Ineke Van der Voort as its new technical sales specialist. She joins shortly after leaving manufacturing and distribution company, Apex N.V. in Belgium where she was professional audio sales engineer, responsible for a leading portfolio of pro audio brands.

Van der Voort has worked as a freelance live sound engineer throughout Europe since 1994, representing many of the major rental companies. In 1998 she was senior sound engineer for the start-up of the joint venture between MTS (a French rental company) and Philing Live (a Belgian rental company), located in Marseilles. While there she was responsible for the design of multiple sound systems involved in the FIFA World Cup.

Her duties will include Venue system demonstration and training throughout Northern Europe, and providing full distributor support. "This is a fantastic opportunity, as I

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Germany - Telex/EVI Audio reports that it enjoyed a very successful International Broadcast Convention (IBC) in Amsterdam. Manuel Brico, Product Manager Telex (EAME), comments: "We managed to continue the positive trend of the last few years and even doubled the number of visitors we had in 2004. There was also a marked increase in the number of serious enquiries - especially from potential customers from Africa, the Middle East and eastern Europe."

The Telex/EVI team led by Ralph Strader, Klaus Seitz, Nico Lewis and Manuel Brico presented a number of new products including the expanded RVON product range with its voice over IP capabilities. Commented Manuel Brico: "We've really caught the mood of the market there. The future belongs to voice over IP - something we foresaw long ago, which is why we've been working on this technology for years. For many visitors to

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UK - Audio-Technica's Artist Elite AE2500 dual element mic has won a best in class reputation for the kick drum and bass cab applications for which it was specifically designed. However, front of house engineer for Metallica (and many others) 'Big' Mick Hughes has extended its duties as his mic of choice for guitar cabs.

"The mic lends itself to giving you a great in-phase guitar sound that encompasses all of the bandwidth of the guitar," says Hughes. "It cuts out all of the alignment problems of using two mics on a cab, and them being, even slightly, out of phase much of the time."

As a result of the phase coherence of the AE2500's two capsules - one dynamic, one condenser - there are no frequency cancellation effects. "It just gives you this huge picture," continues Mick. "The combined sound of the condenser and the dynamic capsules is crus

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Switzerland - The Festilac festival, which takes place near Geneva at the end of August, is serviced by a French sound rental company, Digiteac Industrie. This year, for the acapella and acoustic music event, they provided a sound system which featured Soundcraft mixing desks and JBL Pro loudspeakers supplied by SCV Audio.

Digiteac put a Soundcraft MH3 console out at front-of-house, electing to use a Soundcraft SM20 for monitor mixing. The main PA system was a JBL Vertec line-array, comprising 16 VT4888 mid speakers and eight VT4880 subwoofers, combined with six VRX932LA speakers providing frontfill.

Powering the system were 16x Crown I-Tech rack-mounted amplifiers, suspended and linked up by an appropriate patch system. Signal processing was done by two BSS Omnidrive FDS366Ts, and also in the rack were Lexicon multi-effects and DBX graphic equalizers. The JBL SRX Series provi

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Brazil - Soundcraft has appointed the Sao Paolo-based Royal Music as its distributor in Brazil. Royal Instrumentos Musicais (AKA Royal Music) was founded in 1994 around the time when the Brazilian market had just opened up to international imports.

Soundcraft's Intercontinental sales manager Richard Ayres comments: "This is a distributor covering all the market segments in which we work, totally committed to supporting the customer base."

(Jim Evans)

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UK / Canada - Richmond Sound Design (RSD) of Vancouver, Canada, and London, England, has introduced the new Model AB64, the latest model in the line of award-winning AudioBox sound and show controllers. The AB64 series offers up to 64 channels of sound recording, playback, shaping and manipulation, plus enhanced show control capabilities, all in a 2U rack-mountable modular mainframe. This comprehensive re-design, headed by HFI lead engineer Tim Bartoo, quadruples the capacity of the previous model without requiring any additional rack space, say the company.

As a sound controller, the new AB64 can mix simultaneously up to 64 live analogue input signals, 64 live digital input signals and 64 pre-recorded audio signals from the unit's internal hard drives. The unit is capable of both synchronous and non-synchronous audio file playback. Each input channel can be gain leveled, panned

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Sweden - Ampetronic has appointed Sennheiser AB as distributor of its product line to the Swedish market. Commenting on the arrangement, Christian Wollin, Sennheiser's deputy managing director, said: "We are very happy to have Ampetronic on board. We believe there is a good match between our companies and our products."

He continued, "Sennheiser has a reputation for working in the high-end segment of the market and our operation in the audio sector has garnered good relationships with installers all over Sweden. Sennheiser AB has also been working in the audiology sector for more than 20 years as a distributor of Siemens' hearing instruments. This means we can start work with Ampetronic immediately from our current customer network and distribution channels."

Both Wollin and Ampetronic's founder Leon Pieters believe there is a growing market for loop system

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UK - One of the big successes of the Home Counties is the Vanilla Bar in Windsor, where owner Mark Sansom, formerly of Bagley's Nightclub in Kings Cross, has created a stylish and accessible lounge bar and dance venue, complete with restaurant facilities. Paul Knight of Ascot Audio has designed a sound system for the 400-capacity venue which is critical to its clubby ambience. Since he's been installing Electro-Voice sound reinforcement gear for over 20 years, there was always a good chance he'd choose products from the EV catalogue for this project, especially given the system requirements of the venue. But the all-white EViD full-range loudspeaker models that he's specified are an uncommonly good match for the light interior of the Vanilla Bar, he says.

"These little speakers have a great design, they're trendy and they look good, but they also sound fantastic; they're am

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