Sound

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USA - A sound system that's perfect for DJ's is not generally the ideal setup for live performances, but that didn't stop San Francisco's Mezzanine from trying to deliver both. After three years of dedicated effort to establish itself as a premier venue for DJ talent from around the world, the club wanted to start competing for top-name live acts.

The club's first step was to hire production manager Josh Roberts, whose resume includes A-list names like Ben Harper, Beth Orton, King Crimson and Meat Beat Manifesto. While Roberts was happy with Mezzanine's existing DJ gear, he knew that an entirely different sound system was needed for the club to attract A-level live acts. "We had a four-way Funktion One loudspeaker system that delivered great highs and lows, but they lacked the mid range required for live concert sound," said Roberts. "Besides, it's unnatural to wa

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France - In Grenoble, France, the 4th International Circus Festival provided two of the pioneers of EtherSound-based networking technology with a unique showcase for their products. Nexo and AuviTran collaborated with sound rental company IZO and Yamaha France to provide a sound reinforcement system for the four-day Festival which transmitted entirely over an EtherSound network.

Staged in the Palais des Sports de Grenoble, the focus of the Festival was on two round circus stages, each 12m wide, in a 2,000sq.m hall. More than 16,000 spectators attended the event. IZO provided Yamaha PM5D digital consoles mixing Nexo's GEO S tangent-array systems, powered by Camco Vortex 6 amplifiers, with AuviTran's EtherSound conversion and compatibility management devices ensuring full network capability over optical fibre.

Using an EtherSound network provided some notable advances over tradi

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Denmark - Mach's CI4 and CI6 infill speakers, which, the company says provide "hi-fi performance with clear speech intelligibility in an attractive design", are now available in 100V versions. With up to four individual power settings in 100V mode and the possibility of operating in 8 ohm, the CI4 and CI6 - 100V versions offer flexibility and high quality sound, say Mach.

The CI4 features a 4" mid-woofer and a soft dome tweeter; the CI6 a 6" mid-woofer and a soft dome tweeter. Both are two-way speakers designed with a conical horn to deliver uniform dispersion, to allow for further flexibility in positioning. They have been acoustically optimized to produce a natural, clear sound, say Mach.

The cabinets feature a special mounting system, which Mach claim dramatically cuts installation time in half, while providing the ultimate flexibility (few tools are req

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USA - Pennsylvania-based Community Loudspeakers recently donated morethan six hundred loudspeakers to help with the rebuilding efforts, after the disasters of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Working together with a consortium of church groups, the company arranged for a truck-load of speakers to be distributed to churches, schools and other public facilities in the region.

"We were originally contacted by the Rev. Dr. Bayard S. Taylor Jr., Pastor of Calvary Baptist Church here in Chester," explains Christine Howze, community general manager. "Reverend Taylor put us in touch with Pastor Lewis Ragins of the Morning Star Missionary Baptist Church in Gulfport." Community worked with Pastor Ragins to arrange the shipment, valued at well over $100,000, to the Gulfport area.

"We were a bit concerned at first, because our facility had sustained quite a bit of dam

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Germany - The latest product series from Germany's d&b audiotechnik lines up to go the distance. The J-Series design has grown out of a research program that kept a clear view of applications, while examining the performance requirements and specifications of large sound reinforcement systems. This enterprise began with a commitment to significantly extend the application boundaries of d&b audiotechnik's loudspeakers beyond the distances covered by the Q-Series and also to further augment this success. The high output of the J-Series reaches into large-scale sound reinforcement applications, providing incredibly quick and easily configurable array solutions that draw on the long established d&b holistic approach of integrating loudspeakers, flying hardware, amplification, remote control, configuration design tools and transport solutions.

The J-Series consists of the J8 and J12

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UK - After successfully trialing a Nexo GEO S rig at last summer's huge Pride gay rally in London's Trafalgar Square, Camel Event Production have now purchased a full 12-hang GEO S805/S830 system from dealers, A.C. Lighting, along with a number of Nexo CD12 sub bass units, Nexo NX242 TDcontrollers and Camco Vortex 6 amplifiers. The company will be able to run their new system on a Camco EtherCAI wireless network.

Kevin Wilson, MD of the York-based company, said: "I had been aware of the Nexo pedigree for a long time and our first chance to use a system came in front of 17,000 people in Trafalgar Square - with assistance from Nexo's UK distributors Fuzion and A.C. Lighting."

Pride had struggled to achieve even coverage at past festivals, and following complaints about the sound distribution, Camel Event Production had been tasked with the challenge. "It was Peter

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UK - The Training Initiative, the long-established training and education programme run by leading entertainment lighting supplier White Light, has announced a line-up of one-day classes for the first half of 2006 in addition to its normal round of training initiatives. The classes offer visitors the chance to learn about some of the latest lighting technology, ranging from MA Lighting's grandMA lighting console to CAD software such as AutoCAD and WYSIWYG.

Held at White Light's base in London, south-west London, classes are generally held on Wednesdays and run from 10am until 4pm. The season started on Tuesday January 24th with a free Advanced course on the grandMA console; this was complemented the next day with a Basic grandMA course.

February started with a session on the Avolites consoles and will concluded with a session on the Whole Hog 2 console on the 22nd. March's cou

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UK - Chris Madden is one of an increasing number of sound engineers who have familiarised themselves with Digidesign's Venue environment - without needing to venture near an operator's manual. Madden says the only pages he refers to are the screen versions on his D-Show desk, which he has laid out in a logical two-tier arrangement.

It is 20 years since Mike Scott put his first Waterboys line-up together and Madden has worked with them for the last six, with many of his show recordings appearing on the band's latest Karma To Burn live CD. Karma To Burn also provided the name for their latest 10-day UK theatre tour, which completed this month.

Chris also handles the FOH mix for Charlotte Church and Gabrielle - but it was Liverpool band the La's that gave him his intro to Venue, when sound engineer Pab Boothroyd extolled its virtues before handing over the FOH position to

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Italy - RCF has announced the introduction of two new compact speakers to its range. The S4022 - a high-output band-pass subwoofer - and the S8028, a high-output bass reflex subwoofer.The S4022 is equipped with two advanced 12" RCF precision woofers, coupled to achieve tight and maximised output, mounted in a clam-shell internal chamber. Each 12" features massive ceramic magnets and 3" copper voice coil.

The system is capable of producing a Max SPL of 131dB and handles 800W AES, say RCF.The loudspeaker enclosure shape is rectangular and the cabinet is constructed of multi-ply Baltic birch plywood and finished in a resistant, textured, polyurethane black paint. It features a pole-mount receptacle, rubber feet, two recessed handles and eight M10 mounting points, plus extensive internal bracing for flown applications. The front steel grille is epoxy powder coated.

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USA - Loud Technologies announced today the appointment of Doug White to the new position of Vice President for the MI Brand Group, which encompasses the Alvarez, Ampeg, Crate, Crate Audio and TAPCO brands.

White brings a wealth of experience to this new position, working most recently as General Manager of the Labs division for Gibson and Epiphone. White was also one of the founding members of Behringer USA, as well as vice-president of Operations at Opcode.

As vice-president for the MI Brand Group at Loud, White will define all brand strategies for the Alvarez, Ampeg, Crate, Crate Audio, and Tapco brands and work closely with Loud's sales, engineering, operations and marketing teams to oversee the deployment of these plans.

White will report directly to Loud's senior vice-president of marketing, Ken Berger, and will be located in the Woodinville, Washington offices.

(Lee

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UK - Following their success in 2005, Hawthorn has organised a new series of events to take place at its base in Old Dalby in Leicestershire. The 'Hawthorn@Home 2006' events will give lighting, sound and AV users the opportunity to get 'hands-on' with the latest equipment and technology. The events also aim to give manufacturers, suppliers and users to discuss the products and to gain an insight not normally available outside large tradeshows, say Hawthorn.

The days will kick off with lunch and an informal get together, followed by the hands-on/demo of the equipment. The first three events are:

3 March: Moving Lights and Lighting Desks'
Companies participating include Avolites, Martin Professional, ETC, MA Lighting, Robe and Zero 88. Hawthorn will also have on show its range of Clay Paky Alpha Spots and Washes, as well as other moving lights in their rental and sales

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UK - Soundcraft have unveiled another addition to the rapidly growing Soundcraft family, the multi-format low-cost EPM mixers.

The emphasis with the Soundcraft EPM is very firmly on quality build and audio performance, with an easy to understand control surface uncluttered by unnecessary facilities, and Soundcraft have brought new technologies and ideas to this very cost-effective range. Surface mount technology is used throughout, using close-tolerance components for high accuracy and repeatable settings for EQ and gain controls. The highly-transparent GB30 Mic amp (designed by Graham Blyth for the company's 30th anniversary, and also used on the larger LX7ii and GB Series consoles) features high-resolution adjustment over a wide gain range of 55dB, and provides a stunning +22dB headroom through the console. True professional 48-volt phantom power caters for condenser microphon

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Worldwide - Following the introduction of several key new products and a renewed focus on the pro audio chassis market, Celestion International has announced that it has increased OEM sales dramatically in this sector during the first quarter of this financial year.

Growth was demonstrated across the full range of cast chassis product including FTR, ultra-low distortion ceramic magnet drivers, and NTi, inverted neodymium speakers. Sales were increased by 85% in F1 2006, compared with the same period last year. At the same time, volume sales of CDX compression drivers have seen a year-on-year sales increase of more than 70%, demonstrating the success of a clear strategy that concentrates on providing the highest level of service for existing customers, while further extending Celestion's customer base.

OEM sales manager Kevin Shove stated: "Developing and maintaining stron

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Sweden - Gothenburg-based sound rental company Musiklagret has purchased a sizeable Nexo GEO T tangent array system, packaged with NX242 processors and Camco Vortex 6 amplification, which has been successfully used on its inaugural production, a corporate entertainment event for Ericsson.

Benny Werner, owner of Musiklagret, first auditioned the GEO T system in Paris last year. "With this system, Nexo has thought of everything in its design. Because we have used Nexo happily for many years - Alpha, Alpha E and PS Series - we felt that GEO T would fit in well with our portfolio. And for us, it feels right to buy Nexo, which has great representation from Intersonic here in Sweden."

Musiklagret has taken delivery of a 12-box per side system, comprising 20 T4805 full-range cabinets, and four T2815 down-fill units, with 12 CD18 sub-bass. Using NX242 processors, the system

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Italy / Germany - At Rimini's SIB (11-14 March) and Frankfurt's ProLight & Sound (29 March - 1 April), Italian manufacturer Outline will be presenting three new products which it says are "sure to attract considerable interest".

The first is the Mini-COM.P.A.S.S. - an ultra-compact relative of the COM.P.A.S.S. - the first-ever robotic loudspeaker enclosure and winner of the prestigious Award for Product Innovation at London's PLASA Show last autumn. Mini-COM.P.A.S.S. is a self-powered loudspeaker system for stand-alone use or, to combine with other elements to form a Vertical Line Array. Fitted with four 5" mid-woofers and two compression drivers with a 1.75" diaphragm coupled with two D.P.R.W.G. wave-guides, the Mini COM.P.A.S.S. enables users to adjust its directivity on the horizontal plane from 60° to 150° (even asymmetrically) with mechanical steps of

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USA / Europe - Erick 'Otto' Celeiro, FOH mixer for US singer/songwriter Gavin DeGraw, has been touring using the A-T Artist Elite 5000 Series wireless system on the young star's vocals, he says: "The Audio-Technica AEW-T5400 vocal mic sounds better than any wired vocal mic I have ever used before."

DeGraw, has been touring extensively in the US and Europe in support of his hugely acclaimed debut album Chariot. Celeiro elected to use the A-T AEW-T5400 and Artist Elite 5000 Series wireless system on the tour because of its great sound and utter reliability. "Simply crystal clear and full of energy," is how Celeiro describes the AEW-T5400's performance. "The sound always starts with a brilliant microphone, and the AEW-T5400 is definitely that."

Celeiro has a great signal chain into which the AEW-T5400 feeds. "I've been touring with a Soun

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UK - "We put a lot of time and energy into training and supporting sound engineers transitioning to digital mixing in the live environment," said Mark Payne, managing director of aptly named Yamaha dealers, Sound Foundation. So much so that the company has a permanent classroom facility set up at its Reading headquarters where converts to digital mixing can be trained to use Yamaha products, including the latest addition to the Yamaha stable, the M7CL which since its launch at PLASA 2005 has generated huge interest in the industry, says the company.

"The classroom has the facility to use material tracked from live gigs so that the engineers get real experience in using the desk," explained Payne. "We bought two M7CLs and we've put them to a variety of uses . . .It's a very impressive piece of equipment."

Sound Foundation used one desk to run a mas

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Argentina - Allen & Heath's Argentinian distributor, Masteraudio, has acquired new office premises as part of an expansion programme to provide more warehouse space and training facilities for its customers.

The new offices are located in Palacio Azcuenaga, formerly an historic educational institute, which boasted one of the best reputations in Latin America during its prime in the late 19th Century. The rooms which once comprised a chapel, laboratory, museum, library, dining hall, and an ornate theatre, are now used by Masteraudio as warehouse storage, training rooms, and an office suite.

Masteraudio will be offering training and education courses on technologies for the entertainment industry from 2007. The company's offices now span 3000sq.m over three floors, with 2000-capacity in the theatre, which is used as the main lecture hall.

(Chris Henry)

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France - French Synco Europe Network partner RégieTek, based in Paris, staged its first shows late last year with its newly-acquired Synco by Martin Audio W8LC line array, at the legendary Olympia and Le Zenith theatres in Paris

The first show was a 3,000-ticket concert for a Société Générale convention, by Blankass, La Grande Sophie and Dahlia, at Le Zenith de Paris, staged in collaboration with production company Remote. The system was configured with 20 W8LC cabinets and 18 Sub 18RR subwoofers, supplemented by four Renkus-Heinz Synco Touring System (RH-STS) MH cabinets and six RH-STS Lows.

The bands themselves had their first experience of the Synco Network's proprietary low profile CW152 stage monitors. This two-way coaxial (15" and 2") active wedge, exclusive to Synco Network members, provides true point source performance, wit

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Sweden - Dave Skaff, monitor mixer on U2's current Vertigo global tour, has chosen Lab.gruppen fP Series 2400Q amplifiers for power. He's been with the band since 1985 and has a long and distinguished pedigree including work with Alicia Keys and Shania Twain, among many others. Skaff was having trouble with the amplifiers originally supplied for the in-ear monitors and switched to Lab.gruppen after consulting trusted associates for advice. "The Lab.gruppen amplifiers came top of the list," says Skaff.

The Lab.gruppen 2400Qs became the amplifiers of choice and are being used to power ear monitor mixes for the drum, keyboard, and cue mixes. According to Skaff they have been working flawlessly. "They sound very open and true, with no colouration," he says. "The reason I switched was that the amps I was using did not have enough front-end headroom and

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France - Adamson's European Division DV2, is exhibiting Adamson products at this year's SIEL Expo taking place at Porte de Versailles, Paris (12-15 February). The company will exhibit the entire Adamson Y-Axis and Spektrix line arrays as well as Adamson's newest products, the M-15 and T-21 in Hall 5 booth J30.

In addition, DV2 technical director Didier Dal Fitto, technical and engineering support Pascal Guillaume and Adamson CEO and head engineer Brock Adamson, will be giving a presentation on the T-21 Sub and it's newly developed SD-21 Driver, which will include a comparative presentation on Adamson's Driver technology. The presentation takes place on 14 February at 6pm.

(Lee Baldock)

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USA - Meyer Sound has announced that the company's on-site, state-of-the-art, 57+-seat theatre has been named 'The Pearson Theatre' in memory of the late Don Pearson, sound reinforcement pioneer and co-founder of touring sound company Ultra Sound.

Pearson, who passed away unexpectedly on 9 January 2006, spent the last year and a half of his life at Meyer Sound as a staff technical seminar instructor after being a major Meyer Sound customer and collaborator with John and Helen Meyer since the company's founding in 1979. Pearson was renowned for his unflagging pursuit of quality in live sound and his fervor for educating the industry about the lessons learned from his years of experience and exploration.

The Pearson Theatre is a unique venue constructed for the multiple purposes of supporting Meyer Sound's high-level professional seminar program, providing a real-world laborator

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USA / France - In an effort to provide its systems integrators, consultants and customers in France with the most effective sales, service and support available, Biamp has appointed Audiopole as its exclusive distributor in France. According to Ian Hodgkinson, Western European Regional Sales Manager, Biamp Systems, the appointment of Audiopole reflects their solid performance record in the marketplace and their ability to consistently deliver high-quality customer service and support to the professional installed market.

"We feel very confident about selecting Audiopole as the exclusive distributor across France," Hodgkinson said. "The combination of an excellent sales and support team with their network of dealers covering all areas of the market convinced me that they would be a great partner. After meeting with Bruno Bertrand and his team, we were very impresse

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France - The audio industry now has a programme to ensure the proper functionality of 100 Mb or Gigabit Ethernet components when designing, installing or operating an EtherSound network. End users, consultants, contractors, system technicians, etc. will be able to look for the EtherSound Tested logo on manufacturers' packing, product literature and websites, or to visit the EtherSound website for a list of EtherSound Tested Ethernet components.

EtherSound is an Ethernet-compliant standard for distribution of PCM digital audio: EtherSound networks are implemented using third-party Ethernet components such as Category 5e or 6 cables, fibre optic cables, connectors, switches and media converters. The EtherSound Tested programme will verify the performance of these and other Ethernet components.

"We've established this programme at the request of two groups," explains Ji

  1. Meyer's MICA lends big kick to Little Britain
  2. Allen & Heath appoints European sales manager
  3. Colorado Springs Gets a Meyer Makeover
  4. Madonna at the Grammys with Sennheiser
  5. Interalia & T.G. Baker join forces for CalMac
  6. Meyer Sound Returns to Rolex Gala
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