Sound

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UK - The first Stage Electrics Tradeshow held at RADA on Tuesday 16 May was a success, the company reports, with a wide range of products on show from industry leading manufacturers.

Stage Electrics worked with Matt Prentice and colleagues at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art to present the tradeshow in the Vanbrugh Theatre.The event attracted a 60% increase in visitor numbers compared to the company's open day at its branch in Long Lane in May 2005.

Stage Electrics' major suppliers were on hand to demonstrate their latest products. Exhibiting at the show were Martin, Rosco, Zero88, Strand, ETC, Selecon, Mackie, Sennheiser, Le Maitre & Pulsar. The new Limelight XS-2000 Xenonspot together with Prolyte, Teclumen and Apollo products were presented by Stage Electrics business development managers Andy Elsegood and Ed Gamble.

Matt Prentice Head of Lighting Design at RADA says:&qu

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USA - Grammy Award-winners Gorillaz pulled off the seemingly impossible task of performing the band's multi-platinum Demon Days album from start to finish during a five-night run at Harlem's world famous Apollo Theatre. The nightly Demon Days Live show, which featured more than 80 guest musicians from the album, was a huge technical challenge, but with the assistance of Sennheiser and the company's worldwide relationship manager, Paul Hugo, was a remarkable success.

Sennheiser supplied a large quantity of wired and wireless microphone systems, as well as IEM setups for the band and their many guest artists. Performers included Ike Turner, MF Doom, De La Soul, Neneh Cherry, Pharcyde's Bootie Brown, Roots Manuva, Martina Topley Bird, Dennis Hopper, Happy Mondays' Shaun Ryder, the 25-piece Harlem Gospel Choir, the 25-member Boys and Girls Choir of Harlem, plus over a

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USA - May is undoubtedly the busiest time of year for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Radio Network, with a month-long schedule of talk shows and qualifying day shows leading up to the Indianapolis 500 race during the Memorial Day weekend. At this year's ninetieth running of the Indy 500, the IMS Radio Network will once again be fielding all-analogue Lectrosonics UM250C transmitters, UDR200C receivers and ALP600 directionalantennas to bring "the Greatest Spectacle in Racing" to listeners worldwide.

"We use the 250 series belt-packs, with the antenna extended and mounted on the reporters' headsets. So we get an elevated ground plane, of sorts, by putting it on top of their heads," explains chief engineer Tom Allebrandi, whose TA Electronics firm also had a hand in installing the track's two-and-a-half-mile-long A/V systems. Six sets of Lectrosonics wireless tr

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UK - Entertainment lighting supplier White Light have announced its support of the 2006 Theatre Engineering and Architecture Conference, to be held in London on June 11-13, immediately prior to the 2006 ABTT Trade Show at which White Light will be exhibiting.

Last held in 2002, the Theatre Engineering and Architecture Conference brings together the many practitioners involved in creating successful performance spaces, from initial brief and financial planning right through to completion of the facility and opening it on time. Over two days, the conference will hold discussions on everything from designing a proscenium arch zone that will satisfy lighting designers, sound designers, directors, performers and the audience to the changes in culture that new arts buildings can bring.

White Light's involvement with the Conference reflects its continuing expansi

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South Korea - Professional AV installation company Sound Solution Co Ltd has recently been appointed as the official distributor in Korea for professional audio manufacturer LA Audio. Founded in 1999, Sound Solution has experience installing in many venues from churches, hotels and conference centres right through to the major broadcasting organisations. Import manager, Jessy Jin explains: "LA Audio incorporates a wide range of products which complement our current range very well."

Sales and marketing director for LA Audio, Luke Baldry, adds: "Sound Solution is a very professional outfit which is exactly the type of distribution outlet we want representing LA Audio. We look forward to working together with Sound Solution to help expand the LA Audio brand into Korea."

Also in Sound Solution's product palette are brands such as Numark, Wharfedale, Sommer, TO

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UK - PLASA, the Professional Lighting and Sound Association, has announced that the next meeting of its Manufacturers Forum will take place on Tuesday 18 July at the DTI Conference Centre in central London. The Forum, which was established in 2005 to allow PLASA to better understand the issues faced by its manufacturing members, is open to any member company who wishes to attend.

One of the dominant themes of the first few Forums has been that of manufacturers feeling the squeeze with legislation getting ever more complex and price competition intensifying. The twin directives of WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Regulation) and RoHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substances Regulations) - two new Environmental Regulations about to be implemented into UK law - are likely to have a major impact on manufacturers.

As part of its strategy for the next 12 months, PLASA is

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France - One of France's leading tourist attractions the Astérix Parc, located 30km north of Paris, has just reopened its gates for this year's season. The Parc celebrates France's most enduring cartoon character, Astérix the Gaul and his cohorts, and this year for the first time, all major performers will be equipped with DPA miniature microphones.

The Astérix Parc, owned by European leisure group Grévin & Cie, placed an initial order for 44 DPA 4088 miniature cardioid headband mics for its live shows, with six 4061 miniature omnidirectionals which are being concealed inside performers' costumes. Technical staff from the Parc will also undergo training at DPA's premises in Copenhagen later in the year.

A combination of the DPA minatures' size, range of mounting accessories, sound quality and reliability were all factors when it came to selecting th

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Germany / Bulgaria - German amplifier manufacturer Camco has appointed a new agent in Bulgaria, and is already delivering its first orders under the distribution agreement. Based in Sofia, THC Ltd is one of the biggest professional sound rental companies in Eastern Europe, with the ability to handle outdoor shows for up to 50,000 people. As well as being distributor for Coemar and SGM, THC also designs its own PA systems, which have been used by many international artists touring in Bulgaria, and has a substantial track record in audio installations in all types of public places.

THC itself is already using Camco's Vortex 6 amplifiers as part of its rental inventory, and, within weeks of its appointment as distributor for the line, has sold its first units to another rental company Sound Max. "Like us, they appreciate the light weight of the amps," says Radolina Kraste

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Germany/ U.A.E. - Klotz Digital AG, the inventor of audio and control networking solutions for the audio and media Industry, announced today that it has joined forces with CG Group Dubai, a well known distributor of integrated high-tech solutions in the Middle East. CG Group Dubai will with immediate effect offer service and support and sell Klotz Digital complete product range, including Varizone - the digital Public Address and Voice Evacuation System as well as Klotz Digital's wide range of mixing consoles and audio routers for the broadcast industry in GCC countries, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan.

"This strategic alliance provides tremendous opportunities for both companies. It will facilitate us to expand and ensure our market presence in this region, while CG Group seized the chance to round off its product range for the security market and breaks into the promising

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UK - By a chance meeting, Javier Weyler went from being an audio engineer tobecome the drummer for one of the biggest bands in the world! Now he's brought his audio expertise into the Stereophonics fold so that both he and the band have become big sE mic users.

Javier Weyler was born and raised in Venezuela and was surrounded by music from a very early age. He started playing drums at the age of 13 and spent nine years in a band releasing two albums. In 2000 he moved to the UK to further his knowledge about audio engineering and started working at Sahara Sound as an assistant engineer. It was there that alife-changing meeting took place.

"I ended up meeting Kelly and Rich from Stereophonics," he says. "They came to the studio to work on demos for You Gotta Go There To Come Back. We became friends and I ended up playing percussion on that album. In March

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USA - What a difference three years makes. Back at the beginning of 2003, only the most hardcore of hip-hop fans knew who Kanye West was. West had been working for years on ideas and songs for what would eventually become 2004's Multi-Platinum breakout album, The College Dropout, but had encountered difficulty getting the project fully realized. He had already cemented a solid reputation as a producer with a Midas touch for making hits, which he first established at Roc-A-Fella records in 2001 with the hit singles Izzo (Hova) and Takeover off of Jay-Z's smash album The Blueprint, and he has since produced major hits from Ludacris, Talib Kweli, Dilated Peoples, Alicia Keys, and far too many others to list. But his own music was not known.

However, by the time the 2005 Grammy awards rolled around, West had broken through and was on top of the pile with 10 nominations and th

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Canada - Early April saw Winnipeg's Pantages Playhouse Theatre taken over by CBC's Comedy Festival. The proscenium theatre, built by Alexander Pantages, was originally opened in 1914 as a vaudeville house. The Pantages seats 922 in the orchestra, 467 in the balcony and another 86 in balcony boxes. The original house sound installations made up of mostly Bose Acousticmass speakers, which were replaced with Adamson Y-Axis line speakers for the duration of the event.

The week-long installation was provided by Audio Works Productions based in Winnipeg. The set up and rehearsals took three days during which FOH sound engineer Lyle Dick was looking for "clarity and off axis rejection" - important qualities for the spoken word. Lyle Dick added: "The Adamson Y-Axis system is perfect for it and that is why I used it for years for all the film premieres in Hollywood."<

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USA - The JFK School of Government at Harvard University has seen a recent audio system upgrade at one of its primary lecture halls. Adtech Systems, an AV systems integrator, installed a new zoned, mix-minus microphone/loudspeaker system that improves the ability of everyone in the classroom to both speak and be clearly heard. The project was headed by Adtech's design engineer, Michael Merrill.

While a similar system had been in use since the hall was last upgraded in 1990, it was not sophisticated and often malfunctioned. The school's directors decided a new sound system was a high priority, to allow students to focus on the dialogue and discussion processes, rather than constantly dealing with the mechanics of audio technology.

The focal point of the hall's new audio system architecture is a SymNet DSP Audio Matrix from Symetrix. The digital signal processing, mixing and rou

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France - At the AES in Paris (May 20 - 23), Sennheiser exhibited its professional wireless range and explained how complex multi-channel audio transmission in the age of digital TV can be achieved successfully. Among the products on display at the 120th exhibition and conference of the Audio Engineering Society was Sennheiser's new SK 5212 bodypack transmitter, as well as the SKM 5200 handheld transmitter, the new 3250 wireless monitoring system and the NET 1 network system. Products from Sennheiser's renowned 5000 Series allow professional users to safely navigate the frequency constraints brought about by DVB-T, and achieve frequency agility and transmission reliability in multi-channel productions.

Sennheiser's star performer at the AES was the SK 5212, one of the smallest bodypack transmitters that offers sound designers and broadcasting professionals the opportunity to conc

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USA - Representing the latest addition to QSC's WideLine family of sound reinforcement components, the new Installation Line Array (ILA) has now been released. The new series is ideally suited for nightclubs, multipurpose theatres, houses of worship, or any other venue seeking professional quality in a lightweight, unobtrusive package.

"One of the main reasons for developing the ILA is to make true line array performance accessible to a far broader range of applications," says QSC's director of product management, Gerry Tschetter, explaining the underlying goal driving the product introduction. "Most line array systems today are manufactured for the touring sound market, which means that overall, system costs lie well beyond the means of many facilities that could gain direct benefits from the technology. By focusing on fixed installation needs with a moulded encl

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UK - PAI and sister company Lighting Technology Projects (LTP) have completed the design, specification and commissioning of an integrated sound and AV solution and specification of interior and exterior architectural lighting at the Opera House Casino, Scarborough.

The venue is one of the most successful independently owned casinos in the country, and is a complete new build on the footprint of the former old Royal Opera House Theatre, which had a colourful history dating back to the 19th century.

After many years of dereliction, the old building was demolished in 2004 and replaced with a new construction designed by architects Frame International. Frame also created the interior design and asked PAI onboard to work closely alongside them on the specification of a complete technical infrastructure.

PAI's Paul Adams, LTP's Terry Reeves and Frame International collaborated to

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USA The 2005-2006 touring seasons have seen artists including Foo Fighters, Weezer, Maroon 5, Jack Johnson and Pearl Jam out on the road using Rat Sound Systems' legendary sound system components. All of those major tours had another thing in common: each system had speaker control and processing done using the rugged and reliable XTA DP428 Audio Management System. After years of comparison testing by Rat's technicians, their choice is clearly the DP428 digital speaker controller.

We use the DP428's on almost all the Rat tours," says systems and tours director Jon Monson. "In fact, we are presently planning on upgrading all of our XTA DP226 units for DP428's in our house systems, and we are adding DP428's for all of our wedge amp racks in our monitor systems. We use them almost exclusively for speaker control, and all of our house systems utilise a slight Rat modificat

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Germany - Nearly 3000 invited guests attended an evening gala extravaganza at the Festival Hall in Frankfurt, invited by the SEB Bank to celebrate its 150th anniversary.

Organisers of this major corporate event were keen to provide a highly efficient, high-quality and yet discreet sound reinforcement system that would do justice to such a splendid occasion. The system had to meet a range of different demands, including the chairman's speech, a guest presenter and the Big Band and the Musical Show, as well as a Top 40 band and DJ. All signals had to be transmitted in the highest possible quality, and the client wanted a powerful dance-floor sound as well as even sound distribution throughout the entire hall, which was up to 90 metres long.

The job of drawing up the sound concept was given to Knut Winkler, one of the specialists at the Frankfurt branch of Ambion GmbH. His choice

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France - At the AES Convention in Paris, Neumann presented an entire series of new products: Solution-D, the Neumann digital microphone family, is expanding. Following the lead of the D-01, the digital large diaphragm microphone with 15 different directional characteristics, the well-known, successful miniature microphone series 180 is now entering the digital.

With the new digital models KM 183 D, KM 184 D and KM 185 D, three different directional characteristics are being offered initially; four others will follow in 2007. The modular construction of the new microphones permits the passive omnidirectional, cardioid and supercardioid capsules to be combined with the KM D output stage.

In the microphone, the proven Neumann A/D converter from the D-01 is located immediately next to the capsule. With a dynamic range far exceeding that of the capsule, the converter allows optimal

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UK - RF Specialist Trantec will showcase its internationally award-winning UHF S6000 radio microphone range at the up-coming Broadcast Live! Show, 20-22 June, Earls Court, London on stand: C 54.

Recognised for their innovative approach Trantec's team based at their south London HQ,design practical and reliable RF solutions for the most challenging broadcast applications. Ideal on location or in the studio says the company, the S6000 range can be supplied in either 8-channel, 2-channel or single channel variants, complete with advanced beltpack and handheld designs.

The 8 channel receiver is easily configured through an intuitive user interface running on its own built in PC . Maximising operations, its miniature transmitter only uses one AA battery to run for 8 hours. Plus its compact profile and lightweight design scores highly both on a practical and aesthetic level.

Perfe

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UK - Lincoln City Football Club played host to the Lincoln Live Event held on Saturday 20 May. The 15,000 strong crowd were entertained by a line-up which included Westlife, Lee Ryan, Liberty X and X-factor finalists, Journey South.

Event sound was supplied by Nottingham-based Merlin Productions using the Ethos line array from Logic System Pro Audio. The rig comprised of 30 VA enclosures, 12 B2 bass cabinets with eight SB2 handling the sub-bass. The front-fill role was covered admirably by the new ML-8 enclosures and on-stage monitoring by the LM-20 series, say Logic System.

Organiser Liz Hobbs, of Liz Hobbs Event Group, commented: "We use Logic Systems Ethos rigs on all of our racecourse shows. We particularly like the consistent high quality sound. In fact, on the night we had another five shows confirmed, all based on the success of Lincoln Live, in which Ethos played

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Germany - d&b audiotechnik has launched the latest addition to its monitor range, the new M4 stage monitor. The M4 is a visually discreet, 2-way high performance stage monitor employing an integrated 15"/1.3" exit coaxial driver with a CD horn and passive crossover network.

In its standard 50° x 70° dispersion configuration it provides a precisely defined coverage area on stage. The M4 can optionally be operated in 2-way active mode by changing the d&b D12 amplifier's configuration without any modifications to the loudspeaker. For its compact dimension and mere 20kg (44lb) it produces 138 or 140dB SPL, when driven in passive or active mode respectively.

The latest firmware for the d&b D12 and E-PAC amplifiers now contains the tricks mentioned above, a dedicated MAX configuration for passive operation of MAX or MAX12 cabinets. The "linear" configurat

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USA - Shure endorser Brad Paisley, who walked into this year's Academy of Country Music Awards at the MGM Grand with nominations in six categories, went home the night's biggest winner with three wins. His latest album, Time Well Wasted was named Album of the Year, and When I Get Where I'm Going, a track that pairs the country superstar with the legendary Dolly Parton, scored dual honours as Vocal Event of the Year and Video Event of the Year.

Paisley, who opened the show with a grand entry from the rear of the hall performing with a UHF-R/SM58 wireless system from Shure, was but one of many Shure endorsers appearing at this year's 41st annual event, the third to be held in Vegas after departing LA. Among others present who maintain a place on Shure's roster of allied artists was Sara Evans, who picked up a very big win as Top Female Vocalist, and performed

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UK - Gavin Pearce is the FOH engineer for James Brown's live show and is currently touring the world with the Godfather of Soul. As well as having a stack of gear in his studio, Gavin uses the ultimate portable interface to record each show, the Focusrite Saffire.

With a musical upbringing Pearce was destined to end up with a career in sound but at the age of 18 when he took his first sound job he could have hardly dared to hope to be doing what he's doing now.

"I wasn't quite sure what to do with an insert at that point," he laughs, "but one day a week turned into two which turned into seven and here we are! I have toured with several Broadway shows and music acts. The most notable are James Brown, Three Mo' Tenors, Cook, Dixon and Young and John Legend."

Pearce is already a huge Focusrite fan. "I buy Focusrite gear because I like the way it sounds.

  1. LUCAS Performer from HK Audio
  2. VME adds GL2800s to hire stock
  3. d&b goes to college
  4. PLASA AGM - Last Chance to Book
  5. DiGiCo's War of the Worlds
  6. Electro-Voice's processor makes its debut
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