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UK - With a champagne reception at chic London venue the Hedges & Butler Members' Club, London PA rental company Systems Etc celebrated its first decade.

Since it was founded in 1996, Systems Etc has increased its turnover 200-fold, expanded its workforce from two to 20, and acquired nearly £2 million of hire stock. The company's commercial trajectory has been determined by acquisition, to date three sound rental operators have been absorbed into the group portfolio. Systems Etc owner Bernard Mani says he's aiming for a 30% share of the UK's pro-audio rental market.

The origins of Systems Etc date back to 1990 when Bernard Mani, still at school, began building loudspeakers and using them on student productions. Leaving college at 18, equipped with an engineering qualification, he headed off to Spain. The scene there was one big party, and Mani's response was to put toget

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Canada - Rental sound company P.A. Plus Productions recently provided a live audio system for Just Give Me Jesus, an event featuring Anne Graham Lotz, daughter of renowned evangelist Billy Graham, at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto.

The Just Give Me Jesus Series is a collection of unique events designed to be a life-changing revival for women. The most recent Just Give Me Jesus event took place twice over the weekend of September 29, drawing an average attendance of 17,000 per event.

Because the stage was located in the centre of the arena, John Lacina of P.A. Plus designed an "in-the-round" loudspeaker system that included 72 Vertec VT4889 full-size line array elements and 32 VT4887 compact models. This gave a total of 104 full-range Vertec enclosures in the system design, which was carefully formatted in co-ordination with four massive video p

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UK - One of the UK's most historic stately homes - Hatfield House in Hertfordshire - has opened the Riding School Conference Centre in its magnificent grounds, complete with a QSC sound reinforcement system. The Old Palace at Hatfield dates back to 1485 and the Jacobean Hatfield House to 1607, celebrating its 400th anniversary next year.

The Riding School itself is an early Victorian building - but the new facilities show high quality refurbishment at its best, as designed by architects Brooks Murray. Today its use will be multipurpose - hosting a wide range of events from conferences to fashion shows and wedding receptions. The main atrium can accommodate up to 200 comfortably, with adjoining breakout/meeting rooms.

The contract for the audio visual installation was awarded to Hammonds AVS Ltd, who imaginatively deployed QSC AcousticDesign AD-S282 and AD-S52T loudspeakers, bo

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The Netherlands - In Holland, the club Paard van Troje in Den Haag has just taken delivery of two new Soundcraft analogue mixing consoles for the smaller of its two venues. Although nominally a pop venue, the club's sound engineer Peter Kerkvliet explains that "our productions vary from hardcore, punk, metal, reggae, hiphop, singer-songwriter, americana to multimedia, presentations, debates, standup-comedy, theatre, lectures and so on. About 50 per cent of our activities are dance events."

With such a variety of presentation, one of the main reasons for his choice of Soundcraft MH3 and MH2 consoles was their versatility. "Often we do monitor-mixing from the front of house position, or FOH-mixing from the monitor position. Because of the dual-purpose set-up possible with both the MH2 and MH3, we have the option to swap desks. In most cases, the MH3 is used out fron

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UK - Clear-Com a Vitec Group brand, the global leader of trusted intercom solutions, today announced the appointment of Jake Dodson as vice president of product management for Clear-Com Communications Systems. Dodson will be driving Clear-Com's technology strategy in Cambridge, UK and in Emeryville, California.

Dodson has spent more than 15 years managing successful product lines for telecommunications networks, and has brought over 15 new products to market from concept to production. As the founder of a telecommunications start up, as well as director of product management for two Silicon Valley-based companies, Dodson offers a wealth of executive experience to drive Clear-Com's strategic product development.

"We are excited to make this announcement, as Dodson brings a tremendous level of product management expertise to the Clear-Com brand," said Matt Danilowicz,

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UK - AKG Microphones has linked up with myspace.com to promote its Unsigned Heroes 07 Battle of the Bands competition, which launched this month at Music Live in Birmingham.

The competition now has its own dedicated myspace page, making it easier for bands already promoting themselves through the website to log in and upload their demos.

Under the banner 'This Ain't A Competition - It's A Battle!', AKG Microphones is encouraging up-and-coming bands to enter the competition, which could win them a day in a recording studio with a named producer and the opportunity to play at a major festival in 2007. All bands have to do is submit an MP3 of their music for the judges' consideration. Bands must have a minimum of three performers and all songs must be original compositions, not cover versions of another artist's song.

AKG's Amanda Chester says: "We know there's a we

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Germany - The new Berlin Hauptbahnhof is right in the heart of the historical 800-year-old city. The German capital's new central train station is an architectural masterpiece, and at over 900 feet long and as tall as a skyscraper, has caused more than a few awestruck passers-by to liken it to a "Cathedral of Rail Traffic". The long structure features a glass-lined outer hull that lets visitors see both the German Chancellery and the Reichstag buildings. The numbers are as impressive as the view: covering more than 70,000sq.m, and capable of hosting 2,000 trains and 300,000 commuters a day.

The opening celebration started with Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel addressing an exclusive crowd of 600 invited guests and went from there with performances from popular German bands, a multimedia mega-event titled Symphony of Lights - Welcome to Berlin, specially illumina

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UK - Digidesign and Marquee Audio recently helped production manager Steve Watson to fulfil an ambitious project at The Sage, Gateshead. Entitled Anthem for Northumberland the project was a full length film, with musical soundtrack, aimed at recording an impression of Northumberland as seen and experienced by the young people of the county.

The unique musical composition was created and arranged by students from three Northumberland High Schools, and one special school working with 13 musicians, and The Sage Gateshead trainees. It was performed live by Northern Sinfonia and many young musicians at The Sage.

Operating under the aegis of the Arts Council's Creative Partnerships Northumberland, the enterprise was backed by musician, producer and orchestrator Nitin Sawnhey, who provided artistic direction. This is the latest of a number of creative workshops supported by Ni

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USA - With sophisticated AV technology assuming an expanded and increasingly creative role in contemporary worship, Meyer Sound will respond at the upcoming Worship Facilities Expo (WFX) in Dallas with a high-profile showcase of industry-leading audio systems that have found broad acceptance in churches of all sizes and types. On the exhibition floor at the Dallas Convention Center on November 9 and 10 (conference proceedings begin on November 8), the Meyer Sound booth (709) will spotlight several new loudspeaker products and introduce Constellation electroacoustic architecture to the worship facilities community. Nearby, a large meeting hall will provide an appropriate setting for full-system demonstrations of the eyebrow-raising M'elodie ultracompact high-power curvilinear array.

Those who have yet to experience M'elodie will have the opportunity on Thursday, November 9, when

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Ireland - The Eccles is situated at the foot of the bay in Glengariff, Co. Cork, with far reaching views over the Atlantic and nearby Whiddy Island. Run as a family owned business, the hotel has provided accommodation for many seasoned travellers as well as extending formal welcomes to the many transatlantic Cruise liners that make Glengariff a port of call to introduce the lucky vacationers to a taste of the real Ireland, via the amazing scenery and internationally accepted hospitality.

Amongst all this, the hotel has for many years been the focus and hub of a thriving entertainment facility, with a full function suite and hall catering for private parties, large-scale weddings, concerts and conferences. Whilst proving successful, over time the hotel has suffered from noise pollution problems culminating in a recent problem that finally had to be addressed, when the new and bri

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USA - As the season started, the Atlanta Falcons had asmall problem: how to realistically recreate the noisy game day conditionsof the Georgia Dome at their training headquarters north of the city inFlowery Branch. The answer, a compact Danley Sound Labs speaker systemcomprised of SH-50 full-range and TH-115 subwoofer units, proved not only tobe a powerful solution, but also, a surprisinglymobile one.

Mike Hedden, of Danley Sound Labs, explains that he initially demonstrated theDanley Sound Labs system, which is manufactured in Gainesville, Georgia,after a friend who works at the Falcons' facility told him that the team wasrenting equipment to simulate crowd noise during practice. "The old systemwas cumbersome and time consuming to setup but most importantly wasn'tsupplying enough 'oomph' to simulate the sound of a crowd of 72,000 people,"relates Hedden.

After settin

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USA - Scott Robbins has been promoted to the position of senior vice president of worldwide sales for Crown International. Robbins previously held the position of vice president of worldwide sales for Crown.

Making the announcement was Mark Graham, president of Crown. "Scott's promotion to senior vice president underscores his great value to the executive team at Crown. Scott has done an outstanding job of leading the efforts of our sales and customer service teams over the past several years and has truly earned this recognition," says Graham.

Robbins has over 17 years of experience with Crown, starting in the service department in 1987 and working his way up the ranks through progressively more responsible positions in sales. During that time, Robbins temporarily joined Bose Professional where he worked in sales management for a few years before returning to Crown.

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UK - Vision Systems has announced that its PA/VA brand - Millbank - is initiating a major product development strategy aiming to launch a new series of Millbank products in 2007.

With the legislation re: RHOS and WEEE coming into force from July 2006 an assessment of the current products confirms that the best course of action is to withdraw products that do not meet these requirements. The costs of meeting these requirements was so substantial that Millbank has taken the brave step of concentrating the time of its engineers on its future developments rather than re-building the old products to meet these legislative issues.

Millbank will fulfill its duty to all its end users with their present technologies and is therefore committing to support these systems for up to seven years.

Millbank's sales director, Neil Voce says: "We're very excited about the new technologies

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USA - For the 13th consecutive year, Audio-Technica has supported the Country Music Association (CMA) Awards by providing an extensive selection of vocal and instrument microphones for its annual awards show. The 40th Annual CMA Awards aired live for the first time in 5.1-channel surround sound on November 6 on the ABC Television Network from Nashville's Gaylord Entertainment Center and featured over 200 hard-wired and wireless Audio-Technica microphones. From backline vocal and instrument mics to frontline wireless systems for leading country artists such as Kenny Chesney, Jason Aldean, and Miranda Lambert, Audio-Technica was chosen for this star-studded live broadcast.

Hosted for the third year by the multi-platinum duo Brooks & Dunn, the CMA Awards presentation is recognised as Country Music's Biggest NightTM, and represents the pinnacle of achievement for those involved in c

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UK - Yamaha's Stagepas PA system has been awarded the coveted title of 'Best PA Product' at the 2006 MIA (Music Industry Association) awardsceremony held on 3 October at the Savoy Hotel, London.

Designed to meet the increasing multi-use demands of a variety of venues andinstitutions, Yamaha's affordable portable Public Address System (Stagepas 300)delivers Yamaha's professional sound quality in a compact and convenientportable system that can be set-up and operated by anyone with little or notechnical knowledge.

The Music Industry Association has a wide reaching membership covering all areasof the musical instrument trade in the UK including retailers, wholesalers andmanufacturers and many of it's members are in fierce competition with each otheron a day-to-day basis and due to the diversity of the Association's membershipthe award is a true reflection of the popularity and sa

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Germany - One of the largest companies in Germany providing technical services in the event business, Satis & Fy recently took delivery of an X-Line and Tour Grade amplifiers from Electro-Voice. They were so convinced by the performance the new combination that, after receiving the commission to handle Simply Red's 2006 tour of Germany, they had little hesitation in taking them along.

Simply Red FOH Engineer Gary Bradshaw has worked with Britannia Row's X-Line on many occasions in the past; for this outing, the task of satisfying-or, rather, exceeding-his expectations fell to system technicians Alexander Lewin, Stefan Harazd and Paul Wunderlich.

It would appear they succeeded. Certainly the critics were impressed, with Christoph Klemp euphorically declaring: "The sound system was controlled perfectly: every nuance of Chris de Margery's flute and Ian Kirkham's saxophone so

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Germany - In Germany, the huge Stadtkirchenfest attracted more than 10,000 members of different Christian organisations to Berlin's Alexander-Platz. With music, speeches and religious services, the extensive festival programme represented an excellent test for Nexo's new Geo D system, and its success was enough to persuade Berlin PA company PAM/events to invest in its own system.

Over ten thousand people attended the ecumenical Stadtkirchenfest in Berlin. The festival's motto was "Auf gute Nachbarschaft" (loosely translated as "here's to good neighbourly relations") and with that in mind, 170 Catholic, Protestant, independent Christian and Orthodox groups and communities as well as welfare organisations and action groups gathered in the square between the Church of St. Mary (Marienkirche) and the so-called 'Red City Hall' to inform visitors abou

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USA - The 2006 Tony Award winner for best musical, Jersey Boys is currently Broadway's biggest success story, one year on from its first previews and still a sell-out. The show tells the story of Franki Valli and The Four Seasons, playing to highly critical and lively audiences in Valli's home town where he remains a local hero. Directed by Des McAnuff, the show's music is by Bob Gaudio with lyrics by Bob Crewe, and features sound design by Steve Kennedy. The sound system includes a J-Type Live production console, supplied by Masque Sound, operated by Julie Randolph, with Dave Shepherd and Mike Terpstra on the full-time sound team.

The show is above all a rock show, with the band constantly moving on the stage amidst the high-pace action. Sound operator Julie Randolph explains some of the musical challenges involved: "It's a loud show, but the acoustic image is const

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Worldwide - Sting is currently promoting his new album, Songs from the Labyrinth, with a series of performances in major cities such as London, New York, Berlin and Paris, with DPA microphones accompanying him along the way.

DPA 4023 compact cardioids were chosen by Sting's sound engineer Donal Hodgson, who had initially purchased a pair of 4006 omni-directional mics for the artist's mobile studio setup, Steerpike Studios, to record Songs from the Labyrinth. This is a venture into new musical territory for Sting, who has collaborated with lute player Edin Karamazov to work with the music of Elizabethan songwriter John Dowland, court lutenist to James 1 in 1612.

"I had always considered DPA to be more of a classical music microphone," explains Hodgson. "This was why, when we started the original demo sessions for Songs from the Labyrinth, I t

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USA - Dolby Laboratories, Inc. todayannounced that the recently constructed First Baptist Church in Eugene,Oregon has become the first house of worship in the world to adopt the newDolby Lake Processor. Attracted by the extended power and features of thedigital loudspeaker processor, the First Baptist Church integrated two DolbyLake Processors into its state-of-the-art audio system. Some of the featuresintroduced in the new Dolby Lake Processor include the unique portalfront-panel interface, advanced converter design, Iso-Float groundisolation, LimiterMax true-RMS limiting, and flexible hardwareconfiguration options.

Kyle Anderson, CEO, Anderson Group International (AGI) and lead audiodesigner on the project, reports that construction delays at First BaptistChurch turned out to be very fortuitous. "We were lucky construction waspostponed because the new Dolby Lake Processor

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USA - On October 19, the much-anticipated international communications standard E1.17 Architecture for Control Networks (commonly known as ACN) received certification from ANSI (the American National Standards Institute), achieving the last needed step in its full ratification process. The Board of Directors of ESTA (Entertainment Services and Technology Association) approved ACN on October 5, 2006. The Control Protocols Working Group and the Technical Standards Committee of ESTA approved the new standard on July 15, 2006.

Like DMX, ACN allows equipment from different manufacturers to operate together and function seamlessly within the same control network. Unlike DMX, ACN works over Ethernet, using Internet standards, greatly increasing opportunities for product innovation and performance. ACN has already arrived in lighting control systems. Manufacturers like ETC debuted ACN-e

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Poland - The 56th Miss World Final took place in the Polish capital of Warsaw's Palace of Culture on 30th September. This was a significant event for Poland, as it was the first of East Europe's former communist countries to host Miss World and attracted a recorded television audience of round two billion. Polish rental company Fotis Sound provided an extensive amount of PA equipment for the evening, including a DiGiCo D5 Live digital mixing console and XTA digital signal processing.

"We received the technical specifications from Plus4Audio," explains Fotis Sound's Piotr Majewski. "Initially, different consoles were specified for both front of house and monitors, with an L'Acoustics loudspeaker system controlled by XTA processors. However, we proposed a D5 Live for Mark Ballard's front of house position and a PM5D for monitors, to which they agreed. They ne

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France - DPA Microphones is pleased to announce the launch of a new company, Audio², to market, distribute and service its products in France. The company is a joint venture between the manufacturer, Didier Rupin, who has been involved with DPA microphones in France since 1992, and Scène de Nuit, an existing pro audio dealer who will provide the company infrastructure such as shipping, service, telephone reception and sales staff. Audio² will be formally launched at November's Satis 2006 exhibition in Paris.

Situated in Joué-les-Tours, central France, Audio² is headed up by managing director Rupin, who has long experience in distributing top-of-the-range professional audio equipment in France. The company will work closely with a dealer network, connected by a dedicated extranet system, to cover the entire country as well as handling specialised markets including broa

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USA - Aviom has announced the appointment of Jeffrey Lange as new product specialist.

In his new role, Lange will expand sales efforts in the Midwest region, participating in industry events, training seminars and product demonstrations. A multi-faceted A/V systems designer, project manager, technician and trainer, Lange brings to Aviom his ability to effectively share technical information with individuals and groups alike.

"Jeff is a key addition to the Aviom team," says Ray Legnini, Aviom's senior product manager. "His rich background in technology and experience in various markets will enhance our presence in the music and house of worship industries and will be instrumental in boosting awareness about our technology."

Lange also offers extensive experience working with houses of worship, one of Aviom's key markets, as well as with complex design syst

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