Sound

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Europe - From September to December, George Michael toured arena venues throughout Europe. Celebrating the two and a half decades of his career in music, the 25 Live tour finished off in style, playing nine huge London gigs - four at Earls Court and five at Wembley Arena.

Throughout the tour, three DiGiCo consoles have been the beating heart of the audio system - a D5 Live on Front of House, another for George Michael's monitors and a D5T for band monitors.

Andy 'Baggy' Robinson has worked with George Michael for the past three years. He is the tour's head of sound and Michael's monitor engineer. He says: "Early on it was obvious this show was going to need a digital desk solution. With 15 in the band, including six backing vocals, plus the lead vocal who has very exacting monitoring requirements and needs large amounts of time devoting to him, it swiftly became ap

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USA - When it comes to spectacular shows, few can top these annual holiday season tours of the Eastern and Western USA. The Trans-Siberian Orchestra (TSO) just keeps getting bigger every year, along with their db/EV rigs. Starting in early November and running through the end of December, the show has grown into a phenomenon that becomes more elaborate every season. For the 2006 concerts, each tour hit the road with a powerhouse 64-box EV X-Array system. Blending a contemporary Christmas narrative with metal-tinged takes on festive classics, these events pack stadiums night after night.

Since visionary composer Paul O'Neill formed the TSO back in 1996, db Sound has brought their sound to legions of fans with EV's X-Array loudspeaker systems, providing a balance of rugged reliability and warm, musical reproduction that have made the db crew and their EV systems a fixture on the t

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UK - Following the successful launch of the MICROseries system of electronics and loudspeakers for background music and pro AV applications, the company has introduced a range of aesthetically complementary accessories for greater ease and flexibility of installation.

The first of these is the MFS, a floor stand for the MICROpoint and MICROline loudspeakers. The elegant stand is one metre tall and is designed for meeting rooms with glass or other forms of partition wall where fixed loudspeaker mounting is not possible or desirable. It is also suitable for semi-permanent installations requiring the loudspeaker positions to be movable. Using heavy steel construction for maximum rigidity and audio performance, the stand merges with the style of the loudspeakers and allows for vertical or horizontal loudspeaker mounting with full use of the pivot functions of the loudspeaker's built

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USA - Two brand-new rooms were recently commissioned at theCleveland Institute of Music: a recital hall and a state-of-the-art audiocontrol room. Theroom was designed by Dr. Peter D'Antonio, adjunct professor of acoustics atthe Institute, while the installed system was developed by Bruce Egre, headof the conservatory's audio recording degree program with an ATC (AcousticTransducer Company) 5.1 surround system as the cornerstone of the new soundsystem..

The two new rooms were added on to one of the existing buildings at the CIM,with the recital hall on the front and the control room on the back. "Thenew control room was designed and built from the ground up to beacoustically precise," says Egre. "We didn't have to try and fit a squarepeg into a round hole, so we were able to avoid some of the more commonpitfalls of re-fitting an existing space. The institute was ve

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Germany - One of the biggest solar module producers in Europe and operator of the world's most powerful solar plant, celebrated its 10th anniversary in December in Berlin, and Multisound of Erzhausen, Germany, was engaged with the technical planning and implementation of sound reinforcement, lighting, video, stage and rigging for the event.

Hangar 2 at Berlin Tempelhof airport, with a cantilevered main hall of about 5,000sq.m (55m wide, 98m long and 21m high) and an additional gallery (660sq.m) provided an appropriate location for the 3,000 invited guests. Claus Breidert and Martin Steinfels of Multisound set up the main sound reinforcement for the event, choosing K.M.E.'s PANO line array systems.

As the main stage was on the long side of the Hangar, the pre-planning made a separate PA for the side area necessary. In the following simulation with PANO Focus, the number of K.M.

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Sweden - Hotel Tylösand is situated in Halmstad on the western shore of the bay of Kattegat in Sweden. With 225 rooms and suites, 29 conference and breakout rooms, a 700 capacity convention hall with sea views and a total spa area of 2,000sq.m it hails itself as the largest conference and recreation centre in Northern Europe.

The hotel is owned by Per Gessle, of Swedish pop duo Roxette fame, and his business partner Björn Nordstrand. The pair have taken what was an old beach hotel and invested millions of Swedish Kronor to create an exclusive property that provides the best spa experience in Sweden.

With a musician at the helm, the audio installation was an extremely important part of the mix and, as equipment supplier New Musik's sales manager Håkan Sjöö explains, was based around a Turbosound loudspeaker system.

"While the hotel industry is not a new end-customer

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UK - Currently promoting their greatest hits collection, top British R&B band, The Sugababes recently played an impressive private gig at the 100 Club in London's Oxford Street, performing a whole set of numbers to an appreciative audience. To ensure that the girl band's performance had a real impact, Concert Sound (Luton), organising the show equipment, chose HK Audio's versatile new ConTour Array, hired in from London-based ConTour users, Euroscope TV and Picture it Facilities Ltd.

The company says that their ConTour Array bridges the gap between conventional PA systems and large touring line arrays. Whereas full-on line array rigs for smaller applications are not a cost-effective proposition, ConTour Array is the first of its kind to put the technology to more efficient use, and is applicable to a variety of sound reinforcement situations, including such medium-sized club gig

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UK - Building on a highly successful 2006, OHM, the British designer and manufacturer of professional loudspeakers and sound systems, is launching a series of new products into the market, available from January 2007. OHM offers tailored solutions for every application and environment from dance floor to ceiling, and its speaker ranges can be experienced in venues around the globe, including the Vienna State Opera House and Moscow Airport.

OHM's recently improved TRS front-of-house stacking system is continuing to be a huge success, say the company: used extensively for live events and favoured by many in the music industry, such as the Leeds-based band Soul Story, who toured with the system for 21 consecutive performances in December. Additional TRS models will be available in 2007. Other successes include the installation of BR speakers in a number of UK venues, including Birm

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UAE - Located beneath the luxury Fairmont Hotel, one of the most distinctive buildings in the rapidly-expanding urbanisation of Dubai, the 400 Club is an exclusive 700 capacity nightclub. Decorated in a classic French style, the club was originally scheduled to open in December 2005. But the owners delayed the opening by nearly a year in order to ensure everything was "perfect".

With a choice of music heavily influenced by the UK club scene, the audio system needed to be versatile and high quality, in order to complement the rest of the facilities, and XTA's DP series processors were the choice of local audio specialists Reference Audio.

"The décor features heavy drapes and furniture everywhere," says Reference Audio's Brent Davenport. "Our brief was that we could not fly any loudspeakers above the dance floor. Everything had to be in a place th

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Argentina - Recently on tour throughout South America, Colombian-born singer Shakira performed two sold-out shows at the Velez Sarsfield stadium in Buenos Aires. D.A.S. Aero powered line array systems were used to provide sound reinforcement for the more than 80,000 fans that filled the stadium.

For the South American leg of the tour, twin Digidesign Venue boards for FOH and Monitor mixes, effects, in-ear monitoring and microphones were supplied directly by Clair Bros. At the FOH console was engineer Brad Madix who has worked with bands such as Psychedelic Furs, Def Leppard, Queensryche and Marilyn Manson. For monitor engineer Vish Wadi, this was his second tour with Shakira after previously having worked with Sting, Mariah Carey, and Madonna. Buenos Aires based sound reinforcement company Teddy Goldman supplied the PA composed of 48 Aero 38A along with 18 Aero 28A powered line

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UK - Following a successful tender bid, the communication systems company ADC was recently contracted by easyJet airlines to provide a localised paging system for its check-in facilities at London Luton Airport.

London Luton Airport generally has a 'silent terminal' policy and discourages excessive paging calls in its buildings. ADC's brief was therefore to supply and install a powerful but localised paging facility, situated within the specified area of the airport's main check-in hall. Additionally the Airport's own public address and voice alarm had to maintain priority over this paging system.

ADC chose the highly efficient Community R.25-94TX loudspeakers for their power and tightly controlled dispersion characteristics. Four units were installed at high level, set for 100V line usage and driven by a TOA amplifier with a TOA paging panel. The TOA amplifier is also interfa

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UK / Belgium / Russia - Audica Professional, the Cambridge, UK-based audio system manufacturer, has appointed two new distributors, for the Benelux and Russian markets.

Located in Mechelen, M-Pro BeNeLux has been appointed exclusive distributor for Belgium and Luxembourg. Currently handling Community, Quad Industrial, Symetrix, MIPRO, KV2 Audio, Kind Audio, Australian Monitor, Xilica, Astatic, InOut and Violet Audio, M-Pro managing director, Mario Clabots, commented: "We are very happy to be appointed distributor for Audica Professional and feel this will be very complementary to our existing brands. The unique design and outstanding audio quality of MICROseries is perfect for our AV and BGM-focussed business where aesthetics, flexibility and ease of use are really important."

For distribution throughout the Russian Federation, Audica Professional has appointed Arsenal

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UK - Allen & Heath has recently added remote control capability to one of theEden Project's two iDR DSP systems, installed to manage audiodistribution in the Time of Gifts temporary ice rink.

The original installation took place in 2004 when Eden first launchedthe Time of Gifts concept, a series of seasonal events, which includedmusical performance and the creation of an ice rink for visitors toenjoy. An iDR-8 digital mixing processor was selected for its ability toprovide both sophisticated processing and mixing capabilities.

"The rink is a semi open air structure which posed two problems,"explains Steve Yelland from SPS Systems, who assists Eden with its soundand light requirements. "Firstly, the acoustics are difficult to manageas audio bounces off the ice and the sides of the dome. Secondly, therewere restrictions on the position of the speaker

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UK - Britannia Row Productions recently used their new Butterfly line array, from Italian manufacturer Outline, for the largest children's choir ever assembled. The Young Voices tour, which took place throughout December 2006, saw Brit Row use the Butterfly system at all of the UK venues on the tour.

The show is an assembled choir of 5,000 school children (and 8,000 in Manchester) who are celebrating music in schools; concerts were staged at the NIA Birmingham, Sheffield Arena, MEN Manchester, Belfast Odyssey and ended at The Royal Albert Hall in London.

System technicians were Davide Lombardi and Adam Smith, who say: "This system never [fails] to amaze us, we are really putting it through its paces from rock and Roll with artists such as the Foo Fighters to 5,000 kids in the Royal Albert Hall assembled as a choir, the dynamics are absolutely fabulous."

Maur

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USA - Aviom, the manufacturer of personal monitor mixing technology, is now shipping its "ground-breaking" new Pro64 Series of audio networking products. Aviom says that the Pro64 kicks off a new era at the company, and the product line represents a sea change in how audio will be transported in applications such as corporate AV, broadcast, education and more. Pro64 products deliver the flexibility of a digital network, combined with the audio performance and simplicity of an analogue wire. All Pro64 products deliver audio with super-low latency, the company says, via its A-Net audio transport protocol.

The Pro64 products with A-Net "have been designed from the ground up for audio networking without compromise, breaking through the inherent limitations of Ethernet to deliver unsurpassed fidelity, performance, and flexibility", say Aviom.

The company says: &

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USA - The Recording Academy will present the 2007 Technical Grammy Award to Yamaha Corporation at a special ceremony prior to the 49th Annual Grammy Awards, on 11 February 2007 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. The award, which is part of the Special Merit Awards category ceremony, is voted on by The Recording Academy's Board of Trustees and its Producers & Engineers Wing. It is presented to individuals and/or companies who have made contributions of outstanding technical significance in the recording field.

This year's Technical Grammy Award presentation to Yamaha Corporation recognizes the company's long tradition of highly-successful recording products, including the REV series digital reverbs; the NS-10M studio reference monitors and recently launched HS monitors, as well the Yamaha DMP7, DMC1000, ProMix01, 02R and DM2000 digital mixing consoles.

"Yamaha has been

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UAE - This year's PALME Middle East expo takes place on May 20-22, at the Dubai International Exhibition Centre, set within five halls and hosting three distinct vertical exhibitions. Organisers IIR Entertainment & Installation Technology Group have embraced a wide universe of technology applications, spanning architectural lighting and audio visual contracting, live event technology and staging, home automation and musical instruments.

Install @ PALME will be staging the inaugural Middle East Lighting Design Awards (MELDA), which represents a unique opportunity for the region to recognise and celebrate the achievements of the world's leading lighting designers. Winners of MELDA (which includes the Middle East Lighting Designer of the Year), will be presented at an extravagant Gala dinner held at the Al Murooj Rotana Hotel in Dubai on May 21.

MELDA is endorsed by the world ren

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UK - When the Mela came to Birmingham's National Exhibition Centre, PSL, one of the UK's leading production services suppliers, was pleased to let a bit of the Bollywood magic rub off. Billed as the Ultimate Asian Experience, the huge three-day event occupying three halls of the NEC represented a fresh challenge for PSL.

Contracted by Clarion Events, PSL's Birmingham team, based at the NEC itself, provided all of the technical production for three main stages, from creating the specification for the stage areas and building them, to designing and providing all lighting, sound, and projection.

In the Bollywood Cinema area, which was run by BAFTA, some of Bollywood's leading stars were appearing, and PSL set up a 20ft x 15ft screen, using twin projection producing 24,000 lumens of brightness. In the vast space of the NEC's Hall 3a, capable of housing crowds of 5,000, PSL also fl

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USA - Mackie have announced the debut of the newest member of the SRM family, the SRM150, following the success of the SRM450 and SRM350 Active PA speakers. The Mackie SRM150 Compact Active PA System delivers superior sound quality in an ultra-compact package, making it a versatile and expandable solution for a variety of sound reinforcement needs, says the company. And with 150 watts of ultra-efficient Class D amplification and the 5.25" EAW-designed, full-range neodymium driver, the SRM150 delivers high sound pressure levels (SPL).

"The SRM150 integrates the proven technology from the SRM series - along with an easy-to-use onboard mixer - in a compact package," said Mackie Brand group vice president John Boudreau. "It makes the SRM150 the perfect choice for a wide range of applications such as boardroom and classroom A/V, and live music performance in venue

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China - An Allen & Heath 48-channel ML5000 live sound VCA console was used for the world premiere of Chinese director Zhang Yimou's epic 'Curse of the Golden Flower', held at the Beijing Film Production Factory in December 2006. This latest cinematic release from the acclaimed director - whose previous films include 'Hero' and 'House of Flying Daggers' - was launched at a spectacular US$6 million gala event, staged in an enlarged conversion of the film's royal palace set.

The ML5000 managed sound for the evening's series of events hosted by China's popular stand-up comedian, Wu Tsung Hsien, and He Jiong, a well-known TV anchorman. Over a thousand VIP guests were treated to a dramatic dance performance, and one of the film's stars, Jay Chow, performed a song from the movie. The console also provided broadcastfeeds for two national TV stations, and managed the director's introduct

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Germany - Visitors to the forthcoming Prolight + Sound exhibition in Frankfurt will have the first opportunity to see two new products that will be launched there by Formula Sound. The new ZMR-80 modular zoner mixer and the FSM8 Plus 8-channel mixer extend the growing list of successful Formula Sound products and both add exciting new features to previous product designs that have already been well-proven in applications right around the world.

The new ZMR-80 modular zoner mixer has been designed for those applications where accurate and reliable control of audio sources being fed to different zones is needed. Suitable for use in theme parks, public buildings, hotels and entertainment venues the ZMR-80 features a modular construction format that enables it to be configured to suit many different types of requirement.

The ZMR-80's 19" 4RU chassis can house up to 11 differe

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UAE - Clear-Com, a Vitec Group brand, and the global leader of trusted intercom solutions, will be showcasing a selection of their product range at CABSAT, to be held at the Dubai International Convention & Exhibition Centre, in March.

At CABSAT, Clear-Com will preview Easi-Pico, the new baby Eclipse-Pico digital matrix package that replaces Easi-Com II. Easi-Pico is a pre-configured entry-level matrix designed to ease installation. The package runs without additional configuration software, so that Easi-Pico is a true plug and play digital matrix intercom package.

The Easi-PiCo package includes a 16-port Eclipse Pico matrix, 1RU interface frame and power supply with external interface cards and a choice of control panels and beltpacks. It is a high-value, cost-effective approach to purchasing a digital matrix system without significant upfront investment, says the company.

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USA - Listen Technologies Corporation has announced the appointment of Connect West Marketing as the company's representative firm for western Canada.

Mike Upright is the principal for Connect West Marketing and brings a wealth of sales and systems integration experience to the partnership. Commenting on the partnership, Upright says: "I am pleased to be adding Listen to our line card. Listen's products are a high quality balance to our other lines such as Tannoy, Biamp and Cloud."

"We are excited to have Connect West Marketing join the Listen team," said Cory Schaeffer, vice president of sales and marketing at Listen. "Mike's experience in system integration will be a great asset to Listen and the dealers/consultants in the western Canada region."

(Chris Henry)

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UK - One of the latest shows to transfer successfully from Broadway to the West End is the musical Wicked, which opened at The Apollo Victoria in September 2006. In December, the show simultaneously broke the all-time records for a single week's gross box office, both in London and on Broadway, taking £873,020 and $1.8 million respectively for the last week of the year, plus reporting 95% capacity audiences in London since opening.

Detailing the untold story of the witches of Oz, Wicked is directed by Joe Mantello, with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz. Sound design is by Tony Meola, with equipment supplied by London's Autograph Sound Recording and including an 84-slot Cadac J-Type live sound production console.

Head operator Richard George has been working on the show since the opening, joining the team after working with Tony Meola and associate sound

  1. GearSource Inc promotes Henry Kones
  2. Tapco introduces new products
  3. Adamson training seminars in Russia
  4. True Systems goes Solo
  5. GEO D takes on the Jazzers in Thailand
  6. New loudspeaker products from RCF
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