Sound

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UK - Research for the proposed National Skills Academy for the Creative and Cultural Industries suggests that current and projected growth in live entertainment will generate demand for an extra 10,000 skilled offstage and technical staff over the next decade. And with half of the current workforce expected to retire or leave the industry by 2017, the total estimated number of recruits required rises to around 30,000.

Major employers in the theatre, live music and events industries already report serious difficulties recruiting qualified and experienced professionals in a wide range of disciplines including lighting, sound, stage controls and specialist backstage support staff.

Since January 2007, more than 300 individuals and organisations - including employers, trade bodies and freelancers - have been consulted on the Skills Academy proposal being developed by Creative & Cul

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UK - Since releasing their debut album Costello Music last autumn, The Fratellis have been hard at work promoting it with live dates. Helping them on their way has been Turbosound, whose NuQ loudspeakers played a major part in the band's recent UK tour.

Comprising twelve dates in Nottingham, Manchester, Glasgow, Birmingham and London, SSE supplied the tour's audio requirements with Turbosound veterans Britannia Row supplying the monitor system, including Turbosound NuQ-15s, self-powered TA-500DP Aspect Wides and, in Glasgow and London, self-powered NuQ-12DPs.

The Fratellis like the sound levels on stage to be relatively high, so one three-way TA-500DP was used each side of the stage as a side-fill, along with nine 15" 2-way bi-amped NuQ-15s on the stage as wedge monitors - three pairs across the front, one each side of the drummer and one by bass guitarist Barry Fr

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USA - Renkus-Heinz is introducing the self-powered IC7 and externally powered ICX7 Iconyx array modules during InfoComm07 at the Anaheim Convention Centre. Both are passive linear arrays with fixed beams that can be steered mechanically. The new additions to the Iconyx line will supplement Iconyx digitally controlled array systems in venues needing side and front-fill coverage. They also offer a low cost solution for applications that can do without the precise, programmable coverage afforded by Iconyx digitally controlled array systems, says the company.

"Many of the designers and installers who have used Iconyx systems in hundreds of museums, courtrooms and houses of worship around the world have asked for a supplemental product such as this," says David Rahn, US national sales manager for Renkus-Heinz. "The IC7 and ICX7 make our advanced Iconyx solutions even m

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USA - Digigram has announced the addition of two new members to the Digigram US team. Eric L. Richardson joins as director of strategic marketing, while James Ohana takes on the role of solutions integration manager.

Philippe Delacroix, Digigram CEO & president explains, "Having Eric and James on board is part of our new strategy aimed at providing key enabling technologies to build smart radio infrastructures. The broadcast industry is changing incredibly fast and so are our customers' needs. Eric and James are not only able to understand those needs, but also to partner with them to conceive and develop tomorrow's leading-edge, tailor-made systems."

Eric Richardson has extensive experience in developing audio, TV and music technologies and has held key senior management positions at Fostex Research and Development, InfoTech and Dalet Digital Media Systems, Inc., an

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UK - D&M Europe has announced the formation of DMi D&M Installation, a division dedicated to the distribution and support of products from all of D&M's brands to the commercial AV and custom install markets.

DMi offers a comprehensive portfolio of products from Denon, Denon professional, Marantz and Marantz professional ranges, alongside Escient digital music servers, Opus multi-room systems, and Boston Acoustics' wall, ceiling and outdoor speakers.

The division is headed up by general manager Mark Perrins, formerly general manager of D&M professional Europe. Commenting on the formation of DMi he stated: "D&M Europe has monitored the CI market carefully over recent years; in particular, the gradual convergence towards a more general custom and commercial install market, with common products, customers and support requirements. This has led us to the logical step of mergin

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Russia - Moscow Dynamo, the Russian capital's famous first division basketball team, inaugurated an impressive new arena recently: the Krylatskoe Basketball Sport Palace, complete with Outline sound system.

The Outline sound system installed comprises 12 Doppia II A 9075 point source systems in a tri-amped configuration and 32 compact two-way IS 6T enclosures, to ensure even distribution. The installation was completed with five T4 power amplifiers, three T44 and three Genius 26 processors, also manufactured by Outline.

Through the three DSP Genius 26's, each pair of Doppia (and also the 32 compact IS enclosures) can be controlled separately and in stereo format, enabling the system to be adapted to meet the venue's numerous sound requirements. The audio and lighting systems were supplied by Moscow's Koemart. The design, installation and fine-tuning of the audio system was car

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Italy - Milan's long-established The Rolling Stone venue has a new sound system. Adamson's Italian distributor, Reference Laboratory's Angelo Tordini specked and designed the main hall installation. It features three complete systems meant for diverse uses. One is the full size, flown, concert set-up. It is made up of two arrays of a single Y10 Sub on top, with four Y10's and four SpekTrix 5 degree boxes flown as in an under-hang. TwoY10 Subs, each equipped with two 18" Kevlar Neodymium drivers, are placed on the ground to add a balanced low-end and Reference Laboratory monitors are used on the stage to complete the concert system.

The second system is a complete surround style system used exclusively for the club nights and private events. The independent club system has two arrays of one SpekTrix Sub and a four SpekTrix under hang, placed directly opposite to the Concert

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UK - The seventh annual A.C. Lighting North event in Leeds last week (1-2 May) saw the biggest increase in attendance levels since the event began - attracting over 30% more visitors than last year.

Owing to a construction delay with the new bigger Royal Armouries Saviles Hall, the event took place in its original location - a move which proved conclusively that the show has now outgrown the venue and will need the extra capacity to cope with predicted attendance levels in 2008.

The event provided a showcase of over 70 leading brands for buyers in the Midlands, North of England and Scotland, and also served as a platform for many exhibitors to unveil their new products to a UK audience for the first time this year.

This year's seminar highlights included unique talks from leading lighting designers Bernie Davis and Andy Doig, PSA general manager Andy Lenthall, and Barco crea

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USA - Aviom has named Michael J. McGinn as the company's new vice president of sales & marketing. Previously, he has worked in general management, marketing, and sales with Shure, Ecolab, and Eastman Kodak.

"The addition of Mike McGinn to our senior management team adds the kind of leadership that will bring our young and growing company to the next level," says Carl Bader, president and CEO of Aviom. "We went through a very detailed search process to fill this position and Mike stood out among many highly qualified candidates."

In addition to his contributions as a member of the company's senior management, McGinn now oversees all of Aviom's worldwide sales and marketing efforts.

(Jim Evans)

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UK - Gearhouse Broadcast has invested in a comprehensive Optocore fibre solution from UK distributors Marquee Audio, for use with their Yamaha M7CL consoles on the current ATP Tennis Masters Series.

The company had been seeking a fibre system for audio distribution and freelance sound engineer Steve Ayres was asked by Gearhouse Broadcast's group technical director, Kevin Moorhouse, to investigate the options. "We always listen to the engineers we use, as in the end they have to physically use the kit on site," said Moorhouse. "We already had the M7CL desks - so this was a good solution."

Moorhouse arranged for Marquee Audio to lay on a full Optocore demonstration at the Gearhouse warehouse to ascertain "whether the product would actually deliver the solution we required."

Marquee Audio recommended five Optocore DD32E Digital I/O units as the cor

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UK - Stage Electrics training has recently become accredited to IPAF and PASMA, boosting the number of courses the company is able to offer.

IPAF's training objective is "to promote the use of safe working practices in the operation of mobile elevating and mast climbing work platforms and thereby make a positive contribution to the prevention of accidents".

In the early 1980s, PASMA devised a training course for users of alloy towers, now universally acknowledged as the industry standard, and so commenced a long history of skills training to make the use of access towers as safe as possible by producing many thousands of competent users.

The current Stage Electrics training programme now includes accredited courses, PASMA Mobile Access Tower training and IPAF Mobile Elevated Work Platform training (MEWP). The courses are a mixture of theory and hands on practical e

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USA - Comprising three models ranging in size from 2,500 to 8,000 watts, QSC's new PowerLight 3 Series amplifiers bring a new degree of flexibility to touring and installed sound reinforcement applications, says the company. Offering a choice of DSP with remote control and monitoring via BASIS, or the value-oriented performance of straightforward analogue input operation, the lightweight, 2RU lineup facilitates a wide-ranging level of networked functionality or none at all.

Each PowerLight 3 model delivers higher input voltage and selectable sensitivity, and is easily adjusted via a series of rear panel switches with colour-coded LED indicators.

The 8,000-watt model PL380 combines a pair of 4,000-watt Class-D amplifier channels with QSC's PowerLight power supply to "serve up more than twice the audio horsepower of any previous 2U PowerLight amplifier". Within the PL3

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Eire - Irish distributor Sound Communications has installed a Telex RTS Cronus DSP matrix communications system into Dublin's National Concert Hall, the country's leading classical and contemporary music venue, to coordinate productions taking place in the venue. This is the first installation of a Cronus DSP matrix system into a concert hall environment.

The new Cronus matrix system replaces the venue's former simple loop system and walkie talkies with a communications system which integrates the existing public address system with a building-wide wired and wireless communications system, allowing the stage manager to communicate with anyone in the building.

Working to a brief provided by Paul Kohlmann, chief engineer at the concert hall, Alan Murphy of Sound Communications, Telex's Irish theatre and live sound distributor and Adrian Richmond, sales engineer at Telex Communic

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UK In North London, one new nightclub has been created out of two old ones: the Volt Club has opened in Edmonton following a comprehensive refurbishment of premises and the installation of an all-new Electro-Voice dancefloor sound system.

Built over two floors, the Volt Club is owned by Volt Productions, a company which already runs a successful nightclub operation in Uganda. Taking over two former club venues, Volt has fully refurbished and soundproofed the space, addressing the problems of noise leakage that were causing complaints from residential neighbours. Walls, ceiling and floors have been acoustically treated; even the fire exits are now connected to the club's sound system, so that if anyone opens a door, the music immediately shuts off.

For the Volt Club's main dancefloor, a powerful Electro-Voice Rx system has been specified and installed by club sound engineer Muh

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Austria - DPA Microphones launched an innovative new solution for microphone placement and mounting at AES Vienna 2007. The D3 Decca Tree - also available as the S5 Surround Kit - is a flexible, lightweight mounting solution optimised for use with DPA microphones. However it can also be used with a wide range of other brands.

The D3/S5 has been designed to meet market demand for a Decca Tree and a Surround Tree in one flexible, stylish format. "We felt this was something that would fit extremely well into the DPA portfolio," says DPA director of sales Morten Stove. "Given our capability of manufacturing precisely matched microphones, it makes sense to offer a carefully designed mounting accessory which can accommodate between three and five matched microphones, giving a huge range of possibilities when it comes to surround recording."

The new surround mount

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Dubai - Australian based manufacturer ARX Systems will be releasing its new USB-DI at next week's Palme 2007 Exhibition in Dubai.

ARX managing director Colin Park says, "The Palme Exhibition is getting larger every year and with the growing Middle Eastern market has become an important Exhibition for ARX. In keeping with our policy of creating essential audio interfaces, ARX is excited to be releasing our new ARX USB DI - a true plug and play digital to analogue pro audio interface. It removes the need to use existing sound card outputs, with their inherent noisy environment and problematic grounding."

ARX will also be exhibiting other new releases in their signal processing product range including the MSX 48 microphone & line splitter, Balance 8 & DeBalance 8 audio level matchers, and the AudiBox Optimizer.

(Jim Evans)

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UK - The Flashlight/APR Group is handling the production on not one, but three Holiday On Ice world tours simultaneously.

Starting in 2005, the Peter Pan On Ice tour first travelled through Europe and South America before doing a second season in Spain. This show, aimed mainly at a younger market, was a relatively straightforward theatre show.

Flashlight/APR then moved on to Bugs Bunny On Ice - a new spectacle for kids, created around a number of Warner Brothers comic personalities, and receiving its world premiére in France. Because of the complexity of the show Flashlight/APR opted for a Digidesign Venue digital mixing environment (with D-Show console) as it would interface directly with Pro Tools and was easy to use. Another important factor was the ease of console set-up and the repeatability of a show which is still touring today.

At the sam

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Croatia - Lisinski Hall, Zagreb's world-renowned concert hall and home to the equally well-respected Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra, recently upgraded its sound system to reflect the orchestra's ambition to evolve its performances and reputation in the world of classical music.

The HiQnet system, featuring 14 JBL Professional Vertec VT4888DP-CN, six Vertec VT4882DP-CN and four VP Series VP7315DP-CN loudspeakers powered by six JBL DP Series DrivePacks and 19 Crown Cts Series amplifiers, is controlled by five BSS Soundweb London DSP processors and connected by Harman Pro Group HiQnet on one cohesive network.

Microphone requirements for the 1850-seat concert hall are handled by HiQnet-compatible AKG WMS 4000 Series wireless system with 18 wireless handheld and lavalier microphones. Orchestra monitoring is provided by stage-level JBL Professional Control 300 and Control Contractor

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Germany - Following the successful launch of Zakk Wylde's custom 300-watt EVM12L Black Label guitar loudspeaker, Electro-Voice has announced the newest addition to the EVM line: the EVM12L Classic.

The EVM-12L Classic features a high performance, heavy duty design that delivers "unmatched sonic reproduction at the critical final stage in the signal chain". Voiced to duplicate the sound of the long-discontinued EVM-12L, the Classic recaptures a tonality loved by guitarists in virtually every genre, says the company.

Original EVM-12L endorsers included guitar icons Stevie Ray Vaughn and Steve Vai. A testament to this legacy of tone, EVM-12L Classic has already become the speaker of choice for a wide range of world class guitar talents, including David Hidalgo of Los Lobos, Billy Duffy of The Cult, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Herman Li of Dragonforce, Joe Bonamassa, David Lee

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Dubai - Turbosound will be featuring its NuQ range at PALME, which will be shown on the stand hosted by Turbosound's United Arab Emirates distributor Reference Audio.

Launched at Frankfurt ProLight + Sound in March, NuQ systems are billed as versatile, networkable sound reinforcement loudspeakers designed for professional portable audio applications.

All models are available in passive or bi-amped (non-powered) guise, and alternatively with integrated Class D amplifiers using 96kHz DSP for pristine audio quality, and operating at better than 90% efficiency.

The NuQ series totals 12 models and comprises 8", 10", 12" and 15" two-way models, all designed with similar voicing characteristics, as well as 15" and 18" subwoofers, in order to provide a complete and versatile loudspeaker range suitable for a wide range of applications.

PALME will see a

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India - The second PALME India integrated entertainment technology show promises to grow by as much as 25% under the weight of the sub-continent's fast-developing infrastructure, according to the promoters.

Inaugurated last year as PALA India, this year's exhibition (4-6 October, Bombay Exhibition Centre) will be spread over 3,000sq.m of exhibition space and is expected to feature around 200 brands distributed across 115 stands.

This is the target for exhibition manager James Raffoul, who has been taken on by IIR Exhibitions to maximise PALME India's potential. Having previously worked on high-profile exhibitions for Brintex and Emap, Raffoul says he couldn't resist the challenge to consolidate an incipient event in such a fast-emerging market.

"The fact that last year the show attracted 120 exhibiting companies spread over 75 stands, with 2,500 visitors attending, indi

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UK - Event and exhibition services company PSL has named Lauren Steadman as a new director of the company, in recognition of the success she has had heading up PSL's Exhibitions Division.

Steadman is well-known in the exhibitions industry. Coming from the music and photographic industries into the audio-visual business, she pioneered the provision of official AV services to exhibition events, becoming exhibitions director at Samuelson Communications.

A founding director of PSL in 1990, she has since spent time in the USA, opening an office in Los Angeles. Since 2003, she has been running PSL's Exhibition Division, establishing and consolidating the company's position as Official AV and IT Suppliers to leading exhibition organisers in the UK.

Steadman's promotion to PSL's main board coincides with the start of one of the busiest summers ever for PSL Exhibitions, with the addi

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UK - Martin Audio AQ series speakers provided an elegant sound solution for Leamington Sight & Sound recently when they became involved in the conversion of a former fire station in Coventry to a chic bar/bistro and live entertainment venue.

The Old Fire Station in Coventry's new Millennium Quarter was purchased by local entrepreneur Brian Mills of Phoenix Bars, and turned into Escape. To carry out the transfiguration he enlisted MA Design to build the interior character. LSS's Ian Potter saw the opportunity to work within the design and divide the single-floor venue into three separate sound zones, covering the live and dance area, the bar and the reception/front of house.

Potter specified four flown AQ12's and a pair of ground-stacked AQ212's for the main dancefloor, with six AQ10's and a pair of AQ112's covering the peripheral areas - all processed using two of the dedicate

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UK - PMC has announced its collaboration with Digidesign in the production of the new RMS Series of professional Active Monitors.

The new RMS range is launched with the RM1 and RM2, utilising PMC's ATL technology to deliver high - definition audio with accurate bass response. Both systems feature a revolutionary, onboard digital signal processing (DSP) engine that manages a variety of tasks, bass port emulation, multifrequency limiting and multi layered crossovers. Both monitors are designed with proprietary drivers, digital electronics, power amp and cabinet engineering to provide tonal accuracy, low distortion, stunning clarity and "incredible" dynamic range.

The RM1 is designed for project studios, editing suites, home studios and mobile production vehicles, whereas the RM2 is big on power, making it suitable for mixing suites, post production facilities and broad

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