Sound

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UK - When Jamaican-born Patrick Marché set out to establish an authentic Caribbean restaurant in London's east end, his sights were initially set on the high footfall cultural area of Stratford - rather than in the shadow of the ExCeL Exhibition & Conference Centre in the fast developing Docklands.

But when council red tape delayed the proposed Stratford project - which will now open towards the end of this year - Patrick and his investors instead launched the 3,400sq.ft Caribbean Scene concept at the Western Gateway overlooking ExCel Marina.

Inside the building the owners tasked The Sound Division Group with creating a vibrant and versatile cross-cultural mix in which audio and video signals can be patched randomly through the building's four zones (including toilets), to change the mood, atmosphere and operating base at will.

Under the project management of Jon Care

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Germany - Klotz Digital has announced that it will supply a Varizone system to the Opera in Halle, the city on the Saale, Germany.

Varizone will be the core technology of the PA system and is included in the opera's central stagecraft/stage management application. Product supply comprises V888 Matrix Controllers and the digital multi channel amplifier modules, I-PAM, which was recently introduced at ProLight & Sound in Frankfurt.

The contract has been awarded to Klotz Digital's German sales and service partner FG-Elektronik, who will be responsible for the complete system integration.

(Jim Evans)

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UK - Soundcraft has announced the extension of its versatile Multi-Purpose range with three new mixers all featuring no less than 32 Lexicon 24 bit digital effects.

The new Soundcraft effects mixers use the same AudioDNA processor featured in many of the Digitech and Lexicon outboard products, including the highly respected Lexicon MX500. The consoles also boast a user settings store function, three parameter controls, tap tempo and 32 effects presets.

The first new mixer in the range is the Soundcraft FX16ii. Already established as a popular console, the Spirit FX16 has been offering professional audio solutions to musicians since 1997. 10 years on, Soundcraft has brought the FX16 into line with its professional range using the latest 24-bit digital Lexicon effects processor and a new control surface layout. All the FX consoles are versatile but the FX16ii will be particular

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UK - Welsh rockers Manic Street Preachers are on the road in the UK, touring their eighth album Send Away the Tigers. These are the band's first touring shows for two years and Preacher Nicky Wire promises, "Springsteenesque long sets, working-class rage, make-up and dumb punk fun".

This is the Manics' first tour with SSE Audio, although the band and its front-of-house engineer Dave Cooper made use of Nexo Geo T array systems at a large radio show at Christmas (XFM's Winter Wonderland). However, recent developments have transformed the PA system they last used. The implementation of NXStream, an all-new suite of loudspeaker processing software for Nexo's loudspeakers, has proved so successful that John Penn of SSE Audio reckons "I've got a new PA system."

SSE is currently upgrading all its Nexo NX242 TDcontrollers, the second-generation digita

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Malaysia - With its strategic location at the hub of the central business district and its purpose-built facilities, the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre (the Centre) has become one of the Malaysian capital's competitive assets. It raises the city and Malaysia's profile by providing a world-class venue to both major international conferences and trade fairs plus the colorful entertainment sector for international concerts, musicals and family stage shows.

Realising a gap in the market for high-end sound systems, Orange Events, a preferred supplier for sound, lighting and AV systems of the Centre, aimed to enhance the existing sound system by improving overall sound quality, coverage and capacity to handle events in large venues such as the 3,000-seat auditorium, Plenary Hall.

After thorough research and technical consideration regarding the exact requirements of the Centre, Oran

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UK - - Last year, Butlins Holiday Resort in Minehead carried out a major sound and lighting refurbishment, with a view to rolling the model out at their other Resorts in Skegness and Bognor Regis. This aim has now been realised, and the new technology infrastructure was completed at both sites this Spring by the Birmingham-based Cloud One Group.

The pro audio specialists have enjoyed a close relationship with Butlins Resorts over a 15-year period, and during this time they have regularly specified Martin Audio sound reinforcement systems on their projects.

In addition to the new W8LM Mini Line Array installations in Skegness and Bognor Regis, Cloud One also made some enhancements to the original W8LM installation in Minehead - initiated by Martin Audio's Brad Watson and Butlins' Technical Manager Dirk Peace.

This has resulted in all of Minehead's premium entertainment venues

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USA - Morin Productions, the US distributor for Outline Audio Products, recently took a musical walk through the seven deadly sins when its Butterfly line array was used at the Boston Conservatory's Heaven & Hell production. The show, an adaptation of Joe Jackson's 1997 concept album of the same name, gives a modern slant on sin, including a sloth enjoying a super-sized soda in front of a mega TV screen. The production featured an uncluttered set and featured the talents of both Conservatory students and audio professionals.

"I have 97 separate mute scenes for the 75 minute show," said Heaven & Hell FOH guru Nick Joyce, a veteran live sound engineer who mixed the show on a Crest X8 provided by Marathon Sound from Salem, NH. "The production seems simple to theatre-goers, but it's a complex audio production with rapid-fire lines and singing in singles

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Greece - The final of the Soccer Champions' League on 23 May, in which Liverpool and Milan faced one another in the former Olympic stadium in Greece's capital, was broadcast to an estimated 1.2 billion viewers worldwide with a little help from two SoundField DSF-2 digital microphone systems. The multi-capsule microphone heads for both systems were rigged in the stadium to provide simultaneous phase-coherent 5.1 and stereo stadium ambience and crowd response for the HD and SD transmissions.

A single world transmission feed, authorised by UEFA and its exclusive media partner TEAM Audio AG, was used to provide TV companies from all around the world with their SD and HD pitch coverage. On the night of the match, the world audio feed was mixed by Robert Edwards of UK broadcast sound specialists Video Sound Services, assisted by Frank Mosch, the technical head of sound at Belgian comp

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UK - Media programming and system design company tsg, has installed an Audica Professional MICROseries audio system in the new Cruise store in Chester.

Established in 1984, Cruise is one of the UK's leading luxury retailers, with a reputation not only for designer brands, but also as a showcase for fresh, innovative fashion. Their stores house a selection of menswear, womenswear, footwear, bags and accessories from some of the world's leading brands.

Operating with formats of larger mainline and smaller specialist stores, Cruise Chester is the company's second stand alone footwear, accessory and bag store, stocking international labels including Gucci, Chloé, Dior, Jimmy Choo, Vivienne Westwood, Dolce and Gabbana and Paul Smith. The timber-framed building developed for the new store dates from 1664 and incorporates many of the site's original features including an Eliza

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UK - PSL, one of the UK's leading rental & staging services companies, has, in the last three months, invested £1 million into the latest audio, video and projection equipment, to keep its inventory right at the cutting edge. "And that won't be the end of it. It's part of our ongoing fleet upgrade programme," says PSL MD Gary Davis. "We are planning further purchases in autumn 2007."

Providing rental & staging event management and technical services, PSL has become a prominent supplier to the events industry. From company conferences to a Pet Shop Boys tour to the Farnborough International Airshow, PSL is able to provide a comprehensive package of technical services and staging, or specific expertise in video projection, lighting or AV, says the company.

The bulk of this spring's investment has been in the latest Christie Roadster S+20K and S+8K proje

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UK - For all the logistics of massive, high profile live music tours, it's often live shows designed for a very young audience that prove just as gruelling and technically challenging for production crews.

Created in 1999 by Tell-Tale Productions (now WISH), The Tweenies is a highly successful BBC television series aimed at 3-6 year olds. Over 300 episodes have been made, with arena-sized tours also giving the television audience a chance to see the popular Tweenies characters in the flesh, rather than through the television screen.

2007's Enchanted Toyshop tour has seen the Tweenies do a UK theatre tour for the first time. The more intimate venues mean that children can get even closer to their heroes, but with no compromises on the quality, fun and excitement of the show itself.

The tour began on 16 March and runs through to 27 October, taking in no less than

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UK - PLASA has relaunched its prestigious Awards for Innovation, which will be joined for the first time this year by the new Gottelier Award, named in memory of Tony Gottelier - the leading designer, innovator and industry commentator who died in 2006.

Designed to reflect excellence in new products in lighting, sound, engineering, AV and staging - the PLASA Awards for Innovation were first established in 1992 and have since been presented annually during the PLASA Show, which this year runs from 9-12 September at Earls Court in London. The Awards have a justly deserved reputation for identifying high quality, innovative new products early in their life and many previous winners are now firmly established in their fields.

Judged by a panel of respected industry professionals, products nominated for the Awards compete for one of eight Innovation Awards, plus an additional troph

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USA - Symetrix is showing an all-new product for its Integrator Series at InfoComm 2007. The Integrator Series is a new group of products providing integrators "extremely high value within application-specific packages". The Integrator Series uses the proven technology embodied in the SymNet|Network Audio Solution DSP toolbox, says the company.

The second product in the new Integrator Series is the Deuce 722, designed to solve numerous everyday audio processing problems for integrators. Built upon the success of the Symetrix 322 DSP Engine and the 9022 before it, the Deuce 722 packs everything into a 2x2 DSP unit.

Paul Roberts, director of sales, states, "We've been considering customer feedback provided on the 9022 and 322 for years, rolling all of it and more, into the Deuce 722. The 722 might be the most versatile piece of audio equipment under $1,000 release

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Germany - Just six months after completing their last major European tour, Angelo Kelly and his high-calibre backing group hit the road again. The most recent tour took in 10 venues, kicking off in Bochum's Zeche on 24 May 24 and ending in the Kantine in Cologne on 10 June. Between these two home matches were engagements in Holland, Poland, Denmark and the Czech Republic.

As with their last European outing at the end of 2006, Kelly & Co. relied on systems from EVI Audio for the production, including Electro-Voice microphones, Klark Teknik equalisers and Midas mixing consoles.

(Jim Evans)

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UK - Public domain recordings that might otherwise be lost to the ravages of time are being restored for posterity thanks to the efforts of PDRL (Public Domain Restoration & Licensing), a company established in 1996 to specifically tackle this type of work.

To assist with its efforts PDRL recently acquired a Prism Sound ADA-8XR multichannel converter, which is being used for AD/DA audio conversion in conjunction with the company's CEDAR Cambridge system. PDRL was one of the first studios in the world to invest in a CEDAR Cambridge, purchasing its system in May 2003. In recent months it has upgraded the software to V4 and, in addition to NR4, NR5, DeClickle 2 and Vintage DeCrackle, has purchased the latest version of Retouch and manual DeClick.

Director A B Jacobs says: "Earlier this year we decided to invest in new AD/DA converters as this was the only area where we didn'

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UK - As part of a lengthy worldwide tour, Rufus Wainwright played seven sold-out UK theatre shows in late May, dates at Portsmouth Guildhall and Bristol's Colston Hall followed by five at London's Old Vic. Audio company Concert Sound was using its Adamson Spektrix rig for the first time on Wainwright's shows, with five XTA DP226s controlling the system.

"Adamson specifies the DP226 as its controller of choice," says Concert Sound system tech Aron Ross. "One of the five was used as a master controller at FOH, with most of the EQ also being done in the 226s."

This was a challenging tour for the audio crew, the historic theatre venues not having been designed for the requirements of a modern live music production in mind.

"It was quite strange not being able to fly any of the system," says Ross. "It was all ground stacked and sometimes it was

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Italy - On the east shore of Lake Iseo, just over 20 miles from the Italian town of Brescia, Le Palafitte Shore Club & Restaurant has undergone a complete audio refit.

The audio systems are all from the new Outline DVS range, and installed in the main room, restaurant and VIP zone are: a total of 14 DVS 8 (full-range two-way) enclosures supported by six DVS 115 SW subwoofers; all powered by T44 power amplifiers and processed by DSP Genius 24 units.

The system installation and fine-tuning was carried out by Morix, the exclusive Outline dealer for the Lombardy region.

(Jim Evans)

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France - L-Acoustics has announced that industry veterans Alain Courieux and Sherif El Barbari have been appointed as consultants to the loudspeaker manufacturer.

CEO Christian Heil comments: "This double appointment directly reflects our current strategy. We have initiated a process of strengthening L-Acoustics' technical support on three levels."First, we wish to reinforce technical support to both end-users and independent sound designers (consultants and mixing engineers). Second, increase and fluidify the technical feedback from the field to R&D to improve product design. And last but not least, create a research group - a sort of 'educational think tank' to develop new approaches to teaching sound design and product implementation."

Alain Courieux boasts more than 30 year experience in activities ranging from recording studio and live sound engineering to

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UK - Procon Event Engineering, international leading technical service provider, has founded a subsidiary in London. Morten Carlsson and Christian Möller are managing directors of the new subsidiary which is being run by Claire Copeland in her role as branch manager.

Copeland brings with her a number of years experience of the industry having worked as a sales and account manager for companies such as White Light and Richard Martin Lighting. Copeland says of her post: "This is an exciting opportunity to work with such a well known and respected company in their latest venture. I am looking forward to working with the Procon team as we move forward into the UK market."

As a technical full service supplier Procon Event Engineering provides the media, entertainment and event industries. With subsidiaries and partners, Procon is represented worldwide, renting lighting,

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UK - The PLASA TRO (Technical Reource Office) was in attendance at Ofcom for the announcement of its amended proposals on the long-term supply of radio spectrum for the users of wireless microphones and similar equipment, which claims to make provision for the continued use of radio microphones by the entertainment industry.

The move follows the strenuous efforts of BEIRG, the British Entertainment Industry Radio Group, to alert Ofcom to the threat its plans pose to the future of the UK's entertainment industry, and its campaign to highlight the RF requirements of the PMSE (Programme Making and Special Events) sector.

Ofcom's original proposals were set out in the Digital Dividend Review (DDR) consultation, published in December 2006. In response to the DDR consultation, BEIRG made strong recommendations to Ofcom outlining its concerns about the proposals, including the inabil

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USA - Musician, composer and arranger Herman Burney has purchased a DPA 4052 compact omnidirectional mic which he regularly uses on his double bass. Burney has even gone to the ingenious length of suspending it between the bridge feet by the judicious use of rubber bands, where it picks up the entire range of the bass.

"This, for me, is what I particularly like about my DPA 4052 - its ability to pick up my instrument's entire range," he says. "It is compact, it is affordable, it's easy to use, and it sounds great! I'm now planning to extend its use to my cello."

Burney was introduced to the DPA 4052 by a sound engineer at a festival in Brae, Ireland. "I was playing there with Rene Marie and we were all blown away by how full the bass sounded, in both the house and the monitors," he continues. "I immediately inquired about the microphone, cont

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Russia - Cornered Audio Systems has announced the appointment of IBERI as exclusive distributor for Russia. Established in 1996, IBERI works with more than 60 dealers and contractors throughout Russia, servicing a wide range of venues such as retail shops, café's, lounges, clubs, restaurants, fitness and sport centres.

Eugene Vertyachikh, IBERI project manager, comments: "We saw Cornered at PLASA and at the Frankfurt fair, and became interested because of the discrete and innovative design. When we tested the products here in Russia, they actually exceeded our expectations and we are pleased that we can now provide our design conscious customers with a loud, clean and compact installation speaker system."

Hans V. Madsen, founder of Cornered Audio Systems states: "Russia is to my opinion the most interesting market in Europe at the moment. IBERI have a str

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UK - A spiritual event was probably the perfect setting for the type of 'baptism of fire' that awaited FOH engineer Dave Hopkinson at the NEC Arena, where Christ for all Nations (CfaN) held its two-day Full Flame Fire conference and UK launch of its new DVD series.

The evangelistic movement, founded by Reinhard Bonnke in 1974, generally stages events in Africa, where audiences ranging in size from 100,000-1.6 million gather.

A long-time live sound veteran, Hopkinson can generally be found behind an analogue mixing board. But when CfaN's technical manager Derek Murray suggested using one of Wigwam's five Digidesign Venue systems, the FOH man needed to reshape his thinking.

"Christian events are not like a normal rock show when you know there's a set list and set time. With something like this anything can happen - sometimes it's entirely spontaneous, and the prosp

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Portugal - Duran Audio has announced the opening of Duran Audio Iberia. The Iberia office will be responsible for sales and support of AXYS products in both Spain and Portugal from its base in Porto.

Sandra Serrano, formerly sales manager for Caius Technologies, has been responsible for the setting up of the company in partnership with Duran Audio BV and will taken on the role of managing director of Duran Audio Iberia.

"Previously there had been an AXYS presence in Portugal with many high profile projects having been completed," says Serrano. "However, Spain was a completely new market for AYXS products and technologies which presented many exciting opportunities. So, my idea was to create a structure that was 100% dedicated to AXYS products; offering the highest level of pre and post sales support, which is essential when distributing such high technology prod

  1. Nexo opens new Paris headquarters
  2. Kristal Glam Club upgrades Alpha system
  3. Cirrus Logic launches Discovery
  4. Magic Bullitz blown away with KV2
  5. More Qs for Barcelona auditorium
  6. DMi at CEDIA Expo 2007
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