Sound

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UK - Design and control software developer, Stardraw.com, is now supporting DME (Digital Mixing Engine) products from Yamaha.

The entire Yamaha DME product family including DME64N, DME24N and DME Satellites can now be controlled from any PC using custom user interfaces designed in Stardraw's application, Stardraw Control.

This software allows users to design and programme fully customised control applications without having to write any code. It supports control of any hardware over any protocol and now includes drivers for Yamaha's DME range of programmable, networkable DSP audio processors including the recently released DME Satellite CobraNet and DME Satellite EtherSound models, allowing control from easily designed custom interfaces for theatres, concerts halls, corporate and conferencing, houses of worship or any application requiring high quality audio processing and dis

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UK - Focusrite has announced that the multi-channel DSP-based EQ and compression tool, Liquid Mix, has now stepped up a gear with the release of new version 2.0 software, available as a free download from the website.

The software provides some "extremely useful" improvements and several solutions to popular requests from Liquid Mix users, including enhanced interaction between software and hardware, as well as expanded latency options, says the company.

(Jim Evans)

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USA - The Heartland of America Independence Day celebration at Mount Rushmore in South Dakota's Black Hills features one of the top ten 4 July fireworks displays in the nation. Mike Moore and Steve Foudray of Haggerty's MusicWorks (Rapid City, SD) deployed sound systems from Electro-Voice to ensure this celebration sounded as impressive as it looked.

"The day-long programme included military bands, USAF flyovers and kids' entertainment leading up to the big firework display, all fed to remote jumbo video screens reinforced with EV equipment," says Moore.

"We used ZX5 speakers to cover the Grand Terrace, Xi-1122 to cover the VIP area, and Xi-2123 to cover the parking lots - even the visitors barbecuing way out there could see and hear everything clearly. And of course we were also running EV CP series amps and Dx34 and Dx38 processing. The systems were time delay

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UK - Following the success of their work there in 2005, APR Audio was once again asked to provide EV X-Line PA and X-Array monitor systems for the Jazz World stage at Glastonbury, which attracted crowds of up to 30,000 to hear artists such as Amy Winehouse, Corinne Bailey Rae, Damian Marley, Rodrigo Y Gabriela, John Fogerty, Guillemots, Mr Hudson & the Library, Fat Freddies Drop and Seth Lakeman.

"Jazz World is generally regarded as the musicians' stage," according to APR Audio's crew chief Matt Gunter. "This is where the real musical talent plays, and I suppose we do go the extra mile for them. But this stage is respected by the performers, engineers and audience because of the consistency of the sound. Jazz World uses the same PA every year, and we bring good experienced crew. We saw the noise police only once - we ran at 96dB all weekend, and had no problems at

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USA - One of America's leading education and research facilities for health professionals, the University of Minnesota's Academic Health Center (AHC), has chosen a Renkus-Heinz ICONYX system for its central teaching forum - the Mayo Memorial Auditorium in Minneapolis.

The six schools and colleges that make up the AHC include the disciplines of medicine, dentistry, nursing, pharmacy, public health, and veterinary medicine. The Mayo Memorial Auditorium is used primarily as a lecture hall, but also serves many other functions.

Architects Smith Group, based out of Minneapolis, with principal architect Ted Davis and project architect Nick Woodard, were awarded the task of renovation, while technology consultants Elert & Associates of Stillwater, MN were engaged to analyse the auditorium and design a system capable of delivering seamless, first class speech quality.

In effect, the

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UK The Who played a mighty one and a half hour Greatest Hits set beneath an equally epic British downpour to close out Glastonbury, choosing to end on a thoroughly British note with the track Tea and Theatre. The Glastonbury gig formed part of a major world tour that has been on the road since June 2006 and drew to a close on 9 July at Finland's Hartwell Arena in Helsinki.

A crucial part of guitarist Pete Townshend's stage set-up is a Crest XR-20 rack-mount mixer which has performed every show with him since the beginning of the tour.

Dick Hayes of Entec Sound and Light, long-time suppliers of audio equipment to The Who, explained that Townshend uses the XR-20 to do his own band mix onstage. "It receives sub mixes from the main FoH and monitor consoles and then Pete takes it from there. I'm pleased to say that, contrary to our initial expectations it does an extrao

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Isle of Man - When the Gaiety Theatre's production manager, Séamus Shea, first met Marquee Audio at the ABTT Show in 1997, and duly commissioned a major sound system for installation in the landmark Matcham-designed theatre on the Isle of Man, it began a relationship with the pro audio suppliers which has lasted a decade.

Aside from the Gaiety, Shea also has the complex's Royal Hall, Villa Marina and 250-seat Promenade Suite under his charge, and last month he again consulted the Shepperton-based company to advise on a compact and flexible sound reinforcement upgrade solution for the Promenade Suite.

The Promenade Suite is a low-ceilinged venue which is used equally for conferences and staging emerging unsigned acts - so fast derigging was essential to the brief.

Marquee Audio's sales director, Andy Huffer, recommended an RCF 4PRO powered solution, and in addition to

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Switzerland - L-Acoustics' V-DOSC partner Hyperson has been appointed to handle sound reinforcement for Genesis' Turn It On Again tour. Alain Schneebeli, Director of Hyperson explains: "This tour, managed by Steve Jones, brings together a team established on a previous collaboration with Phil Collins,with Alain Schneebeli as monitor Engineer and Michel Colin, front of house mixing engineer.

"Besides the expectations on sound one would have for a tour of this calibre, the Turn It On Again tour scenography has a strong emphasis on video and pyrotechnics," says Colin. "Moreover, the stage was primarily designed for stadia and large format arenas with a total width of 90m. Therefore, the sound design is challenging as it requires high throw capability and must be as visually unobtrusive as possible with an unusual spacing of 46m between the L/R V-DO

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UK - Songwriter and Kinks front man Ray Davies has just finished performing a series of solo concerts, singing a selection of his greatest hits to sell-out crowds, and is one of the first name artists to make use of AKG's new D5 dynamic and C5 condenser live microphones.

"Harman sent us a C5 and a D5 just recently when they were launched here in the UK," comments Davies' live sound engineer Tristan Mallett. "We asked Ray to try them and he's been using the C5 on stage ever since. I also use AKG C535s for backing vocals and a C416 miniature mic on the accordion. The new C5 and D5 have been great, giving us a quality sound in the monitors and front-of-house even at very high sound pressure levels."

Davies' monitor engineer Chris Wibblerley adds, "The C5 is one of the best vocal mics I have ever used, with the feedback rejection of an SM58 and the clarity

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UK - Harman Pro UK has recently supplied two Soundcraft Vi6 digital mixing consoles to Camden-based electrical contractors RAG Support for installation at Koko, the North London live music venue.

One of the Vi6 desks is used as the mixer for the on-stage monitoring, the other as the main front-of-house desk. The installation completes RAG Support's refit of Koko's new sound system, which was designed by Harman Pro UK's engineers and which RAG Support has been putting together at the venue over the last few months.

Tim Hamper, FOH engineer at Koko, comments, "It's great to finally have our two Vi6 desks permanently installed here. Harman Pro UK have been closely involved with the design of the refit at Koko from the outset, and so we were offered a Vi6 when it was still in development. We've had a test desk in as the FOH console here for months and it's been easy to learn

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South Korea - A new musical, Dancing Shadows, made its world première on 8 July in South Korea, featuring a British and Korean creative team and including a 97-input Cadac J-Type live production console amongst the top quality sound system, supplied by Seoul Sound.

Staged by Seensee Musical Company at the Seoul Arts Centre Opera House, Dancing Shadows is an adaptation of the play Forest Fire, written by the celebrated Chilean Ariel Dorfmann. Music and lyrics are by Eric Woolfson of the 1970s rock band, Alan Parsons Project, with direction by Paul Garrington, lighting design by Simon Corder and sound design by Richard Brooker.

With plans to bring the show into both the US and Europe over the next couple of years, this initial production was designed to match up to international standards in all respects. Richard Brooker assembled a talented local sound tea

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UK - Contemporary Spanish restaurant La Parrilla is at the epicentre of Swansea's proto-industrial chic development, dubbed "SA1". This involves the transformation of miles of derelict, neglected old docklands - complete with original buildings and architecture - into a trendy waterside development. PAI was called in to come up with an integrated sound and AV solution plus lighting control for the eaterie.

La Parrilla is owned by Daniel Tercero, who commissioned Swansea-based interior design practice Thomas Parry to create the interiors, who in turn asked PAI to come up with the relevant technical infrastructure. The PAI team has worked with Thomas Parry on many previous projects, and on this one they collaborated closely with main designer, Matt Bailey.

High production values were at the core of the technical installation, for which a C-Burn computer music system wa

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Mexico - The Guns N' Roses Chinese Democracy world tour got off to a blistering start with two sold-out concerts in Monterrey and Guadalajara.

At the Monterrey Arena, Adamson long-time Yaxis partner Audio Systems del Norte provided 24 Adamson Y18 cabinets with 8 Y10 under hang for the main PA, and 12 T21 subs ground stacked, plus16 Y10 subs flown beside the main arrays. Additional side-fills featured eight Y10s per side.

The official Guns n' Roses website described the Monterray arena show: "From the opening notes of Welcome To The Jungle to the final encore Paradise City, Guns N' Roses had the rabid crowd going wild all night long.

(Jim Evans)

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USA - Over 1000 bassists from around the world -including low-end luminaries Stanley Clarke and Avishai Cohen - flocked to Oklahoma City University for the recent International Society of Bassists Convention, a week-long programme of clinics and concerts celebrating the four-stringed thunderstick.

Cory's Audio Visual Services (OKC), supplied a combination of Dynacord Cobra-2 line array TOP boxes and PWH subs, EV monitors and mics, a Midas Verona console and Klark Teknik outboard gear for the show, ensuring every step of the signal chain was impressive for the ISB's numerous live events and breakout rooms.

"We are really happy with how the Dynacord, EV, Midas and KT equipment all works and sounds together in this system," says Preston Williams of Cory's, himself a bass playing OCU alumni, who mixed FOH for the ISB concerts. "We can utilise this rig in a variety o

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Germany - The first four instalments of Nissan's pan-European Qashqai Urban Challenge took place throughout May, with the final held in Paris at the end of June, with the city centres of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Milan, Madrid, Cologne and Paris witnessing some of the world's best mountain bike free-riders being tested to the limit on outdoor, custom-made courses in front of enthusiastic crowds.

The concept and tour was organised by STREAM with the Cologne event production masterminded by Dietmar Koch of German agency Braintrust Event Marketing. He chose long-time Turbosound users, Westphalia-based BLL/CE Veranstaltungstechnik-Krefeld to provide sound, lighting and electrical installations for the Cologne event, which gave the opportunity for a range of Turbosound's new NuQ loudspeakers to be put through their paces in a challenging environment.

With a large site and crowd to cover

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USA - American Audio has released two versatile new 14" club mixers: the MX-1400, and the MX-1400 DSP with built-in digital effects. These 4-channel boards are designed for mobile DJs, club DJs and remixers to use with all styles of music.

The MX-1400 and MX-1400 DSP offer extreme ease of connectivity. Each includes two phono, four line and four aux inputs on the recessed back panel, enough to accommodate any DJ's complete setup of playback units - including turntables, CD players and even tape decks. In addition, three Mic inputs give the operator the ability to mix karaoke performances, rapping, emceeing and announcements. A front-panel RCA auxiliary input jack is designed to accept portable MP3 players and satellite radio receivers, so you can mix using virtually any audio source.

The MX-1400 DSP offers the added power of onboard digital signal processing. It includes

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Europe - Responding to the needs of educators and public/private sector professionals, Anchor Audio has announced the launch of its Anchor Audio Europe website (www.anchoraudio-europe.com). For the first time, the website gives Europeans direct access to Anchor Audio's complete range of portable PA system and portable sound system products for purchase in Euros, complete with product brochures and specifications.

From portable public address systems such as the compact Minivox PA system for indoor/outdoor crowds of 150+ to the Beacon portable sound system for crowds of 5,000+, Anchor Audio offers audio solutions that are ROHS compliant, with a full range of wired and wireless options, true AC/DC capability, and six-year warranties.

The company says that one of its most popular portable public address systems is the MegaVox portable PA system for emergency communication. Among

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Spain - Last month, Barcelona's MACBA (Museau díArt Contemporani de Barcelona) was taken over by the Sonar del Dia electronic music and multimedia arts festival. Over the three-day event more than 200 performers from 29 countries performed on its stages. The offerings varied from funk to intense trip hop and hip hop to the truly bizarre. Sound company Croma 440 provided 15 sound engineers and system techs for the event. Over 80,000 people from all over the world attended the festival. The sister festival Sonar de Noche, held on the outskirts of Barcelona brought out the better known bands such as the Beastie Boys and DJ Miss Kittin, among many others.

2007 marked the seventh year of Croma 440 taking the Sonar del Dia contract. The largest of the four stages was the open air Village, where trip hop and funk ruled with 12 Adamson Y18s and six Adamson T21s, wi

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USA - Marking one of the world's first deployments of JBL Professional's new Vertec VT4887A compact line array loudspeakers, CTS Audio of Nashville is providing the live sound reinforcement system for the current Women of Faith - Amazing Freedom 2007 tour.

During its 10-year existence, the Women of Faith tour has drawn more than 2.5 million attendees, featuring numerous guest speakers from around the world. Each year, more than 20 cities throughout the United States and Canada host this event, which draws sell-out crowds in arenas including the American Airlines Center in Dallas, the United Center in Chicago and the Honda Center in Anaheim. This year's tour kicked off March 15 at the Alamodome in San Antonio and continues until December.

CTS Audio has been handling this project for the past eight years. For 2007 CTS designed a speaker system comprising eight line

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USA - Aviom reports that the new 6416dio Digital I/O Module and the 6416Y2 A-NetÆ Interface Card are now shipping.

The 6416dio provides 16 channels of digital inputs and outputs to and from a Pro64 A Net audio network in a single 2U package, using the AES3 format.

The 6416dio supports all valid Pro64 sample rates, from 44.1/48kHz± to 192kHz±. Regardless of the sample rate of incoming audio, no sample rate converters are used, guaranteeing pristine, low latency distribution of the digital signal, says the company.

Providing inputs, outputs and control all on a single card, the new 6416Y2 interfaces between Yamaha consoles and mix engines as well as Aviom's industry standard Pro16 personal monitor mixing system.

The 6416Y2 card supports up to 16 channels in and 16 channels out simultaneously, depending on the Yamaha host product's capacity and selected system sample rate.

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The Netherlands - In fulfilling its responsibility to provide fail-safe communications to passengers during times of power outage or other emergency events, the Netherlands Railways recently purchased 110 additional Anchor Audio Minivox portable PA systems to expand on last year's successful placement of 65 units within public transit stations throughout the Netherlands. These handheld portable public address systems help ensure passenger security by providing a quick and effective means of directing stranded riders to areas of safety.

With 2000km of electrified railway and 463 trains, Netherlands Railways (Nederlandse Spoorwegen - NS) has addressed an issue that now impacts transit operators throughout the world.

"NS needed something like a megaphone, but they also wanted the loudspeaker away from the face of the user so that he or she could see what was going on,"

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UK - London's Arcola Theatre has launched Arcola Energy, through which the operators aim to make Arcola the world's first carbon neutral theatre. "We will be installing biomass heating, solar panels, fuel cells and state of the art energy saving technologies throughout the building," says executive director Ben Todd.

"We will also create the first centre for new energy technology in the arts. It will be a knowledge incubator with dedicated workspace where engineers can develop initiatives to tackle climate change. Arcola Energy will be a hub for new thinking and cross-fertilisation between art and science, bringing together artistic, entrepreneurial and technological creativity.

"As a theatre we have a longstanding tradition of innovation, inspiration and deep integration with the local community. Working to the same principles, Arcola Energy will integrate

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Canada - The three independent rep firms that represented Bosch Communications Systems brands Electro-Voice, Midas and Klark Teknik in Canada have joined forces to create one unified national rep firm: PAG Canada. The three principals are Mark Kulas (KMT Pro Audio), John McArthur (Lebanna Solutions Inc.) and Gilles Elhadad (Acoustik GE Inc).

"PAG means Pacific Atlantic Group, because we now consistently cover Canada from the Pacific to the Atlantic," says president and co-principal Mark Kulas.

"It was strange," adds John McArthur, VP sales and marketing and second principal in PAG Canada, "We rep'd the same Bosch Communications Systems brands, but competed with each other in our own old territories. Now we can help each other, focusing on the vertical markets in which each of us has strengths."

Gilles Elhadad, third principal and VP of operation

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UK - Airsound, designed by industry veteran Ted Fletcher, is claimed to be a new way of reproducing stereo sound from a single speaker enclosure, based on the founding principles of stereo sound. The technology returns to the first principles of stereo reproduction, encoding signals as 'direct' and 'spatial' sound, instead of discrete left and right channel audio. This method of reproduction provides significant advantages over conventional spaced left and right speaker stereo, in custom and commercial audio installation environments, say the designers.

Airsound LLP, the company founded to exploit Airsound technology, has registered several patents in respect of the development, and is currently negotiating licensing agreements with manufacturers in the CE and IT industries. Airsound is also seeking interest from manufactures in CI and commercial AV.

Airsound LLP is a partners

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