Sound

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14 March 2016

Named in honour of the late Tony Gottelier, the industry innovator and commentator who passed away in 2006, the Gottelier Award is aimed at those members of our industry who have made significant and sustained contributions to the advancement of entertainment, presentation or installation technology - whether in audio, lighting, rigging, staging, or any other related field.

Following a six-week period of gathering nominations from across the industry, the shortlist of leading nominees can now be revealed, ready for the voting process to begin.

The nominees are as follows (in alphabetical order):

• Tony Andrews is a highly regarded designer and manufacturer of high quality point source loudspeaker systems, w

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14 March 2016

The heart of the club is the main hall that can hold 600-700 visitors and that is equipped with a mobile stage, lighting and PA. As for the PA, the Gaswerk-association that is taking care of the management, hospitality and technique of the location, has chosen a Cohedra Compact from HK Audio.

Sound technician Raphael Sieber explains why: "There were three essential criteria. First of all the sound, of course, but also especially the flexibility of the system and also the looks of it. It was necessary that the system could be used for theatre productions as

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14 March 2016

The new amplifiers will power the company's inventory of EAW loudspeaker systems including EAW KF760 and KF730 line arrays, KF850s, SB1000s and many more.

"After extensive research into top audio brands the world over, we decided to stick to Lab.gruppen to power our loudspeaker systems, " stated Jalal K. Dudin, director of Creative Events.

Creative Events is a full-service events, entertainment and production company based in Qatar. One of the many large projects that they've undertaken recently was the Doha Asian Games 2006, where they supplied audiovisual systems for more than 110 sports venues.

(Jim Evans)

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14 March 2016

The system consists of two arrays of 12 Milo cabinets, plus two 700-HP subwoofers per side to cover the low end. Four M1D ultra-compact curvilinear array loudspeakers are deployed for front-fill, with four CQ-2 narrow coverage main loudspeakers providing additional fill. Depending on the size and rigging scheme of the venue, the system can be scaled down to suit each room's specific needs.

"Norah was one of the first artists to take Milo on tour, " says FOH engineer Lee Moro. "The system was absolutely per

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14 March 2016

One of the stages was the Dance Arena, where Dublin-based total production company EQ Audio & Events fielded a powerful Nexo Geo D vertical tangent array to enable some of the world's best known DJ's and turntablists, such as Frankie Knuckles Jr, Deep Dish, DJ Shadow, Felix da Housecat and Erol Alkan to present a heady mix of disco, house, electro and synth.

Shay Hannon, MD EQ Audio & Events, had become an adopter of Nexo's Alpha systems soon after setting up EQ Audio & Events seven years ago, and he admits he was eagerly looking forward to flying the Geo D system in front of 80,000 people at Punchestown - thanks to a co-operative effort with Liverpool-based Adlib Audio who augmen

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14 March 2016

Live coverage from the San Carlos service, attended by veterans and currently-serving soldiers, was sent via satellite and fed into live coverage of the service taking place at the Horse Guards in London's Whitehall.

For senior sound supervisor Tim Davies, there were a number of important considerations, since the crew would be working in arduous conditions, with limited electricity supply. High on the list were reduced freight costs and equipment reliability.

As the hub of his signal chain he chose a Light Viper, lightweight fibre optic digital audio snake from Kelsey Acoustics. This was configured as a 32 x 8 system

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14 March 2016

Fire eaters, hula dancers, and South Pacific singers and performers on the main stage of the new venue are reinforced by a HiQnet system featuring 16 JBL Professional VRX line arrays configured in a circle above the stage, eight JBL Control 29 loudspeakers, 16 JBL Control 25 loudspeakers, and four self-powered JBL VP Series subwoofers. Three dbx 4800 processors are on the system along with AKG wireless microphones.

Harry Witz, general manager of Clair ShowCo Chicago designed and implemented the system. "With all the components on one system architect, HiQnet, I

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14 March 2016

Based in Florence, since its formation in 1995 Powersoft has become one of Europe's market leaders in rack-mountable digital amplification, providing products for a huge range of applications from large-scale tours and permanent installations to portable, versatile PA systems. Combined with high quality audio response and a documented history of reliability, the deal is another welcome addition to Sennheiser UK's growing roster of distribution partners, the company says.

"We're delighted to add Powersoft to our portfolio of brands," explained Sennheiser UK general manager, Philip Massey. "Having spoken to many end-users over the past few months, Powersoft's reputation for versatility, sonic excellence an

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14 March 2016

Held annually over two days in July on a remote farm near Bedford, more than 30 bands played on the festival's main stage this year. London-based Autograph Sales provided the PA system, which comprised Allen & Heath's digital iDR10 stage rack with iLive-144 control surface managing FOH and monitors, Meyer Sound concert series MSL-4 long throw loudspeakers alongside EM Acoustics MSE118 concert series subwoofers, complemented by the EM Acoustics i12 Ultra Low Frequency subwoofers. On stage monitoring was the EM M-12 monitor system and Meyer Sou

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14 March 2016

Whilst Audio-Technica is keen for its visitors to come and view its new product, it says it is equally pleased to welcome them onto the stand to escape the stress and frenetic activity of the exhibition halls. The new stand concept Audio-Technica first unveiled at last year's PLASA show, is officially designated a 'serenity zone', offering Japanese massage, health reviving beverages, and a chill out area with ambient music played through ATH-ANC7 noise-cancelling headphon

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14 March 2016

The two-day concert featured artists including Brigada Flores Magon, Mono und Nikitaman, Patchanka and Chaoze One, as well as several speakers and short films. The PA system included 64 JBL Vertec full-size line array elements, with VT4880 subwoofers arranged in matching arrays directly beside the VT4889 arrays.

"We chose the Vertec line arrays because they are very efficient and able to cover all styles of music during a concert like this," said Wolfgang Neumann of Sirius Showequipment. "Everybody was really happy with the performance of t

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14 March 2016

Barrow comes to the position from his previously held post as manager of new product development, and has long been instrumental in the development of many of Community's most successful products, including the iBOX, the new SONUS and VERIS lines and the redesigned WETSeries II.

"Community's products have always been based on solid engineering designs," says Barrow. "In my new position, I look forward to increasing our focus on solving problems for our customers, and on putting our 30-plus years of experience into creating well-engineered, well-designed and dependable products that our customers want and need."

(Jim Evans)

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14 March 2016

Madden customised the design to suit each arena's specifications, but based them all on line arrays incorporating 40 Mica cabinets, 18 M'elodie units, three UPA-1P compact wide coverage loudspeakers, and four groundstacked 600-HP subwoofers. Madden's original plans called for additional UPA-1P loudspeakers and 600-HP subs, but he ultimately didn't need them "because the Mica goes down so low," he said.

The presence of a large, reflective ice floor presented a dilemma in venues that weren't designed for entertainment on ice. "Many of the arenas weren't made for ice skating, unlike the hockey arenas we usually use," says Mad

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14 March 2016

The system comprised 56 Adamson Y10 line source array boxes, eight Adamson SpekTrix boxes and eight Adamson T-21 Subwoofers. The system was powered by LabGruppen fp6400s and processed using Dolby Lake processors controlled from a tablet PC using a Cisco wireless network.

Keith Urban's audio crew includes front-of-house engineer Steve Law, who has been mixing Urban for years, monitor engineer Jason Spence, FOH system engineer Joe Keiser, and monitor technician Bill Flugan. Norwest's audio crew was made up of senior system engineers Jason Norman and Matthew Ling.

(Jim Evans)

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14 March 2016

The external appearance of the Kendra reflects the design of many temples in India, including a portico with niches which house a popular Hindu image of welcome in the form of Lakshmi, and also Siva as Nataraja, Lord of the Dance.

The new building extension to the temple in Southall opened in April 2007 with a sound system installation in the main function room by Electracoustic. The function room will be used for community and religious events, weddings and meetings but also includes DJ and small live band facilities.

Powered by MC2 Audio T Series amplifiers and controlled by the Biamp Nexia, the system is designed to blend sympathetically with the stylish building interior to the ex

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14 March 2016

Designed by Mark Hornsby for Paul Gillieron Acoustic Design, and installed by Orbital Sound, the system is designed to handle the Cathedral's wide variety of events and congregation sizes, forming part of a major £500,000 refurbishment. Key requirements for the sound reinforcement system included scalability and ease of use, incorporating discrete speaker positioning around the Cathedral, and a flexible, mobile mixer.

The Cathedral is the mother church for the Roman Catholic diocese of Southwark, and regularly holds congregations of up to 2000. Designed by the Victorian architect Pugin, the original building opened in 1848 but was destroyed during the Blitz and r

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14 March 2016

Under Will Tuckett's direction, a cast comprising opera singers, musical theatre specialists and actors were put through their paces in a witty, tongue-twisting production that placed exceptional demands on singers more at home with a classical repertoire. And there were equally significant demands on the wireless system. Extensive dynamic ranges - from a hushed whisper to full operatic fortissimo - meant careful consideration had to be given to equipment choice.

Sound designer, Chris Full from Autograph Sound explains, "As you would expect, there were some pretty strong singers with their operatic backgrounds, and I knew that whichever system I chose, it was going to be tested to the l

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14 March 2016

The moment arrived in late June as Metallica embarked on a 12-date tour of shows and festivals across Europe, starting in Lisbon and ending in Moscow. As all shows plus two days of production rehearsals took place during just three weeks, two identical control and backline systems leapfrogged their way across Europe, with both XL8s supplied by Canegreen via the M7 Group, which facilitates UK XL8 rentals.

"I always considered myself an analogue diehard and I've used Midas since the Pro 1," says Hughes. "I tried most other digital consoles along the way but I never felt comfortable. The XL4 is a heavy beast, it fee

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14 March 2016

The stage was once again on a revolving system, to account for the quick band change overs, with an A/B set up of splits, front of house and monitor systems and trucks. Two DiGiCo D5 Lives sat at the front of house position with engineers Chris Coxhead and Chris Morrison at the A and B consoles respectively. Mike 'Bunny' Warren operated the show/presenter console. DiGiCo's Tim Shaxson sat at a further, offline, D5 that was used by guest engineers to check their settings.

"Our main role was to help the visiting band engineers to set up, or modify, existing D5 session files which woul

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14 March 2016

"Nicknamed Symphony of a Thousand because of the sheer size of the cast: eight soloists - including one angel singing from 'heaven' - a full orchestra and choirs, this would give any soundman a difficult task in an auditorium," explains RTE's senior producer engineer Anton Timoney. "Added to that, it was being performed in a basketball arena. So my first task was to go see the arena with the orchestra manager and a representative from our OB department.

"I figured we'd need around 50 mi

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14 March 2016

The new operation, known as Midas Consoles Benelux, operates from divisions based in Apeldoorn in Holland, and Zaventem in Belgium.

"Our successful and focussed Midas and Klark Teknik distribution model proved its success in Holland, and together with the UK headquarters, we have taken it to the next level," says managing director Axel Nagtegaal. "During the course of this summer, both divisions will become fully operational business units working closely but autonomously."

Midas Consoles Benelux also incorporates Dryhire.eu, set up to offer dry hire support to the international event and touring production industry throughout Europe, including rentals of the Midas XL8 live pe

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14 March 2016

The theatre had booked two performances which were atypical for the venue: Tom Stoppard's Rock'n'Roll, which features a live a rock group, and the musical A Well Paid Walk. The sound department at the theatre felt the existing 13 year old theatre console wasn't up to the productions, especially as the sound control had to be brought front of house rather than in a glassed-in sound cabin.

Various console brands were brought to the National Theatre for evaluation by four of the house engineers. After just a few minutes they had agreed unanimously on the Midas. "We simply put the same signal through the different consoles, and there was such a diffe

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14 March 2016

Innovations for the 2007 event included the addition of a dedicated techno tent - the Vapor Stage - and a new arena called the Nectar Temple, housing a multifunctional arts space and West Coast breaks artists.

Allen & Heath's MIDI-enabled Xone:92 was installed on the Vapor Stage, Breaksday Tent, Liquid Stage, ID Spiral Dome, Nectar Temple, and in the Pussy Parlure, while two Xone:62 mixers were installed on the Overkill Stage. Ralph Lawson also used his Xone:3D mixer/controller for 2020 Soundsystem's live performance and Infusion employed their new Allen & Heath WZ-20S onstage st

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14 March 2016

Used for a wide range of functions - from university exams and graduation ceremonies, through to conferences, weddings, funerals and presentations - the hall's architecture is marvellous to look at, but the hard surfaces don't lend themselves to good acoustics.

When pro audio distributor Audio Telex was approached by the University to improve the hall's audio facilities, EASE modelling and an on-site demonstration proved that replacement of the existing loudspeakers with Turbosound QLight enclosures would be the optimum solution.

Installed by the Adelaide branch of AV Central, the new system features two main loudspeakers, two delays and two balcony delays, all from the Turbosound QLight